OF THE PERFECTION OF GOD IN PARTICULAR

 

After having exposed the errors of Luisa Picarreta and Sister Faustina in two articles in the light of Catholic theology, it is now convenient to explain in the manner of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the divine perfections that exist in God, intimately united to their BEINGS. When Santo Tomas refers to Our Lord, he uses the word ENTE, which in Spanish means BEING, that's how he told Moisés when he was approaching the burning bush: “I am who I am”. We know little and nothing about God and more today where a terrible darkness hangs over the earth where the very low spirituality is noticed in the souls of our century, the century, for now, of darkness and low morals as a consequence of the other. Serve this article to promote the knowledge of God in your souls and, although this article is par excellence theological, meditate on it in your souls and get a good spiritual bouquet for your arid souls.

a) Perfection of nature

1. Of divine goodness (cc. 37 to 41). - Having seen how divine perfections exist in God and are identified, let us follow the Angelic in the particular exposition of some of them: goodness, unity, infinity, truth, etc.

 The particular perfections can refer to nature or its operations. Regarding the first, Saint Thomas studies goodness, unity and infinity. Divine goodness is considered by Saint Thomas in itself and in relation to other beings. Regarding the first, he asks if goodness is good for God, to end by affirming that God is his very goodness.

God is good (c. 37).

 It is about the perfection of the entity. The entity and the good are identified. This good has two aspects, which we could call psychological and ontological, respectively. In the first aspect, the good is defined: ―What all beings desire. In the second: ―A thing is good when it is perfect. This is the good to which we now refer, and which has made Saint Thomas not keep the order that logically suits divine perfections; So, after dealing with divine perfection, and since perfection comes to the knowledge of good, because good is perfect, it deals with the goodness of God; next to the unit. The same motive has guided him in the "Theological Summation", where he deals with perfection and divine goodness in questions 4, 5 and 6 of the first part. Given this warning, hear the Saint:

 Proving that goodness is a requirement of perfection, St. Thomas goes on to demonstrate that God, being perfect, is good (c. 37). It adduces four arguments, two of a metaphysical type: 1,) and 4); and two others of a psychological nature: 2) and 4) in part.

 The 1) concludes: God is perfect, therefore he is good: ―That, in effect, for which a being calls himself good, is his own virtue; for the ―virtue makes the one who has it good and turns his operation into good. But virtue is a perfection, since we say that a being is perfect when it has reached its own virtue. Therefore, a being is good insofar as it is perfect. And hence every being desires its own perfection as its own good.

 In these arguments divine goodness is more than proven, and no less any possible shadow of evil is excluded from the divine nature (c. 39). We are not talking about moral evil, but about the opposite of metaphysical good. Evidence: those already adduced. God is his very goodness. If evil could be accommodated in God, God could cease to be, since what is contrary to one's essence can only be based on the non-being of the same, as irrationality cannot rely on man except insofar as it fails as such. The essence of God is goodness, and everything that is in God is essentially. There is no imperfection in God. Evil is deprivation or supposes it. In God there is no power, therefore there is no deprivation.

Saint Thomas goes on to study the goodness of God by comparing it with the goodness of other beings (c. 40), to conclude by saying that God is the highest good. That is to say, he first studies divine goodness as the principle of all other goodness and then studies its excellence.

Regarding the first, he notes how God is the good of all good, without for this reason having to contradict what he said in chapter 27 that God was not the form of any being; Consequently, leaving that chapter standing and seeing ourselves compelled to look for another goodness different from that coming from the form, it occurs to distinguish between intrinsic, formal goodness, and extrinsic goodness, whether effective, final or exemplary. God, then, is the good of all other good, insofar as he is the cause of it and the end to which it is ordered.

Three arguments: a) In God are all the perfections of beings ..., then all goodness. Because goodness is nothing but the perfection of being.

b) Everything is an image of divine goodness, because it is the only good by essence, while the rest is by participation, and what is "such" by participation is "such" because it is similar to who is "such" by essence.

c) God is the end of all being. The good has a reason for being appealing, for being desirable, and everything that is desirable is under the reason for the end, whether it is total or partial; then the ultimate end, God, has in itself all the good reason for all beings.

Excellence of divine goodness. —Here the Angelic takes the word excellent in its vulgar and plain sense. Excellent is everything that stands out for one concept or another.

Divine goodness stands out, surpasses all other goodness for many reasons, among which Saint Thomas chooses these four:

a) Divine goodness is to others what the universal is to the particular. The universal is more excellent than the particular. The common good is worthier than the private.

 b) What is essentially predicated has more goodness than what is accidentally or by participation predicated.

 c) Everything is good because of what God has received.

 d) There is no room for evil in God, either in action or potential.

 2. Of divine unity (c. 42). —We have already seen why Santo Tomás violated the logical order of this treaty, putting goodness before unity. Now, once it has been shown that God is the highest good, to whose shared goodness other beings owe being good, the unity of that order logically concludes.

 Saint Thomas dedicates a long chapter to divine goodness.

 After reading this chapter, one realizes that it is not properly about the unity of God, by which God would preach himself undivided and distinct from every other being. No. But of the uniqueness of God. This means that the title of this chapter should not be translated by ―God is one, but by this other: ―There is only one God ―God is unique, since we see that Saint Thomas at the end of the chapter echoes polytheism and dualism ; errors both that attack the divine Trinity and, therefore, of course, its unity; something that would not be verified in reverse, because if the only thing is one, the one is not unique; v. gr., any being is one in itself and, nevertheless, it may not be unique within its genus or species, while unique means that, within its nature, genus or species, only it exists and there is no other.

Philosophical exposition of Santo Tomás. For our Doctor, this truth is indisputable after everything said in the previous chapters.

There are many reasons with which this truth can be demonstrated. In the ―Theological Summa he gives us three: 1) its simplicity; 2) its infinite perfection; 3) the unity of the world (1, q. 2, a. 3).

It can be demonstrated by each of the attributes to which the five ways of Saint Thomas lead us, as has been proven by Fr. Muñiz (introduction to question 11 of the. 358).

 This chapter is where St. Thomas has collected more arguments in favor of the uniqueness of God. It introduces the conclusion of the previous chapter: God is supreme good. If it is sumo, it is unique; for the most cannot be suitable for two, of course.

 God is absolutely perfect, therefore unique, because, otherwise, his perfection is identical to that of another or other gods ..., and, therefore, there is no possible distinction between them, and it is absurd to admit the plurality of gods.

 3) When there is enough with one, things are made worse if many are put to do them. All beings can be ordered to one; then let's not multiply entities unnecessarily.

 4) The continuous and regular movement is useless to attribute it to several motors at the same time, since they move to the compass and are equivalent in this case to a single perfect motor, assuming that it is not in itself; or they do not move at the same time, in which case one moves when the other is stopped, alternate, irregular movement; then we have to admit a single motor that is always in motion; otherwise, sometime it would not move, and sometime it will not have moved. Their movement would be irregular and alternate. The first movement, according to the philosophers (VIII Physicorum‖, c. 7 et seq.), Is regular and continuous; then the first engine had to be unique, etc.

3. Of the infinity of God (c. 43). —Sequel to divine uniqueness is infinity or limitlessness. God, being unique, does not find limits, he cannot find them. Finding them would be equivalent to not being unique, since another equal or superior to him would be the one who would delimit his being, his operation.

 Infinity, negative sign of positive significance, is that which has no limits or term; it may be devoid of a term at all, and it may be devoid of only a certain kind of being. Saint Thomas proves with ten arguments that it is absolutely without limits. In them he explains what kind of infinity it is and how it suits God.

 First, he focuses the problem by distinguishing between multitudinous infinity and of quantity or continuity, both corporeal; therefore, not attributable to God, who is one and spiritual, and infinity of spiritual greatness.

 Admitting this infinity as the only one possible in God, the Saint subdivides infinity of power or virtue and infinity of goodness of nature and of perfection, since virtue or power is the active expression of nature. And, assuming the affirmative in favor of the thesis, the Angelic advances further and again distinguishes between privative infinity and negative infinity.

 By the first, our Saint understands that predicable infinity of dimensional or numeral quantity, which in itself must have limits and that precisely when said innate limits are subtracted from it is called infinite; supposing, therefore, that formless infinity that delimits it, determines it, gives it being.

 Negative infinity is one that does not recognize any limit to its perfection. This is sum and everything transcends. This is what we preach about God, and that Saint Thomas proves with ten arguments, which we leave to the consideration of the attentive reader.

b) Perfection of divine operations

 Continuing his work logically, the Angelic, after offering us a treatise on divine existence and another on the nature of God and a third on the perfection of divine being, and as the being follows the act, offers us with the treatise of the operations.

The principle or the cause is studied before the effect, but that contains in itself the need to expose the latter; and because every operation follows being, if God is a living nature, he must have his operations, the study of which he addresses here.

The knowledge that we have of God is reached by its effects. Hence, we attribute to God everything that is good, perfect, there is in creatures. Of these the most perfect are the spiritual ones; which allows us to conclude: God is spirit. Now, the spiritual creature has two powers: understanding and will; therefore, God has understanding and will. Furthermore, one of the spiritual creatures — we refer to the human creature — has certain extensions due to said perfections, given the contact it has with matter; They are the passions and the virtues. Does God have passions? Does it have virtues?

 As in man, in God — cause — wanting follows understanding, because the will is a blind power that adheres to the object that is presented to it as such. No one can present it to you but the understanding. Hence that philosophical aphorism: "Nothing is wanted if it has not been known before." This explains why Saint Thomas studies this section of divine operations, to continue with the will, which are manifestations of life, and end up studying divine life itself (c. 97). This is the order of the Angelic.

 While St. Thomas in the ―Theological Summa deals with the science of God (content), here he says nothing about science, but instead pauses his attention on the intelligent (subject) and the article ―if there is science in God‖ (1, q. 14, a. 1) corresponds to chapter 44. God is intelligent.

We are going to present in parts the treatise on the science of God, perhaps the most controversial treatise that has aroused throughout the history of theology, and which we will sidestep, because it is not proper to a brief introduction to raise dormant questions, although as a Problematic issue we must not deny them the opportunity for further clarification.

Of course, it gives the impression that Saint Thomas, when writing his ―Contra Gentes‖, would write a kind of script for the ―Theological Summation, so here he succinctly deals with problems that he gives a greater length there. For example, the chapters we are dealing with and questions 14 to 18 of the first part of the - Theological‖ can be compared.

 As St. Thomas brings in this chapter 44, the name of God, "Theos" in Greek, comes from "Theaste", which means to see, to look. All people, even the pagans who admitted countless minor gods, unconscious or blind, recognized the existence of one main one among all, from whom nothing was hidden from everything that happened in the world.

1. Intellectual powers. - A) Understanding. Philosophical exposition of Santo Tomás on the existence of knowledge or science in God.

 To prove the existence of God we started from a universal fact, from something that occurred in all kinds of things, v. gr., the movement from potency to act, from being this to being that ... efficacy, etc. As this was a common property, we concluded an immobile motor, of a first cause, of a necessary being. Well, with the existence of God already established, we are forced to use a reverse process to prove his various attributes. Thus, we will start from the established principle of the existence of an immobile motor, of a necessary being, of a first cause; to prove that God is intelligent, has love, is infinite, etc. This process cannot seem strange. St. Thomas has used it many times, both in the "Sum against Gentes" and in the "Theological Sum" and other works. The reason is clear. We cannot prove the existence of God except by its effects. Once the existence is known, we ignore its essence. Therefore, we must resume our philosophical lucubrations where we have cut them off.