Prima Secundae
Lecture 227: Venial Sin: Stain, Wood/Hay/Straw, and Innocence

Transcript
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Okay, let's look at question 89 here, right? With your venial sin, okay, then we're not to consider about venial sin by itself, right? It's a quindam say. And about this six things are asked. First, whether venial sin causes a stain in the soul, right? It's interesting he should add. Secondly, about the distinction of venial sin insofar as it is figured through wood, hay, and straw. Anybody else have a different translation of that? Okay, straw. What Thomas say about his theology, it's all straw. Third, whether man in the state of innocence would be able to sin, what? Yeah. And whether the angel, the good angel, or the bad angel, is able to sin venially. Five, whether the first motions of the faithless are venial sins. Six, whether venial sin can be in someone together with only what? Interesting. Are you right with these six questions? I don't know. Okay, so the first one. To the first end, one goes forward thus. It seems that venial sin causes a stain in the soul. Oh good, he's going to take the opposite side. He always gives it away. So, Augustine says in the book about penance, that venial sins, if they are multiplied, take away the beauty of the soul, right? Or our beauty, that they separate us from the embraces of the celestial spouse, but nothing other is a stain than a, what? Lessening, the detriment of beauty, right? Therefore, venial sins cause a stain in the soul. That convinces me. It's nitwit here, or dimwit, excuse me. That's not, that's not, no false pride here. A dimwit, I'm not a nitwit. Okay, moreover, mortal sin causes a stain in the soul on account of the disorder of the act and the affections of the one sinning. I see, mortal sin, yeah, causes that. That's what I see. Okay, but in the venial sin, there is a certain disorder of the act and the affections. Therefore, venial sin causes a stain in the soul, right? That's the importance of order and disorder here in all this. Moreover, the stain of the soul is caused from the contact or touching of a, what? Temporal thing through love. From a attachment. Between an attachment to the sink or something, or the icebox or something, you know. But in venial sin, the soul, by a disordered love, touches a temporal thing. And therefore, venial sin brings in a stain in the soul. The matter is settled now, right? But now, against this is what is said in Ephesians chapter 5. That I might exhibit, huh? Myself, right? To him, glory. Yeah, to him, the glorious church not having a, what? Stain. And the gloss says that is some sin, criminal sin, right? It seems to imply mortal sin, right? Does it come from a criminal? Criminal. C-R-I-M-E-N. Criminal? Yeah, what is that etymology that might be interesting to see? A sin or a crime. Yeah. There's a certain kind of a sin that's called a crime. Yeah. I'm not sure. People say, it's not a crime. They say, in defending themselves. Therefore, it seems to be proper to a mortal sin to cause a stain in the soul, right? We see the importance now. The distinction is coming up now. In order to grasp what something is, right? You know, why can't you grasp the center of the desk here, huh? Yeah, because you can't separate it from the rest of the table, right? So, when the mind to grasp something, what they call simple apprehension, simple grasping, it's got to separate the thing you grasp from, what? Everything else, right? So, when I was meeting Thomas this morning, he was going through Augustine's definition of to believe, right, huh? He had to show not only that it brings out what it is, right, but that it separates it from every other, what? Act, right, huh? Now, of course, there was the lesser thinkers there who said, well, how can you separate something from everything else? That's an infinite task, right? Because how many other things are there? Yes, how can you separate something from an infinity of things? Therefore, you can never really grasp anything, right? How can you do that? Well, I'll take a hint here from my friend, Albert the Great, Albertus Magnus. He says, in logic, the first thing to be considered is the universal. How many things can a universal be set of? Take number, for example. How many things is number set of? Yeah. So if I say something is not a number, I separate it from what? Yeah. And I'm pretty smart, and I figured out that no even number is an odd number, and no odd number is a what? Yeah. Now, how many have I separated from how many? Now, how the hell did I do that? Yeah, yeah, because I had something odd number, which is a set of an infinity of things, right? An even number, which is a set of an infinity of things, right? And I see an opposition between the two, right? Because the one is divisible into two equal parts, and the other is what? Not. So they can't be the same, right? So I'm altogether sure. I mean, even this Tim would assure that, that no even number is an odd number. So by means of universal, you can separate it from what? So Thomas separates, you know, to believe, in Augustine's definition there, right, from every state of the mind, which is one of doubt, right? Because there's an assent here, right, a firm adherence to one side of a, what, contradiction, right? And that separates it also from the, what? The probable opinion, right, huh? Okay. But it also separates, he says, from the first act of the mind, which is understand what something is, right? But the second act of the mind is where you put together or divide these things that you understood by the first. act right and make a affirmation or negation and you have something either true or false right so it separates it from that act too right and then what about the act of reasoned out understanding well there the discourse leads to the what understanding right and then we come to halt or stop right create to a sound okay that's in the greek word etymology of episteme right coming to a halt or stop right there but in the act of faith you don't say that it's a what ascent because you thought about it right until you were convinced of it right but it says we're kind of equally right the mind is both right so you see how you're separating it from everything else right okay what's a square right well it's an equilateral and right angled quadrilateral right so you use these universals they can separate it from everything else so the answer should be said that is clear from the things four said that macula that's a latin word and stein i guess is the way we translate it right implies a what a loss determinant of what's yeah brilliance we had the idea of light in there too you know of shininess right yeah from some contact right how nice this is borrowed from material things which the word right as is clearing corporeal things from which by a certain likeness right the name of stain is transferred to the what soul right now i get this spot of grease on my clothes when i when i cook you know or something you know and why don't you put something you know on ah it's a woman puts on a many men cooking out putting on yeah but i got a stain now see you know it doesn't look right you know okay now just as in the body there is a two-fold what brightness huh one from the inward or intrinsic disposition of the members and their what color another coming upon it from exterior what brightness yeah so also in the soul there is a two-fold what brightness one habitual as it were inward or intrinsic another actual as it were an exterior what brightness huh that's a strange distinction right huh what it seems to be what valid right huh now venial sin impedes the what actual brightness huh but not however the what habitual right because it does not exclude nor does it diminish the habit of charity and the other what for choosing but it only impedes their what what but a stain implies something remaining in the thing what stained and it's very hard to get that out i've been told that oil stain on my shirt okay whence it more seems to pertain to an habitual what lessening of brightness than the actual one whence properly speaking venial sin does not cause a stain in the soul and if anywhere it is said to bring in the stain right this would be what yeah kind of qualified sense insofar as it impedes the brightness which is from the acts of the virtues right huh so you see the distinction that thomas sees somewhat yeah okay the next time you read it you'll see a little bit more and a little bit more yeah well teacher kassaric i mean that deconic would say you know now if you think you've understood everything you read this is a sign you've understood nothing if you understood you'd see you know see not fully grasping this right the first therefore it should be said that augustine speaks in that case in which many what venial sins dispose huh dispositively lead into the mortal huh otherwise it would not it would not separate one from the embrace of the celestial spouse it's interesting you know because i i used to always kind of use that thing and say that um the union of our soul with god is more intimate than the union of husband and wife right which is only on the surface of things right when they beat a vision god himself is joined to our mind right uh our mind is joined to him as that by which we see him as he is so we have to be all together what pure right to be joined to him but he used that expression of the celestial spouse right to the second it should be said that the disorder of the act in the mortal sin corrupts the habit of what virtue not over in what venial center that's very important to see that distinction to the third it should be said that in mortal sin the soul by love right touches a temporal thing as a what in it and by this it wholly in peace the flowing end of the splendor of grace that's interesting thing yeah let's say that the cyclical of john yeah yeah here's the splendor of grace right that's very well said huh you were darkness once now you're a light in the lord which comes in those who adhere to god as the last end through what charity but in vinilson man does not adhere to the creature as to his last what and once it is not what similar right i made a collection one time of those texts i don't know if i showed you those from plato and aristotle and so on about the importance of the beginning right and uh that's something you really got from deconic and especially dion you know you know that's the beginning you know i mean he's also clearly the perfection of that right huh you know when you give up that huh and of course you always aristotle's always making a comparison you know in practical matters of the end to the beginning right so when you give up the end of merit like i was saying earlier then you know you're giving up everything in a sense it's what you've done with mortal sin right giving up the end to to god as your last end right at least we got Unstained here, right? You're temporarily not glowing, right? As you could have venial sin. The second one goes for it thus. It seems that unsuitably, venial sins are designated by wood, hay, and straw. I hope he's not going to say which venial sins are H. This would be too much of me for us to take out. For wood, hay, and straw are said to be built upon the spiritual, what? Foundation, right? But venial sins are apart from the spiritual building, just as any false opinions are aside from, what? Knowledge. And therefore, venial sins are not suitably designated by wood, hay, and straw. It's a word in English, stipulate. Does that come from straw, stipulate? The Latin means stipulare. It's a stubble. Stipula in Latin means straw. Or it can imply, I think it's a botanist. It's some leafy-like appendage, or an appendage, leaf-like appendage to a leaf. So it's like a little bump or something. Well, that's the last straw. That's the last straw. That's the last straw. Okay. Okay. Moreover, the one who builds, right, wood, hay, and straw, will be thus saved as a word through fire, right? But sometimes the one who commits venial sins will not be saved even through fire, as when venial sins are found in the one who dies, I guess, with mortal sin. Therefore, unsilably, through wood, hay, and straw, venial sins are designated, right? Well, I guess these things have in common, they can be burnt, I guess, huh? In case of morals, since you're burnt. Yeah. Listen. Yeah. Okay. Moreover, according to the apostle, huh? That's the Antoinette Messiah for St. Paul himself, huh? And Thomas follows Augustine, right? That St. Paul, in this life, right, he saw God in the passing way, as he is. You know, if the church has ever formally announced that or not, I don't know. But Thomas follows Augustine, you know. And Moses, too, yeah, yeah. Moses and St. Paul, you know, quite eminent. And witnesses, you know. Sometimes we don't appreciate the prophets enough in the Old Testament, huh? That's it. Past history, right? That's history, as they say. We have many of them on our count. I know, I know. Great. I mean, the feasts of the... Yeah, David, Elijah, Elijah, Moses, John, Joel. It comes from your Near East origins, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we constantly mention the prophets. To the prayers of the patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, apostles. It's kind of the order there. Or apostles, martyrs. You see, we had that part in the day where I talked to them on the prophets. You know, it's very interesting. I was talking to Warren on the phone about it, and he says, how Boulay was so enthusiastic about those ones that I guess Boulay would be up, you know. He had suffered from insomnia anyway. He was always studying. And, but he'd be up the night before, you know, studying that thing on the prophets, right? And he'd come into class, and he had to talk about that, rather than what the topic of the class was, you know. But it was very interesting, very interesting. Of course, Thomas is always interesting anyway. Whoever coined to the apostle, others who build gold, silver, precious stones, that is the love of God, I guess that's gold, huh? And silver of your neighbor, and precious stones, good deeds, huh? And others who build wood, straw, hay and straw. But venial sins are committed even by those who love God and their, what, neighbor, and do good works, huh? For it is said in the first epistle of John, chapter 1, verse 8, if we say that we have not sinned, we seduce ourselves, huh? We call that to the bishop now. Therefore, not suitably do we designate, what, venial sins through these, what, three, huh? Moreover, many more differences in grades are there of venial sins than three. Therefore, unsuitably are they comprehended under threes. Here we get that number three coming up again, huh? Well, it's got to be easy to it. Yeah, yeah. Against this is what the apostle says about the one who builds upon, right? He builds with wood and hay and straw, that he will be saved, huh? Although through fire. And thus he undergoes punishment, but not eternal punishment, huh? Now, the obligation of temporal punishment properly pertains to venial sin, as has been said. Therefore, through those three are signified venial sins, huh? Okay. This is a strange way of notifying venial sins, huh? Wood. Our Lord worked with wood, didn't he? Was it a carpenter? Probably helped. Probably helped around the shop there with Joseph, I would think, huh? I mean, you know, Thomas is saying, you know, that Matthew there, this is the, you know, life of Christ, this human life, you know, being emphasized there. But you have the birth and the visit of the Magi, and then, boom, you jump up to the Sermon on the Mount, right? So you have, you know, almost 30 years there, almost, you know, without any count in Matthew, at least, right? A little bit in Luke, yeah. But some of the Marian orders have that as something important about the hidden life there, you know? I mean, you know, I read, you know, a number of biographies of famous people, you know, and every, you know, year is precious, you know, for the biographer, you know? And you hear his life, you know, what do you know about those intermediary years, right? One of the important reasons it was hidden for all of the Jews is so they wouldn't kill him. They tried to kill him when he was born, and they got to eventually. Yeah. It was so that he could just get rid of it. But one, they were the one that was the only people that threw him off the cliff, yeah. There were many people with leprosy, and no, but this is a foreigner again. Ooh, that made them angry, yeah. The answer, it should be said, that some understand the foundation to be unformed faith. That's faith that's not formed by charity, huh? Upon which some build good works, right? Which are signified by gold, silver, and precious stones, huh? Some mortal sins, right? Which is signified according to them, by wood, hay, and straw. But this exposition is disproven by none other than this guy called Augustine, right? In the book on faith and works. Because as the apostle says to the Galatians chapter 5, who do the works of the flesh will not obtain the kingdom of God, huh? Which is to be saved, huh? To become saved. But the apostle, and that's St. Paul, says that the one who builds wood, hay, and straw will be saved as a word through fire, huh? Whence it cannot be understood by wood, hay, and straw that mortal sins are designated, right? That's a solid guy that I guess, huh? Pulling the war over his eyes. That's a marvelous expression now, pulling the war over somebody's eyes. Some say that the wood, hay, and straw are signified good works, which are built upon the spiritual building, but nevertheless mix up with themselves, I guess, huh? With venial sins, huh? Yeah. Just as when someone has care of the family thing, right, huh? Which is good, huh? He, what mixes in with this, is a superfluous love, huh? Either of his wife, or his sons, or his, what, possessions, right? I have superfluous love of my books, for example. But under God, nevertheless, right, huh? Such that, for these, the man does not wish to do anything against God. Now, burn all the books rather than do something against God, right? But I still like the books. I said, well, Washington Irving has a beautiful thing about, what's his name there in Scotland there, you know, fell into bad times and had to sell his books and so on, and how sad a thing this thing was, you know. He has some poems about his passing, you know, of his books away from him. But this, again, does not seem to be said, what, suitably, right, huh? For it is manifest that all good deeds are referred to the love of God and neighbor, right, huh? Once they pertain to, what? Gold, silver, and precious stones. Therefore, not to wood, hay, and straw. And therefore, it should be said that those venial sins, which are, what? Mixed in among those procuring, what? Dirty things are signified to wood, hay, and straw. For these are brought together in the house and do not pertain to the building of the house. And therefore, they can be burnt with the building remaining. Thus also, venial sins can be multiplied in man with the spiritual building, what? Remaining. That's interesting. Now, you know how they use the spiritual building. Unless the Lord built a house that they were in vain who built it, right? Well, the foundation is faith. And then the walls are what? And then the roof. Yeah, yeah. Too low as you build. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And for these now, going back to the venial sins, right? One suffers, what? Fire. Either of the temporal tribulation in this life, or purgatory afterlife. So you may not have a moral sin. You may just have all the venial sins in the world. And you're going to be... And nevertheless, they achieve eternal, what? Softer now, the ferrophilia nymph, and they are sins. Be all my sins, remember? They'll be the venial sins, right? So you need somebody praying for you, you know? To the first, therefore, it should be said that venial sins are not said to be built upon, right? The spiritual foundation, as it were, directly placed upon it, right? But because they are placed alongside of it, so to speak, right? Just as it's taken that in Psalm 136. Upon the rivers of Babylon, that is... Yeah. Because the venial sins do not destroy the spiritual building, huh? I suppose despair would be what? It would destroy hope, wouldn't it? And despair would be like an immoral sin, wouldn't it? A charity, right? Not a fleeting doubt, but a real, you know? Denial, those things. About the guy there, he took me for the, the, what was it, the price, the 12th there, was it the, um, not the exception, no, the, uh... Assumption. Assumption, yeah. The guy was saying, you know, but they define it as, I'm out, you know. So don't worry about it, you're already out. The second, it should be said, it is not said about just any, right? One building, any way, building, right? Wood, straw, hay and straw, that he will be saved is a word through fire, right? But only about the one who builds upon the foundation, which is not unformed faith, as some estimate, right? But faith formed by, what? Charity, right? According to that of Ephesians 3, rooted and founded in, what? Charity. Yeah. It's got a beautiful texture, because you've got the metaphor, not the word, taken from, what, the natural things, radicate, right? Rooted. And then fundate, kind of things, the buildings, right? From, from art, huh? Now the one who dies with mortal sin and venial sins, right? He has wood, hay and straw, but not built upon the spiritual foundation, right? And therefore he will not be saved as it were through what? Fire. Fire, right? It could just be through fire. Yeah, yeah. now to the third one here to the third it should be said that those who are withdrawn right from the care of temporal things although they sometimes sin what venally nevertheless they commit light venial sins right and frequently through the fervor of charity they are what purged when sons which when such do not build upon venials right because in them little what remain but the venial sins of those who are occupied about earthly things the utzios or lengthy remain because they not so frequently huh are you able to recur to deleting these sins through the fervor of what charity huh the fervor of charity burns away the sins huh busy with the temple things they go back to them and that's what's harder for them to get over now we get to the thing about three this is my favorite text i mean i know thomas this morning he was dividing the the uh predecessors of christ right into three right you know the patriarch you know the thing the first fourteen the second fourteen where they the uh priest or something in the and i don't know the kings excuse me the kings in the last fourteen with it with yeah more of the private after the transmigration yeah to the fourth then it should be said there's a flosser says in the first book on the universe right and then omnia trivus include untour to it beginning middle and end so i told you how i was uh i was uh talking about ostley's you know thing and my brother richard had a copy of that you know reprint of that article from the tomist and uh so i read that when i was in high school you know of course i got down this idea you know beginning middle and end right it's what a plot has to have right and he talked a little bit about about about tragedy and so on but it's about music right so then i was saying what about a mozart piano concerto right it's got three movements right was that one piece of music or is it three pieces of music well unless the three movements formed a beginning middle and end it wouldn't be really one piece would it it'd really be a concert you know where you go to a concert you play three or four different types of music right so obviously it's not three pieces of music it's one piece of music it's the 21st piano concerto or the 23rd piano concerto and so on right so the three movements have to form a beginning middle and end so i started listening to them right and trying to what yeah and trying to see how the the three movements you know form the beginning middle and end right and you get you know i take you know my wife's favorite concerto my brother marcus's favorite concerto by warren marie's favorite concerto one of my favorite ones the 23rd right okay the 23rd is written in a major which is the key of mozart we did something special but the first movement of course is in a major right but in the development there's a little touch of sadness there you know something hidden underneath right in other words and and girdlestone wrote the famous book on the mozart piano concerto says it's like a you know spring day you know where there's you know danger of precipitation you know and the sun is shining but kind of what unconvincing you know it's not going to last right well then in the second movement it comes out in the minor key you know and it's terrible you know sad thing you know and the ladies just go crazy about it you know and uh and uh so that sadness is underlying comes out right and then it's kind of resolved at the end of the second movement right and then the third movement you know begins this bright you know succession of melodies right and like you know opening up the ear and things later and everything you know and uh and then of course later on you get a little touch of that sadness coming back but you know it's not like you're running away from it you're facing it you know and the confidence and so on so you can see how beginning middle and end right so then you see the same thing in the toilet concerto you know something we could really point out right so beginning middle end but actually the text of our style there he's quoting uh pythagoras who talked about this it's pythagoras who said beginning middle and end right and everybody our style is saying this right that's what he's talking about how many dimensions there are right and it's only possible to draw three lines that are all in what right angles to each other right they can't do it's impossible fourth one right and this is kind of a probable argument right but does thomas take this seriously and secundum hoc and according to this right all grades of angel sins are reduced to three to wit to what wood which remains a long time in the fire right the log you know before it runs out to hay which just uh straw citissime expeditor which right away goes like that and then which this straw which is i mean the hay middle oh yeah yeah yeah yeah take the opposite sometimes then you take the middle right okay take mozart's play the tragedies the comedies and then those in the middle right okay and it's kind of beautiful about beginning middle and end when aristotle defines them right um the beginning has two things where it's opposed to the end where the middle has only one thing whereby it's opposed to the beginning and one thing where it's opposed to the end because the beginning he says is before something but not after anything and the end is after something but not before anything so there's two oppositions between them right in the middle is after something and before something so as being after something it's opposed to what the beginning which is not after anything and being before something it's opposed to the end but it's only one end right so it's not as opposed right so the same way the gray you know is opposed to black and white but not as much as black and white are opposed you know it's beautiful to see the way it lines up and i was mentioning how in the in the the psalms right you know in augustine and thomas you know they distinguish three three stages of what of charity right in the beginning in the middle and the end right and in the three groups of the psalms the first 50 are the beginners right and then the second 50 progressing and the third of those resting now in the contemplation of god so i mean it makes a lot of sense right and we had those three uh grade school high school college no no that's not that's that's that's not clear but but youth old age right they have no age something like that See, in the first stage here in the Psalms, you're fighting against your sins, right? Primarily, right? They do that in every stage, but in the first stage, that's infamous, right? To stop sinning and repent, right? And therefore, the 50th Psalm is the one that St. Teresa of Avila liked so much, the Psalm of Penance, right? And then the second 50, you're what? Trying to progress in the virtues, right? Right, and the third one, you're resting in God, huh? So it kind of makes sense, you know, all these things. According then, as venial sins are of more or less adherence or more or less gravity, right, they are, what, more quickly or more slowly purged. So some people have a long time to get them all purged away, right? Purgatory, and some will have a less, and just a little bit, you know? Some in between. So, where are you? That's the question. But we saw that with the three jewels, too, didn't we? That was into three, huh? Now, let's go back to the state of innocence now, huh? Hard to imagine that now, but... 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