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Whether God Is Good?
The preeminence of the good ultimately belongs to God, who is the First and the Last – the efficient cause that brings all things to an end, according to God’s essence who imposes Species, Mode, and Order on all things put forth into being. For what something does, is according to its likeness and is desirable to the creature who carries out the action. Goodness and perfection are sought out in the created thing according to its likeness and this is what we recognize as a pursuit to know God and draw closer to Him. All things that are in “being” put their calculated end to God whether they fully realize it or not. Some find this goodness of knowledge in pursuits that lead to goodness, and the knowledge of Him without ever encountering the gospel – thus indicating a higher intelligence bringing forth a calculated end in the being who shouldn’t know Him, but does anyway, despite the odds and circumstances that prevent knowledge of a higher truth. Whether God is the Supreme Good? God is the supreme good in a simple fashion in the way all things that are good flow from Him as the first efficient cause, as explained previously. Just as something cold may come from a drink, which one can call “cold,” so there exists a better “cold” in the form of air conditioning. Even then, a more perfect and good cold exists beyond a drink and central air, and that can be found in ice. So, it is the same for God, who is the supreme good in every way, even though there is goodness in other created things to which He alone is the source. Whether to Be Essentially Good Belongs to God Alone? The perfection of all things is found in God essentially. The perfection found in something else is good by participation or accidental, in that the thing demonstrating the perfection is demonstrating what comes from God. God alone is goodness to which everything in existence finds its end or fulfillment. For example, when a man rides a horse, the horse will demonstrate speed by using its legs to go forward. In the same way, the horse is demonstrating utility by also providing transportation for the man, who is the rider. The goodness of speed and the usefulness of transportation is being demonstrated on the horse by participation. However, the goodness of speed and usefulness in the horse is just an example of what usefulness in transportation and speed can do when confined to this one event with its circumstances. Surely, the speed of a meteorite is faster than a horse but cannot be a means of transportation for the man. In the same way, the speed we recognize in the meteorite and the horse is called “participation,” and is good; good in the way it was meant to be good according to its likeness, and to which the speed is perceived. A more perfect speed that can equate and surpass both the horse and the meteorite from above and below can essentially be found in God, who proportions the goodness of speed to the meteorite and horse in such a way the created things can carry out the function of demonstrating speed. Whether All Things Are Good By the Divine Goodness? All things that are in being are good, for they were made good by The One to which all goodness flows from. This is the Divine Goodness. However, there is also goodness in the sense that something has being, so that something is good to the point it was made in such a way – imitating the principle of divine goodness according to its likeness. Even pagan philosophers of early Europe acknowledged through their many writings a goodness rooted in a divinity to which they were unaware of, because it has not been revealed to them. Nonetheless, by natural knowledge of a higher principle and source to which all mankind possesses, even to the remotest regions of the world, the innate knowledge of the Living God exists, along with His effects, attributes, and characteristics associated with goodness according to the likeness of the thing in being.
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.
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mr. scott lowry, op
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