Whether there is procession in God?

There is a procession of God. This is understood as proceeding FROM a source (God) TO a calculated end (goodness) by an Undiminished Primary Substance (also God), but not as we understand it in the material principle, as if a fourth of July parade were marching through the streets in an orderly fashion from start to finish. In another way, when we start a burner and place a pot over it with water, the heat from the fire transfers to the pot and boils the water. From there, we pour the water into a cup and it becomes something else (like a cup of tea). This is an orderly movement which originated from a source (the will of the one making tea) and we best can understand its procession by its effects (a cup of tea to drink). The fire does not become the tea, nor does the pot become the boiling water. Now, we can not apply these examples in the material principle to the procession of God fully with accuracy, because God is above all things, and it is improper to understand God truly by the procession of creatures, similitudes which fall short, or lower things in nature which cannot equal Him. Rather, it would be more appropriate to say that what comes forth and proceeds from God does not leave Him, but still remains in Him as belonging to Him. In this way, the First Principle is unchanging, as He is the First Mover who puts all things into motion, who Himself is unmoved. Where some have fallen into error, they believed the Son and the Holy Spirit came from the Father as a primary creature (like a high level angel or the highest level manager giving reports back to the owner of a business) rather than from the same substance equal to the Father, thus reducing God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to a creature of their own likeness as human (limited and bound to their own understanding) while shifting from the First Principle to another as if effects could nullify causes, which is impossible. Even more so, those who fell into error and who have strayed away from the fundamental belief which makes one a Christian (The Holy Trinity), remained in the false belief that the procession which takes place from the Source of Life (God who is One in Three and Three in One) became a mere effect, thus denying the Divinity of whom God revealed to us as True God/True Man (Son) and the Spirit Advocate (Holy Spirit). Finally, the Word of God uses names and descriptions to help us understand His procession and in this way the voice and letter of what we hear or read aligns with what is already present in our heart but was silent because God has given all humans, who are rational beings like the angels, the intellect to know Him and receive Him, even if they still choose to use their own freewill to reject Him which is another way of succumbing to hatred of self and others, for if someone cannot love the Source of Everything, this one cannot even love others around them as they should, nor can this one even love oneself! 

Whether any procession in God can be called generation?

Procession in God can be called generation. This has two layers: the first layer means the transition from non-existence to existence, non-being to being, and nothingness (not the state of death) to life. The second layer is coming forth by generation into existence from a conjoined living principle to which we know as being brought into the world by way of resembling someone or something else. For example, a husband and wife have a child and that child comes out of the womb with fingers and toes, hair, two eyeballs, a face, limbs, and skin which is similar to the newborn baby’s parents. Human springs forth from humans, while reptiles spring forth from reptiles, but the source of all of them is the First Living Principle which we know as God; conjoined by a similar likeness/image/trait/spirit, as the Lord said “let us make man in our image according to our likeness.” On the other hand, it would not be proper to call a parasitic worm in the stomach a begotten son or a pimple upon the skin surface an extension of one’s being. Nor would it even be proper to say that a toe, since it is part of your body, could be in comparison to a child which also springs forth from one’s body. Would the parent equate the same value to the child as the toe, the pimple, or the parasitic worm found in the stomach? Absolutely not, for these things mentioned which are part of the body are not worthy of sonship because they do not reflect the same nature of the one whom the generation came forth. Furthermore, while containing one layer, they ultimately lack both layers of what we know to be generation in the sense of life springing forth from a conjoined principle resembling the source. Now, as it is for God and the procession of the Word, which is The Son (who is The Word made flesh), we see that it is rightly called generation as The Word proceeding from The Father is rightly called Son (Lord Jesus Christ).

Whether any other procession exists in God besides that of the Word?

There are two processions in God: First, the procession of The Word which is rightfully called Son and Begotten (to which we know as The Christ or Messiah); Second, the procession of Love which is also known as the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, and The Helper as the Holy Apostle John proclaims from his gospel in John 14:16 where he quotes the direct words from Lord Jesus Christ Himself as an eye witness.   

Whether the procession of love in God is generation?

As the Church fathers have stated plainly so as to make clear to everyone; the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son as proceeding forth into the world by a movement of Love and is not begotten as the Son is. Now, to expand upon this distinction, one must plainly understand the differentiation of intellect and will. By way of the intellect, generation occurs in that what springs forth by an intelligible action (birth, works, intelligent operations) resembles the likeness of the intellect from which the generation occurred and this is known as begotten. As for the movement of the will which springs forth from the intellect, this must be known as an impulse or willful movement towards an object for a set purpose while not becoming the same procession as we see in the Son as begotten, but rather a different procession known as Love which is the Spirit of Truth.  To elaborate further, to receive the Holy Spirit in fullness without diminishment, one must not only acknowledge the Father, but also acknowledge His Son because nobody who denies either the Father or the Son can receive The Holy Spirit which proceeds from both the Father and the Son. 

Whether there are more than two processions in God?

There are only two processions in God coming forth from the intellect and the will; the procession of the Son who is begotten (intellect), and the procession of Love (the Spirit of Truth) which is the Holy Spirit (will). Remembering that God is in the fullness of understanding of all things in existence or could exist by one simple act while also willing all things into existence that do exist by this same act. The Oneness of His actions in creation through His Word (Son) and Love (Holy Spirit) are sufficient and made whole. Therefore, there are only two processions in God and they are sufficient for what is needed.

I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 27-49 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether beatitude belongs to God?


Beatitude belongs to God in the highest degree. This is to attribute what is perfect, glorious, intelligent, possessing every excellent virtue and manner, the maximum of love and charity, and the climatic state of being. All of this rightly and justly belongs to the Living God who is all of these things.


Whether God is called blessed in respect of His intellect?


To be and to understand is one in the same with God, for He is simple. For all things move to attain happiness by way of its nature, so as to find rest in its calculated end, and it just so happens that beatitude is the perfect good of an intellectual nature. Furthermore, the intellect as we know it is the soul wrapped in a human body. But God is the First intellect, to which all intellects spring forth from. In this, He is the maximum of all things, and so it is rightly said that we should call Him blessed in respect to His intellect.
 
Whether God is the beatitude of each of the blessed?


Beatitude is said to be the supreme good in an absolute manner. Since life in the spirit is of an intellectual existence and being, it can be said that beatitude is of an intellectual attainment and state of glory. The calculated end for the intellectual being is rest and glory in Him, and it could be understood that everyone is blessed from the occurrence that someone knows and understands God, and in another way, the act of understanding this through the created is what beautifies creatures. However, in God, this is uncreated, and has always been there from the beginning. So, the Lord for the Lord’s sake, as who is the Reward of all rewards, fulfills what is sought in the created who seeks it, and in this way, God is the beatitude of the blessed.


Whether all other beatitude is included in the beatitude of God?


What is beautiful, attractive, and worthy of admiration and exaltation is found in God who pre-exists all things that are desirable to the highest degree. For what riches may attain, God has through complete self-sufficiency. For what is sought out after fame, God obtains this in that everything living admires and moves to Him (even when rejecting Him, unbelievers and those in denial know the idea of Him is something beyond them, and in this way they also admire Him). For what is power on earth in the material principle, is omnipresence and might in God to the highest degree throughout the universe in what exists, doesn’t exist, and could exist. For what is ownership, possession, property, and false “love” to creatures (equating what is love with sexual immorality and decadence); in God it is Fathership to ownership, the breaking of a yoke to what is owned and controlled, good stewardship in what someone is responsible and accountable for, and the wishing of the ultimate good for the sake of another out of love to what is sexual immorality. So, in all of these things humans and creatures seek on earth and in the material principle His presence, and are led back to the Divine Beatitude which is in God who are all these things to the highest degree at the height of His maximum.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether there is power in God?


God is power to the highest degree. Power can be thought of in two ways: one, passively which is not in God (the governments, authority, influences, and rules of men); two, active power in God which is the maximum of all power set forth into existence. It is important to realize that God is simple, He alone is Actual Being (as opposed to creatures who are potential being), the maximum of all perfections, of His own Divine Essence which is His will, His knowledge, His wisdom, and His Intellect, the Unmoved who is The First Mover who puts all things into motion, the Primary Cause of all causes - for secondary contingent causes are allowed by His agency, and of course the First and Last Principle of all things. Furthermore, what is the principle of something is the cause of something, for something cannot be something without this leading it to its calculated end. Now, because of this, He truly is power that is of its own order to which nothing compares, and in this way there truly is power in God.
 
Whether the power of God is infinite?


Active power exists in something as much as it can be measured. For example, a flame thrower being used to clear out enemy machine-gun emplacements on a beachhead will be received in the measure according to its likeness, in that scorching hot flame shall reach upwards of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit at a distance of twenty to thirty feet charring everything in its path until its fuel is expended. In this, the flamethrower being put into service in wartime has a finite use and purpose and its power is demonstrated for a time as it is employed correctly. Now in God, who is infinite, there can not be a measure in comparison to anything we understand, nor is there anything (both items, natural bodies, creatures of spirit and flesh) that can receive or comprehend His infinity. For His measures are the stars, the laws of the universe, and all causes and happenings start to finish. These things can not be manipulated by creatures or anything we truly can measure in our own perception of understanding. Therefore, in this way, God’s power is truly infinite.


Whether God is omnipotent?


God is said to be omnipotent in that nothing shall escape His sight or Essence of knowing, which is one aspect of omnipotence. For when a tick enters a deer, He knows it. When a fly is squished up against a wall, He knows it. When the evil man fosters schemes in his heart to oppress his neighbor so as to extract sorted gain for himself, He knows it. Furthermore, it is said that God can do all things absolutely according to His will and that His purposes shall never fail, for the building up and ordering of the universe. Also in these ways, God is known to be omnipotent as we can understand it. Finally, the true infinite form of His omnipotence is not perceivable by creatures in any measurable sense, so another proper word to describe the omnipotent perpetual state of God is infinity, to which He has power alone absolutely, which is immeasurable and inconceivable by anything which is set forth into existence from Him by way of His Agency.
 
Whether God can make the past not to have been?


A contradiction is impossible in the Divine Essence of God. To think something can be undone which has been done implies a contradiction, because what has been or not been in the past, so as to do or undo it, does not fall under the Divine Power. In the same way, someone who has been forgiven of past sins is forgiven and must move forward. That person has still sinned, and just because they are forgiven, does not mean they have not sinned in the past, for such a thing which had occurred in reality cannot be removed, nor is it the prerogative of God to undo what has already been done. This should not be confused with His mercy, which is greater than His wrath, because He is happy to forgive and pardon those who are truly contrite of their offenses towards Him so they may receive eternal life in Him, but in no way does it mean the thing which occurred never occurred, for this would be a contradiction and a lie. In more serious terms, a subjective reality based on untruth, and it so happens that God is objective, reality itself, and the truth to the highest degree, and there is no lack of being in Him, for He is the maximum of all perfections as we know them.


Whether God can do what He does not?


God does what He does in accordance with His absolute power. His power does not come forth from His will, but from His very nature, and in this God does what He wills to do because He can do whatever He wills so as to achieve the Divine Goodness which exceeds beyond the measure of creation. Even if He does not do something, this does mean he was incapable of doing it, but rather by way of His will, His actuality, His Divine Essence, His wisdom, His Divine Power and His Providence - which are all one in the same simply, He chose to simply not do what He could have done or put off what might be done in order for secondary causes to be utilized to which He allows within His Primary Causes of things for the just ordering and building up of the universe and beautification of His holy ones and creation. Surely, He could have done what He did not do, but by way of His wisdom which is carried out by His will, He chose to do what He has done. Therefore, God can do what He does not.
   
Whether God can do better than what He does?


In what is good or could be better, it could be understood in two ways: one, the essence of something is in accordance with its likeness (a tree must be a tree, and if it were cut down and changed into lumber for the building up of a house, it would no longer be a tree), for if this were altered, then the thing would seize to be the thing for which it was meant to be, and would become something else, and this is impossible (in that something wasn’t made as it was supposed to be in its natural state that it is in); two, attaining betterment for something that is already in the state it is in, so as to achieve greater goodness and beatitude, for God can make better what He has already created. Indeed, God can do better than what He does in this sense, in that He shall instill virtue and wisdom into the unbeliever by way of the Holy Spirit and Providence so this one shall be in a better state than before, ready for any good work for building up of the Kingdom of God, and preparing the soul for glory in His presence from a state that was otherwise detestable or dying by way of its free will choices to sin and do what is improper.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether the book of life is the same as predestination?


The Book of Life and Predestination are one in the same, but in different aspects. For anyone who is being called up for service, a record of such is kept with their names listed, so as to identify who is set apart for what type of service or use. Furthermore, God determined those for eternal life by His will, which comes forth from His Ideas and Intellect which are simple. So, for a book to have names ascribed to it for its set purpose is a sign in Him for those who are brought to eternal life. In a different sense, the book of life can be attributed to the Divine Energy which works in the heart and mind of the one being saved, in that His laws and precepts are written on their hearts and in their minds by way of Supernatural Grace, as the Lord promised His people would when those who were subjected to the Law of Moses did not carry out the Law of Moses because of their continuous efforts of falling short and making themselves displeasing in the sight of the Lord their God. It is also a common practice of the Church every year to have its Catechumens (those entering the Church/candidates for baptism) sign the book of life (also called the book of the elect) during Lent before their baptisms at Easter Vigil, as a sign to those of the Church and to God of their intentions to belong to Him.


Whether the book of life regards only the life of glory of the predestined?
 
The end state of something should be what was intended from the beginning. For example, if you hire a roofer to fix your roof, then your roof should be fixed when he is complete with his work. So it is for those who attain glory through God’s Predestination, for He will always achieve the end for which He began. To place in a more concrete way, the end of glory “shall exceed human nature,” as Saint Thomas Aquinas puts it boldly. Furthermore, the life of Grace is the aspect of an end which directs it, but is not the end within itself. For those who go so far as to draw closer to God but choose to turn back slightly (not fully) by their own freewill, may have some participation in eternal life in a relative manner, but not fully - as the Holy Apostle Paul mentioned to the Corinthians the multiple levels of heaven. Keep in mind, this in no way implies those that are destined for hell by their deeds and free will choices are to share in the glory of the just and righteous.


Whether anyone may be blotted out of the book of life?


Some opinions of men, as in the universalist sects, believe nobody will be blotted out of the book of life because a “loving god” is not capable of condemning a soul to eternal punishment. This notion is false because the good men think they do or observe in others at the present time, come to the realization of their fallen state at the point when they are blotted out of the book of life by way of mortal sin. For what is inscribed or removed on a roll of names in the book of life is not a matter of the opinion of men, but is a reality of God who is also a God of Justice and who gives each and everyone justly according to what their deeds deserve. Furthermore, the book of life is the inscription of those who are destined for eternal life in two ways: one, through Divine Predestination which has a certain trajectory that will not fail; two, from grace, for whoever has grace has been fitted in the garments of eternal life (in a relative manner). However, by mortal sin and the free will choice to do wrong and fall short by way of unchecked sin (deficiency), the one fitted in the Holy white garments of eternal life by grace can choose to remove those garments, and when they do so, they fall from grace. So, in this, it just so has it that those predestined for eternal life by God’s will are inscribed in the book of life simply, and those who are written down in the book of life by grace are said to inherit eternal life relatively, in as much as they remain in grace by way of the free will and refrain from mortal sin so as to not stumble and be blotted out of the book of life. 

 ​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether men are predestined by God?
 
Everything is subjected to the Divine Providence of the Living God. Therefore, it is proper for people to be predestined by God. Now, this is separate from the calvinist view of “double predestination” which was a product of the protestant reformation in that a sign of worldly success through material possessions confirmed in their own minds that they were saved and were going to heaven, or other views of predestination which negates the free will of man and pushes the false narrative that God has already predetermined our reward and punishment, thus there is nothing we can do better or worse so as to please Him or do good to those around us. As mentioned earlier, God allows for Primary and Secondary causes by way of the freewill so as to lead back to His end which is rest in Him. Rather, the predestination that Saint Thomas Aquinas mentions has two parts which finds its rest and end in God; one, eternal life in a state where our intellect (soul) is raised up to see Him and have the knowledge of Him in glory. The second end, reaching beyond the proportion and faculties of nature by the power of its own nature. If by the power of the creature’s own nature cannot reach for what it was meant for by its own ability, skill, knowledge, or understanding, then it must be guided to it through assistance, just as a rock on a sling is pulled back and aimed at a target. Surely, the rock (the person meant for eternal life) makes a good projectile and can damage its target (eternal life in the presence of God in glory), but that is not enough and it can not do it on its own. It needs something more; in this case, a slingshot (Providence) and someone to aim it and release it (God’s will for that soul to be saved - predestination). So it is for predestination in that God’s intellect and will, He directs men by His Providence, the just ordering of things, to glory in eternal life even if they are lacking the ability to currently do so at the moment because of sin, ignorance, disobedience, confusion, and the like. Thus there is the illuminating light from the Spirit of Grace which raises up the intellect to the knowledge of the Truth, and to which guides its projectile on to target where it should so as to experience eternal life in the realm of the living. This concept also applies to angels, as God predestined them to know Him and have no end. So it is for people, whom He gives His grace to so they are preserved.      


Whether predestination places anything in the predestined?


To predestine someone or something is to have the idea of what should occur in the mind of the one who is making the decision. For example, a man purchases lumber for the purpose of building a shed. He predestines the purchased lumber to be cut and measured by calculated dimensions and forms to be assembled into something which shall store his desired goods. In this case, the becoming of a shed for storage made of wood is the calculated end of the purchased lumber which the builder predestines use of. In this action, nothing is in the lumber as if the decision to turn it into a shed was its own, for that resides in the builder’s mind (Predestination) and will which guides the pieces of wood in an orderly fashion to be assembled into a functional shed (Providence). Now, for the Divine Mind of God, the execution of His Providence is what we know as government, as was stated earlier, and this is a function carried out passively (as in a secondary causality allowed by God). For it was stated that God correctly orders things to their end and rest in Him, often directly (from Him actively), and by way of others through their choices and actions (from Him passively). This is what we call Providence. Now, from Providence we get Predestination, which is a type of ordering of some person’s eternal salvation. This does not belong to the person being saved, but only to God. For those who lack the ability to be saved will be given what they need to be saved as they may receive directly the Grace of God’s gifts, or  receive passively from Him through others when someone hears a heart wrenching speech, intercessory prayers by devout Holy People, experience in the penal system, trials in warfare, or a series of unfortunate events that may bring the heart back to God so as to endure, survive, or go on living through the trauma experienced which may become unbearable to the soul which does not have assistance in attaining salvation through Him. Hence, God makes good come from evil, even though He doesn’t cause the evil that occurred through the actions of the free will in creatures; while even in this He carries out the decision of Predestination for others through His Providence.
  
Whether God reprobates any man?


God does reprobate some, but not on account of necessity as if this person were to be damned from birth, but on condition in that they do what they ought not to do in full knowledge of wrongdoing while also still refusing to repent or change their ways, so as to fall away from an end that would have resulted in their glory and beatitude. Furthermore, as Predestination falls under Providence which brings creation into glory, while also allowing for defect in them, so it is for reprobation which also belongs to Predestination in that they do not achieve that glory because of the condition they chose by their freewill. So it is for the Predestined to be glorified, it is also for the reprobate to be permitted to fall into sin and receive the punishment of damnation on account of those sins. Thus we all shall account for our deeds and motives, and the martyrs died to bring salvation to those in darkness; because if salvation exists, so must damnation exist all the more, and if nobody were accountable for their actions, then there would be no reward or punishment, nor would there be free will, or a crown of glory or a whip of chastisement.


Whether the predestined are chosen by God?


The Predestined are subjected to God’s election and love. In this way, it can be said that they are “chosen” by God in that He wills a good for them in a different way than someone else. So, in this way, they are Predestined for this good that was meant for them. Providence is also known as prudence because in another way it can be described as a plan existing in someone’s intellect for the correct ordering of something for the purpose of a calculated end. Furthermore, how can something be directed to an end, if an end was never established for that something from the beginning? For in the will, a plan is devised and its end is carried out, some necessarily (active action of God) and others conditionally (passive action of God) as was stated earlier, so it is what we call Providence; and from this, those presupposed for eternal salvation are Predestined because there is a formulated end for them by way of prudence (the plan and ordering of the will). Now, in the order of reason, Predestination must be before election, and election before love while all of this is belonging to Providence (the correct ordering of things). Now, as for love, it can be said God “loves'' the Predestined because He wills a specific good for them higher or lower than others who may also receive their own type of good from Him according to His love; for when we love someone (not as God loves someone), it is because we recognized a good in them, thus we are incited to love that good which already exists and as a result we end up loving someone. But for God, His love is the kind that causes goodness in others, for our own love does not cause good in others and in this way “election” precedes love in us. As for election to God, as He wills a good for others and takes active steps to further carry out that end state of goodness, He also reprobates others who fail the condition (free will choice to neglect what was meant for them) leading to Glory and Beatitude, thus permitting them to fall further into sin and ultimate damnation.  Additionally, it is important to realize that election and love is ordered differently in God as compared to people in reverse order. So, for God, love is before election, and election comes before Predestination (all still continuing to fall under Providence) because by way of God’s great love, He is the cause of goodness in all, and those whom He loves He also elects (calls), and for those who He loves through election is also the same ones whom He Predestined according to His Divine Providence. See for yourself, when you yourself “love” something, is your belief or feeling the cause of the goodness in the thing you identified worthy of your love? No, it already existed there, and you are now coming to the realization of its presence and you cannot help but to love that quality or attribute you see to which attracts your senses (both physically and spiritually). Know this, it is really God who put that there, for His love causes goodness in others, and although the act you may think which is love being directed towards another, what you are actually doing is loving God in a lesser state or form of worship, for you see His work and presence, but you do not acknowledge it as such. Nonetheless, you love what you see and seek to be in its presence!


Whether the foreknowledge of merits is the cause of predestination?


Some in the past believed that the good deeds we may have committed in a former life are now being made manifest to us in this life on the basis of past merits. Also, there are some who have believed that the different states based on the merits of work in a past life has given us a diversity of different states of grace that are received in the present, as if Predestination were dependent upon the freewill of man to act accordingly and be rewarded in kind. Furthermore, others have said that the effects following Predestination are the reason why it occurred. This is all false, because an act (doing something) which comes forth from the free will (thinking about it) cannot happen before the free will devises the decision to carry out an act, and in this way, it cannot be said that anything began in us of our own accord which led to the effect of Predestination, or that the free will now becomes a separate flow from what is Predestination and the will of God who manifests Grace as an effect flowing from Predestination. Rather, it is one flow which is from God, whose Primary Causes allow for secondary causes, and not that they are separate or their own sources of effects, but that they are the same in that they all flow from Him as the source. So, when grace is inferred upon the individual by way of Predestination, and ultimately leading to eternal salvation and glory, the freewill is neither diminished or increased, nor is the grace being poured out from the source of the free will in the one whom is being saved, but in that all of the effects of grace, salvation, and good works are literally the effects of Predestination as God wills it. Just as the Holy Apostle Paul once said to the Romans and the Corinthians in summary: We are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves as if it came from ourselves and in a great house, there are many vessels, some for honorary use and others for dishonor. Just as God made things in their likeness; some for water, some for the air, and others by fire, so it is for the glory or shame of others according to His will. For who can question God on why a bird may have feathers or why a reptile may have scales, unless one wishes to fall into error or reprobation.  
 
Whether predestination is certain?


The effect of Predestination will occur as it is supposed to; either by necessity (Primary Causes of God) or contingency (Secondary Causes of God) as the Lord allows according to the Divine Will. So as Predestination is of Providence, so is the order of Providence incapable of being wrong or making mistakes because of Intelligent Design which comes forth from God’s wisdom, which calls for the just and effective ordering of things as they are meant to be. Furthermore, this could be understood in two ways; one, God predestines someone to be glorified because of a decision He decided to act upon for the salvation of a soul, so the effect of this decision will occur. Second, by the merits which come forth from God’s Grace, which puts it in our hearts to have the idea of the good, to seek the good, and to carry out the good for others out of unselfishness and love for God alone. Some of this is what we choose to do, and belongs to us in a way according to what the free will allows for and accounts for, but in another way, acknowledging the power of the Living God who allows for such a spirit to persist in doing His will so as to attain glory as a gift which belongs to God alone who is the source of all righteousness found in someone who carries out good works that are visible to others. However, this can be lost by way of the free will choice to freely engage in mortal sin to which an accounting must be rendered. In this way, some who were meant for glory have fallen from glory, and that same glory which was meant for them has passed on to another so as to glorify those who value it, keep it, honor it, seek it, and who can bring themselves to preserve it.


Whether the number of the predestined is certain?


The numbers of those who are predestined for salvation are certain to God in that He alone knows what His effects in the universe shall require by way of number for the just ordering of things. For example, the number of species which are driven by their senses, such as birds and fish maintain the numbers they need to sustain their populations so as to sustain other dependent life forms interacting in nature by preserving them through His Divine Providence. But for the rational creature, and especially the mortal intellect which is the soul wrapped in bone, blood, and vessels, God preordained a number for the ultimate good of the universe, incorruptible and destined for eternal joy and glory, because of His special love and great interest in them by way of Predestination, even at the opposition of the rebellious angels who believed spirit was enough rather than spirit wrapped in flesh. As for the existence of the reprobate, those who are allowed to fall are also pre-ordained in a way that serves the good of the elect, for what is bad or evil is used for good by God so as to glorify, rebuke, correct, and guide those onto the correct path towards salvation and beautification.


Whether predestination can be furthered by the prayer of the saints?


This could be understood in two ways; one, the effect of divine ordination in that God elects someone for the purpose of salvation so that what He intends to accomplish is done. In no way is this the effect of a secondary cause, which would be the prayers or prompting of the created. Rather, it is God’s primary cause (direct action) being carried out, and this belongs to Him alone. Second, by way of contingency (secondary causes), Predestination which comes from Providence is helped along by way of good works from an intermediary or another, by way of prayer, speech, evangelization, conversation, acts of love, bravery, caring, and many more actions someone could carry out by prompting of the Holy Spirit. These things are allowed in the order of the Primary Cause within the Universal Form (the out of bounds limits which contain secondary causes). Keep in mind, actions such as prayers and good deeds of the created are not the source of Predestination, only God is, rather they are helped along by its effects. Finally, it is important to note that the Predestined must strive to do good works and seek God in prayer so the order of Predestination in others may be fulfilled in its entirety. This is accomplished through alms giving, acts of spiritual charity, feats of bravery, acts of love, and the blood and testimony of the martyrs and Saints, which are effects made perfect in those who are Predestined for the edification of the elect.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​​Whether providence can suitably be attributed to God?


Providence, which is the divine care and protection of God, is most suitable to God and attributed to Him because of the Divine Goodness of God which was stated earlier. For God made all things good - even creatures like the devil who have chosen to become evil (deficient) by their own free will to do wrong (accidents not attributed to God). Furthermore, the care of providence has two important distinctions; one, “the reason of order,” which is justly called providence, is eternal and divinely inspired by the will of God which springs forth from His intellect, design, Primary Cause, Universal Cause, Primary Form, and infinitude of ideas of what things should be, ought to be, could be, is, will be, and ever shall be.  Second, is the execution of order which is a government that establishes an order by way of a law that is handed down to it. These are your secondary causes within the secondary forms that provide contingent effects by their execution (somebody steals something, so a judge orders restitution be paid out to the victim by the perpetrator) subordinate to the Primary Cause within the Universal Cause and form which is from God and attributed to God. Hence, Providence is attributed to God. See for yourself, although unbelievers like to point out the sufferings and horrors within the world, where mankind is partially separated from God’s presence, while denying the actions and responsibility of the free will of people who willingly choose to do what is wrong so as to harm others, they freely attribute the actions and causes of God, which is always good, to what is evil and improper. For some of their false claims is that since God may allow something, then He alone is the direct cause of this, which is a false notion. Fact is, the Lord does not interfere with the free will of His creatures, because if He did, then nobody would be worthy of punishment or reward. Within this, it also so happens that He alone ordains that everyone shall be judged in accordance with their deeds, and when this comes to pass, either a reward or punishment shall be carried out because of the Lord’s Justice. Even in this, unbelievers who deny these facts, still falsely associate suffering, hatred, evil, and the horrors of this life to God alone - even though they enjoy their freedoms and make choices everyday so as to draw closer to Him or further away, they still refuse accountability for their ways and the ways of creatures who are given the gift of freewill, so in their darkness and hatred for their Creator, they attribute all of this evil to Him, so as to distract from their own responsibilities and shortcomings. While this happens, in their blatant ignorance, they still forget that the evil and horrors they did not experience, is rightly attributed to God because of His Divine Providence, who protects them from things they do not even perceive. Take the evil spirits for example; although they are stronger and smarter than humans, the Lord puts them in check, and permits them to only exercise themselves in areas of action that He warned us not to engage in such as witchcraft, divination, idol worship, sinful conduct, magic arts, necromancy, demon worship and the like. There are consequences for their actions, and if the evil spirits could manifest themselves at will at any given time, more than likely they would not waste a second to slit all of our throats and commit unspeakable horrors against us, because that which is spiritual and condemned hates all flesh that shall be saved through faith in Him, so in their damnation and despair, they war with the human soul which is made in the likeness and image of God. While in their spiritual combat, they strive to separate the human soul from its inheritance through temptations, lies, vanity, evil influence, confusion, ignorance, hatred, unreasonable anxiety, sexual lusts, lawlessness, perversions, genital mutilation, transgenderism, war, abominations, unspeakable crimes, blasphemies, and the like. Even in this, the Lord takes what is evil and makes good come from it by way of His Divine Will which comes forth from His wisdom that is sourced from His intellect which we attribute to His Providence.


Whether everything is subject to the providence of God?


Providence is the order of things towards their calculated end. Furthermore, all things that exist are subjected to the Divine Providence of the Living God because He is the first agent which all agencies in existence spring forth from. Not only do things that participate in existence carry out their agency by way of His agency through His guidance, protection, laws of nature, wisdom, ideas, and Universal Cause; but while also participating in existence they also demonstrate the principles of goodness the Lord has bestowed upon them according to their likeness in as much as they partake in existence through His Divine Guidance which we also attribute to His Providence. When the creature strays from the correct path of God’s goodness by way of deficiency (sin), providence may be reduced by way of the Lord’s wisdom. Additionally, He may remove the spiritual care and protection He has bestowed on somebody so as to correct them by way of suffering. In this way, even in disobedience, living things are subjected to His Providence. Not to punish His creation cruelly as a wicked master to his slaves would, but to reprove and correct all for the order and spreading of His goodness which He strives to spread through Primary (Him) Causes and secondary (us) causes as a father would towards a child he loves through the medium of discipline.  


Whether God has immediate providence over everything?


There are two parts of God’s Divine Providence; one, the order of things and happenings to their calculated end. Two, the execution of this order by way of government such as the law of man which is carried out through the secondary causes of the freewill, but not independent of God’s Primary Cause. So, in this, think of God’s Providence as a football field with “out of bounds” markers and two neutral zones which is the beginning (one side of the field where a team can score a touchdown) and the calculated end (the other side of the field where another team can also score a touchdown). The teams can move about freely within the boundaries of the field, according to the “rules” (second part of Providence which speaks of execution by government) of the game by way of their freewill to choose to throw the ball, run the ball, or punt the ball back to the opposing team. Furthermore, God has immediate Providence over everything in the first aspect because He alone assigns effects to His creatures and in nature while also giving them the power to produce those effects and carry them out according to their likeness by way of His just ordering of things (the first part of His Divine Providence). For a bird shall have wings and fly, and a bear shall hibernate for the winter and survive off fat reserves. In no way can humans do these things by their natural faculties. In the second respect, as Providence pertains to execution of government, by way of God’s will which springs forth from His wisdom, He assigns intermediaries to carry out execution of justice, order, goodness and the like so as to spread His Divine Goodness by way of secondary causes (free will choice of creation) along with their contingent effects. In this way, He builds us up for what we are about to receive, which is Divine Beatitude and rest in Him. For those entrusted with power are given their power not by their own hand, but from above, for the Lord gives them this power according to His will and Divine Providence. Some may say, “well this person is wicked and evil, and he should not be in charge of anyone because of his recklessness.” Maybe true; however, realize that being subjected to wicked leaders and lawlessness, while also experiencing the horrors of warfare and injustice is the consequence of unchecked sin and vice (as a whole, not always individuals alone), and by way of God’s wisdom through His Divine Providence, He knows how to guide humanity back onto the right course as to lead back to Him, which is good. For who can appreciate what they have unless they experience losing it all? For who knows how something should taste sweet, unless they never tasted what is bitter? How can you identify what is warm and hot, unless one gets burned? How can someone love the right way, unless they experience loss of those they love? In the same way, God’s Divine Providence immediately and through intermediaries is His way for our good which shall lead back to Him, even if we do not understand it clearly at the moment. Now, in no way does this mean that the wicked and evil things that are carried out by people with authority are good in any way, or should be mimicked so that a good may result. Rather, it is better not to know the ways of evil and wickedness or imitate it in any manner because the human inclination towards evil by way of the will is subjected to such a descent. On the other hand, God, who cannot be thrusted into evil, nor can He be perverted by such temptations, knows evil and wickedness fully and completely; however, it is impossible that His will may turn to evil. Not so for the created.    


Whether providence imposes any necessity on things foreseen?


Providence is to order things to their end. Now, it just so happens that the Divine Providence of God imposes what is necessary on some things and not so much on other contingency causes. For the ultimate goal is the goodness in general and perfection of the universe so as for all things to find their calculated end and rest in Him. Some are taken to this end by necessity or how God sees fit directly, and others by the secondary free will choices of creatures to which God allows to occur through them according to His wisdom which comes forth from His will by way of design which we also happen to call Divine Providence (the correct ordering of things through God). As we see with nature, what works in unison with its elements and creatures, held together by Providence, what God allows as primary or secondary shall not reduce the other, but simply allow for so as to lead back to His intention for them. To clarify this point, migration patterns shall be a source of food for far distant animal populations as seasons rotate in different regions, and the destruction of an island due to volcanic eruption shall benefit its proportional land mass over time. Through this, the ordering of things occurs either directly or through secondary events. This is also true in people by way of choice in accordance with His wisdom, for a natural event may lead a fallen away believer back to Him (necessity/directly), or another person may do this as well by their free will choice to evangelize (contingent/secondary).

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether there is justice in God?


Justice comes forth from a law which is given. But God is a law unto Himself, because there is no higher power which shall hand a law down to Him, for He alone is justice for what is just and right pre-exists in Him as the source of what we know as justice. Furthermore, God apportions to each their own what is justly due by way of His wisdom. For a bear shall have claws, a fish shall have gills, and a human shall have hair; their due. This is called distributive justice. Even more so, God, who is justice, guides mankind throughout the ages so as to show him what is right or wrong so they can become aware of sin and how to avoid it, as we see with the Law of Torah which was fulfilled in Lord Jesus Christ and how its precepts influence modern society with the concept of marriage, divorce, property ownership, deeds to homes and lands, bankruptcy, weights and measures and the like. So, by His guidance, He influences the metrics of justice in human affairs - in some societies greater and in other societies lesser depending on how close to the hearts of men He is by way of their freewill to choose the good or bad. The concept of giving and receiving for the purposes of exchange such as mutual benefit or trade and the like is known as commutative justice and this is not attributed to God, but man; for the Lord gives freely and expects nothing in return.  

Whether the justice of God is truth?


Where the mind (the intellect) and the knowledge of things (as they are actual) intersect at equilibrium, the mind identifies the truth as it can recognize it. As the mind is the measure of what is false or true based on the knowledge it understands, so is the work of the carpenter said to be true when his actions and work are suitable to his trade. In the same way, a punishment is said to be suitable for the crime when it comes forth from the law which administers justice. Furthermore, the justice of God comes forth from His wisdom, which is THE law of justice, which is true. Thus, the justice of God is truth.   
        
Whether mercy can be attributed to God?


Indeed, mercy is attributed to God. For the effect of mercy is to feel the misery and despair of another like oneself. In this, measures are taken to relieve the suffering of the person by way of forgiveness and remission, and in this way, the act of mercy becomes a gift to the other. Mercy does not take away from justice, rather, it is the fulfillment of justice, just as Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and as God alone is the fulfillment of all causes both primary and secondary - delivering all creatures to their calculated end as the First and Last Cause. So it is for mercy, as the Holy Apostle James says, “...mercy triumphs over judgment.” 


Whether in every work of God there is mercy and justice?


The works God carries out according to His wisdom, ideas, design, and will can be attributed to justice and mercy more forcefully in some, and less than others. For justice may be worked more into someone whose deeds merit such justice, while mercy may be given more to in a person because of the intentions or circumstances leading up to the deeds which were carried out, even though warranting justice in a specific degree, but also requiring a level of mercy appropriate to the correct ordering of things either by design, grace, primary/secondary cause, and by way the wisdom of The One who distributes such effects according to design. Furthermore, it can be said that the gentiles, who did not know His ways by blood or direct familial connection,  received the gifts and graces of God by way of His mercy, and for the Jews who received conversion and grace from God by way of His justice because of the promises to their righteous Fathers such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Patriarchs, and King David. So, in this way, justice and mercy isn’t completely attributed to what someone has done or shall do, but solely upon the decision of God, who may allow for a secondary cause (such as someone’s free will choice to choose a path to Him) or His direct action alone according to what He shall carry out by way of instrument or person or cause He prefers. In no way is God bound by any human rule, decision, or created will, in that simply we dilute His power down to a mechanical function where something is typed or punched in and a response is given. Additionally, justice and mercy is even seen distributed to the just in the world who suffer afflictions so as to cleanse their lesser faults, and in this way, as the Divine Physician prescribes the medicine of suffering, we are drawn closer back to God, and not the allurements of pleasure and idols of the world that make us forget God, who is forever. ​

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether love exists in God?


In God there is love to the highest degree, because love is the first movement of the will and every appetite for which a will pursues. It is natural for the creature to seek the good both in itself and another as its first act of the will in pursuit of the appetites (wanting). For what is alive loves to do the things it does, such as eating, sleeping, multiplying its genetic structure with a partner and the like. As was stated earlier, God is the First Mover who puts all things into motion, and whom by way of His will, intellect, ideas, and Essence (which are all one thing because He alone is simple), pre-exists all elements, feelings, perfections, attributes, qualities, happenings, causes, thoughts, acts of kindness, caring, goodness, LOVE, and the like. For as it was stated earlier, God is the maximum of all things, not in the same genus or order as anything which is created. For if the creature can “love,” as we understand love, so God can do this all the more. Furthermore, as Saint Catherine of Siena once heard God explain to her how one must understand His love from The Dialogue, in summary; “I am the One who is, you are the one who is not.” This simply means that God loved both you and me so much that He took what did not exist and put it into existence. How can a human or animal love something to which they never knew existed? It would be impossible for them. But for God, this is possible, for He is the maximum of love in the highest degree, for the qualities or attributes a human displays, as mentioned earlier, is a mere fraction of what God can do or perform in the highest degree. See for yourself, in the Moderni age in Babylon, the word love is being used as a banner for sin (death), sexual immorality, perversion, decadence, depravity, ownership, servitude, oppression and the like. Love leads to life, joy and happiness and ultimately manifests itself as the pursuit and goodness of another or neighbor; turning them into another self while straying away from selfishness and vanity. But sin and disobedience leads to death, selfishness, despair, and wretchedness; so for the ones who support these things, they are not acting in love, but they are acting in hate. For what is more hateful than leading someone to death by encouraging them to do what is improper so that they perish? Even those who do not do such actions, but are lukewarm in their faith, hold distorted views of love both in their households and in their common relationships, for the lukewarm citizen of Babylon, whose country is his church, and who has turned his house and many possessions into his altar where he worships, prays, and puts his false hope into - views love as something to which someone provides material possessions to family members for, whose worth/value is linked to their productivity, and the good or protection one displays for other family members and friends is rooted in ownership and pride, not for the purpose of genuine love, but for the fact that one “protects mine,” as many put it, or someone who only does good for another so as to be seen by others or bolster their own ego and self image. Additionally, the actions of parents who only view their children as an extension of their pride/reputation/good name, or spouses who view their partners as status symbols/trophies and not as husband or wife whom by God’s Divine union established them as one flesh for the purpose of children so as to fill the heavens with souls. In all of this, humans and creatures demonstrate a lower level of love or involvement in their interests which concern their self-worth as they know it while calling it love, when nothing to which they do is truly love in the purest sense as which is found in the Living God, who loves without ulterior motive or for-profit transaction in the purest most perfect form. 
   
Whether God loves all things?


God loves things that are in existence, because He alone made all things good. It is important to understand that the will of God is the cause of all things because He loves everything that exists. Not so for the creature, the man, or the angelic substance. Why? Simply put, the will of creatures is not the cause of the goodness in things, for when we show goodwill and loving kindness towards someone or something, it is not us that is moving it or becoming the cause of goodness, but it is us who are being moved by the object of love, which pre-exists in God before the word “love” was ever invented or established in any language or thought/feeling in the human will. In this way, God is the cause of love and the goodness of love to which created things experience and it so happens that He loves all things to which He brought forth into existence. For the faithless man deluded in his own works and allurement of self-pride, he believes he is truly good and a cause for goodness in others by his own will and act. Furthermore, he genuinely believes God does not make him good and that he alone, by his own hand, makes himself good and is a source of his own light. The devil also believed this, so we see his agency in others who are his disciples by way of pride, which was the first sin/offense committed towards God. 
  
Whether God loves all things equally?


God wills GOOD to His creatures in various degrees according to His wisdom and care. In another way, to bring goodness to something by way of the will is to love it. It is said that understanding the love of God can be described in two ways; One, God loves all things by the act of His will in a simple fashion which has nothing to do with the intensity of love for one or another because He put all things into existence from nothing EQUALLY - Two, it can be said people wish different things and greater goods for others, according to their unique likeness as they see fit. All the more for God, who wills a greater good for some and a lesser good for others according to the likeness to which He ordained them to be. The varying degrees of goodness someone wills for another is separate from that will, for although we wish a sports athlete to go to college on a tuition, which is a good, we also wish for a Soldier who enters the military to be successful in her career and come out alive and unharmed. In comparison, the will for the two do not change in that someone may wish them both good things, protection, and success, but in the same way, varying degrees of goodness is sought for the both of them, and in this sense it can be said that God may love another more so because of the goodness or greatness He bestows upon someone. Hence some stars shine brighter than others, and some Holy Ones are beautified less than others.   


Whether God always loves more the better things?


Indeed, God loves the better things more because He wills a greater good for something He alone chooses according to its likeness. The reason why someone is better than another is because God wills for them a greater good. This is evident through His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, whose Name He alone has exalted above the lower regions, the creatures subject to the principle of matter and time in the material universe and here on earth, and the angelic substances who dwell in the heavens. In this way it can be said that God “loves” Christ more than all things in existence, because He willed the greatest good for Him, in as much as He is true God and true Man and that all things have been entrusted to Him as a Father puts His Son over His household and possessions in order to carry out responsibilities as One Authority equal to the Father. 

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether there is will in God?
 
As there is intellect in the human who was made as an intelligible being, so there must follow a will from that same intellect. If this is the case for the created, then all the more shall it be for the Creator - the One alone who fashions the intellect so as to make a hospitable environment for the will. Because of this, God must have a will, because He also has a Divine Intellect which pre-exists all intellects that have come forth into being by His intellect and will which called his creation forth into existence. For what is natural and living exists by way of its form, so intelligence shall exist by way of its intelligible form. In the same way, there has to be a will in God because there is intellect in Him and it so has it that God’s intellect is also His will and existence.
 
Whether God wills things apart from Himself?
 
God wills Himself and other things apart from Himself. This is so for the following reasons: One, natural things experience their own inclination to their own proper good and when that proper good is achieved, the thing finds rest in it. When the natural thing is still seeking its own proper good and has not yet achieved it, then the natural thing must be inclined to move towards it until it is found so as to achieve rest in it. The most basic example is hunger, for the woman athlete must feed herself and nurture her body in order to perform at the level which is expected of her. Additionally, her body must heal after the competition through rest and proper nutrition, for this is the proper good of her body - to feed herself and rest so as to heal her body in order to do it all over again for as long as she wills it. Second, once the proper good is achieved, it is in the heart of the created to spread that proper goodness with others so those around them can share in its goodness. For example, the woman athlete competes in a sport and takes first place through her hard work and efforts. It is expected that those around her such as her family and friends will witness her accomplishment and find joy in it for its own sake. Thirdly, just as it is for natural things and the woman athlete who won the competition to enjoy their proper goodness so as to spread it to others, so it is for the Divine Will which is God, who wills it that the goodness of God be spread to others according to His likeness as well so the joy of His creation may be made complete through God in order to achieve beatitude, which is all of creation’s ultimate end and cause which finds its rest in God as the only start and finish to which God ordains and wills to be so other things partake in His glory. 
 
Whether whatever God wills He wills necessarily?
 
If a man is to protect his muscles, organs, veins, and nervous system, then it must be absolutely necessary that he has a protective layer of skin over his body. In the same way, a computer monitor must have a screen so the user can see what the computer is doing in order for the user to guide its actions. In these examples, what is necessary is absolute. In another way, what is necessary can be by supposition, in that the man can decide whether or not to cover his body with a jacket or a long sleeve shirt and for the computer user to decide which type of monitor he shall use in order to use his computer. For the computer to be put into use, using a monitor is necessary. For the man to protect his body, he must wear a protective layer of something. Furthermore, while keeping these examples in mind as it pertains to the will of God necessarily, it follows that since God wills His own absolute necessity, such as His goodness and His calculated efficient cause and purpose for all creation while providing His creatures with joy, happiness, food, and ability to multiply themselves through offspring, the laws of nature and the universe, gravity, orbital cycles, sense of smell to the nose, and sense of feeling to the touch, He does not necessarily will whatever He wills. Through necessity by supposition, God wills that things or causes are ordered to His own goodness as their end so as by way of another will (His creatures), the choice can be made to arrive at the calculated end as they see fit, so as long as it is ordered to Him as their end in truth. For example - which path shall you choose? The long hard bumpy road of despair and sin which can be navigated successfully through faith, penance, and endurance, or the long hard smoother road of denying oneself so as to do what He says as opposed to what others say? Regardless of which - trials and tribulations are on every path, so it seems for most. However, in this, His perfection stands that no other perfection can add up to the height of His maximum, and that through His wisdom and will, which is unchangeable, He allows for His will which is necessary while also allowing the wills of creatures to reach their final end which is in Him, and in turn this becomes His will which is necessary by supposition (creatures choosing which path to follow that is allowed by God in order to lead back to Him).
 
Whether the will of God is the cause of things?
 
The Divine Being of God is not limited to form, shape or any boundaries such as the created, and within Himself contains the fullness of perfection in being. Through this, the effects of His infinite perfection by way of His will and intellect guides the bullet from the rifle to the target, whereas the rifle becomes His will, and the target becomes its intended effect or calculated end, and the bullet which is fired from the rifle being the other wills of His creation as they are acting in potentiality (freedom to choose by their own will)  through the agency of ACTUALITY - which is God, who is true being and true existence, first in the order of intellect where everything created in idea and material matter pre-exist in Him by way of his ideas of them, not attributed to or of a lesser order than anything in existence. In this way, God’s intellect and will is what causes something to be, do, or know and not the necessity of His nature. Although God does not always act by necessity through His will in others, by supposition we see His effects and intended trajectory (such as the flight path of a bullet heading towards its target). In this way, either directly or indirectly, the will of God, and not the nature of God (because God is intellect and will), is the cause of things.
 
Whether any cause can be assigned to the divine will?
 
Causes and happenings can be secondary to the Primary Cause, which is the Divine Will that is God’s, whose ordered causes set forth in motion throughout the universe spreads forth in a reasonable fashion, and therefore allows for secondary causes to be on the account of another. The problem where one shall go wrong or stray from truth in error, is to believe their secondary causes and effects to God’s Divine Will is above His Primary Cause, or not related or attributed to it in any way through effects that come forth from God by way of His Divine Will which allows for the secondary cause to occur. For example, the man believes he can become a mother and breastfeed his adopted or surrogate child. The Primary Cause through the Divine Will ordained that man shall carry seed for the woman, so as to impregnate her and bring forth life. The man shall not bear young and produce milk for them as a mother would. However, by secondary cause, and the error of the man who denies the Divine Will’s primary cause, which is His genetic makeup and what the man is by nature, as willed by the Life Giving Spirit which is God, the man denies the truth and earnestly believes he can produce milk as a mother could. When it does not occur, because of its impossibility both to logical reasoning and the laws of nature, the man who wants to be a mother and produce milk is thrusted into despair. In his confusion, he attributed his secondary cause, which was rooted in ignorance, to the Primary Cause, which is chiefly sourced in God, who says that man is man and shall carry seed, and that woman is woman and shall bear young and provide milk for her babies. As we see, the will comes forth from the intellect in the man, who believes in something false, but wills it anyway that he should engage in such an action that cannot occur. In the same way, the Divine Intellect belongs to God, which pre-exists and is above all created intellects, and it just so happens that His will which is PRIMARY springs forth from that same intellect, while also allowing the effects of His Primary Intellect to be seen and witnessed and experienced in secondary causes that are not directly attributed to Him, while others receive no effects whatsoever, as we see with the man who tries to produce breast milk as a mother would and cannot perform the task. However; on the other hand, the Primary Effects from God’s Divine Will is seen in the secondary cause which came forth from the woman, who decided to have children and produce milk for her young. The effects of God’s will in the secondary cause by way of the woman’s will is that she produces milk which was ordained by God’s Will alone, which is Primary and not secondary.   
 
Whether the will of God is always fulfilled?
 
The will of God must always be fulfilled; either now, in the future, or in the end, when all causes and creatures, by way of sin, who strayed away from the Divine Will, are called back into order by the Universal Cause which pre-exists all other causes (human secondary actions initiated by the freewill) by way of JUSTICE through punishment. For what must be reordered to the Universal Form in the end is what we know as justice, thus making right what is wrong, and equal what is imbalanced. 
 
Whether the will of God is changeable?
 
The will of God is an immovable rock, and it does not change. Rather, it is God’s will that certain things should change, in that what is created in a certain likeness shall later become a better or different likeness as He originally intended through His will. When the Lord uses words as we understand them to say that He “regrets” or “repents” of something, it must be taken metaphorically because it is a similitude that addresses change in a way we as humans can better understand Him according to our own likeness and understanding. This should not come as a surprise when somebody really ponders this reality about God, for man creates things all the time in his environment for the intentions of tearing it down or changing it. For example; temporary bridges for military use, ammunition, disposable diapers and the like. Furthermore on a grander scale, change throughout faith history can be witnessed from the original grace/covenants/promises through the Patriarchs to the Law of Moses and ultimately the new covenant through the Blood of Christ. In another way, just because the artist makes an ice sculpture for other people to witness and admire, only to have it melt in the heat later on, does not mean that the artist never intended by way of her will to create a piece of art. Rather, the will of the artist was immovable and unchangeable from the moment her intellect conjured the contemplative idea of what the ice sculpture shall appear to be, and by way of her will, transferred the idea to her hands, thus transitioning her idea to the material principle (which is her ice sculpture) viewable by everyone around her. For the artist, her work has twelve hours of existence for all to enjoy. On the other hand, for the viewer, this might only be ten minutes of existence as they perceive it, when they only take a glance at the work of art and move about their business. In this way, since time is relative in this sense, it would appear the will of the artist for her ice sculpture to exist lasted much longer than the viewer who simply glanced at the piece of work and simply forgot about the idea shortly after. So it may appear because something lasts for a long period of time, that it should not change, or that God never willed it. However, if God willed that it should change, then it will change, thus rendering His will in the end from which was intended from the beginning. Thus the will of God is unchangeable. However, this does not mean that God’s will shall not allow for inferior intermediate causes which produce effects by way of the freewill. For example, the Universal Cause for salvation ordains that His Son shall be glorified, and that we shall go through Him to the Father. How a believer does this through their choices has many effects, and exists in many forms interior to the superior form of God’s will, such as BAPTISM, the SACRAMENTS of the Church as a means of grace, and our DEEDS, for which everyone shall render an account to their Creator.  
 
Whether the will of God imposes necessity on the things willed?
 
The universe must be built up and contain things for its ordering. This is not an accident, nor a series of random chance events, occurrences, or happenings as the atheist believes and at the same time preaches to others around him. No, God’s intellect and ideas are perfect. Furthermore, He alone is capable of carrying them out by way of His Divine Will, which shall never fail. It just so happens that the way God orders the universe and causes to happen by way of His Universal Form, which is the Primary Cause according to His will, allows for secondary causes (by will of creatures) which have contingent effects. God wills that some things are carried out by His necessary will and Primary Cause and also through secondary causes with attached effects that shall ultimately lead back to His Primary Cause in a different way. Simply put, if the Lord wills it to be this way, then it shall be that way, all for the good ordering of the universe which shall contain its end or rest in Him.
 
Whether God wills evils?
 
God neither wills evil to occur or not occur, rather, he permits it for a greater good according to His will. For example, there is justice because of punishment. For those who do wrong, an imbalance occurs. The wrong which may have been done was more than likely executed for a purpose the person thought was a greater good, even though an evil occurred (such as the crime for which the punishment is due). God, even though permitting it, did not cause the evil of the crime to occur, rather, He makes good come of it by way of justice and punishment in order to balance what is imbalanced. In the same way, secondary causes as a result of the person’s actions shall manifest around those who are exposed to the specific crime or conviction of it, and ultimately come out of it with something new (either understanding or material event) that wasn’t realized before the evil occurred. In another way, it can be said that the crime which was committed was evil, but according to the one who committed the crime, he did it for what he deemed as a greater good (money, stolen goods etc.). In this way, the evil that is brought on is by accident (the one who committed the crime used freewill to make a decision) as it pertains to the freewill and cause of evil, not in the sense that the criminal is innocent of something he did which clearly occurred. Furthermore, as it was said earlier, God made all things good, and it is not natural for things to become evil or do evil, rather, it is by way of accident that evil occurs in the pursuit of something. Now, in all of this, God sees the decision making of mankind (accidents), by way of their free will in pursuit of the good by way of their appetites, and as a result, He also witnesses evil being done, which is the absence of good - thus he makes good come out of evil that is incurred by the freewill and in this way he neither wills or wills what evil may occur, but rather He takes what is evil by way of accident (freewill of creatures) and turn it into a cause for good according to His design by way of His will which shall never fail. 
 
Whether God has free-will?
 
God necessarily wills His own Goodness, for He alone made all things good. As stated earlier, evil comes from the good by way of accident (choices) in the freewill. When creation engages in causes and decisions which are improper to the Universal Cause (which is God’s intentions for them), deficiency (sin) occurs. It is important to remember that even though God allows a secondary cause within His Primary Cause (His Goodness in general), it is permitted for the purpose of the secondary cause to experience effects which shall ultimately lead back to an end within Him where the created finds its rest. In other words, God has a free will to go about such things in a way He deems proper according to His design which allows for a Universal Cause and secondary causes which originates in the freewill of the created. Finally, on no occasion does God will evil or sin, for such occurrences and decisions are the opposite of His Being, which is life itself, as opposed to sin, which is death - for all who hate Him love death. Rather, He makes good come from evil, and abundance comes from what is absent (put another way; sin is the lacking or absence of fullness in something as it were meant to be). 
 
Whether the will of expression is to be distinguished in God?
 
Expressions of God in scripture and on the tongue are either conveyed by way of metaphor or in the literal sense in accordance to the emotional state or feeling of the one who is demonstrating the message or describing the event. For example, humans have an expression of anger when something unjust is occurring, so in that anger, punishment is described by way of words so as to better express the severity of context in what is being said. As for God and man, there is will and passion, and when a human trait or emotion is used to describe God carrying out or willing an action, the words used are more of a reflection of our own passion and is never fully expressed in God properly to its fullness. Furthermore, it must be distinguished that there is God’s will in the proper sense, and His will by metaphor. Saint Thomas Aquinas differentiates this concept by calling the proper sense of God’s will “the will of good pleasure” and God’s will metaphorically taken as “the will of expression.”
 
Whether five expressions of will are rightly assigned to the divine will?
 
The five expressions of the will are prohibition, precept, counsel, operation, and permission. Through these expressions, we demonstrate to those around us our intentions and will. Furthermore, this can be demonstrated either DIRECTLY, INDIRECTLY, or ACCIDENTALLY. When someone approaches another and gives that person an order, the will of that person is being demonstrated directly. When someone fails to prevent an action from occurring willingly, or allows private space for an event to happen, there is omission (by way of allowing an action). Additionally, permission by way of granting someone else the right to do something on your property is the expression of will by accident, in that the owner of the property removes an obstacle in place for you so as to carry out your own will, and in this case - allowing a venue for an event that may convey or support positions the owner of the property does not support or condone, but gladly allows so as to receive a profit for the rented space. Saint Thomas Aquinas calls this removal of an obstacle to the freewill an “accidental mover” and should not be confused with the concept of “The First Mover (God),” who puts all things into motion from His initial movement which was stated earlier. Going forward, a person shall declare his will by means of an agent or a hired hand so as to perform a function in accordance with the originator’s will and this is by precept. Prohibition is in opposition to precept in that someone may hire a woman to do the work, but give her instructions on what not to do in accordance with that work, and in this way, prohibition and precept work hand and in hand together so as to setup boundaries and blueprints for the intentions of another by way of their will to have something performed or carried out. Finally, persuasion is found in counsel in that a group of advisors renders calculated/educated opinions to the decision maker so as to persuade Him to follow through upon their suggestions for a stated purpose. Now, taking all of this into account, the will of the man is made known. As for the Divine Will, these points can be delegated and denominated in accordance with the Universal Form which is God’s will, which allows for secondary contingent causes (free will decisions of creatures) which shall lead back to Him so that the creature finds rest in their calculated end through God, who is the First and Last Cause. From here, we enter OPERATION, which can be referred to as the Goodness of God either in the present or future by way of the expressions of the will in creatures, and to which Saint Thomas Aquinas also describes as “the will of Good Pleasure” as stated earlier in which the Divine Will transfers itself through the freewill of creatures by way of their denominated wills (counsel, precept, permission, and prohibition) manifesting themselves into an operation so as to carry out the goodness of God’s will in accordance to His design. It is important to remember that rational creatures have freewill (which is the intellect or soul), and that they shall account for their ways and decisions because of their special election by God; this includes humans and angels. Keeping this in mind, it so happens that God has granted them special expressions (as stated earlier) of the Divine Will (which are denominated unto them) which shall be assigned to their actions and deeds. Other lower creatures/material objects who act by sense (such as the animals who move for hunger) or objects such as branches and rocks demonstrate movement solely by way of the moving things around them are subjected to the Divine Operation which also allows things (permission) or disallows (prohibition) by way of function; for example a tree swaying by the wind is permitted to rock back and forth, but it isn’t permitted to remove itself into the air and float. In conclusion, it is important to point out that the evil of sin is not in unison with the Divine Will and because of this the only expression to which it is assigned is PROHIBITION, in that someone should not do what is improper or opposed to the will of God such as murder, robbery, lying, genital mutilation, consulting the dead, cursing others by way of mouth and divination, oppression and the like. 

I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether to live belongs to all natural things?


The act (free will decision) of an imperfect being (humans, animals, angels, spirits etc.) in potentiality (accidents or actions not attributed to God) is called movement. What determines whether something is alive is the act of movement within itself. In other words, if a living thing moves - it must act within itself to move and not by something else. For example, running water moves because something other than the water moves it in nature - this does not mean the water is alive literally, but alive by the quality or state of something similar to being alive when the motion of a current which moves through the water simulates life to the viewer’s perception. In the same way, it is God who gives all life the source or starting point for movement - their very breath, cause, purpose, and calculated end by way of His agency. Furthermore, there also exists living things that are alive in varying degrees. For instance; plants, which are alive to a lesser degree as compared to higher beings, are restricted to areas and environments which they themselves can move around in order to adapt with assistance from natural causes (such as wind, temperatures, and seismic events). Animals are more alive in a higher way as compared to the plant, for within themselves they initiate motion by their free choices (not to be compared to the concept of the First Mover which puts all other things into motion). However, they are not what we consider rational beings, for they do not possess the same intellect as humans or angels which are alive and living in a more higher way because of election by God. As for humans - the composite of spirit (the intellect which shall surpass the life of the body) wrapped in flesh, bone, cartilage, and hair - known as the body, which is subject to time (beginning and end), death and decay, was made in the image and likeness of God, and throughout the ages God has taken mankind by the hand to guide, protect, to counsel, and to also discipline, as we see through His Church, scripture, the sacraments, the prophets, those who were called to service for the sake of another, and the sacrifice of The Lamb who spilled His blood for the redemption of the world. This is sufficient evidence to indicate election, in that the composite being known as human is closer to God in ways different from the angels, and higher than the plants or animals, in that men and women shall cohabitate, and the father shall be like His true Father in heaven as a minister to His family, and that the mother shall be like our true Mother in Heaven who bore God Himself within Her own flesh so as to bring salvation to everyone. Additionally, man is known to be closer to God than the animal - who roams the environment for food and engages in lower intellectual activities as compared to the human - so in this way, it could be said that the human is more alive to a higher degree than the animal. Now, what we bear witness to in the Moderni age, is BEAST like MAN, and MAN like BEAST - when we see dogs being dressed up as people for the emotional nourishment and encouragement of their human owners, receiving inheritances in legal wills, and being more well provided for than other humans who are suffering and in need. To go even further, by way of sexuality, activity, dignity, and time or effort - we see humans entering into inappropriate relationships with animals, whether sexual or emotional, and replacing the love that should be for others (people who were made in the image of God) with that of the animal. By way of activity, we see movements springing up to advocate for the abolishment of meat and production of food on a grand scale, even at a detriment to others who face food shortages and hunger. By way of dignity, we see more attention and respect given to the pet than the child, and more attention and care given to the dog than the niece or nephew. Through time and effort, we see the pursuit of pet to owner relationships by way of trips, walks, errands, and lifestyles based around the pet, so far as people begin to label themselves as “dog mom” or “dog dad” as if their pet were like real human children, and the passing up of charity such as hospital or prison visits, providing for the needs of others who are in bad situations, or giving general kindness to everyday people they encounter for the sake of their pet. Even the ancient pagan philosophers warned of the moral ramifications in treating animals better than people around them. These are clues to the spiritual state of humanity which turns from the providence and protection of God to pursue inflated vanities and hopeless pursuits of self and reinforced by temptations of the devil and evil spiritual influence. In conclusion, the elements and weather events are not alive within themselves, and moving water is not alive in that it shall move by way of a current, because none of them initiate movement within themselves like things that are alive to a higher degree in comparison such as plants, animals, people, angels, and spirits who use their impulses, desires, needs, rationality, and intellect to guide their decisions.
   
Whether life is an operation?


As was mentioned before, the intellect of the rational creature recognizes the essence of something as its proper object by way of sense, thus gaining proper knowledge of what something is. From there, the free will is used by way of that knowledge achieved by sense (identifying the essence of something) to achieve accidents (actions carried out by creatures not attributed to God). When the senses identify the essence of an object, such as a chair being a true chair, and a knife being a blade for cutting, we apply a proper name to it to properly identify it. Even in this, we can take those same names and apply them to meanings of other things which are not exactly the same thing by essence. For example, the body of a man is a man. But if I told you the “body” of a rifle company were moving into our sector, then you as a Soldier would understand to take up defensive positions so as to brace yourself for a large assault. You would also understand that I was not talking about a single man as in the prior example. In the same way, it can be said of life and things that are living - as names are given to it by way of external appearances and movements attributed to outside factors (such as a current moving water and someone calling that water “living”) and self-movements attributed to the true conscious self of living in a state of freewill and decision making (the woman comes to the realization of her interests and passions and decides to change her life in order to pursue them). Furthermore, to truly be alive is what exists in nature to things that are truly living, such as plants, the animals, humans, angels, and spirits. Among these, some are considered more or less alive in varying degrees by way of movement and intellect. Thus we say a cactus is more alive than a fallen tree branch, and that a firefighter or rescue team shall rescue a baby boy from a burning building before a cat, and that God loved the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, but despised the children of the disobedient angels (The Watchers) who cohabitated with women.


Whether life is properly attributed to God?


Life is in God to the highest degree compared to everything else that is perceived as “living” to another creature or being - even the creature or being itself. For the creature or being, although able to make free will choices by way of the intellect and movements innate within itself through self-prompting, still must attribute its existence and very life to the initial agency of God, who solely by Himself is pure act (the One who is in Himself by thought, intellect, knowledge, ideas and actions - an Essential Being without potentiality which are created things). For He is the perfection of all things, and not of the same order or genus of the creature or created, thus where what is “living” is found to be perfect more than all other things which is known to be “living” in a higher degree by way of what something can do freely without the initiation, prompting, influence, movement, or command of another factor outside of itself, God is alive more so than everything else in the highest degree in the most perfect way, because God is truly in Himself, void of any admixture, potential influence, outside factor or control - hence the beginning statement “Life is in God to the highest degree…” used to accurately describe how life is most properly attributed to God. The order of movement and what is moved shows us that the end (efficient cause) for what is living is directed by the form of the creature itself and a higher agency beyond its experience (God guiding people and causes to their calculated end). God acts through the form of His creatures inherent to their likeness; for example, the movement of a plant is growth and eventually decay. Additionally, the virtue God instills upon His creatures is from His agency (the Principal Agent) and not from the creature, and in this way God is with us always and guides our actions. For example, the good works of an Apostle healing the legs of a crippled man - for the man who is the Apostle cannot do something like this by his own power, but only by the power of God working and flowing through Him. The man who is the Apostle made his body a proper dwelling place for the Holy Spirit by way of virtue, thus rendering God to rest His spirit upon the Apostle and use him for the good works God chooses to engage in. To be alive and living is proper in God, and is the maximum to all things that are perceived/considered to be living  - from life of the lowest degree such as prokaryotic cells that move according to their inherent nature to fulfill their life cycles to a higher degree of animals who use their sense by way of their form to execute their movements in order to achieve self-preserving/sustaining actions such as hunting and sleeping, and carry out their end by their inherent nature which is natural to them, even though they lack rational intelligence in comparison to humans and purely spiritual beings. Beyond this, there is to be found the rational intellect (the soul or spirit) existing in humans who are made in the likeness and image of the Living God, but are wrapped in flesh and organs, which we call a composite being (mixture of spirit and material matter). To go even further, there are purely spiritual beings such as the angels who were created before mankind and who were made eternal with a higher intellect of knowing things, such as the existence of God who dwells in the spirit. Angels also use their rational thoughts innate in them to guide their actions in order to serve God and to love Him, as well as carrying out His will in obedience. By these facts alone, it is apparent that the rational creature who uses his intellect to guide his movements and actions are said to be living in a higher way than things that are living to a lesser degree, including the fact that as the act of living is carried out in them, their movements and decisions are less dependent upon the movement and guidance of external agents which guides them to their calculated end. Finally, the intellect moves itself to various things, but not all things, which some is guided by nature, innate first principles given to it which the creature cannot deny - for if it were to deny its first principles of its being and existence, then the creature wouldn’t be able to live as it was meant to be (thus invoking self-hatred and destruction of itself). If one who is living uses the act of their understanding in accordance with its own very nature, this one is said to be living to the highest degree. This is best found in God, and as was mentioned earlier, is the maximum of all perfections, especially life and what it means to be alive. Therefore, life is most perfectly attributed to God and is proper to Him in the highest degree.


Whether all things are life in God?


It can be said that the living things God created are in Him in multiple ways. One, their bodies, intellect, thoughts, and spirit are held together by His divine power and authority - for He wills it that His creatures take a form (the body) and to carry out what is inherit to that form’s nature as He ordained it when He set forth the natural order of things from His ideas into material matter for His creation to interact with. For when the form of the body acts in accordance with its nature set out before it by God, in unison with the spirit (intellect) given to the man so as to know God and engage in rational decision making and actions (void of the deficiency and contagion that is sin) so as to be pleasing in the sight of the Creator; in this example, human beings carry out what is both natural and what God intended for them - so as to enter into relationship and knowledge of Him by way of which comes natural to them according to their likeness (walking with God in the flesh before the spirit returns home to where it belongs). Second, becoming the proper idea of what God made of His children, and bringing it to the fullness of what it should be in accordance with the life giving idea of them which originated from the One who formed them, and carrying out that idea so as to achieve the calculated end for which it exists. In this, it is said that what is proper in idea to God and what the creature becomes by way of that idea is one in God and not separate from the Divine Essence. This perfection or beatitude is truly life itself in God, and not simply a measure of movement so as to go from one state of being to another so as to go on a journey, for to be in God truly is to live in the highest degree. 

I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether falsity exists in things?


It is necessary to find what is false so what is true can be recognized or identified. In things and objects, neither what is true or false can be found without relating it to the intellect of someone. What is artificial by way of accident (human freewill choices to do or create something), such as the art of a man who paints snowscapes and other depictions of nature, may fall short to previously accepted standards of artwork either in himself prior in time or other works of more renowned artists in comparison. We know what is false as compared to what is true, for the one who observes the man’s art knows what a false work ought to be. Now that same intellect also recognizes what are natural things in accordance with the Divine Intellect and artificial things which are the work of humans. For example, the alignment of the stars and the planets receiving their day and night cycles in unison with one another; example from the works of the Divine Intellect, which causes celestial bodies to come into order amidst a sea of chaos and explosions - tasks which are impossible for man or any created being because these kind of occurrences and happenings are dependent upon God alone, in whom there is nothing false that can be found. For what comparison do we have to what God creates, since He alone created it and is One, within His own order and self, giving everything else which exists cause and purpose through His knowledge and wisdom? There is no other. Therefore, He is the ultimate truth, because nothing else besides Him put such a work of creation in motion, for He is the First and Only Standard to which all works align and compare beneath His providence, but never surpassing it. Furthermore, creatures who possess the gift of freewill, such as angels and humans, possess the voluntary power of the intellect to pursue what is true - which is virtuous deeds and being obedient to the order of the Divine Intellect, for which they were made to carry out its purpose; also possessing the ability to pursue falseness which is the evil (deficiency) of sin (non-being). Lying (hating the truth) and vanity (inflated sense of self) are examples of what is false and opposed to the Divine Intellect, to which such creatures can freely accept or reject, either to their destruction or eternal life. Additionally, in relation to the intellect and natural things humans have the ability to recognize false and truthful things in the relative sense: one, by way of identifying the worthiness of a cause or belief according to their values or what they know by way of knowledge in accordance with those values. Two, a quantity or thing which is obviously lacking in something - for example, an icecream cone purchased at a snack stand lacking the ice cream, but only consisting of the cone. The customer could say, “I purchased an ice cream but only got this ice cream cone.” He would be correct in that his purchase and offer was false. Three, a person believes in harming others for sordid gain. To the person, this action seems profitable and feasible, and the deficiency of his moral being, which is false as compared to what is true, just, and good, allows him to commit such acts willingly and without remorse (until he is caught). Finally, the intellect knows what is to be true by recognizing what it should be. In the same way, the intellect shall know what is false by recognizing what it should not be. As evil and faithlessness increases and the operation of the demon becomes more widely accepted throughout social circles, media channels, and institutions, we shall see in many that the confused will grow more confused, and that what is true shall become false, and what is false shall become true, and what is good shall become evil, and what is evil shall become good to those who choose to reject the Divine Intellect, which is God, to follow the doctrines and teachings of damned angelic beings and their influence throughout the world by way of negativity and anything/everything opposed to God.


Whether there is falsity in the senses?


The senses, such as the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the sense of touch apprehend sensible things around them truly. For example, the nose can smell food that has gone foul, indicating that the meat is rotten and not fit for human consumption. Not that the nose knows truth or is truth, but that the nose signals to the human intellect a true apprehension of something in as much as the intellect of the person can perceive it - in this case, the smell of tainted meat indicates danger to one’s health, so by way of the intellect, the person decides to avoid the food for the sake of one’s health. Going further with this, it can be said that the likeness of a thing can exist in the senses in three ways: One, prime to its own nature; in other words, seeing the color blue as blue, or recognizing a triangle’s three points and identifying the triangle accurately for what it is - a triangle. Second, of its own nature alone and not prime, as in smell the likeness of similar things, or identifying many shapes and sizes common to many senses. Third, neither prime nor of its own nature, but accidentally, such as staring at a pile of garbage alongside the road through thermal imaging devices and seeing many objects present that do not exist in the area that is being perceived, even though the many shapes and contrasts made the appearance of such objects falsely. Taking these points into account, it can be concluded that sense has no false knowledge as it detects its objects properly, but by way of accident, the senses may receive improperly by way of distortion, confusing other colors, objects, tastes, and odors with things it recognizes elsewhere, or rendering a false judgment, such as when a person is sick and they cannot taste anything, even though what they may be eating may be full of abundant flavorful. In the same way, it can be said that not all things in reality are sensed or seen in the world around us. For the corporeal eye cannot see what is spirit by its normal action alone because it is in accordance with the material principle which is subject to time (beginning and end, life and death). As for the atheist, who relies upon sense alone and the material principle, he fails to realize that once his senses give out, and the materials that make up his fleshly body fail and die, the material principle for him shall be non-existent in his reality, and now he would find himself as a bodiless spirit; intellect alone, roaming about back and forth trying to make sense of it all - fully coming to the realization of “knowing” that he spent his earthly life rejecting his spirit which was made eternal, while putting all that time and effort into his body and worldly things, which are temporary and subject to death. At this point, there is no turning back, but to only go forward. 


Whether falsity is in the intellect?


So as the sense of smell is to the nose, which truly apprehends many different smells and odors, so does the intellect truly apprehend the essence of something by way of knowledge that is proper to it. In the same way sense can be distorted or subjectively false, in that the nose may be stuffed up and unable to smell specific odors at the moment, so can the intellect experience falsity in its operation accidentally by way of improper knowledge, a poor spiritual/emotional disposition, or innate bias by way of sin which leads to lying and manipulation to satisfy vice, greed, and lower pleasures or desires. The intellect judges and dissects concepts and ideas reasonably and accurately through the essence of something so as to find a truthful disposition. For example, the process of a prosecutor, defense lawyer, judge, and jury. All of them dissect the case at hand, which are the actions of the defendant to find whether or not he is at fault truthfully in order for a just judgment to be rendered. Carving up timelines and events of the act in question by many different parties who shall scrutinize the facts and events, including testimony of witnesses, victims, and the accused - many intellects involved in the trial shall expose the essence of what is being scrutinized. Even in this, the essence of something could be corrupted by way of how the intellect apprehends it. For example, we see that bias is always meant to be rooted out when selecting a jury - such as radical affiliations, racism, and other warning signs of a compromised individual judging a case fairly and truthfully. These biases shall distort the correct judgment of the intellect upon the case at hand that is to be judged (the essence of the act in question). In conclusion, the intellect truthfully apprehends the essence of things, just as the senses truthfully apprehend objects of sense such as smell or hearing. However, both are subject to distortion and some level of falsity by way of accident (free will choices to distort or corrupt by way of sin, foreign influence or agent, innate bias, vice, etc.).


Whether true and false are contraries?


True and false are opposed to one another. Indeed, they are contrary to one another. What is true is not the same as affirmation, for affirmation simply is in agreement with something, or provides emotional encouragement. One can still be wrong and provide bad advice and false encouragement while calling it the “truth.” For what is false, is opposed to the truth and is its opposite. With negation, nothing is asserted, and in other words can be described as the absence of something. Contraries assert something specifically by way of their subjects. To reinforce this concept; they take firm positions regarding something while defending it from anything in opposition to it. For example; the woman says the ocean has water. This would be true. On the contrary, a man says there is no water in the ocean. This would be false. The truth says there is a proper apprehension of something as identified by the intellect (the soul) of a person or angel (which is pure spirit). Even in this, God is the first and only truth, and is the very standard of it in a much higher way than what the intellect of the human spirit or angel can apprehend. What is false is opposed to this, thus we see that what is opposed to God such as the evil spirits, the rebellious angels, and the human spirits who follow them, act in a manner contrary to what is Holy (set apart). For example, as we see in the Holy Mass of the Church which is carried out everyday around the world, there is also the black mass of the satanic church in contrary to it, with their own ministers and vestments acting in the opposite of what the Holy Mass offers so as to be in opposition of Christ’s Body - which is the Church. Additionally, we see this with satanic inversion (mockery of God) with the six color rainbow flag as opposed to the true seven colors of the rainbow, demonic hour where spirits are more active at 3:00 AM in opposition to when Lord Jesus Christ died at 3:00 PM on the cross, challenging the sanctity of marriage between men and women for the purpose of children and replacing it with same sex unions that are not capable of being recognized by God as a covenant, transgender mutilation from man to woman, and woman to man, and the many prayers of the Church that are used and replaced with salutation to the chief fallen angel by satanic and occultist groups opposed to God (these examples could be summed up as the ordinary actions of satan and evil working through others commonly/everyday in the world). Furthermore, it could be said that what is true is goodness, life, and from God alone, while what is false is not-being, sin, opposed to life - which is death, and is what could also be called evil. To go even further, what is true can be found in things, for a coconut is truly a coconut, but when the truth of that coconut is apprehended by the intellect (soul), it can also be said that this is the truth of the intellect where truth resides as prime. Since evil comes from the good (for God made all things good, but creatures chose to become evil), and evil was said to be sin or falsity (not quite adding up to what is supposed to be whole), falsity may reside in truth or goodness in this way as an absence of or lacking in something. As for God alone, there is nothing contrary in respect to His goodness, truth, and intellect where there is nothing false found, for as it was said earlier - He is of His own order as there is nothing like Him. However, there are apprehensions (false opinions or thoughts not reflecting reality) of Him that are opposed to Him by lower creatures such as humans who are opposed to Him and angels who choose to disobey and rebel against their own nature, thus inflicting self-hatred upon themselves because they never added up to what they were supposed to be. In addition to this, there are false idols that people worship that are also contrary to God by apprehension in the intellect of the worshiper who worships what is false; so even in this, the idol is false for it cannot stand on itself alone as a God, nor does it possess such power. As some have said, “my gods speak to me,” although their idols may speak, this is not proof of a god as they claim, but is either wishful thinking, mental illness, or evil spirits attaching themselves to their false idol so as to pose as gods in order to influence the idol worshiper to pursue the sin of idol worship like what was seen in pagan Rome and many parts of the world throughout history, thereby violating the second commandment - which is to have no other gods before Him and not to worship graven images. Finally, there is nothing which compares to God that He is not aware of, for if there were such a challenger, then He wouldn’t be God! So, God is truth, and what is opposed to God, is false, hence true and false are contrary to one another, for God is what we know as truth, and everything which came forth from Him in the likeness He ordained (with the exception of freewill accidents implemented by creatures).

I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether truth resides only in the intellect?
 
A thing is true because it simply “is.” Not because a thing is true. Truth is not the truth for its own sake, but that it is absolute and void of another’s relative opinion based on limited knowledge or innate bias. Things that are understood to be true are known essentially or accidently. For example, the inventor knows her invention, and the idea of it is essential to her even as it is in a form created for all to observe, see and use. As for those who use her invention, they know it to be true by accident, because although the idea is not essential to them, nonetheless - they make use of her invention and have knowledge of it in the practical sense. Primarily, truth resides in the intellect - mainly the Divine Intellect, which all living creatures have a share in as far as their intellect can perceive its likeness. Second, the truth resides in things as they are related to the intellect in principle. For example, everyone knows a mother shall love her children regardless of what they do, however, not every mother loves her children regardless of what they do. The truth of the principle is “motherly love,” which is primal and innate, but based on individual factors, there are variables that shall diminish this. Truth cannot be universal or relative, but absolute - requiring the knower who is lacking in knowledge or understanding to either be wrong, correct, or a mixture of both. For example, if nobody else on earth were alive, and therefore the sun could no longer be seen or observed - would the sun cease to exist? Absolutely not, for the sun does not need the approval of mankind to exist, nor does it require humans to observe it with their intellect to be in existence, for the Divine Intellect of the Living God put it into being through His idea, which is true. Therefore, the truth is absolute.
 
Whether truth resides only in the intellect composing and dividing?
 
In its primary aspect, the truth resides in the intellect just as long as the knower can recognize the form of the truth being displayed in the likeness it can perceive it. In another way, something may be known by sense up to a certain degree, however, for that sense to recognize what it is experiencing it must divide and compose the attributes it is experiencing so as to weigh it against the intellect and understand what is being observed; ultimately coming to the truth of something. Sense alone cannot do this. The conclusion of truth must be reached by way of composing and dividing concepts and knowable things so as to interpret with the intellect what is being observed. 
 
Whether the true and being are convertible terms?
 
What is true and what is being are convertible terms. Something that simply IS, must be true. The “IS” that is being referred to here is the term BEING. For something that is in “being,” it shall be observed by someone or something at some point - either in the material or spiritual principle. Even if nobody knows of the thing that is in being by their own knowledge, since no idea or knowledge is hidden from God, He can give this knowledge of being, which is true, to someone who normally would not have such knowledge - according to His will and purpose. We see this with the Saints, prophets, and blessed throughout history who have been given knowledge of events and circumstances in time periods they were never in nor would they have any knowledge of unless it wasn’t for a third party agency. In this case, the ultimate agency, which surpasses and is above all agencies - The Living God who is One. We also see that in the example of the Saints and chosen, truth is related to knowledge in so far as it refers to recognizing what is or was in being at some point. Furthermore, what is GOOD is also convertible to being, for the Lord made all things “good.” In addition to this, what is true also adds further to the intellect which is an operation of the soul and not linked to any specific corporeal organ as compared with the sense of taste to the tongue. 
 
Whether good is logically prior to the true?
 
As it was said earlier that what is truth and goodness are convertible to being, because what is being shall contain the two, it must also be said that they both differ in idea. For what is true comes before the good, for in order for something to be good, it must exist or be, thus we have what is true manifesting before what is good. Said in another way, what is true is more closely related to being than what is good, for what is true occurs immediately in a simple fashion. A more appropriate seat or placement of the good is to understand that what is good must come before what is desirable - for example, the man knows the fish and vegetables are good for his body and shall fulfill his appetite and sustain his bodily functions, so as a result he desires to eat these things because they are good in itself and for him as well. 
 
Whether God is truth?
 
As it was said earlier, truth is found in the intellect according to its ability to understand and perceive something accurately as it is in reality absolutely, also being observable to others around it who can also concur its absoluteness, even though this is not within the capability of everyone who observes the same thing. Recognizing the truth by way of the intellect absolutely, as opposed to relatively, is to recognize the truth to a higher degree. Objective truth is higher than subjective truth, because it takes all things into consideration as opposed to subjective truth, which does not take all things into consideration, but chooses to ignore specific variables or other truths as it relates to the truth which is being observed. Even in this, the truth as it relates to the intellect is found in the greatest and highest degree in God, who is the maximum of all intellects and truths, for His being isn’t only a part of His intellect, but is the very act of His intellect for what He chooses to do with His intellect is the measure and cause of every created intellect which springs forth from His intellect. So, in this way, it is why we say that “nothing is hidden from His sight,” and that “whatever qualities, attributes, perfections, or knowings of the intellect that is observed in a creature, can be found more perfect in the highest degree in God, whom is the source of such quality, attribute, perfection, and knowledge of the intellect.” Literally, God is “truth,” for He sets the measure for all things to bump off from - the First and Last Cause, and the One who brings all intellects, creatures, causes, beings, and happenings to their calculated end according to His will by way of His intellect. As for sin, this is not attributed to God, because sin is “not-being,” and a deficiency within the realm of potentiality (freewill choices not attributed to God) by way of an accident in which there is no truth. To reinforce this concept, there is no “truth” in non-being and deficiency; therefore, it is more accurately described as “something missing the mark” or “void of truth” and “not quite adding up to what something was meant to be,” by way of sin. Although it is “true” that someone may commit sin, to say that this person “sins by way of God '' is a fallacy involving the misrepresentation of the freewill, actuality, potentiality, essential being, potential being, and accidents. In other words, God's action is Actuality, and He is an Essential Being who made all things good, for in Him there are no accidents. By way of His agency, people come into being, thus people are beings in potentiality. People are also given a freewill as a gift by God to choose, and the choices they make are what we call "accidents," which can also be sinful. As it was stated earlier, sin is non-being, thus the more someone sins and refuses to rectify it, the more subject they become to non-existence, and when the freewill action of non-being matures or reaches its terminal illness phase, death enters the equation, because death itself is also non-being, as opposed to life, which is God and life in the spirit. For in summary by way of scripture it is said: "You will die in your sin." Many nonbelievers and opponents to the free will confuse this critical intersection and understanding, or they do not understand the basic elements and components of it, hence they enter into a fallacy of accidents as Saint Thomas Aquinas mentions.
 
Whether there is only one truth, according to which all things are true?
 
As it was stated earlier, truth exists primarily in the intellect, and secondarily among things in accordance with the Divine Intellect which is from God alone (for He has given us the ability to see the truth in the things He ordains to exist in our natural environment). When speaking of truth in the human mind in accordance with a created intellect, there can be many truths a human is aware of by way of the things known to him in the degree or level he can understand them. Furthermore, we know the Divine Intellect from God knows all things because it is literally the source of the truth that is to be had, which is absolute. He has given every intellect in existence a share of the divine intellect, although not every creature can apprehend it to the same degree. Some have a higher degree of knowing by way of the divine intellect, while others have a lesser degree of knowing and recognizing truth by way of that same intellect. In this sense, all things that are true are one. In another way, we know they vary in degrees as each intellect can perceive them. Also, in a different way, how we apply analogical and equivocal concepts may have elements of the truth for a stated purpose, but may not display the fullness of what something is true in the literal sense. For example, telling someone “it's hotter than hell out here,” or “my name is mud,” takes elements of truthful things and concepts to portray an artistic state of being one wishes to convey to another. Now that it is established that there is only one truth which many kinds of truths in varying degrees can formulate, it is also important to take notice of subjective truths, which is not in the realm of absoluteness. For if someone lies about another, and speaks falsehood, even if they believe in their own lies, the truth shall remain unaltered. Even if other people were to believe a lie or falsehood from another, it would not make it the truth - even if a mob with pitchforks and burning torches threaten to put someone to death over a statement or belief which is contradictory to the truth, and if that subjected person were to say what the mob preferred him to say under duress so as not to execute him, it will not mean that the truth they are being forced to manipulate now becomes altered in any way, nor does this mean the lie they have grown to accept will now somehow become more true. For as mentioned earlier, God is the Highest Principle, and the First and Last Cause, to which all truth flows from. He would know what the truth is, regardless of what the mob says or how violent the mob may become. Even in the same way, if there were elements of the truth in the mob’s false position, but were still false in what they believe or say, their version of the truth would never become “THE” truth to God, who is above all creatures, species, genuses, created things of spiritual and corporeal matter, and who is of His own Order. For as it was stated earlier, sin is an accident caused by the free will choices of creatures, and for when a creature decides to engage in what is non-being (sinful actions), such as lying or manipulation of the truth, that creature no longer has the light of truth in them, but the opposite, which is darkness and death. For the Lord hates those who lie and pursue falsehood, because He is the truth and the light, and for whoever cannot accept the truth or draw near to it, they shall oppose the truth and pull further away from it into darkness, where their falsehoods shall remain and not be exposed to the unbearable searing truth of light which is His presence.   
 
Whether created truth is eternal?
 
Things that are professed and announced upon the lips for everyone to hear is a product of the intellect which is also the spiritual soul. For a woman’s intellect deems something to be true, and then it follows that she must proclaim the truth to other people around her so as her intellect apprehends what is being said with the tongue. Although humans can create their own ideas and thoughts by the freewill, these thoughts shall not be eternal (as in everlasting in the pool of divine intellect) outside of something that God already foreknew. It is impossible that a created intellect could fashion an idea that was not already knowable to God in pre-existence through His Divine Intellect, which alone is eternal, and before any created intellect that came into existence.  Created truths that endure and are absolutely true and shall be eternal are chiefly sourced in God, who already knew the truth that would be professed and proclaimed upon the tongues of mortals for all to witness and hear. In conclusion, the truth in the divine intellect alone has eternity, and as it was mentioned earlier, the intellects of creatures and mortal beings such as humans have varying shares of this which they are able to contemplate, profess, understand, and formulate in varying degrees according to their intellect as they have the ability to apprehend it, thus some stars shall shine more brightly than others, and some mortals shall be less beautified than others when all is accomplished. 
 
Whether truth is immutable?
 
The truth upon the created intellect may vary as new knowledge is brought to light so far as the intellect can recognize it and apply it going forward. In the same way, the opinion of someone can change from true to false, and false to true, often alternating its positions based on variable factors revealed to the intellect at later times (light of grace, new knowledge, clash of wills in debate proving an argument wrong and demonstrating the humility to accept fault so as to change a position, and manipulation). Now, the created intellect is subject to a lack of knowing some things while also having the ability to know many things. However, there also exists an intellect that has no alternation of opinion and contains the knowledge of which nothing can escape or remain hidden from, and this is what we know as the immutable truth which is the divine intellect. In other words, it is the “gold standard” of truth, which nothing else shall surpass in value or truthfulness, and in this way, the truth of the divine intellect is immutable. Furthermore, in the divine intellect, true and false cannot change, as by way of the created intellect which experiences mutable truths to it by way of the forms it encounters and recognizes or is not familiar with. Truth in the divine intellect is immutable.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether there are ideas?


Ideas must exist in the divine intellect. In order for something to spring forth in matter or become observable to others in nature - the idea must preclude the practical outcome. The form of things and concepts other than themselves (as in physical matter) are ideas in the creature, which pre-exist in God. Also, the purpose of an idea is known for two ends: the form in itself and the principle of knowledge in it. Things generated at random and by chance are not the calculated end directed by guidance from another as we see with creation of the world, the universe, and creatures, as well as humans - who all work together in their own way to a calculated end. This is because the concept of man, creatures, the world which was purposefully put here for us and the universe originated in the divine intellect of God, who presupposes all of these things in idea, and springs them forth into matter as He wills it, and guides them all to their calculated end. Therefore, there are ideas which result in form and principle of knowledge, for all things purposefully created by design and an agent (God) work towards their calculated ends through their forms and their knowledge which was given to them by the Divine Essence - all originating in the ideas and intellect of God.  


Whether ideas are many?


There is a plurality of ideas in both God, man, and creature. For God, His Essence is not the idea, but the source from which ideas are formulated and understood. Understanding the form of something and its many parts in accordance with the idea that sprang forth from the artist, shows us that not only does the artist understand his work such as a painting, but that he also understands that he understands it - thus demonstrating that the artist fully comprehend the idea of what he makes and why he makes it, in a way that nothing of the art that the man creates is hidden from his sight as the man knows his art’s very essence. In the same way, God understands many things, and just not in a general way, but a more higher and intimate way - to include the parts of what is being understood, and the self-awareness through His own Divine Essence that He understands that He understands what is known, thus understanding the idea and essence of what is being observed as knowable to Him truly in fullness. For in the Divine Mind there exists proper ideas of all things as they were made in their own likeness apportioned by God as good and not in need of changing. In other words, God made what He did through the idea of what that thing or creature ought to be. Denial of this is faithlessness and lack of trust in God’s providence. His knowledge and wisdom also comes forth from His Divine Essence in the form of many ideas. God is fully aware of all the parts to an idea that form it, and He knows the best outcome for them even if He shall fashion freewill decisions (accidents existing in potentiality) to creatures, who often make the wrong decisions (things opposed to what God ordained for them). For every creature has its own proper species which acts in accordance with the Divine Essence in the degree of its likeness it has been apportioned. The ideas of secular society which are opposed to God in every way work in direct contradiction to the ideas of the Divine Essence - as we see playing out in the secular school systems which have driven out God from their presence. The disorder of sin (deficiency or not quite meeting the mark), which denies everything God has planned for them, which is the highest good, is self-evident in the teachers who are carrying improper messages to students in the classroom about sexual immorality, gender theory, self-mutilation, and false morality and self-centered egotistical ethics. Even at the opposition of parents, activist teachers who do not know God or His ways, radicalize their classroom, and enforce their system of false beliefs upon vulnerable children which only seeks to make them moving parts attributed to the machine of the secular state while often receiving backing from politicians and higher power structures which were originally implemented to render justice and fairness and prevent these type of manipulations on the institutional level, but have now failed to achieve their started purposes. As we can see, the idea of justice and righteousness, which is God inspired, is dwindling at the foot of radical secular humanism brought on by faithless individuals who pursue their sins and lower pleasures. They are filled with hatred for God and neighbor, and prefer to push their violent and aggressive agendas at all costs - even to the detriment of society and oppression of those whom they disagree with. Therefore, in all of this, it is apparent there are many ideas in the world, but the essence of each is known purely and completely in God because He sees them through His own Divine Essence, where there is no lack of knowledge or understanding. In the creature, he knows ideas as well, but not as many as God, and he understands them in a lesser way as opposed to the Divine Intellect which springs forth from the Essence of God. 


Whether there are ideas of all things that God knows?


There are different types of ideas existing in the mind of God. In God, these ideas are proper as they should be, lacking in nothing as the Divine Essence formulated the thought of them. Therefore, God has the idea of things in their fullness within Him as He knows them.

​​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether there is knowledge?


In God, the pure perfection of His substance is absolute knowledge and not comparable to any quality, deficiency, potentiality, habitual tendency, or marker and signal. The knowledge or brilliance of a man, although admirable among men, while works are worthy of material rewards, these perfections exist in a higher state in God than man himself, and we see the perfections of these attributes man displays as being pre-existent in God in a much higher way. Additionally, the perfections in knowledge, knowing, and wisdom that flows from the Living God are not qualities of Him as we see qualities in other things and people, but merely His substance which is pure act, for they are natural to Him, and part of His Essence and Essential Being. It also happens that God occupies the highest place in knowledge because He is immaterial, and infinity. The cognitive is a function of the immaterial, which is found in the rational creature and is what we know as an intelligent being which is not only limited to its form. In the irrational creatures and things, such as plants, which are purely material, you cannot find the light of rationale or intelligence like you would if the plant was compared to the bear. For the plant is closer to the material principle in its pureness more than the bear, because the bear displays cognitive functions so as to find food for itself and preserve its own life, while also caring for its young, and weighing risk/reward with its actions - thus demonstrating a higher immaterial cognitive function than the plant. In the same way, the immaterial principle, the more it strays from the corporeal forms of the world, the higher it is raised up in knowledge, as we see the composite human who is a mixture of soul (intellect) fashioned to a body of corporeal organs and parts.   


Whether God understands Himself?


God understands Himself by way of Himself through His own understanding of Himself which is a kind of knowledge that pre-exists all knowledge and is the highest form of knowing. For God is a subsisting Essential Being in Actuality, whose actions is pure act, as opposed to the creature's actions, which is act in potentiality (accidents) and who are beings by participation in that they participate in existence by way of God who provides life, being and existence to everything that never was. In other words, He called forth those who “were not” by His pure love for them, a love that transcends and is higher than all love known to creatures, for creatures cannot love something they do not know to exist, but God is capable of this as He took those who did not exist and put them into existence by way of His agency and great love for them.  
 
Whether God comprehends Himself?


God is free from all matter and potentiality, as He is cognitive and spirit, which is not confined to the principle forms and constraints of matter. Thus, He is the maximum of “knowing” or “knowledge” in that He alone is in the order of the infinite (which is of His own order, not occupied by anything else like Him), as all things which come forth from Him such as creatures are in the order of the finite, and subdivided by their order of genus and species, and marked by their measures and modes of operation according to their likeness which are subjected to the principle of matter and time - which has a start and end (the measure of matter from start to finish, life and death), and is subject to corruption and death, as opposed to the infinite which has no beginning or end (God), and is whole lacking in no parts (also God), and with the angelic substance such as aeviternity where there is beginning but no end. Thus, He comprehends Himself and knows everything about Himself because He is all knowing and pre-exists all knowledge that there is to know. 


Whether the act of God’s intellect is His substance?


God is of His own Essence, simple, and within Himself, possessing all knowledge, while fully comprehending Himself, for He is of His own order as an Essential Being in actuality whose Substance is subsisting within Himself. 


Whether God knows things other than Himself?


God must know Himself perfectly because He is the maximum of all knowledge pre-existing all knowledge as it can be known to anything that is created. Since all things come forth from Him, and that He alone has knowledge of everything going forth into existence, for they were in Him prior to their occurrence of being, it so happens that God knows all things even outside Himself, for since He knows Himself completely, and all things must come from Him as they were made from Him, He necessarily knows things other than Himself because those things pre-exist in Him. As for the freewill, what occurs or comes forth from free will choices of the creature, is pure potentiality and not actual (the decisions and choices made by God), thus they are called accidents (the free will choices of creatures not caused by God). Finally, since God sees and knows Himself through Himself because of His own Essence, which He fully understands, it occurs that He also sees other things from the viewpoint of Himself, and not exactly from the viewpoint of self which comes forth from the created as the creature would see itself, for the creature pre-existed in God before the creature itself was aware of its own existence, as the creature existed in the form of an idea coming from the Essence of God, which was non-existent before God decided to put forth the created into existence by pure act.  


Whether God knows things other than Himself by proper knowledge?


Having proper knowledge of something means to know the general idea of something so as to understand what makes it work, its purpose, its components, and what kind of activity it engages in and why - additionally, having general knowledge of something can also help one to better incorporate it into their reality, for the one who doesn’t have any knowledge of something becomes ignorant and oblivious to its reality and existence. Regardless, just because a creature does not have general knowledge of a specific thing, does not mean that thing shall cease to exist. It shall exist regardless, and the creature will just remain ignorant. As we see with those who subscribe to the false belief of atheism - their lack of proper knowledge in things is not a pursuit of learning or correction, but a way of life, which is a pseudo-cult of the worm, the religion of unbelief, and the belief that SOMETHING can come from NOTHING, which is impossible. Additionally, atheists do not have special knowledge of spiritual things because they reject them, and do not wish to understand them because of innate bias (often provoked by demonic entities attracted to their sins and idol worship of their material possessions). As for God, who has proper knowledge of Himself, most definitely has proper knowledge of all things, because all things came forth from Him. Moreso, He also has special knowledge of things - not in the way creatures have them, but in the special way that nothing is invisible to His sight, nor is any creature hidden from His gaze. For the Lord God knows the parts of the creature, the creature’s heart, the creature’s intentions, and the creature’s thoughts - because God infinitely is the maximum of all things, including all subsets of knowledge.
  
Whether the knowledge of God is discursive?


The divine knowledge that is God’s “knowing” is not discursive like human knowledge is. For humans, we arrive at a conclusion from start to finish by many successive movements. Once we learn something about a subject, we go on to the next subject, often taking some things we learned from the previous subject and applying it to the next subject in a different way we can understand it. Often enough, this isn’t appropriate - but for the laborer who studies and writes, he must feel that his works are producing some kind of fruit, regardless of their origin, so he applies what he shouldn’t apply just for the sake of applying it in a discursive fashion for the purposes of a point or goal that is conjured in the man’s head - often related to a reward or a principle the man adopted that he is sticking to, regardless of how many texts he comes across to the contrary. In another way, by way of principles we arrive at conclusions of things.  This is not applied to God because God sees everything as a whole for what they are through Himself all at once (eternity), which is perfect, and lacking in no parts - as man must seek parts to add from many different subjects in successive movements (time).
  
Whether the knowledge of God is the cause of things?


Natural things in the universe as we know them is the mean between knowledge of God and our knowledge. What we know to be natural to us by way of matter is caused by God’s knowledge, for God’s knowledge alone is the cause of all things. Just as a designer has knowledge of the design in her head, the design exists in ideas through her knowledge. From there, the designer uses her hands to transfer the knowledge of the design which exists as an idea from her knowledge to the paper, thus the design now exists in the material world and becomes observable by all things around it. So it is for God, whose knowledge of creatures and created things pre-exist the creatures being existent in the material principle and even before they become aware of themselves. Does it mean the created creature is infinite? No, but the knowledge of the created remains in the idea of the creator before and after, even if the created do not perceive or no longer exist in the way they were originally created because of death, which is change and a different time of movement that is successive. For anything that must live in the spirit, must also die in the flesh. In the same way, for a flower to blossom, its seed must die, thus it shall be changed.


Whether God has knowledge of things that are not?


The things that are not actual, but are true, exist in what is potential, and even in this God knows it. How? Because He is actual existence, while the created things that come forth which are in being exist in potentiality in that they experience their being by way of God’s agency, who is an Essential Being, as compared to the creature, who is a being by participation. As for things that are not, but are potential, such as the ideas or imagination of creatures, even God knows this, because He knows Himself, and it so has it that everything has come from God in that their being pre-exists in Him, thus nothing is hidden from His sight - even things that have not come into being, but are merely the thoughts of the man who is planning to carry out something in the future. If this wasn’t so, and if something was actually hidden from God or void of His knowledge or knowing - then He wouldn’t be God, but a mere creature appearing in knowledge of things that are whole, but lacking in something that isn’t noticeable to lower intellects. This is the way it is for those who worship demons and proclaim them as Gods - even though spiritual creatures with higher intelligences and strength than corporeal humans in the flesh, nonetheless they are still creatures, and although they may have a higher knowing compared to us, their knowledge is not in the same order as God, who is of His own order and Essence, and whose knowledge pre-exists everything in the universe, beyond the universe, creatures, plants, animals, thoughts and ideas. 


Whether God knows evil things?


God sees evil and darkness through light. Just as He is the good and knows the good, He too also knows evil, for evil is a deficiency of the good, and God made all things good according to their likeness, measure, genus, order, and species. Because He made the good, it does not mean that He shall be ignorant of evil, for what a creature lacks in fullness, God is also aware of, and this is also what we know to be as “evil.” Furthermore, the knowledge of God is not the cause of evil, but is the cause of good whereby evil is known. Things are known by way of surpassing or lacking in something - so it can be said that righteousness is beyond the good or is the imitation of the good, while sinning or falling short of the good is what we know as evil - thus a deficiency of the good, and it so has it that God is also aware of what falls short of the marker that is a perfect good according to the likeness of something. 


Whether God knows singular things?


God knows singular things because all singular things pr-exist in Him in a much higher way. To recognize, know, and understand a singular concept for the man - such as the beauty of a forest, or the evil of an action so justice may be rendered fittingly and appropriately, is to seek the perfection in something that is sought and knowable. How can a judge become more perfect in rendering justice if he is not aware of the evil and injustice or crimes that come across his presence? The just judge must be aware of these things - not so that he may imitate them, but so that he can understand the parts of the act so as to justly render appropriate decisions, hence the singular concept of justice. As for God, He already knows all these things better than us, and any good in this effort we display is a quality already found in Him in a more perfect and higher way. God knows discord, and even though the perfections humans display that are divided among each other in a lesser way conflict with one another in the singular concept, as if they were opposed or united to each other - God possesses them and holds them unitedly, knowing the singular concepts without any lack of knowing by way of His simple intellect which is knowledge of both material and immaterial things that ever could exist and ever shall exist going forward. Therefore, God is the cause of things by His knowledge - extending to the material and immaterial principle, consisting of singular concepts and things - individualized in matter by His own Essence.


Whether God can know infinite things?


There is no boundary of knowledge for God, for His knowledge has no boundaries, and if His knowledge did have a boundary, then He would have placed it there. Even in that, He would know where those boundaries lie, and even in this, He could move those boundaries wherever He wishes. Therefore, the knowledge of God extends to infinite things, for this is the domain of the eternal, which has no beginning or end and is simultaneously lacking in no parts, but made whole completely - including knowledge. The idea of infinite things is in relation to quantity, and the idea of quantity consists of parts. Knowing things part by part is to know all of them successively. But to know something infinitely does not belong to the creature, but to God, who also knows part by part up to infinity according to His measure or rule. Knowing that He alone sets the measure or quantity of parts that should be known, it is proper to say that He knows infinite things. Why, and how can this be, says the atheist? Because the knowledge of God is simply the measure of all things, so it would be proper to Him that He would know them, just as a landowner may set up land markers around His plot of land and remember where the boundary markers are set.


Whether the knowledge of God is of future contingent things?


The works of men and creatures are subjected to freewill. God himself has fashioned the creature and given it a freewill, thus the decisions that are made and carried out by creatures are known by God. Additionally, ideas that belong to the creature which result in measurable practical action is also known by God, even before they occur. This is possible because God has knowledge of all contingent things that are dependable upon another, and as stated earlier, the decisions of creatures are subjected/dependent/contingent upon the freewill which has been gifted to them by God. Furthermore, God resides in eternity. The corporeal creature (man and animal) resides in time (the successive movement from start to finish - subject to decay, corruption, and death) which is lesser than eternity. As it was stated before, eternity is the simultaneous whole lacking in no parts or knowledge where there is no beginning or end. Time is a successive measure where one thing may be known by coming to know it part by part by way of successive bounding. For example, if one wishes to fix the engine of a car, he must first know how to identify the problem (first part), then from there disassemble what is necessary so as to replace what is broken (second part), then finally reassembling the engine and testing the result (final part). When all parts are combined, the engine shall work, which is a practical function which was originally contingent upon the idea of the man knowing the car needed to be fixed so it can be put into operation once again. The freewill of the man chose to engage in this action, and he reached this action by many successive movements (subjected to time). For God, who dwells in eternity and is not subjected to time alone, is already lacking in no parts by way of understanding. For example, picture a taxi driver driving a cab (time) from point A to point B in the city. He knows where to go in his head, but he gets there turn by turn and road by road. While this is going on, the blimp above him with cameras can observe and know what is going on at point A, while also being observant of point B, while also seeing the path of the taxi driver and the many streets he has passed and will be encountering shortly as he continues to drive. So it is for God, who knows dependent things from a higher and more perfect position lacking in nothing as compared to the creature’s perspective. 


Whether God knows enunciable things?


It is within the realm of the human intellect to form enunciations (ideas, proposals, thoughts, plans, concepts, judgements and opinions). If the man can think it, then God knows it, even if it were to never be carried out. What the man may think in the future that exists in potentiality, but hasn’t been realized yet either in thought or action, God also knows this as well. Man can know something by way of his own intellect successively in the order of one; for example, man looks at an animal and identifies its species to understand what he is looking at. Division of the intellect and ideas of understanding is the process of the creature, who understands something successively by idea one at a time. For God, His essence is simple and He truly knows all things by their own essence by way of His intellect which is also simple, and can understand all things known to the specific thing or creature all at once, because His knowing and intellect is not lacking any parts of knowledge, nor is there a beginning or end to such knowledge in Him. Therefore, the species of the divine intellect is capable of understanding and knowing all things in their fullness without any lack of knowing.    
 
Whether the knowledge of God is variable?


God’s knowledge is also His substance. It is not so much that God changes or His knowledge of something changes because of the variations of something such as creatures, plants, and elements within the universe, but that those variations or species and orders are from God, and exist in the form of variety in the way which He ordained to be so which cannot be variable to God. His knowledge of this does not shift or change, rather, it is the created who shifts in accordance with the Creator’s divine providence (His intervention in the universe) and will. Therefore, God’s knowledge is invariable and never changing, but pre-exists all knowledge that is knowable to any created intellect - even if the created think they are changing in a specific manner and have the ability to do so by way of freewill. We see this error among the pagans and atheists who believe they can become something they were never made to be or meant to be - such as man to woman and woman to man, or human to dolphin or man to cat, as we see with some people in the Moderni age who spend time, blood, and treasure subjecting themselves to many surgeries to install features of an animal to their body, such as altered cheeks and whiskers, splitting of the tongue so as to imitate a lizard, and having surgeons install claws or fangs into their hands and feet. God’s knowledge surpasses the knowledge of anything created, and just because a man thinks he can become a woman or a cat does not mean they will now become such a thing, nor will God ever change what He ordained someone to be. 


Whether God has a speculative knowledge of things?


Speculative knowledge has reference to the truth for the sake of itself, while practical knowledge references the truth for the sake of making or doing something. There is also a mixture of speculative and practical knowledge which can be referenced for a stated purpose. Knowing this, we see the three elements of speculative knowledge: One, is the knowledge of something known. Two, the manner in which something is known by. Three, The end part where speculative knowledge considers a truth to be had or taken, as opposed to practical knowledge where an operation has come to its final conclusion or something is made. God most definitely has a speculative knowledge of things because He is the truth which is absolute, and in the same way He is fully capable of considering and observing the truth of His own Essence which is simple, as He is fully aware of Himself in every way, along with other things which come forth from Him as well. God (Essential Being) also has a practical knowledge of what He can make (actuality) or is made by another in a period of time (accidents occurring in potentiality), even if something else is made by creatures/humans (beings by participation) according to their free will (potentiality) that is not attributed to Him (accidents); including evil (deficiency). For the Lord’s practical knowledge in this sense isn’t that He is the cause of evil or implements it, but in the sense we can understand it, He is the skilled craft worker who is called in to fix a deficient part of the building by way of His skill and what comes natural to Him.

 ​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

​Whether a name can be given to God?


A name can be given to God in a way that the creature can describe its own understanding of what God is to itself and others around it. However, the name given to God will never portray the Divine Essence accurately because creatures that are in the corporeal flesh are not capable of seeing the Essence of God, for it is beyond the understanding of the creature to do this, nor could it perceive it and live, because the Divine Essence of God is before the creature, and raised up above all of its senses, intellect, and understanding. However, the creature can assign names to God so as to describe God, even though the name given to God does not represent God in His fullness. Furthermore, calling an “apple” an apple is an accurate expression of the essence of what is described. In this case, an apple. For one can bite into it and remove its seeds and be filled with its sugary richness. The senses can identify the apple in more ways than one and the intellect understands fully its role and purpose in its created environment. But with God, we only know Him by His effects, and what He chooses to reveal to us as for the edification of self and others. His Essence cannot be seen or fathomed, so no name will ever fully describe Him accurately and justly. Nonetheless, the created still assign names and descriptions to their Creator so as to identify ideas and things to the intellect that perceives God and shares in His message with others around them. 


Whether any name can be applied to God substantially?


Any name that is applied to God by the created (creature) may describe Him in some way according to the perception of the one conveying the name, but whether or not the name altars or affects His substance in any way is completely impossible. For the names given to God by creatures has no effect on Him, because all names, descriptions, and things that simply exist to our own senses in our world are completely pre-existent in God. Additionally, the names we give God is less of a charge against Him, and more of an indicator or measure of us indicating our relationship to God. To further elaborate, negative names that are applied to God affects His substance in no way, but simply reminds the listener of just how close or far away from God that creature is who is naming Him. See for yourself, if you were to go up to an atheist and ask him about God, he may respond with something like, “I don’t follow your ‘Sky Daddy.’” The atheist would say this in a negative way, but this insult or mockery would have no effect on God, and would actually signal to the hearer of the message that this person is further away from God, because of the false mocking name he used to describe God. Seeing as how this harms God in no way or benefits Him in anyway, it is also a good indicator to the state of grace (or lack of) that soul is in, and in by doing so - the creature who attempts to name God effects itself more than the label it gives or apportions to God, either negatively or positively, for the one who praises God shall not go unrewarded, and the one who curses God shall not go unpunished.  Now, walk up to a Priest and ask Him about God, and he may refer to God as, “The Lord,” or “God the Son,” or “God the Father,” or “God the Holy Spirit,” or “The Blessed Trinity.” By these names of God, they pay honor to Him, but still do not affect Him in any way that His substance must change substantially. Moreover, it is just an indicator of the reverence one may show for their Creator, and is a reminder to the observer that this Priest is closer in relationship to God than the atheist is, simply by their words alone, for if we know God by His effects, then we must also know creatures more intimately by their effects (what they say and do or reveal to us by their good and bad deeds) as well. 


Whether any name can be applied to God in its literal sense?


Some names are given to God by creatures in the metaphorical and literal sense. Both are proper depending on their context. For example - in the metaphorical sense, God could be referred to as “The Rock,” or the “Foundation” of the faith and hope in the believer, and this would be a proper metaphorical name for God because although He is just not a rock alone or a poured concrete slab of rebar for the base of a building, we also know Him to be the One who keeps all things into being in a more higher and eminent way, and this of course pre-exists any metaphor or material matter in our known environment that could describe Him. In the same way, for example, in the literal sense - God could be called “Good,” and this would be a true literal statement, even though it does not describe everything about the Divine Essence, it nonetheless contains Good in it, which also describes God because He alone is Good and is the source to which all Goodness comes from. 
 
Are any names applied to God synonymous?


Names given or applied to God are not all the same in idea. For God Himself is One in reality, but many in idea, so as far as creatures can associate Him in a suitable manner to their intellect - such as “God is All,” or “God is in the clouds,” or “God is in our hearts”, or “God is just, or “God is love,” or “He who fashioned us in the womb,” or “The One who stretched out the universe with His hand.” What is obvious here is that by what was said - it transmits a different idea about God - even though the One reality in all these statements is God. The created intellect obtains understanding of the First Principle (God), which sets all other principles into motion and being (created things), and then flushes many ideas of that First Principle into substances it can describe and understand so as to magnify the various perfections God apportions to creation in an imperfect manner because creatures can only imitate His likeness, but never portray it in its fullness - even though some may display it in a higher or lesser degree depending on love, faithfulness, denial of self, deeds, and election. Never can this occur all in one idea or understanding, but many ideas and understandings, thus all one reality which is God. Finally, the perfections that are manifest in creatures, such as charity, wisdom, love, and justice etc. that are apportioned among all of them, pre-exist in God completely and in the most perfect manner.


Whether what is said of God and of creatures is univocally predicated of them?


God is of a different order than anything which exists in a genus. No name that belongs to God also belongs to creatures, for anything a creature has is a quality from God - to include wisdom, strength, talent and the like. It is not proper to say “God has wisdom like Socrates,” because God was before and after Socrates, and everything Socrates displayed - including wisdom and the power to argue - came from none other than God alone as an apportioned attribute or quality which is in Him in a more better and perfect way. Therefore, the essence and substance of something depends on the genus they are categorized under and because of this God and creatures are known differently by their effects in an equivocal manner.


Whether names predicated of God are predicated primarily of creatures?


Does the child name the parent? Does a pet leash the master? Can a building pre-exist its architectural design plans? No - for all of these come after. So, in the same way, names are applied to God rather than creatures because anything which is being described such as a trait or attribute or even a thing that does something pre-exists in God in a more higher and perfect way, to which all things such as creatures flow forth from. However, it is not wrong to refer to God in the metaphorical sense so as to convey Him to others in a higher degree or honorable mention, such as “God carries the message of truth like a bullet,” and “The Truth of God is like the Sun - shooting rays of heat across the sky, for it is impossible that anyone on the ground not feel its heat!” These examples carry an imperfect truth as we can perceive them by the things we know and can relate to while paying honor to the First and Last Cause, which is God, although not quite describing Him accurately and fully - as this is impossible in the created, just as it is impossible that the child names the parent - for the parent had a name that was given before the existence of the child, and whether or not the child wishes to “rename” the parent later on, it shall not matter, for the name the parent has pre-exists whatever name given to the parent by the child. So it is with God, who pre-exists the child, the parent, and any name that could be given to them by another. 


Whether names which imply relation to creatures are predicated of God temporally?


Names as they relate to creatures such as “governor,” and “mayor,” or “chieftain” and the like is how the creature identifies the likeness of what is being described in such a way they know how to react or respond to what they are about to encounter, receive, or interact with and this belongs to them in a temporal way. In the same way, when we call “The One Who Is” - “Lord,” it's not so much that we are affecting His Essence, Being, or changing anything about His Substance, rather we are speaking of things we can describe in accordance with our nature so they can be identified and reacted to in the proper manner. Next, coming to this realization, it can be said that the relation that is established between creatures and God in regard to a name is a temporal function, not something originating from eternity. Also, as it was said before, God is of His own order outside of creation, and everything that is in existence temporally is ordered to Him, while the relation is from creatures to God, but not God to creatures in any true sense other than idea as creatures are referred back to Him.
    
Whether this name “God” is a name of the nature?


God is made known to us by His effects in the world around us. It is not possible for us to know fully or even see His nature as it is, but we can recognize His divine nature by His effects, and when we apply or assign Him names which depict Him in a manner our intellect recognizes - we signify many attributes associated with Him as we do other things. For example, if we call the Lord - “A High King,” we also infer to other creatures that this important title oversees the operations and accountability of everything within a King’s dominion, and in comparison - allows us to identify correctly what we are describing in the likeness we associate to other things. Is the Lord exactly like a King? No, but - He is like a King in the way we associate Him to one, as in the literal sense He is the King above all Kings - The One who pre-exists the title to begin with. So, the name of something we give it can describe the nature of something as we understand it, without completely depicting the full nature of God in its fullness - because this is unknowable to the created.


Whether this name “God” is communicable?


The divine nature is only conveyed by some idea, description, or less than perfect image or example within the realm of the material principle (by participation or accident such as a human portrayal of God in a painting) that creatures can identify and recognize. Names occur not in reality as we declare them, but they occur in our own mind as we perceive them - so in this way, the reality of God by His name is not communicable in reality to the divine nature, but it is communicable in as much as we can understand it and talk about it or make it known to others by signifying Him through a name to which others can recognize. The meaning of “God” in your own mind might not be the same as the meaning of “God” in the mind of another, thus the two conflict, however, in reality, the name itself “God” which attempts to communicate the divine nature is not affected in anyway, nor can it even be perceived properly in fullness within the form of the body fixated to the material principle that makes up nature and the universe.


Whether this name “God” is applied to God univocally by nature, by participation, and according to opinion?


The name “God” is an idea which resembles the likeness of many things to people as they perceive it. The idea of God includes the opinion of the human being as he can relate to The Name. For example, someone who refers to God as “The Blessed Trinity,” would be correct in that by words he has identified the divine nature. Now, a pagan can relate the idea of God to a block of wood, or a demonic spirit posing as a God - even though this is false, as a block of wood is simply a block of wood and subjected to the material principle, and also that a demon is just a spiritual creature without a body, even though it may think it is something more because of demonic pride and to trick the pagan further into sin so as to worship it so the pagan descends into further error. Even then, in this example - the human who is correct in associating God to the Blessed Trinity still only has an idea of it - to which the divine nature resides, but can only demonstrate some kind of likeness to it as he alone understands it, just as Saint Augustine experienced with the boy trying to collect the ocean water into a sand hole he dug up while he was stuck pondering the mystery. Therefore, it would be proper to conclude that the name “God” is applied analogically, because it is a mixture of some senses and reality, but lacking in others as anyone can really understand it under the signifying label of a single word or name. 


Whether this name, HE WHO IS, is the most proper name of God?


The name HE WHO IS, is most properly applied to God in three ways: One, by what it signifies. The Name does not signal form or creature or what is created or anything of the like - but EXISTENCE in its fullness, which presupposes the idea of a cause or movement. Secondly, by way of the universality of its use. The more precise or restricting the word is, the narrower the chances of the name being applicable to things. For example, if I asked somebody to goto the grocery store and purchase milk - many options could be purchased such as Lactaid, whole, 2%, or even soy milk. However, when I ask for lactose free milk, the options are narrowed from four to one. Furthermore, if I were to ask someone to goto the grocery store to “purchase me something,” then the realm of possibility the word “something” signifies widens from one to four possible items, to possibly thousands of items the helper decides to bring back to me. So, in the same way, the name HE WHO IS captures a more absolute perspective of what we are talking about and attempting to describe in God who should not be subjected to the mere likeness of a creature, or a stone, or a block of wood - for all these things prexist in Him. Third and lastly, the significance of multiple things all at once - such as before, now, after, future, and never ending - all of these words can fall under the name HE WHO IS because all of the words that are described fall under this name, which is properly fitted to God in a more higher way than terms associated to the likeness of creatures as one understands them.
    
Whether affirmative propositions can be formed about God? 


Affirmative propositions about God can be formed by the human intellect - which is a gift from the Divine Nature so as to know and recognize God. For humans were made Holy and in His image, possessing the full capability within themselves to know God. Also it was given to human beings to accept or reject Him by way of our free-will choices (being in participation which produces accidents, as opposed to an essential being in actuality - which is God). In addition, it has been said that God Himself is simple, and is of His own essence and truly within Himself, not requiring anything else to Be, as He alone is His own self-subsisting substance sustaining Himself as the First Cause and Principle of all things in being. Realizing this, it is hard for the human intellect to comprehend a simple form that is of its own essence, like God is simply. The human intellect is material and understands compound things (because humans are compound beings who are both corporeal and spiritual). So, when given an idea that is simple, man’s intellect (which can only see the material principle), must add something else to it so as to identify it in terms it can comprehend or understand. Nonetheless, it still so happens that man can recognize and come to know God by his intellect because the intellect is an operation of the soul, which is beyond the material principle, and not attributed to any corporeal organ of the flesh. With that said, the intellect may not come to know God in the fullness of His essence, but man can come to know God by recognizing His effects around Him and the likeness of other things He can attribute to God by way of the divine intellect the Lord gifted him. Hence, true propositions can be formed about God because He alone has given us the ability to do so as to have a more established relationship with Him as son/daughter to Father would in a household where a family dwells. This is His ultimate gift to us - that we should come to know Him by our own free-will - for the Lord wants children in His house, not pets. Satan wants pets and slaves he can oppress, torture, rape, and abuse. Not so with God - who gives the creature the choice to choose Him or reject Him, to be under His roof or to live outside from His presence. 

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether Any Created Intellect Can See the Essence of God? 


God is supremely knowable, but not in the same way to every type of intellect. Some are closer to God, while others are further away – as the Psalmist says, “The Lord is on high, but cares for the lowly and knows the proud from afar” (Psalm 138:6). If it were true that the created intelligence of man could never fathom or come to know God in any such way, beatitude would be impossible to obtain, and man would perpetually remain in darkness with no understanding. However, this is not so, as we see with the faith and the Church and its many clergy and Ministers, Priests, Bishops, and Deacons who know God and carry out His will – including the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Saints. It is more than just a knowing of authority, but a call one receives prior in time to the act, for the one called feels the Lord both internally and outside his or her body and can discern the presence of God in many other things, including oneself, thus guiding one’s course of actions in a way better described without words. This is the attainment of the First Principle, which is what mankind was built for – to be in union with God and to glorify His Name through the attainment of beatitude. Furthermore, in a lesser way, we see this guiding principle among those who do not even wish to attain knowledge of Him as to achieve glory, but display its desire to a lesser degree through natural wonder and wanting to realize and know the effects of things and why they come into range of the intellect as something knowable and identifiable – like the secular sciences and many arts throughout the cultures of the world. Finally, if the intellect in the rational creature was not capable of adhering to and seeking out the First Cause of all things, which is the First Principle – that is God, to which all attain their final outcome through, its natural desire to know things and attain a higher degree of completeness in the intellect of one’s surroundings and knowing would be void, and that person would be something like an animal or less than rational creature. As for coming to the vision or knowing or understanding of the full essence of God, more so at a higher degree than other created intellects, the blessed and those on the road to Sainthood are granted sight of the essence of God in ways others at a lesser degree have not attained. 


Whether the Essence of God Is Seen By the Created Intellect through An Image?


By way of the natural senses and corporeal things pertaining to matter, the limited faculties that provide us with eyesight show us what things appear to be in matter  by their likeness through created intellect, not by their essence. For example, a person knows the game of baseball. So, when this person sees a bat and a baseball lying on the grass on the way to work in the morning; more than likely the game of baseball will show up in their mind so as to create an association with what the eyes are seeing in the created forms and likeness that are the circular baseball and the cylinder shaped baseball bat in order to make sense of it by way of the created intellect. God is the first intellectual power, and the most perfect one – to which all intellectual powers spring forth from by His design and creation. For the created intellect to come into the realization of what it is actually seeing by way of the essence of something beyond its likeness, there exists the factor of something outside of the creature’s intellect which raises its own intellect in a higher way to understand God and the essence of things it is observing as it pertains to God; an illuminating light if you will. In other words, one may see an image representing God, but will not know it to be anything else unless that person’s intellect is raised up to the knowledge and light of the knowledge of God through grace and the glory of His illuminating light – which enhances the intellect to recognize Him. In this way, the created intellect worships in a better way and draws closer to God in a higher degree. It would appear that in the Moderni age, so many are living in darkness and sin, which clouds the intellect and prevents the light of grace from entering, and reinforces the walls of ignorance and unbelief in many thus preventing them from recognizing any light that shines through the cracks of the perimeter walls they setup in their own hearts that acknowledge the truth of the One and Only Living God. Additionally, those who are closer to God in a lesser degree and not in its fullness, view any kind of image that represents God or has been given sanctity and power through His will – to include objects and images that honor Him, as a form of idolatry and false worship. This is rooted in recent religious formations dating back to the the middle part of the second millennium - where the practice really set sail - and has morphed through such denominations such as calvinism and other denominations that formulate their own rules on the matter in accordance with their own councils formed throughout the generations void of communion with the Seat of the Apostle Peter. Furthermore, according to the theology of these movements on individual levels, the fear of committing idolatry outweighs the goodness of honoring God through various images and works of art and objects, as we see with some people who would rather be alone and sick in the hospital without any holy images or prayer beads in their company. This appears to be the result of doctrinal error rooted in recent sub-Christian movements ingrained and infused in the minds of successive generations, centuries, and splitting/schism of denomination that holds newfound charismatic leaders implementing their own subjective view of worship and doctrine that is not beholden to anything objective like we see to the Magisterium. Lastly, what the Lord deems to have power – will have power. An Ark of the covenant for the Israelites to which only the Levites could carry, lest you die? Yes. A staff for Moses? Yes. A Cross for the faithful? Absolutely. All are examples of God’s power. Knowing what it represents and holding it in reverence to honor God is not idolatry. Worshiping the object as if it were a God, as the secular atheist in society does for his bank account, his career, possessions, and reputation, are better examples of what true idols are and their many effects they have on the soul of the one who lives for them so as to worship them. 


Whether the Essence of God Can Be Seen with the Bodily Eye?


God cannot be seen by the sense of the eye or the imagination, but only by the intellect. Now, if an angelic or demonic entity is seen, as people have claimed to have seen, they are perceiving a creature that is also created by God and are not observing God’s essence, therefore, it is a “created” thing they are observing. The eye belongs to matter and the corporeal world and does not possess the capacity to see what is raised above it unless of course it is granted to it by the will of the One who sets all things into motion and raises the intellect in a higher way that can recognize Him and things beyond matter.


Whether Any Created Intellect by Its Natural Powers Can See the Divine Essence?


The created intellect knows and can identify matter with its given organs. However, to see beyond what matter is, such as the Divine Essence, as the angels see, is only possible by grace and not by nature alone. The created things that have their being in individual matter are subject to nature and can only be viewed according to nature and natural means, such as the sense of smell and sight. However, what is divine is of a different essence, and beyond matter, and is blind or invisible to the natural senses unless grace is infused to see or be made aware of more prominent realities through attainment of the divine intellect. Critically, there are two cognitive powers possessed in the soul; one, is the act of the corporeal organ that recognizes individual matter by nature, secondly, is the intellect which is not beholden to any corporeal organ and is the key to the Divine Essence by which we make God’s presence and divine things known to us such as angels, wicked spirits, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Angelic being’s intellect, which is raised up on the divine within the measure of aeviternity, are predisposed to know these things by way of their intellect because by one movement they enter into knowing, salvation, condemnation, obedience, and disobedience because they were made eternal without suffering, hunger or mortality and of course their salvation or condemnation can be attained by one decision or movement as it was before the fall of man when the bad angels rebelled against their nature and became self-condemned and the good angels remained true to their nature and remained in grace. However, as it goes with created mankind, who can either attain salvation or condemnation by many successive movements as subject to time, where there is a beginning and an end, and salvation or condemnation can be reached by many movements and decisions. Our intellect is not completely raised up to the Divine Essence in this present life because we are subject to ignorance, hunger pains, death, and suffering. However, it does not mean that we cannot experience some of the Divine Essence in acceptable portions according to our likeness before the appointed time of our bodies to transition to sole spiritual forms. 


Whether the Created Intellect Needs Any Created Light in Order to See the Essence of God?


The created intellect needs intelligible light that is grace and is from God to illuminate the understanding and wisdom of the knower so as to recognize the Divine Essence in things, other people, places, and within its own person. This illumination or light of glory is recognized in scripture as an understanding given to the person in a higher degree that is raised up to knowledge of the Living God and is beyond corporeal matter and the natural world which is recognized by the natural senses. In other words, a medium is used to know and see the essence of God, which is grace, but not in the way that the medium changes or alters His essence, but that it is needed to perceive the Divine Essence, as an intelligible factor attached to the human intellect enhancing its ability to know and understand – just as night vision goggles enhances the users perception and view of the woods in the dark of night. Finally, what is created is natural to the creature such as observance of ice and fire or wind and taste; however, the disposition of what is natural is to its form – for example; fire must be hot, and a spider must have many legs, but for the one who receives illuminating light and divine grace, that person is raised up to a likeness conforming to the form that is God which is divine. 


Whether of Those Who See the Essence of God, One Sees More Perfectly Than Another?


Each and every soul shall shine in its glory according to its likeness – while some receive more splendor and majesty than another. If all of us were equal so as to see God for who He is, we would all be the same and equal in Heaven. However, this is not the case, because some are more beautified than others while some are closer to God in a higher degree and further away from God in a lower degree. Also, it so has it that there are multiple levels of heaven and hierarchies established closest and furthest to and from God based on love, as we see with the Seraphim. Because of the heart inflamed with charity and the willful urge to carry out good for others, even at the detriment of one’s own health, comfort, lifestyle, and well-being – this one becomes more closely aligned with the second Adam and the kind of human that is to inherit the earth once all is accomplished and is also the kind of worshiper the Lord seeks. In this way, one makes himself more receptive to what is about to be received and thus can receive it – ultimately resulting in a higher beautification (which is the attainment of the First Principle in Glory – true happiness and joy) than others who may have been less inclined to receive what was being given or is only capable of receiving a lesser portion of glory according to its likeness. 


Whether Those Who See the Essence of God Comprehend Him?


No created creature or thing can comprehend God in His fullness. For if this were so, God would have competition, and He wouldn’t be God, or there would be many gods, and as we have addressed previously, this is impossible. However, some and others may comprehend a portion of Him in a higher or lesser way as He determines according to His will and whom He chooses to reveal Himself to. As for the great Fathers in the past have said in summary – “Knowing a portion of Him is great gain.” For any created intellect cannot grasp His fullness, not even angelic beings – for He is infinitely knowable, but impossible to know infinitely, for it is beyond the capability of any created thing to comprehend such a thing. It is also said that the blessed and people like the Apostles, who are closer to God than most in a higher degree or better way, attain three attributes aligned to the soul and God – they are: hope, faith, and charity. Through these three attributes aligned with God, they are held closer to Him in a better way, thus fulfilling the object of their desire in God through these attributes, just as a hearty meal fills the desire of a hungry belly and completes it, or when a long-lost loved one is reunited with his or her family member, thus fulfilling the longing of love and familial companionship in the heart that was already desired. 


Whether Those Who See the Essence of God See All in God?


Those who see the Essence of God are much better off in more ways than one for those who do not see the Divine Essence of God. However, it so has it they do not know all things, because in order to know all things in God, one must fully comprehend Him perfectly, and this does not belong to any creature or created thing, but God alone who can comprehend Himself, knows Himself, and is infinitely in Himself. Even the angels do not know all things, even though it may appear this way according to a human being’s mode of knowing in comparison. With that in mind, keep note that it's not the full attainment of glory and beatitude for humans to know all things through God, but to know God in the best way according to our likeness and the illuminating light of grace. Additionally, knowing God and comprehending God in anyway more so than another is great gain – even knowledge wise being tapped into the divine superhighway of information and knowing, almost like the internet and supercomputers, however, this isn’t the purpose of knowing God (to attain supernatural knowledge), but to know God in fullness as to complete what we were made for and that is to glorify our Creator and be made whole in that alone. Finally, it is impossible that any created thing could see all in God, for no created thing can comprehend His infinity and know infinite things like Him. If such a thing were given freely, it would probably be abused or used as a means for detestable sorted gain and profit, as we see with the occult using knowledge of curses and demonic rites to oppress and extract sorted gain for their clients and their targeted enemies.


Whether What Is Seen in God by Those Who See the Divine Essence, Is Seen through Any Similitude?


The Divine Essence of God that is united to the intellect of the person who sees God actually sees the Essence of God even if it is by way of a likeness or an image. Why? Because any likeness or image is pre-existent in God and is what God may choose to present His essence through. Not that the thing or creature in its likeness being seen is God in itself – independent; in a general example, like a bear or a deer roaming through the woods past an observer, but God using the image to convey His essence in a way the one who sees can understand and comprehend. Not that the deer or the bear is God, but that the Divine Essence of God is using the animals according to His will for the purpose of the message or vision to the one who is observing. These principles also apply to sacred images in paintings, pictures, and sacred displays conveying the Essence of God by way of a similitude the observer can associate to the material principle as he knows them and can identify knowable concepts and ideas through the corporeal organs. These possibilities are given to the human to identify perception through sight, smell, taste, and human feeling/sensations conveyed by the brain and central nervous system - such as seeing a Holy image and receiving a tingling down the spine accompanied by goosebumps, or the hairs on the skin rising at the presence of something the intellect (which is the soul) can identify. 


Whether Those Who See the Essence of God See All They See in It at the Same Time?


Knowing and understanding what the Essence of God is demonstrating is a simultaneous act or movement, not many successive ones. For example: say one is pondering a life decision to pursue a career, but first must attend an accredited university in order to receive licensure for the career one wants to partake in. From there, one must figure out how to pay for that education, so this person decides to get a job in order to save up for such a pursuit. This would be an example of many successive movements to the goal of attaining a specific career and is directly opposed to the “simultaneous” or instant” in the way the Divine Essence of God who demonstrates or conveys knowledge and understanding to us. In another example, the simultaneous of knowing something with a singular word could be described in this way: the word “justice” may suggest the following: law courts, prosecutors, lawyers, judges, discovery of evidence, courtroom guards, weapons, paperwork, cameras, security, sorrow, joy, microphones, artwork, and authority of a government, even a certain way people in court may dress such as suits, ties, and leather shoes. With the single word, “justice,” one can determine and distinguish many things and avenues of knowing, and in the same way, the Essence of God conveys understanding and knowledge in one simultaneous movement, not many successive ones as the prior example demonstrates. 


Whether Anyone in This Life Can See the Essence of God?


The true Divine Essence that is God cannot be seen in this life, for if this were so, no man could live any longer in his mortal body, as confirmed in the scriptures with Moses. For what we recognize as Divine Essence is given by way of “similitude,” or in other words, images or effects that our minds can perceive, process, understand, and learn from to use for edification of other people who know God to a lesser degree. Some varying opinions on this have inferred that to see the Divine Essence, or Him for Who He Is, the outpouring of love shall “make the heart explode” or His comprehension is not fitted for our mortal flesh, thus its power shall destroy it. However, in more simpler terms, it is so that we are composite bodies consisting of corporeal matter with a soul which is our intellect given to us as a gift which is also the image of the Living God to know Him through His effects in the world and to seek Him. Corporeal matter can only know and see matter that is natural to it by its forms. Also, the Divine Essence cannot be known through material things in the way the spirit knows it, which is the most accurate and truthful depiction. However, if one were to draw closer to spiritual things, this person would have to neglect corporeal things in matter, and in this way, this person would be more capable of perceiving and understanding abstract intelligent things that only the spirit can discern such as dreams, divine revelations, presence of spirits, and foresight.  


Whether God Can Be Known in This Life by Natural Reason?


The knowledge of God’s Essence is by grace, which is a higher truth, and is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The knowledge of God by natural reason belongs both to the bad and good person, even the one without faith or grace, because both the good and bad can know many truths even in a lesser way as compared to something that knows a truth in a higher way - nonetheless, both know the truth, even if the good and bad have a differing knowledge of it by degree of understanding. When the bad says “I don’t know Him” or “there is no proof of His existence,” it's not that this person cannot understand the truth by natural reason, for it has been made known to them, it is because this person rejects the truth, or refuses to acknowledge it through internal bias and rejection of what was meant for that person, or further influence from the demons who encourage wickedness and denial in mankind. With all of this said, it is still manifest to everyone by natural reason the existence of God, because God’s effects and images are clearly seen in the world for all to observe - both the bad and the good, both the believing and unbelieving, both the accepting and those in denial. If this wasn’t so, nobody could ever come to “conversion,” because such possibility would not be possible for the thoughts of a person or ways he or she accepted a way of life to change and move onto something better, which is God and the truth. Additionally, we see that there is the knowledge of God to a lesser degree in remote parts of the world throughout history and present times who did not have the gospel or the law preached to them, but they clearly knew a God existed regardless, which is evident through their culture, traditions, and belief system. All of these fall within the sphere of the observable universe and can be detected by the senses, for our natural knowledge can only take us far as the senses go, and as it goes, the senses can detect spiritual things and know God even if they cannot see Him, hear Him, smell Him, or touch Him in the way we experience corporeal things around us, but know Him by His effects in our surroundings, ourselves, and through others in more ways than one. This is knowing God to a lesser degree which is limited by our corporeal bodies of the flesh. Once we become spirit, and our soul leaves our body, then we shall know Him in a more accurate and better way beyond sense, which is a higher degree of truth and knowing than the corporeal flesh can provide by way of sense.  


Whether by Grace a Higher Knowledge of God Can Be Obtained Than by Natural Reason?


Even though the revelation of grace which brings one to God in a higher degree does not reveal the full scope of “knowing” God for who He truly is in its fullness, without any further knowing to be added to it, it still increases our relationship and knowledge of His presence and effects in the world which are observable to all, both unbelieving and believing, but perceived in different ways, some more accurately and others less accurately (for those who do not attribute the proper effects to God that come from Him in the world around us) and those who only recognize something of Him by way of natural reason void of the illuminating light of supernatural grace. Nonetheless, it is by grace that we attain the higher knowledge of the Living God, and shall receive divine revelation, and spiritual things the corporeal flesh alone cannot decipher, for example - coming to the knowledge and acceptance in the heart that God is Three in One, and that God is One in Three. In the same way, knowing in the heart that the Five wounds of Christ are Seven, and the Seven wounds of Christ are Five. Not everyone might see this though, because of the layers or veils obstructing the objective of knowing something for what it is. By way of visions both private and prophetic as from scripture, the illuminating light of grace puts objects, places, and people into a sensible vision that can accurately describe what the Lord is conveying for the purpose of edifying others. For example, if one were to keep out light from entering into a room, that person may put up a blind. In addition, add a curtain as well. From there, there shall be no light of knowledge of divine knowing, or there may be a dimmer version of the light penetrating into the room. With supernatural divine grace that brings us to God in a higher degree of knowing, this illuminating light pierces the curtain and the blind, and still continues to light up the room in its brilliant radiance. If you were to be in that room, it would be impossible for you not to see what is around you and observe the light which engulfs your very being. Additionally, the light may illuminate a picture on your wall, so you may see it more clearly for what it is, even though you knew what it was earlier when there was no light, but you had a different perception of it. In the same way, the perceiving between natural reason and grace interact with our intellectual ability, which is part of our soul that was given to us by God to know Him, and is not attributed to any corporeal organ of the flesh - and is what separates us from rational beings who are made in the image of the First and Last Cause as compared to irrational animals who roam the earth for food, devour one another, and become food for us in kind. Finally, it can be said that “faith” is knowledge in itself without a vision from the person experiencing it, but its source coming from God alone who gives one faith to know Him more deeply and accurately in league with the intellect which alone is supernatural and unlike anything in comparison to it that is known to man in any creature or unintelligible body or form.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether One Adds Anything to Being?


It appears that “one” does not add anything to being. In fact, it is what being is, as any being that is either simple or compound (consisting of many parts as a whole) sustains itself as one, and does not become divisible or undivided. In other words, to be “one” is to “be” in the literal sense. It cannot be an addition to what already is. 


Whether One and Many Are Opposed to Each Other?


“One” implies the idea of something measured and being the principle of things numbered, while “multitude” is the measure as to what something is measured by. They are opposed to one another because what is “one” is whole and indivisible. What is “multitude” can also be said to be as one, as someone would describe “a multitude of fish” just as many car parts create a car, but it is still the opposite of “one” because they are divisible by their parts as a whole. 


Whether God is One?


One as a number is attributed to material things and belongs to mathematics so as to number things that are created. This does not apply to God from a numerical sense in that He is beholden to matter in this way. Evidently, God is One in the following ways: through simplicity, one thing can be conveyed to many, but that one thing can only be one, and not many. It is impossible that the person who is reading this text also exists somewhere else, and although other people may perceive you as the reader in different ways or have different opinions of you, it still so has it that there is only one of you, and there shall only be one of you going forward. That is the simplicity of God; so in the same way, God can only be One and not many. As through the infinity of His perfection, as God alone contains the perfection of all things and is lacking in nothing. Whether somebody experiences a perfection and becomes fully aware of its attributes, this person would realize that the perfection encountered or experienced is not a manifestation of its own, nor is the perfection exhibited isolated solely to this single user – because we see that what is fast in one person is also fast in another, and we also see that what is very smart in someone else can also be replicated or surpassed in someone else across the world without ever coming into contact with such a person, or we may see an armored rhino fitted with natural durable armor and able to withstand blows from a sledgehammer while at the same time we can compare a microscopic Tardigrade who as a species alone appears to be indestructible; even in space to cosmic radiation, and in the same way we also see that these attributes of perfection flows forth from a higher power which is the maximum of armor, toughness, intelligence, and speed, to which the source comes from, and that is only something that comes from God, to which He alone is lacking in nothing, and is also the maximum of all things in perfection. Finally, the unity of the world demands that things are ordered to each other either to serve one another or complement one another as in a hierarchical chart from successive categories and genus with the basis of outline being by order of one. In another way, the First Principle, that is the One who sees it good to order everything in this way, because what was First, which is God, is most perfect, where everything else that is ordered is set forth from.


Whether God is Supremely One?


God is one in the highest degree because He is His own Essence, His own Subsisting Substance, His own Simplicity, His own Being, and of course The One who Is Who puts all things that isn’t into being. In other words, The Holy Trinity holds the First Place as being Supremely One.

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether This Is a Good Definition of Eternity, “The Simultaneously – Whole and Perfect Possession of Interminable Life”?


In this statement, words are changed to more accurately describe eternity in the sense we as beings in potentiality (created creatures) can more accurately attribute our understanding of time to what is eternal. For time is a succession of movement, from start to finish, and therefore before and after. However, with eternity, there is no movement of such, but a subsisting whole continually lacking in nothing. For what is eternal and interminable has no beginning and no end. For what is whole is complete and lacking in no parts. For what is possessed is held firmly in place and unmovable. As for eternity, it can also be something that is in being and also alive. For the simultaneously-whole, it is replaced by the thought of time which is imperfect, and given a better and accurate description lacking in nothing in a more perfect and subsisting way. Much of society in the Moderni age views time as the creator, the law, the only beginning and end, or unspoken rule which is subject to nothing – especially the Living God who created it to which they do not acknowledge. Also, in the warped sense, they may view truth as relative and time as absolute in the sense that the truth can change according to the predicament at hand or can align to one’s morality for pragmatic purposes according to specific situations while time in itself is absolute and made perfect. The impossibility of these ideas is the theology of the atheist and the pagan - who follow the material principle, which is subject to corruption, as the first principle.  


Whether God is Eternal?


God alone is eternal just as He alone is immutable in a completely supreme way because He alone is in His own essence in as much as He would also be His own eternity, where unlike time - there is no beginning or end. 
​
Whether to Be Eternal Belongs to God Alone?


God is indeed eternal because of His immutability. However, other bodies and creatures participate in His eternity by way of receiving a kind of immutability from Him in accordance with His will. For example, it could be seen that a planet or something in nature on earth has a likeness to eternity in that it never goes away and remains beyond many successive generations to people and the observable universe. Also, in the same way, creatures such as angels and humans participate in his eternity by election to stand in His presence through Sainthood or obedience to what they were made for, as in the good angels who glorify God. In this way, they participate in the likeness of His immutability and eternity which transcends time and all measured successive movements from start to finish.  


Whether Eternity Differs from Time?


It appears that eternity and time are not the same thing. What is movable, corruptible, and changeable is subject to time. What is permanent, unchanging, and everlasting is the measure of eternity. In conclusion, eternity is simultaneously whole (void of movement) while time is the measure of movement and the created thing or being that is corruptible and changeable. It is not proper to apply eternity to time because eternity measures what is permanent while time measures what is temporary.


The Difference of Aeviternity and Time?


Aeviternity is the mean between time and eternity and is most proper for the dominion of the angelic beings and the substance of heavenly bodies. For time has a start and an end which is corruptible and subject to change, while eternity has no beginning or end and is immutable and unchangeable, so exists aeviternity where it is said that there is a beginning but no end and that change can be annexed to it such as angelic beings were made unmovable in their nature but are changeable in their decisions (such as the fallen angels deciding to turn on God and be cast down as a consequence of their actions). Since corporeal beings such as humans are subject to time, which is corruptible, and are subject to successive movements, a start and an end; when the soul leaves the body – it shall enter Aeviternity, just as the angelic substance are subjected to, where there is beginning, but no end.    


Whether There is Only One Aeviternity?


It appears that there is to be only one aeviternity. Although there may be multiple heavens, they all fall under one aeviternity. This is because all things that are in being both in the flesh and the spirit are measured by one – especially regarding time. So, with that said, if time is measured by one, then aeviternity shall be measured by one all the more. It is not that the first thing measured in aeviternity is the cause of all things that spring forth from it, but that it is the first thing measured in the simplest way. In other words, there appears to be only one time, one aeviternity, and one eternity – not many of each.

​​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Whether God is Altogether Immutable?


It is impossible that God is changeable from the perspective of movement, in that He alone is the Unmoved, and that there is nothing more to gain or lose, add or take away as it pertains to Him by any movement alone that may occur in potentiality by Him because He alone has already been there since before the beginning was a beginning. In other words, movement is not of His order for He is the Unmoved who puts all things into motion. This also confers His simplicity. Claims or instances in scripture where God appears to change or is changeable in the sense to a human is either metaphorically described within its context or misunderstood by the human intellect in the sense that He moves or changes in a way we perceive it to be, when this isn’t what is occurring. In the same way the sun is said to move into a house, not literally, for if that were the case, everything in its path and presence would be burned up -  but in that its sun rays enter and shine upon the objects and areas within the path of its rays. 


Whether to Be Immutable Belongs to God Alone?


The creature and the created can be silenced by God at any given time according to His will or for any purpose He deems necessary. This is so because all things come forth from God and that their very being of existence is dependent on the will of another, which in this case is God alone. If He were to cease causing the existence of something, then that something (whether a natural or spiritual body) would truly cease to exist. Therefore, it is evident that only God alone is immutable because His existence is not subjected to anything else. On the other hand, creatures and created bodies are subjected to a First and Last Efficient Cause - which is God, who draws all things of an order, species, and genus to their calculated end, who is the First Principle, and who is also the Unmoved who puts all things into motion as a being in actuality (real) as opposed to created things who are beings in potentiality (accidents - freewill choices).

​I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
​
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission.
 
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.