Tertia Pars
Lecture 105: Christ's Miracles Concerning Men and Creatures

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the father the son the holy spirit amen thank you god thank you guardian angels thank you thomas aquinas dio gracias god our enlightenment guardian angels strengthen the lights of our minds or to illumine our images and arouse us to consider more correctly saint thomas aquinas angelic doctor and help us to understand what you're referring to so we're up to article three here in question 44. to the third one goes forward thus it seems unsuitably that christ did miracles about men for in man the soul is worth more than the body but about the body christ did many miracles but about the soul we don't really need miracles that he did for neither did he convert the unbelieving uh virtually to faith but by admonishing and showing outward miracles nor did he also what read to have made some what fools huh to be wise therefore it just seems that he didn't do it a suitable way right uh miracles about men that's an ingenious argument moreover has been said above christ did miracles by divine power of whom it is proper to operate all at once and perfectly and without the aid of anything but christ did not always suddenly cure men as regards the body for in mark chapter 8 huh it says having taken the hand of the blind right he brought him outside the village and spitting huh is that what the excuse is in his eyes he posed the hands and he asked if he saw something and the man looking said i see men like trees walking then again he imposed his hand upon his eyes and he began to see and it was restored so that he saw all things clearly right that's not the way god operates that we do and thus it is clear that not suddenly did he cure him but first imperfectly and by spit therefore it seems not suitably that he did miracles about men could be more of those things which do not follow upon one another huh it is not necessary that they be taken away what together but the sickness of the body is not always caused from sin as is clear through that which the lord says john chapter 9 either did this man sin nor did his parents sin that he was born blind um it was not necessary therefore and that um the cure of the bodies of men right um he would dismiss them but seeking to cure their body that he would dismiss their sins but it is read about the paralytic that uh especially the healing of the body which is less than the emission of sins does not seem to be a sufficient argument that he is able to what dismiss sins christ seems to say that if i can what cure him his body and i can remit his sins it seems like an improper argument right because he's saying because i can do the lesson i can do the greater i suppose thomas just said a lesser is more known moreover the miracles of christ were made to the confirmation of his teaching and in testimony or witness to his divinity but no one ought to impede the end of his own work therefore it seems unsuitable that christ uh said to those he had miraculously cured that they tell this to no one because the miracle should be made known right uh especially because to some others he commanded that they publish about themselves the miracle is done about themselves for he said that he said to the one who was liberated from the demons go into your house announce what things the lord has done for you but against all this is what is said in mark chapter seven he did all things well he made the what deaf i suppose to speak now now thomas says a short respondio and a long odd one i answer he says it ought to be said that those things which are towards the end for the sake of an end ought to be proportioned to that end but christ came into this world um and taught that he might make you might save men right according to that of john uh three god did not send his son into the world that he judged the world he's not the first time but that the world might be saved through him and therefore it was suitable that christ by curing in particular by curing miraculously uh certain men he would show himself to be the universal and spiritual savior of all now to the first him it should be said that those things which are for the end or towards the end are distinguished from the end itself now the miracles of christ made by christ who ordered as to an end to the salvation of the rational part and then thomas says this consists in two things in the enlightenment of wisdom right and in the justification of what men the justification of the impudence you always see that michael and thomas and then he says interesting enough of which the first presupposes the what second because as is said in wisdom chapter one in a evil willing soul wisdom does not enter nor does it dwell in a body nor does it dwell or will it dwell in a body subject to what sins in the nicomachean ethics when aristotle takes up the moral virtues before the virtues of what reason and thomas says why does he do this and he gives two reasons one is that the moral virtues are more known to us than the virtues of reason and the other is that by the moral virtues one is disposed for the virtues of reason and this is true in the supernatural order too now to justify men is not suitable except to those what willing to be justified for this would be against the what notion of justice which implies or involves the rightness of the what will right and also against the notion of human nature which ought to be led by free will or free judgment to the good not by force but christ christ therefore by his divine power justified inwardly man not however to them unwillingly uninvited okay so he's not going to cure you if you don't invite him to do so nor does this pertain to the miracles but to the end of the miracles likewise by his divine power he poured wisdom into his simple disciples huh whence he says luke 21 i will give to you a mouth and wisdom to which um your adversaries aren't able to resist huh and to contradict huh which as regards this interior enlightenment is not numbered among the visible miracles huh but only as regards the exterior act insofar as they insofar as they insofar as they insofar as they insofar as they So men who were unlettered and simpletons, both wisely and with constancy to speak. Whence it is said, Acts 4, that the Jews, seeing the constancy, the perseverance of Peter and John, wondering, knowing that they were men without letters and idiots. Idiote, my text is a footnote. Idiotes, idos, simplicias, rudes, imperity. Unexperience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Usually I explain the word idiot, you know, in terms of idiots because the Greek word for private, right? Right, huh? Some idiot or madman is a man who lives in his own private world, huh? It's a world. And nevertheless, these spiritual effects, although they are, what, distinguished from the visible miracles, right, huh? They are nevertheless some witnesses or testimonies to the teaching and the power of Christ, huh? According to that of Hebrews 2, right? God went to sing by signs and portents and various powers and distributions of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, about the souls of men, right, huh? Most of all regards the, what, changing of the lower powers? Christ did miracles, huh? Whence Jerome says, upon that of Matthew 9, rising up, he, what, followed him, right, huh? He says, the, what, brightness, huh? And the majesty of his hidden divinity, which also shone in his, what, human face? Seeing, we're able to, what, draw towards him from the first aspect, huh? That's enough. There's a famous painting of that. Who did the famous painting of that? Is it a girl around here? Maybe so, yeah. One more. Oh. That's something I counted there. And upon that of Matthew 21, he cast out all those selling and buying and so on, right, huh? And about this, Jerome says, huh? To me, among all the signs which the Lord did, this seems to me more marvelous, right? That one man, and contemptible in that time, right, huh? Was able, with the blows of one whip or something, to cast out so great a multitude, huh? For a fiery, huh, and star-like, huh, who radiated from his eyes, right, huh? And the majesty of his divinity shined in his, what, face, huh? And origin says upon John that this was a greater miracle than that of water being turned into, what, in that, to that was subsisted or was subject inanimate matter, huh? But here, the geniuses of thousands of men, right, are dominated. And upon that of John 18, now, this is in the garden, right, they fell back and backwards and on their, and fell on the earth, right? Who do you want, you know? The person says, one voice, huh, struck a ferocious crowd, right, a crowd ferocious with hatred and terrible in arms, right, huh? Pushed them back, you know, knocked them down, huh? For God was hidden in the flesh, huh? Without even, without a thread? Without any weapon. Yeah. In John 8, that he hid himself and went out from the temple, where Augustine says he did not hide himself in the corner of the temple, as it were fearful, or between the raft of the wall and the column, but by heavenly power, constituting himself invisible, right, to the ones who were trapped, son? He went out to the middle of them, right? From which, oh, it is clear that Christ, when he wished, by his divine power, changed the souls of men. Not only justifying them and pouring in wisdom, which pertains to the end or purpose of miracles, but also outwardly by attracting them, or stupefying them, right, which pertains to the miracles themselves. Christostom makes a lot of, I think I mentioned somebody recently about, I was looking at a passage when he appears on the shore and that is after the resurrection and they're in the boat, and they didn't recognize him at first, he comments, he likes it, every time Christ was not recognized, whether it was in the garden, on the road to Emmaus, or this place, Christ is only recognized when he wants to recognize him, because he can veil himself, he can veil himself to their eyes. That's what he did in the garden, and he said, Judas, you know what he looked like, went right up to Judas, and he said, oh, do you see him? And he said, and he didn't recognize him, just because it's in his power. Don't we have that same power in heaven? Heavens for ourselves, too? Guess who? I wanted to avoid a guy in my life, you know, now he's here, you know. Go over to your mother and say, guess who? Don't you hide from me now. Now, the second objection, why he used these intermediary things and didn't do it all suddenly and so on. To the second it should be said that Christ came to save the world, not only by his divine power, right, but also through the mystery of his incarnation. How do you translate incarnation into English? In blessing, I don't know how you say it. Yeah, but how you make a word out of incarnation in the native fleshment. Does it mean actually fleshment or something like that? And therefore, frequently in the healing of the sick, that only did he use his divine power, right? Curing them by way of command, right? But also by using or placing forward something pertaining to his human nature. Whence upon that of Luke chapter 4, placing upon each of them his hands, right, he cured them. Cyril says, right, huh? Although as God, huh, he was able to push away all sicknesses, right, by his word. Nevertheless, nevertheless, he touched them, right, huh? Showing that his own flesh was efficacious to give remedies, huh? It's like a tool of his divinity as you see elsewhere. And upon that of Mark 8, spitting on the eyes, huh? He pulls the hands, he puts the stem, the spit, and the hands he placed upon the blind, wishing to show that his, what, divine word, huh? Joined to operation. Work marvels, huh? For the hand is showing of the operation, and the spit of the sermon proceeds from the, what? The spit of the word. What comes to the mouth, the word, huh? The speech. I told you the first time I went into Father Goulet's class, and I thought I'd sit in the very front row, you know, to get his French. Nobody else is sitting in the front row, they're all back like that. I wanted to get to, you know, really, constantly understand his French, you know, and he's talking so fast, you know, because he, he kind of showered at me, he went on, you know. Is that painted line? I can see where it's. Yeah. So anybody else can understand this here, this text here. And upon that of John 9, he made what? Clay, I guess, from spit, and he lined the clay in the eyes of the blind one, right? And he says, he made clay from his own what? Sliver. Because the word was made what? Fletch. Or also to signify that he who was from the blind. What? It was he who formed the man. From the man, yeah. As Christendom says. That's a very subtle thing. That's right here. That's right where it goes. One should also consider about the miracles of Christ that, in general, he did what? The most perfect works, right? Right? Whence upon that of John 2, every man puts forth the good wine, right? Christendom says. Such were the miracles of Christ that much more than those things which came about through nature, they were more beautiful and more useful, right? And likewise, in an instant, he conferred perfect health upon the sick, right? He's going to come to that case in the opposite case, right? Whence upon that of Matthew 8, she got up, I guess, that's the widow, I mean, the mother-in-law, and served them, right, huh? Not a woman that's having us like that. She's all right. She said, she told her, sit down and we'll serve you, you know, but no, she got up and she waited on them. I don't know. I don't know what it is to have about Christ here. You know, the health which is conferred by the Lord all at once, right, rendered him, right? Perfect health, huh? But nevertheless, especially in that blind person that we had in the text in objection, the contrary was an account of his unfaithfulness, huh? As Christendom says, huh? That's interesting, huh? Or as Bede says, huh, who by one word was able to, what, cure him entirely, cured him bit by bit, huh? That he might show the magnitude of his human, what, blindness, huh? Which hardly, and as it were, through various steps, returns to the, what, light, huh? And he might show his grace to us, right, through which he aids the, what, singular steps of, what, perfection, huh? It's like I go through the darkness of the soul, right? You know, the other guy who says, you know, I believe, but help my unbelief, you know, so he might want to indicate that there are steps that he will need us. And also in this passage, he took him outside the village first, and then after he cured him, he told him not to go back. And that was the God's way, Christ couldn't work miracles, but he couldn't believe. So that was a sort of a sign. Yeah, yeah. How dark it was. Yeah. So I guess Thomas thinks you can't know Christ too much, I guess, huh? Yeah. Okay, this is about, you know, curing the soul with the body, and it's not connected in some ways. And to the third should be said, it has been said above, Christ did miracles by his divine power, but perfect are the works of God, as is said in Deuteronomy chapter 32. But something is not perfect if it does not, what, reach its end, huh? And that's the third sense of perfect that Aristotle gives in the fifth book of wisdom, huh? He takes up the word perfect, huh? And the first meaning he gives of perfect is, what is complete has all its parts, huh? And so if you're missing an arm or a leg, then you are incomplete, not perfect. And some page is listed for your book. The book is imperfect, right? And the second sense of perfect is, what has the whole power of its kind, huh? So we say Homer is the perfect poet, because he taught all the Greeks how to make a good plot, and his characters excelled out of other dramatists, as Kierkegaard, I mean, Hegel points out very well. And his language, right, is quite depraised. Now, here's the whole power of the, you know, or Mozart is a perfect musician, right? And they say Beethoven, you know, that it's not really good to sing that last ninth symphony, you know. He doesn't understand the human voice the way Mozart does, right? But Mozart, you don't realize how beautiful the human voice can be until you hear them being sung the way it should be sung, you know. I mean, for Mozart, it's every instrument and so on, huh? Well, like Chopin says, Mozart's got everything in his head, right? All I've got is a piano. So he's an imperfect, he's an imperfect, what, musician? That's all he's got in his head, right? But Mozart's got everything in his head, right? And so he's the perfect one. In the third sense, he is the perfect, is what is reached its, what? In, that's kind of a culminating thing. When he gets to see the Father, he says, then I'll be a real king. That's the best one I'll achieve. What are those things for the perfect? Then the fifth book of wisdom, the metaphysics there, which is the book devoted to all these words equivocal by reason. They're used in wisdom and in the axioms. And right after that, Aristotle distinguishes the sense in which creatures are perfect and the sense in which God is perfect. You know, God should be universally perfect. Interesting, because Thomas, you know, he always saw this, right? When Aristotle's doing it, right? And then Thomas, you know, confirms that too, right? He's studying the text. To the perfection of all genius are found in God in a simple way, huh? Of course, the skeptics would say, God is too good to be true. That's kind of a good example of likelihood, right? In human affairs, it's using rhetoric, right? You know, you describe something that's too good to be true. I've heard it all my life, you know. You know, I get through the third part of the third book of the Sumacan Gentiles, where it shows that in seeing God as he is, all of our desires will be satisfied, right? Satyate just plain, as he says in the communion prayer. It's too good to be true. Now, this famous novel by Thackeray, you know, when he and Dickens were in competition, you know, and they were trying to accept the guy. So he wrote the famous novel called Vanity Fair, right? But kind of at the last page or so of the novel, you know, at the end, he says, For who in this world ever gets what he wants, he says, or having gotten it, it's satisfied. Until he said, you know, huh? Because the novel is all the name, Vanity Fair, you know, it's... The chief demonstration of the immortality of the soul is that you can't get enough of the good thing. If God is infinitely good, well, we're going to have to be more and more joy. Yeah. Okay, so something in the third objection here, or reply. Something is not perfect if it has not reached its what? End. But the end of outward curing, made to Christ, is the curing of the soul, right? That's the ultimate thing. And therefore, it does not befit Christ that he cure the body of someone, right? Unless he also, what, cures the soul. Whence upon that of John 7, the whole man he made, what, healthy on the Sabbath, right? Augustine. Because he is cured, that he might be, what, healthy in the body, and believe that he might be healthy in the, what, soul. But in a special way to the paralytic, it is said, your sins are, what, dismissed you, huh? Because, as Jerome says upon Matthew, huh? That he's given from this, right, to us to be understood, on account of, what, many sins, huh? That comes about debilities of the, what, body, huh? Yeah, I was just reading there, where is it? You're talking about Thailand and the Philippines, right? I guess the Philippines discouraged condoms. And that sort of stuff, right, where Tyler just throw him at the people, right? Yeah. So, talking about the incidence of HIV, you know, it's like in the Philippines, it's one in 22,000. And in Thailand, it's one in 90. Now you know. Wow. So it shows you the difference, right? It's just incredible, those things. The wisdom and the soul. Yeah. Those investigations. So, I mean, that's kind of an illustration of procter peccata plera, right? I venere corporum debilitates. And therefore, perhaps first are dismissed the sins, right? That the causes of the debility taken away, hell, might be restored. Once in John 5, it is said, no longer sin, right? That something worse happened to you, right? Where, as Christensen said, we learn that from sin is apt to arise, what? Sickness, huh? Although, as Christensen says upon Matthew, the more the soul is worth in the body, right, huh? So greater is it to dismiss sin than to, what? Heal the body, right, huh? Because, nevertheless, that is not manifest, right, to the senses, he makes less, what is more, what? Manifest. He might demonstrate the greater and not manifest, yeah. Now, in the fourth one, about going forth and announcing these things, sometimes he seems to say yes, sometimes no, right? To the fourth, it ought to be said, that upon that of Matthew 9, see, nay, someone know, right, huh? This is not contrary to what is said, to another, go and announce the glory of God, huh? Those words are significant, huh? He teaches us not to prohibit those things, he teaches us to prohibit those things, which we wish to, that we will be praised for, right? But if I refer to the glory of God, we ought not to prohibit it, but more to enjoin them that it come about, huh? Okay? So that's why he's saying that's significant. Go and announce the glory of God, huh? Didn't say go and announce what a great guy, huh? That's a politician. How great I am. What a great thing that I've done for you. Okay, now the fourth article, right? Whither Christ suitably did miracles about irrational creatures? To the fourth one proceeds thus. It seems unsuitably that Christ did miracles about irrational creatures. For brood animals, there were no more than plants. But Christ did some miracles about plants. As for example, to his word, the fig tree, I guess, was dried up, right? Therefore it seems that Christ ought to have done also miracles about the brood animals. That's if I cured my cat or something, right? Yeah, we've had people pray for their goats and teaching all godly tricks. Moreover, pain is not just the inferred except for guilt, right? But there was no guilt of the fig tree, right? That in it Christ did not find fruit. When it was not the time of fruits, right? Therefore it seems that unsuitably, yeah, kind of, irrational. It's just not fair. Yeah. It's just not fair. Yeah. It's like people, you know, think of the brood of the cat or something. It's kind of an actual thing to do, I suppose. Moreover, air, water are in the middle of the heaven and the earth, right? But Christ did some miracles in the heavens, huh? I could have thought in his death, I guess, huh? Likewise on the earth, when in his passion the earth was moved, right? Therefore it seems also in the air and the water he ought to have done some miracles, right? That he should have divided the sea, as Moses did, right? Or also the river or stopped it like Joshua did, right? And Elias. And that they might come about in the air of thunders, huh? As was done on Mount Sinai when the law was given. And as Elias did, huh? Well, the cloud came in. Yeah. Now these two guys, Elias and Moses, will come back here in the next question. Moreover, miracle works pertain to the work of governing of the world through divine providence. But this work presupposes creation. Unsudely, therefore, it seems that Christ's miracles used creation as when he multiplied the, what? Brears. Therefore, it is not suitably, it seems, that the miracles he did are all irrational creatures. Against all this is the wisdom of God, about which it is said, and wisdom made, that he disposes all things sweetly. Swabite. I answer it should be said, as has been said above, The miracles of Christ are ordered to this, that the power of his divinity might be known in him for the salvation of men. But it pertains to the power of the divinity, that every creature, omnis, should be subject to him. And therefore, in every genus of creatures, it is necessary, for him to do miracles. And not only in men, but also in irrational creatures, to show that the whole is subject to him. Now what about the boots, though? Well, we're boots enough, you know. Well, that's fun in Hamlet there, fun, the Brutus killing Caesar, you know, who's a brute part of him, you know, that's kind of a, you know, with Hamlet and Polonius, huh? To the first therefore, it should be said that the brute animals, Popinquai, right? Nearly, right? The approach for reality. According to their genus, to men, right? Whence in the same day, they were made with, what? Men. And because about the human bodies, many miracles he did, it was not necessary that about the bodies of the brute animals, he would to do some, what? Miracles, huh? Like carrying my calves, I said. Especially because as regards the, what? Sensible, sensing nature, right? The body of nature. There is the same reason about men and the animals, and especially about the, what? Terrestrial ones, huh? The fish, however, huh? Who live in the water. More differ from the nature of men, huh? Whence, on a different day, they were made, huh? In which the miracle of Christ was in the copious capture fish, huh? This is read Luke 5 in John 21, huh? And also in the fish, which Peter opened, and in it found the coin, right? For that tribute. Yeah. But however, that the pigs were precipitated into the sea was not an operation of the divine miracle, but an operation of the demons from divine permission, right? That's why the medic says, so feed fish and fowl, four-footed beasts, because they're in the same part of the nature. Who says this? Say better. So meat, when they say better, traditionally, and the word monks abstain from meat, it means four-footed beasts. It doesn't mean fish and fowl. Mm-hmm. It means four-footed beasts. Now, the second objection here, right? Where is the guilt there, right? To the second, it should be said that as Christendom says upon Matthew, when in plants or brutes the Lord does something like this, right? Do not seek in what way justly was dried up, if its time was not. For to ask this is the ultimate madness, demencia. Because in such is found neither guilt nor punishment, huh? So he wasn't punishing the tree, nor is the tree guilty, right? But look upon the miracle and admire the doer of the miracle, right? Nor did the creature do some injury to the, what? The one pony. Yeah. If the creature, if he uses the creature by his judgment for the salvation of others, right? Because that's what they're for there. But more, as Hillary says upon Matthew, in this we find the, an argument of the divine goodness, huh? For where, um, is he able to, what? You know, bow it, I guess? Offer, right? To bring to, I guess? For where he wished to afford it. Example, per se, of salvation, right? He exercised his power in human bodies, right, huh? When, in the contumacious, right, he wanted to constitute the form of his severity, right, huh? He indicated, uh, the future punishment, I suppose, right, huh? By the tree, huh? So it's, symbolizes this, right, huh? And especially, as Christen says, in the fig tree, which is most moist, right, huh? And that the miracle might more appear of being dried up, huh? Yeah, it's the most sap. Well, it's like they say, you know, they, you know, they, when he, when he calves the wheat into the barn, you know, in the other part of the chaffey, he burns it up, yeah. Now, the third objection was about water and air, and he said, well, he did do miracles in the water and the air. To the third, it should be said that Christ, also in water and in the air, did miracles which were, what? Suitable to him, huh? When, as is read in Matthew 8, he commanded to the winds and to the sea, and there was made a great, what? Tranquility, huh? Nor was it appropriate to the one who came to, what? Call back all things to the state of peace and tranquility, that either the disturbance of the air or the division of waters he would make, huh? Once the apostle says, um, he did not, what? You do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not, you do not. The heat and the wind. But concerning undergoing, he did divide the, what, the veil on, to showing the mysteries of the law. And the monuments are opened to showing through his death that he gave life to the dead. And the earth was moved and the rocks broken to showing that the stony hearts of men were softened through his passion. And that the whole world, by virtue of his passion, was to be changed to the better. Now, to the fourth, it should be said that the multiplication of breads was not made by way of creation, but by the addition of extraneous matter converted or changed into the bread. Whence Augustine says upon John, Whence he multiplied from a few grain, but then in his hands he multiplied the five loaves, huh? Oh, it's like, in nature, a few grains. Yeah, a few plants, yeah. Especially those broccoli plants, yeah. Amazingly, but in the end of the season, you know, growing season, I had this big, you know, hardy plant, huh? Planted some beans and some broccoli. Broccoli's come up already, you know, but I don't see the beans yet. I don't know what to do in their way for a month or so, but... Okay, let's start to look at question 45 before we take our break. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.