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.
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