It can be easy to think of St. Thomas Aquinas
as a disembodied brain.
It's so rare for him to break the fourth wall that we forget he had a real life which informed
the philosophy and theology he produced.
But lest we forget, in addition to being a brilliant scholar, St. Thomas Aquinas was
also a priest and a religious and there were few things he so enjoyed explaining as the
life he embraced.
In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas's discussion of religious life occurs in his treatment
of special moral theology.
When dividing the Secunda Secundae, St. Thomas distinguishes between the aspects of the moral
life that pertained to all and those that pertain to some.
The former category encompasses the theological and cardinal virtues, the vices opposed to
each, the attendant gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the pertinent precepts.
These considerations can be applied concretely to everyone.
Not so though for the latter category, which includes the charismatic or gratuitous graces,
diversity of lives, whether active or contemplative, and the states of perfection, namely religious
life and the episcopacy.
In this video, we'll take a look at diversities
of life and states of perfection.
Specifically, we'll consider the religious life that St. Thomas worked so hard to defend
and promote.
The treatise on diversity of lives takes up the distinction between the contemplative
and the active life.
All we know are called to live a fully human life, but some do so in a contemplative way
and some in an active way, and St. Thomas teaches that each human person can be classed
accordingly by what way predominates.
The contemplative life is characterized by one's exercise of the speculative intellect.
It is inspired by love of knowing and love of the thing known.
In a theological setting, we can say that charity inspires the contemplative to know
God and to delight in knowing him.
In the contemplative life, one ascends from a contemplation of divine effects to the very
contemplation of divine truth.
The ascent brings about a gradual likening
of the soul to the God whom one beholds.
And the end the contemplative awaits is itself contemplative for God is a contemplative in
fullest purity and perfection.
And so the contemplative begins on earth the life to be pursued in heaven with God.
The active life is taken up with the exercise of the practical intellect according as it
orders and rules daily affairs.
Here the focus is on the moral virtues, especially on prudence as one seeks to be of loving service
to his fellow man.
In a theological setting, we can say that charity inspires the active person to seek
and love God in his neighbor to whom he extends mercy.
Given the great and visible charity we see
in saints living a heroic active life, I think most would maintain that the active life is
better than the contemplative life.
Is not the selfless service of a missionary to be preferred to the cloistered isolation
of the nun?
But St. Thomas argues contrary to what we might expect.
St. Thomas consistently contends for the preeminence of the contemplative life.
The contemplative life is to be preferred for a variety of reasons.
The contemplative life trains man's highest power, intellect, on its highest object, the
eternal things of God, whereas the active life is taken up with things that are more
this worldly.
The contemplative life can be more continuous and recollected, whereas the active life requires
more for its maintenance and is often interrupted.
What is more, the contemplative life is loved for its own sake, is known to give greater
joy, and is more heavenly.
As St. Augustine writes, "The burden of necessity shall at length be taken from thee whereas
the sweetness of truth is eternal."
Now, this being said, there are certain circumstances
in which the active life is to be preferred since it is better in attending to the needs
of the present.
St. Thomas goes on to talk about states of perfection.
State comes from the Latin "status", which signifies a standing in place.
The idea is that a state imparts a firmness of the will or permanent service of some sort.
A state named some ecclesial position with vows or orders made with solemnity that reflect
in this life the fixity of heaven to which we aspire.
States of perfection, as St. Thomas describes them, have a special relationship to charity
for charity is just the substance of Christian perfection.
While no one can be perfectly perfect in this life, the religious state binds one to the
perfect pursuit of charity through divine service in a life shaped by the virtue of religion.
The evangelical councils of poverty, chastity,
and obedience to which religious bind themselves are in a specially focused way of living the
precepts of the new law.
All we know are called to love God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and
their neighbor as themselves.
But the one who adopts the council's aims to do so with a peculiar intensity.
The Lord himself models the councils and invites his disciples to live them in turn.
We see this invitation accepted by the apostles and rejected by the rich young man.
But the Lord's invitation does not cease with His death, but rather resonates through the centuries.
The vows we said equip the religious with perfect means for the attainment of charity.
We're not saying that a religious qua religious is therefore more charitable than married persons.
We are saying though that in the ordinary course a life shaped by the vows is more conducive
to perfection than otherwise.
You can think of this in terms of heaven.
Religious life tries to create a culture in which heaven touches earth.
Religious life approximates the contemplative worship of beatitude and sets aside those
things which undermine or distract from it.
In heaven, you will worship the most high God in the communion of saints.
You will not file taxes.
St. Thomas describes how the vows themselves are perfectly tailored towards this end.
First, they cool concupiscence by healing the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh,
and the pride of life.
Second, they curb solicitude for secondary goods by setting aside possessions, family,
and self rule.
Third, the vows themselves are an act of worship since they offer the whole person, possessions,
body, and soul.
When explaining this, St. Thomas takes an image from St. Gregory the Great.
A little background to appreciate the point.
Recall that in the old covenant, priests offered
sacrifices and oblations of various kinds.
In most cases, part of the host would be given to God, part to the priest, and part to the
offer himself.
The exception was the whole burnt offering or Holocaust offering.
In this offering the entire host was consumed on the altar, ascending to God as a pleasing fragrance.
St. Gregory, commenting on this whole burnt offering writes, "When a man vows all that
he has, all that he lives, and all that he understands to God, it is a Holocaust."
The genius of religious vows is that it is a Holocaust, a declaration that God, the Creator
and End of all is worthy of one's whole heart, a sacrifice solemnly effected by a devout
self offering.
And so, whether a religious devotes himself
to service of the poor or to preaching the mysteries of the faith, this is the heart
of the religious vocation, the offering of oneself to God and the pursuit of perfect
charity, such as in the life of the religious, the concrete shape of the universal vocation
of each human heart to further the glory of God and to secure the salvation of souls.
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