Commentaria in Primam Partem Summae Theologiae

A clear title. – Three things in the body. First, the responsive conclusion is proposed to the question affirmatively, namely: Those who see God, one will see more perfectly than another. Second, a false cause of this is excluded. Third, it is proved from a true cause.

II. As to the second point, note that the same object being seen better by one than by another can arise from two causes. First, because it is seen by one through a clearer species than by another: as we experience that we see better through a species in air than through one in water, and likewise through better spectacles. Second, it can also arise from a keener vision. – It is evident. For, given the identity of the visible object together with an equality of the species and of the visual power, it is impossible to imagine whence a better vision would come: for distance and medium, etc., all pertain to the quality of the species. – The text therefore sufficiently excludes the first cause, from the fact that that vision is not to occur through a species: but it embraces the second.

III. As to the third point, the conclusion is proved as follows. Among those who see God, one has greater charity than another: therefore greater desire: therefore he is more apt and prepared for the reception of God: therefore he has a greater light of glory: therefore a greater capacity for seeing God: therefore he will see God more perfectly than another. – The antecedent is supposed. The first consequence is evident from the terms, as are the second and third. For charity itself is the desire for God; but desire clearly involves a great preparation for the embrace of what is desired. That the light of glory is nothing other than a disposition for the reception of God has already been said¹; and therefore it must correspond to the quantity of desire, as disposition corresponds to aptitude and preparation. The fourth consequence is proved: because it is not the light of nature, but the light of glory, that establishes the intellect in a certain deiformity; for from the fact that we become partakers of the divine nature we are able to see God himself. The last is evident.