Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00 <inaudible> today's call act. That's the prayer right after the Gloria and right before the pistol in today's call act, we begged God to make us partakers of heavenly goods. Now, last week we were speaking of just that being partakers of the divine nature, and this week we're praying for that in a call to the mass and if you notice also we referred to it in a secret and oppose post communion. What was another name for partaker of the divine nature? It's sanctifying grace. Last week we learned six things about sanctifying grades. First off, it's completely above and beyond our nature. It's totally supernatural. Second off, it's necessary to make it possible for us to get to and to live in heaven. Third off, if the free gift of God. Fourth, it's a created share. He God's own life. Fifth, it fills the soul with inexpressible spiritual beauty and sixth, it's absolutely priceless.
Speaker 0 01:15 So we need sanctifying grace. We needed to get to and to live in heaven, but that's not all we need. Grace for Saint Thomas points out that Adam only needed grace for eternal life, but that we need grace for eternal life and we need grace, true mid our sins and we need grace to support our weaknesses. The more clearly we grasp this, the more clearly we'll see exactly what the role of grace is in our life and the more clearly we'll understand what the purpose of the Catholic church is and what we're doing here. So in order to get a very clear understanding of just exactly what we need grace for today, we'll take a quick look at Adam's condition before the fall when he was in the state of original justice. And to do that, we'll follow Saint Thomas Aquinas, but because of time we'll only hit the high points, the state of original justice, the state of original justice was a state which Adam and then later eve were created.
Speaker 0 02:27 Why is it called the state of original justice? Well, it's called original because it starts at the origin of man and you just can't get any more original than that. Kenya, why is it called justice? It's because everything was justly ordered from the beginning. Nature was on phone and orderly and in the state of original justice, so it was Adam and all his gifts. He had incredible gifts. We'll take a brief look at his gifts. The guests of our first guest pertained was Angela. Since Adam was created as an adult and the head of the human race, he had infused knowledge. What does that mean? It means that God poured into Adams intellect. All the natural knowledge at the end, like can know by its own power. What does that mean? It means that Adam was a super, super genius. Doesn't mean that Adam knew everything though.
Speaker 0 03:31 Saint Thomas, both those things which cannot be known by merely human effort and which are not necessary for the direction of human life without known by the first man such as the thoughts of other man, teacher contingent events and some individual facts. As for instance, the number of pebbles in a stream and the light close quotes Saint Thomas. So naturally speaking, Adam knew everything. It's possible to know except for Trivia, bring a rock to him. He could tell you exactly what minerals it was made out of, what they were good for, and how to extract them. Point out a plant to him. He could tell you all the medicinal uses for it, what its nutritional value was and so forth. Why? Because he had this infused knowledge. Now compare that. Just think of all the strain and sweat that scientists go through trying to discover, uncovered some fact about nature.
Speaker 0 04:29 You could just ask Adam. He already knew and he knew without any doubt or error. He didn't have to do an experiment. He was a genius, not by his own effort, but because of his dignity, because of his dignity as head of the human family. He responsible to teach and govern because he was created as an adult and had no time to learn and because he was the first man with no one to teach him, God created him with all this infused knowledge. So Adam had absolutely incredible natural knowledge, but that's not all he knew. Quote, because the life of man is directed to a supernatural goal. The first man was given as much knowledge of the supernatural trues as was necessary for him to obtain heaven. Close quote Saint Thomas. So Adam is a super, super genius with respect to his knowledge about nature. He knew everything it was possible to know with respect to his knowledge about supernatural truth.
Speaker 0 05:36 He knew everything. It was necessary no to get to heaven and to teach his offspring how to get to heaven. But that's not all. There's one more huge intellectual difference between Adam's knowledge and arms between the way father Adam thought and the way we, his damaged to sentence thing because of original gestures. His reason, his and lack had perfect control over all his other powers. So what? Well that means that he couldn't be blinded or misled by his passions. He wasn't forgetful. His imagination wouldn't wander and it couldn't confuse him. There wasn't a single thing they could cause air confusion and Adam's reason, her judgment. I just think about that. We can only imagine it because we're certainly not going to experience that sort of thing. And this slide, think of what it means though. Adam couldn't make mistakes or B to c. So Adam's is super, super genius, loaded down with intellectual gifts, both naturally and supernaturally.
Speaker 0 06:46 He couldn't make an intellectual mistake or even B to c. Now what about gifts of his? Well, first off, what's the will? The will is the intellectual appetite. It's called an appetite because it always desires something good. It's a spiritual power and an Adam, a power of his soul just like us. I wish he could choose a good, how does it work? The intellect presents something to the Willis being good and then the will can choose it. But since it's free, it doesn't have to choose anything in this life. Of course, that's the whole drama of our life, isn't it? Now, unlike us, Adams will have no weakness. It didn't waiver when he will to do something. He really willed it when he will to do something. He gave us full consent to the act with no hesitation. We've already seen how incredibly powerful his intellect was.
Speaker 0 07:43 So we know this inlet could not mistakenly presents something as good that was actually evil. He had to know. Now. Why does that matter? Well, think about the conditions necessary to commit a mortal sin. It has to be a grievous matter committed with sufficient reflection and full consent of the will. Okay, now think about Adam committed to sin. What do you realize? That his act was serious. Remember that his knowledge couldn't be mistaken, so not only would he realize his action was serious, he'd realize exactly and precisely how very serious his action was and so he would necessarily have sufficient reflection so he would know exactly what he was doing. And then as we've seen, when he willed something, when he really willed it, it gave full consent of his will. In other words, if Adam sinned, he would have to sin with malice. He would not send with weakness.
Speaker 0 08:51 Adam's is super, super genius, loaded down with intellectual gifts, both natural and supernatural order. He couldn't make an intellectual mistake or B to c when he willed stamp thing, he gave it. It's unhesitating for consent. The like the angels, he was free and he could sin. You don't need me to tell you that he did his State of grace. Adam soul is failed assigned fine grades, but in addition to that supernatural life, God also gave the state original justice to add them as we've seen. Why did God give him the state of original justice so that he could easily, easily obtain eternal life? St Thomas List three aspects of the state of original justice. First, Adam's body was perfectly subject to his soul. Second, the lower parts of Adam's soul were perfectly subject to right reason. Third, Adams reason was perfectly subject to God. Since body was perfectly subject to soul, Lord powers of his soul, like his passions and emotions were completely obedient to right reason and his reason was completely obedient to God.
Speaker 0 10:11 Now all this was due to grace, not nature, otherwise you wouldn't have lost these gifts by the original sin. Sin Doesn't destroy anything that belongs to man by nature and Saint Thomas points out, even the demons kept their natural powers after they sinned. Adam's dominion quote in a state of innocence and man had mastership over the animals by commanding them, but it's mastership or plants and inanimate things consisted in commanding them but in making use of them without hindrance because quote Saint Thomas so the animals would obey him and we see this sometimes reflected in some of the extraordinary things like Saint Anthony. He see that, or St Francis when he was preaching and the birds would obey his body. Of course, we all know that Adam is created as an adult, fit for the generation of children. He's created an absolutely perfect health, free from sickness offering disease and death.
Speaker 0 11:16 He had a series of gifts that preserved and protected his body. The gift of integrity. We've already looked at that. That gave Adam the ability to Perot perfectly governed his body and his passions under the rule of right reason. That's the gift of integrity, the gift of the mortality. As we all know. If Adam hadn't sin, we wouldn't have had the guy. Neither would if he, of course, the gift of impassability, this preserved Adam from all suffering. Saint Thomas points out that Adam was able to avoid harm partly to his own use of reason by which he could naturally anything harmful and partly by divine protection, which God would sell, protecting the no harm would come upon him unexpectedly. That's a really brief look at Adam in a state of original justice. What have we seen? We've seen the first man, Father Adam was this sort of super superman.
Speaker 0 12:16 He was an incredible genius with respect to his knowledge about nature. He knew everything it was possible to know with respect to knowledge and supernatural truth. You knew everything it was necessary to know to get himself to heaven and to teach his offspring how to get to heaven. He couldn't make an intellectual mistake or B to c he had an unbending will so that when he willed something, he gave his decision full consent with absolutely no holding, that his body was perfectly subject to his soul. The lower parts of his soul were perfectly subject his right reason and his reason was perfectly subject to God. He's totally virtuous. Animals obeyed him and he can use plants and minerals with no hindrance. He had perfect hell. He was immoral. He couldn't suffer and except for his infused knowledge, all these gifts and graces were meant to be passed onto his children as long as he didn't sin.
Speaker 0 13:18 Thanks flat at him. Now that's the state of original justice. That's what it was actually like back in the good old days this week. Let's all spend some time thinking about the state original justice and the amazing gifts and graces God pour down upon our father Adam. Actually, we've done that. Then let's think about how far man is fallen and how horrible regional sin really was. We should think about the consequences for all history of one mortal sin. We all need to really soak this in and then we need to really consider what kind of a man God had to send in to the job and repair what Adam had broken. We should think about the statue of the man that God sent to replace. Adam just said, spend some time today in mass here reflecting on who the WHO on who the new Adam is, and thanking God for sending him to save us.
