It’s very easy, and too common, for those who are lax in their faith to think, “I’m good and God is good; therefore, I’ll get to Heaven.” While it might be true that those who are good—meaning, those who are in a state of grace when they die—will get to Heaven, it is also true that we must all journey through the ascending levels of transformation before entering into the presence of the Beatific Vision. Those who do so fully while on earth, achieving Divine Union within the Unitive Way, will immediately see God face-to-face upon their deaths and will receive the gift of the greatest clarity and intensity of God’s essence forever, enjoying Seraphic Glory. Those who die in a state of grace but only achieve the holiness of the Illuminative Way, will need to continue their final purification, but will not be able to ascend to the highest heights of eternal glory. And those still in the Purgative Way will have much purification to endure after death. In the end, once fully purified and illuminated, they, too, will see the Beatific Vision, but not to the same degree as those who were fully purified prior to death.
Theologically speaking, how does a soul move from the Purgative Way to the Illuminative Way, and ultimately to the Unitive Way? A soul’s cooperation with grace produces merit. During our earthly lives, our daily decisions are fundamentally of two kinds. Either we cooperate with God’s grace by saying “Yes” to His will in each of our actions, or we refuse to cooperate with His grace and obey our own will, confused as it is by errors, disordered appetites, and emotions.
This chapter contains challenging theological concepts, but understanding these concepts will help and encourage you to strive for the greatest holiness now. As we did with the angels, we will begin with a general understanding of human nature and then consider how God works on our human nature to perfect it by His grace.
Human Nature in General
What does it mean to be human? This question has intrigued some of the greatest thinkers in cultures throughout time. As humans, we have an innate desire to understand our own essence and place in the Universe. Various disciplines approach this question from different perspectives. Biology and medicine examine the physical make-up of human beings. Psychology delves into the realms of human experiences, emotions, motivations, and tendencies. Modern anthropology offers insights from linguistic, cultural, and archaeological perspectives. Philosophical and theological anthropology explores what human nature is in itself.
Among the great philosophers within our Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas stands out for his integration of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology, providing the language and conceptual framework to distinguish our rationality, body, morality, and eternal destiny. Aquinas’ synthesis not only deepens our understanding of human nature but also unites faith and reason, influencing subsequent philosophical and theological discussions on what it means to be human.
A thorough understanding of Aristotelian philosophy, which has stood the test of time as a proper foundation for understanding human nature, goes far beyond the scope of this book. However, understanding the basics of our human nature as defined by this philosophical system is both intellectually helpful and exceedingly practical. Knowing who we are as humans, why we do what we do, and what influences us, will shed much light on our daily choices, especially as they pertain to morality, contemplation, and union with God.
Saint Thomas teaches that humans are composed of a material body and a spiritual soul. The soul is directly and immediately created by God and united with the body, composed of the pre-existing matter of the woman’s ovum and the man’s sperm. This union of body and soul constitutes our one human nature. Within this union, the soul gives life to the body. While the body depends upon the soul for its life and its existence, the soul’s existence is not contingent upon the body. Because of its spiritual nature, the soul is immortal. After death, the separated soul continues to exist and continues to be ordered to union with its body. The definitive reunion of the body and soul will occur at the resurrection of the dead. With this basic understanding of human nature, let’s now consider how the distinct aspects of our nature work together.
Bodily and Spiritual Aspects of Human Nature
Our human nature has five bodily senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Through these senses, we perceive ourselves and the world around us. According to Aquinas, these sense perceptions or images are first imprinted and stored in our imagination. The sensory value we assign to the things represented by these images (e.g. pleasant, unpleasant, useful, harmful) trigger emotional reactions in our sensible appetites, which Saint Thomas calls the concupiscible and irascible appetites. These sensory values are stored in our memory.
The spiritual aspects or powers of our human nature are our intellect and will. The intellect draws upon the images stored in our imagination so as to understand the nature or essence of things. For example, our five senses put us in daily contact with many human beings with various distinguishing features. From these sensory experiences, we have many different images of individuals stored in our imagination. Despite their differences, each individual is a human being. The intellect draws out or abstracts the one idea of human nature from the many images of individual human beings stored in the imagination. The intellect then stores within itself the very ideas that it forms. From its ideas, the intellect forms judgments. For example, the intellect, grasping the nature of humanity and the nature of mortality, judges that all human beings are mortal. From these judgments, the intellect reasons to new knowledge, such as: Because all human beings are mortal and John is a human being, John therefore is mortal. Finally, through our intellect, we judge certain things to be good and capable of perfecting us. The intellect presents these things to the will. The will is then given the choice of either choosing them or rejecting them.
Why is this important to understand? Because understanding who we are and why we do what we do will help us better orient our lives toward God and be more receptive to God’s grace and the assistance of the angelic ministry. By understanding how our intellect, will, memory, imagination, and emotions work together, we will better understand why we make the choices we make and will be better disposed to God’s grace. Only by God’s grace can we find interior peace and harmony among the many distinct parts of our human nature. Due to concupiscence, we find it difficult to harmonize our intellect, will, memory, imagination, and emotions with God’s will.
For example, your intellect and will rely upon information received through your five senses and stored within your imagination and memory to make decisions. What if that information is flawed? Sometimes our desires, fears, emotions, and passions confuse the intellect and cloud our judgment, leading to poor choices. Our goal must be to have the correct information—divine revelation and every natural truth—and use that knowledge to direct our lives by God’s grace. When grace guides our intellects and wills, they, in turn, govern our sensible appetites, ordering them to the glory of God and the true good of our souls.
With this in mind, let’s consider a very brief and simplified summary of the various and distinct aspects of our one human nature so that we can better understand what influences us, why we do what we do, and how to make sure that it is God Who is directing our lives.
Sensible Appetites: As we perceive and interact with the physical world through our five senses, our sensible appetites lead to emotional reactions. Saint Thomas distinguishes two types of sensible appetites: the concupiscible appetite and the irascible appetite. The concupiscible appetite deals with direct and simple goods, such as pleasure from food or rest. The irascible appetite deals with goods that are obtained through overcoming obstacles, such as achieving victory or facing fears.
Concupiscible appetites are related to, but not the same as, concupiscence. Concupiscence is the traditional word used to describe the disordered tendencies within the appetites by which they are often inclined toward excessive or disordered desires that are contrary to human reason. Since all the appetites are interconnected, concupiscence affects both the concupiscible and irascible appetites.
The concupiscible appetite is a power by which we have a natural emotional response to perceived goods or evils that are easily attained or avoided. The concupiscible appetite evokes natural and moderate emotions—such as love, desire, and joy—when such goods are attained. The concupiscible appetite evokes aversion, hate, and sadness when faced with evil.
For example, when we perceive something as sensibly good, the natural emotion of love is stirred. When the sensible good is possessed, we feel joy. If the sensible good is absent, we desire that good. Conversely, when we perceive something as sensibly bad, the emotion of hate is stirred. If the sensible evil is upon us, we feel sadness. If the sensible evil is not yet present, we want to avert the lurking evil.
Although important, our emotions are not always reliable. For example, pornography has become a plague within human society, and many feel an intense desire to view it because it provides an instant sensory, albeit disordered, satisfaction. When this desire is fed, it grows. As for aversions, when a threat is perceived by the senses, such as a car swerving into your lane, there is an immediate reaction to avoid it. In the spiritual life, fallen human nature is often initially averse to selfless sacrifice or heroic acts of forgiveness and mercy. Only grace can tame disordered desires or override our aversions, transforming them into holy desires.
The irascible appetite functions when the goods are hard to attain or the evils are difficult to avoid, and evokes more complex emotions and passions, such as hope, despair, courage, fear, and anger. These passions motivate actions that require a more substantial effort or confrontation with more considerable risks or hopes.
First, the emotion of hope directs us toward a sensible good that is difficult to obtain. We experience despair when we perceive the sensible good as too difficult to obtain.
Second, courage emotionally directs us to oppose or fight a sensible evil that is difficult to overcome. Fear directs us to flee from a sensible evil that is difficult to overcome. The “fight or flight” response we experience at a physical level corresponds to the emotions of courage and fear at the psychological level.
Finally, anger directs us to remove some sensible evil that has been inflicted upon us. Anger presupposes other emotions. In particular, anger presupposes sadness over the sensible evil we are suffering and the hope of restoring the hard-to-attain good of justice.
For example, imagine a young woman striving to live out the virtue of purity in a world laden with temptations in social media, television, and peer pressure. After several sinful falls, she finds herself despairing, fearful that she will never overcome the habits she has formed. While on retreat, she hears a riveting testimony from someone who has been practicing the virtue of chastity. Inspired with hope, she finds the courage to do the same. Her emotion of anger at her past sins adds further strength.
Our intellect, enlightened by the gift of faith, must guide our emotions so that we become passionate about the things of God and attain them by His grace. For example, when a martyr is arrested, put on trial, and sentenced to death, the disordered emotions might feel extreme aversion and scream to the intellect, “NO!” But if a profound level of faith enables this person to see the infinite value of martyrdom for Christ’s sake, then the intellect and the will immediately override the disordered emotion and say, “Thanks be to God!” At other times, our desires and fears assist us. For example, if we are acutely aware of the danger of mortal sin and are tempted by a grave sin, we might immediately react with horror, because a holy fear of offending God takes hold of us.
Imagination: The imagination receives the images of things perceived through our five bodily senses. In addition to storing these images, it can also manipulate and reorganize them, enabling the formation of new scenarios as material for the intellect to consider. For example, say you have had a difficult relationship and recent arguments with a relative. When going to visit that relative, your imagination allows you to conjure up various potential interactions. Those imagined interactions are then presented to the intellect for a process of reasoning and decision-making about how best to act if conflicts arise again. If fear or anger overpowers your imagination, then the new imagined interactions will negatively affect your decisions. If compassion and mercy interact with your imagination, then greater hope arises.
Memory: As the imagination is the storehouse of the images of things we perceive through our five senses, the memory is the storehouse of the sensory values we perceive in things. Sensory values are the pleasant, unpleasant, useful, or harmful qualities of a thing. For example, through our sense of touch, we perceive the heat of a fire. The fire’s usefulness for cooking food and its pleasantness of warming us in the winter are sensory values that are stored in the memory. The fire’s potential for burning us or causing us to sweat profusely are likewise sensory values stored in the memory. Through our memory, we recall the sensory values we associate with the objects of our sense perception.
The memory also stores our sense experiences as past events. Through our memory, we can make a logical search of the past. For example, when we lose our car keys, we try to remember where they are. If we cannot picture in our imagination where we last saw them, we might recall that we normally put our keys in our pants pocket and that we normally put our dirty clothes in a laundry hamper. This recall can lead us to search for the car keys in the hamper. The intellect can use all memories in the process of human reasoning and decision-making.
Intellect: This is the faculty by which we understand the natures of things and universal truths, make judgments, engage in a reasoning process, and deduce other truths. The intellect also uniquely enables us to know the higher truths and understand them. The highest Truth we can know in our intellect is God. Until the Beatific Vision, however, we can only know God in a limited and obscure way.
Further, the intellect is capable of reasoning, by which the judgments we have made are used as premises for reaching new conclusions. When the judgments in the intellect are erroneous, the conclusions the intellect deduces are also flawed. When the judgments are true, and especially when they include divine revelation, then our reasoning ends in divine wisdom.
The first and most important step in the Christian life is to allow the infused gift of supernatural faith to take over the intellect. Faith gives access to supernatural truths that the intellect cannot know on its own. Faith gives us a share in God’s knowledge. When that knowledge unites with the intellect, the intellect makes true judgments leading to good moral choices. Because the object of faith is Truth—God Himself—faith and reason are perfectly harmonious. For example, some make the argument that faith and science are not compatible. This is false. Everything that is true—be it the natural truths of science or the supernatural truths of divine revelation—are not only consistent with each other, they form the only perfect harmony within the human intellect. If our intellect is informed only by science or natural truths, it lacks the full picture and is prone to error. When divine revelation floods our intellect, the natural world makes more sense, and all is seen with wisdom from God’s perspective.
Will: Once the intellect is informed by the memory and imagination and engages in a process of rational decision making, the intellect identifies the greatest good it understands. It then proposes that good to the will, which desires and chooses that good. The will drives a person to that which is good, which is why it is essential that the intellect “gets it right!” For example, in the beginning of this book, we reflected upon a person who chose to misuse drugs. Of course, that is not the greatest good for the person. However, in the moment, the intellect erroneously reasoned that taking drugs so as to get a high was good, so the will chose it.
The supernatural virtue of faith enlightens our intellect to see that God is our greatest good. The supernatural virtue of hope perfects the will by driving it to choose God as our greatest good and supreme beatitude, relying upon God’s grace to persevere in our faith and overcome the obstacles to our union with him through love. This loving union must be our goal. The supernatural virtue of charity further perfects the will by leading it to love God above all things for His own sake and to love our neighbor as ourselves. By charity, we want even our own supernatural happiness for God’s sake, wanting it because He Himself wants it. What a beautiful truth of our faith that our supernatural happiness is what gives the most glory to God!
The above anthropology of human nature is just a brief summary. In Part Two, we will draw upon these concepts in the reflections on Christ’s human life to better understand how He manifested the perfection of His divine nature within His human nature, giving us a model to follow. Ultimately, the perfection of the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to experience the fullness of peace and harmony in our lives so that every distinct part of our nature is guided by grace to the greatest good—God.
Integrating Grace with Human Nature
The goal of the Christian life is to cooperate with grace to such an extent that our intellects understand the greatest Good—God Himself and His will—so that God and His will are presented to the human will to choose. For this to happen, the many disordered desires, emotions, and unruly passions within our appetites must come under the dominion of our intellect, enlightened by faith, and our will, driven by hope. When this happens, charity is born and holiness increases. In the human struggle, this process is often reversed, due to concupiscence when disordered desires and emotions take over and direct our actions. The spiritual life, therefore, is a battle within ourselves by which God creates a harmony of our inner parts, aligning them with Truth by grace.
Central to Christian growth in holiness is the process of turning from sin and cultivating virtue—both natural and supernatural. Due to concupiscence, we struggle to avoid sin and embrace virtue. As a result, the irascible appetites, guided by grace, will initially play a central role in overcoming sin and growing in virtue. After the irascible appetites play their role, the concupiscible appetites provide ongoing stability.
This process begins when we discern God’s will through the light of faith, illuminating our understanding. This faith-based insight ignites our hope, affirming that God’s will can indeed be fulfilled, which, in turn, inspires courage and trust in God’s grace.
As we successfully align our actions with the divine will—growing in virtue over sin—the concupiscible appetites come into play. A love for the virtue achieved develops, fostering a desire for this virtue to remain and grow. As a result, joy emerges, anchoring us more deeply in our commitment never to revert to fear or despair, which leads back to sin. Instead, we strive to maintain hope, courage, love, desire, and joy.
This transformation signifies a shift from passionately grappling with difficulties to savoring the outcomes with joy, leading to greater firmness in virtue. This process illustrates how our psychological nature unites with the spiritual dimensions of our souls, guiding us to fulfill God’s will and achieve peace, internal harmony, love of God, and love of His will, which produce joy. Below is an illustration of the two opposing paths we might take when facing the challenges of overcoming sin and growing in virtue:
Human nature ordered by grace:
A serious temptation occurs.
Faith leads to hope of overcoming that temptation.
Courage is stirred and charity empowers a passionate battle.
Victory is achieved, resulting in virtue.
Love for the virtue is experienced.
Desire to remain in virtue is stirred.
Joy sustains the soul, keeping it from turning away from the good it possesses.
Human nature controlled by concupiscence:
A serious temptation occurs.
Confusion leads to fear.
Fear leads to despair.
Despair ends in sin.
Sin leads to hate and sadness.
Understanding these fundamental parts of human nature and the role grace and virtue play will help us to make practical decisions and concrete choices for the good. Simply understanding, however, is not enough. We need grace, which is our next topic.
Grace—Types and Effects
Many Christians speak of a need for God’s grace. Grace is commonly understood as God’s help, guidance, strength, and answer to our prayers. Though many theologians have written extensively on grace, categorizing it in profound and systematic ways, it is sufficient to understand the basics of grace so as to be able to rely upon it all the more. Grace plays an essential role in both our salvation and in accomplishing God’s will. First, it illuminates our minds, enabling us to discern what God wills of us. After we understand God’s will, further grace is required for us to willingly choose to align with it. Finally, grace is also necessary for us to follow through with our commitment to that choice. Grace is the key that allows us to truly know and love God, and to serve His will. Our fallen human nature, which is a consequence of Original Sin, significantly hinders our ability to know and love God. Hence, we need grace to overcome these limitations. It is God, and God alone, who provides this essential gift.
Since God is the source of all grace, we need to understand how grace is distributed to us. We read in Saint Paul’s Letter to Timothy, “For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5–6). “Christ Jesus” Who is “himself human,” is the one Mediator between God and man. More specifically, it is Christ’s humanity, perfectly united to His divinity in the Hypostatic Union, that mediates to us all supernatural help from the Trinity, which is grace.
In 451, the Council of Chalcedon taught that, because of the Hypostatic Union, the divine and human natures in the Son of God are united in His one Person “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that the Trinity is the primary cause and source of grace, and the humanity of Christ is the instrumental cause. Therefore, we begin by understanding that grace comes from the Trinity, through the humanity of Christ, to us. Furthermore, because Christ’s humanity was assumed through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and because the fullness of her Son’s grace was implanted in her human soul from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, she is commonly referred to as the Mediatrix of All Grace. She is the Mother of Grace, the unique instrument of all grace, but not the source.
There are two main types of grace—sanctifying and actual. “Sanctifying” means “to make holy.” This grace permanently dwells within the person’s soul who remains in friendship with God and is “in a state of grace,” meaning, the person does not commit a mortal sin. This sanctifying grace, therefore, can also be referred to as habitual grace because, like a habit, it is present, remains, grows, and can become perfected, assisting the soul all along the journey toward Heaven. As it grows, it feeds the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, transforming them and making them ongoing habits by which we live. Sanctifying grace is equally available to all. However, the degree to which we receive this grace and become transformed by it depends on our response.
We receive sanctifying grace at Baptism, cleansing us from Original Sin and making us members of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. The Eucharist nourishes this grace throughout our lives—our daily Bread—by uniting us more deeply with Christ. Confirmation strengthens the grace of Baptism, empowering us to live out our Christian vocations and individual missions more fully. The Sacrament of Reconciliation restores us to sanctifying grace when it is lost through mortal sin, reconciling us with God and the Church, the Body of Christ, and heals us of venial sins and imperfections when confessed.
Despite the fact that a person has this habitual (sanctifying) grace, there will be daily occasions when another kind of grace is needed—actual grace. “Actual grace” means “grace to act.” It’s transitory in that it is given in an instant, for a specific purpose, and then is gone, once it either accomplishes its purpose or is rejected. For example, actual grace assists us in many ways. When tempted, it enlightens us on how to fulfill God’s will at the moment. It might spark an instantaneous understanding of the Word of God while reflecting on it, direct us to perform an act of charity as God wills, or enable us to overcome weaknesses within our human nature. Grace inspires us in prayer, helps us with final perseverance on our deathbed, and assists us in numerous other ways.
Though sanctifying grace is bestowed through the Sacraments, actual graces are obtained in a variety of ways. Though God is the exclusive source, actual graces can be obtained by our prayers, and the prayers of the angels and saints in Heaven. In Heaven, the saints and angels whose glory is of a higher degree, are more powerful intercessors, as are the more saintly people still sojourning on earth. Therefore, great saints like Francis of Assisi and Thérèse of Lisieux, along with others who attained Seraphic Glory, not only had a profound influence on the lives of people while alive, they also continue to have a powerful effect on earth after their deaths through the merit of their intercession.
During one of her many visions, Saint Maria Faustina Kowolska heard Jesus speak about the increasing power of intercessory prayer: “You must be annihilated, destroyed, living as if you were dead in the most secret depths of your being. You must be destroyed in that secret depth where the human eye has never penetrated; then will I find in you a pleasing sacrifice, a holocaust full of sweetness and fragrance. And great will be your power for whomever you intercede [emphasis added]” (Diary, #1767). The “annihilation” of which Jesus speaks is the mystical language used to describe the annihilation of sin and the complete sacrifice of her life for Christ, which results in a profound depth of holiness. Jesus notes that one of the fruits of such an annihilation of sacrificial love will result in exceptionally greater intercessory power. This must become one of our central goals in this life, so that we can continue that intercessory role in Heaven with the angels and other saints.
Merit and Corresponding Glory
Ongoing cooperation with grace not only increases our holiness and magnifies the power of our prayers, it also increases the level of eternal glory in which we will share. In its Decree Concerning Justification & Decree Concerning Reform (see Canon 32), the Council of Trent taught that one’s good works “truly merit an increase of grace…and also an increase of glory.” In other words, when we freely cooperate with grace, God bestows more grace, which increases the degree of our earthly sanctity and the degree of our eternal glory in Heaven, enabling us to ascend higher on the “steps” of the Celestial Hierarchy where we will remain for eternity. Recall that Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19–20).
A simple way to explain the levels of glory in Heaven (and holiness on earth), merited by our cooperation with grace on earth, is to use the analogy of different sizes of containers to hold water. The smallest can only hold one drop. This would represent the person who died in a state of grace but did very little to cooperate with God’s grace while on earth and very little to root out his venial sins and imperfections. Nonetheless, in Heaven, that “one drop” of God’s grace will suffice to give that person eternal gratitude and perfect fulfillment, albeit to a lesser degree than the higher saints.
Though one drop of grace is all it takes to enjoy perfect fulfillment in Heaven and to be in a state of grace on earth, consider a glass that holds many drops—or a bucket, a pool, a lake, or even an entire ocean. The more a person cooperates with God’s grace on earth and is conformed to His will in his actions, the greater the soul’s capacity for grace and corresponding glory in Heaven. The soul is stretched as God more fully transforms and uses the person, flooding him with His mercy.
Our Blessed Mother is best represented by the entire ocean of mercy. She was the only one who perfectly cooperated with every grace given to her. For that reason, she will shine as the highest and most glorious Queen of Heaven forever and as the most radiant of all creatures, bathing in the highest glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Others, like Saint Francis of Assisi, so fully cooperated with God’s grace while on earth that the capacity of their souls became vast. That vastness will remain with them in Heaven. Their souls will radiate that abundant mercy, and that radiance will become their eternal glory.
While on earth, we cannot gaze upon the Beatific Vision, no matter how holy we become. “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). However, while on earth we are able to receive a different kind of knowledge and love of God. This knowledge and love is infused into our souls by God. Our minds become enlightened and our wills strengthened. Recall the Scriptures: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2), and “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
In the Beatific Vision, where we will see God as He truly is, a transition from grace to glory takes place. The grace embraced in this life lays the foundation for the glory that awaits us in eternity, since that grace increases the capacity of our souls to behold God. Thus, to reach the pinnacle of holiness in this life, one must persevere in a deepening conversion and continually undergo spiritual transformation, aligning ever more closely with God’s will.
This process of complete transformation in Christ is not easy. We need ever deepening levels of prayer, penance, contemplation, and purifications in order to reach mystical union.
Saint Thomas Aquinas on Grace, Merit, Charity, and Glory
Though Saint Thomas Aquinas is better described as a systematic theologian, rather than a mystical or spiritual theologian, his comprehensive works certainly add to spiritual and mystical theology. To understand his fundamental contribution, on which Saint John of the Cross highly relied, we need to understand Aquinas’ teachings on human cooperation with grace and the corresponding levels of merit, charity, and glory that result from that cooperation. Though the essence of his teaching is reflected in the previous section, a more direct presentation of Saint Thomas’ teaching will help clarify and solidify these ideas.
The following is an excerpt from Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Though the language below might be difficult to understand, his excerpt explains the varying degrees of glory in Heaven and how those levels of glory correlate to a person’s clarity of the Beatific Vision:
On the contrary, Eternal life consists in the vision of God, according to John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God,” etc. Therefore if all saw the essence of God equally in eternal life, all would be equal; the contrary to which is declared by the Apostle: “Star differs from star in glory” (1 Corinthians 15:41).
I answer that, Of those who see the essence of God, one sees Him more perfectly than another. This, indeed, does not take place as if one had a more perfect similitude of God than another, since that vision will not spring from any similitude; but it will take place because one intellect will have a greater power or faculty to see God than another. The faculty of seeing God, however, does not belong to the created intellect naturally, but is given to it by the light of glory, which establishes the intellect in a kind of “deiformity,” as appears from what is said above, in the preceding article.
Hence the intellect which has more of the light of glory will see God the more perfectly; and he will have a fuller participation of the light of glory who has more charity; because where there is the greater charity, there is the more desire; and desire in a certain degree makes the one desiring apt and prepared to receive the object desired. Hence he who possesses the more charity, will see God the more perfectly, and will be the more beatified (I.12.6).
Though Saint Thomas does not offer a detailed and systematic explanation of mystical theology as Saint John of the Cross did, he does speak of the threefold process in regards to an increase of charity—the beginner, proficient, and perfect in his treatise on charity (the emphasis below is not in the original):
In like manner, the diverse degrees of charity are distinguished according to the different pursuits to which man is brought by the increase of charity. For at first it is incumbent on man to occupy himself chiefly with avoiding sin and resisting his concupiscences, which move him in opposition to charity: this concerns beginners, in whom charity has to be fed or fostered lest it be destroyed: in the second place man’s chief pursuit is to aim at progress in good, and this is the pursuit of the proficient, whose chief aim is to strengthen their charity by adding to it: while man’s third pursuit is to aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God: this belongs to the perfect who “desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ”
Reply to Objection 3. Even the perfect make progress in charity: yet this is not their chief care, but their aim is principally directed towards union with God. And though both the beginner and the proficient seek this, yet their solicitude is chiefly about other things, with the beginner, about avoiding sin, with the proficient, about progressing in virtue (II.II.24.9).
Essentially, what Saint Thomas explains is that in Heaven we will all have the same vision of God, the Beatific Vision. God doesn’t change in His essence, which we will all behold. However, each person and angel gazing upon the Blessed Trinity will experience God in different degrees. For humans, the degree to which they will experience God in Heaven correlates to the degree of charity they attained in life.
By analogy, say you were at a professional football game with 100,000 other fans. You are accompanied by a friend who knows nothing about football. You, on the other hand, know everything there is to know about the game and the teams you are watching. Though you both watch the same game, your experience of the game will be different, more intense, and likely more enjoyable because your mind is able to grasp many fine subtleties of the game you are watching. In this case, your knowledge of the game and the teams makes you more suited to engage in the game.
Similarly, the more charity one has in life, moving from the beginner, to the proficient, to the perfect, the more disposed you are to perceive and experience God’s essence. Thus, the glory that the perfect soul will experience will be much greater than that of the beginner who is less capable of perceiving and experiencing the fullness of God’s essence.
Angels and Saints as Intercessors and Guides to God’s Grace
In his treatise on grace in the Summa Theologica (Second Part of the First Part, Question 112), Saint Thomas Aquinas offers further clarification on the role that angels play in our lives. “Angels cleanse, enlighten, and perfect angels or men, by instruction, and not by justifying them through grace. Hence Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. vii) that ‘this cleansing and enlightenment and perfecting is nothing else than the assumption of Divine knowledge’” (Article 1.3).
This emphasizes the primary role angels play in our lives. They are not mediators of sanctifying grace in the way that Jesus is in His human nature, which now comes to us ordinarily through the Sacraments, nor are they like our Blessed Mother who mediates and distributes the grace of her Son. They do not bestow sanctifying grace upon us. They can, however, do two things. First, both angels and saints, by the power of their intercession, and dependent upon the degree of their level of glory in Heaven, can “merit” for us God’s many actual graces through their prayers. This is their intercessory role as members of the one Body of Christ. Second, angels have natural powers to “cleanse, enlighten, and perfect” us by instructing our minds with revealed truth. In a sense, this is a distribution of grace, since it is done by grace in cooperation with the angels’ natural powers. What angels cannot do is move our will. Saint Thomas is very clear that God and God alone can directly bestow the grace we need to choose the good and avoid evil. Angels can, however, communicate to our minds and afflict or console our senses, so as to push and lead us into God’s will.
In the Introduction to Part Two, a summary of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola can be found. Central to his teaching is the discernment of spirits. Saint Ignatius goes to great lengths to explain how we can discern the workings of the good angels from the bad angels in our minds and through our bodily senses. For example, in his lessons for the second week, Rule Seven, he states:
In those who go on from good to better, the good Angel touches such souls sweetly, lightly and gently, like a drop of water which enters into a sponge; and the evil touches it sharply and with noise and disquiet, as when the drop of water falls on the stone. And the above-said spirits touch in a contrary way those who go on from bad to worse.
In other words, the angels assist us in unique ways, pointing us to God so as to be open to His grace, and diverting us from sin by their natural powers. We need their ministry, and we can more readily rely upon it when we understand how they assist us.
Next: Chapter Eight—Nine Steps on the Golden Staircase
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