Scholastica commentaria in Primam Partem Summae Theologicae

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE.

Conclusion is negative. The reason is: An act is proportioned to that whose act it is; but the power of sight is the form of a bodily organ: therefore its action cannot extend to incorporeal things.

COMMENTARY.

THIS article is clear. See St. Augustine, in Epist. 111 and 112; and note that St. Thomas could have assigned a special reason on the part of the object of bodily sight, under which the Divine Essence is in no way contained. But he wished to assign a more universal reason, by which he would show that no sense can be raised to seeing God. But, against the reason of St. Thomas it is argued first. The rational soul is the act of the body, and yet it can be raised to the vision of God: therefore action need not be so proportioned to that whose act it is that, if the latter be the act of the body, the action is about body. Second. The fire of hell acts really upon demons by tormenting them, though they are incorporeal: therefore at least by the power of God bodily sight can be raised to seeing the Divine essence. To the first it is answered that the soul is the act of the body in such a way that it has to-be independently of the body, as do its operations also; but St. Thomas speaks of the act of the body which by its nature depends on the body. Hence consequently in the operation, which cannot extend to incorporeal things, just as the subject whose power it is depends on the body. To the second it is answered that the fire of hell can instrumentally be raised to a transeunt action upon a spirit, by the power of the principal agent, who is God: but in immanent and vital actions, the proximate agent, in which the power of operating must be, is the principal agent, which operates insofar as it is in act through its own form. For this is intrinsically included in the definition of vital action. Hence in no way can the soul be raised to the vital action of seeing God with bodily eyes, in the character of an instrument, since this exceeds the proportion of its power; but the account is not the same for transeunt actions: some substance can be assumed by way of instrument and raised beyond its own force and power to the effect of the principal agent.