ARTICLE VIII

In the Eighth Article We Ask: ARE WE OBLIGED TO CONFORM OUR WILL TO THE DIVINE WILL AS REGARDS ITS OBJECT SO AS TO BE BOUND TO WILL WHAT WE KNOW GOD WILLS?

Difficulties:

It seems that we are not, for

1. Paul desired "to be dissolved and to be with Christ," as is said in the Epistle to the Philippians (1:23). But God did not want this. Hence Paul adds: "I know that I shall abide" (1:25) for your sake. If, then, we are obliged to will what God wills, in desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ, Paul sinned. But that is absurd.

2. What God knows can be revealed to someone else. Now God knows that a certain person is reprobated. He can therefore reveal to someone his reprobation. On the supposition that He reveals this to someone, it therefore follows that this person is bound to will his own damnation if we are bound to will what we know God wills. To will one's own damnation, however, is contrary to charity, by which each one loves himself even to eternal life. A person would therefore be bound to will something against charity. But that is not befitting.

3. We are obliged to obey a superior as God Himself since we obey him in God's stead. But a subject is not obliged to do and to will whatever he knows his superior wishes, even if he knows that the superior wishes him to do it, unless the superior expressly commands it. We are therefore not obliged to will whatever God wills or whatever He wishes us to will.

4. Whatever is praiseworthy and honorable is found in Christ most perfectly and without the admixture of anything contrary. But with some will Christ willed the contrary of what He knew God wished; for with some kind of will he willed not to suffer, as the prayer He prayed shows: "My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me" (Matthew 26:39), even though God wished Him to suffer. To will whatever God wills is therefore not praiseworthy, nor are we held to it.

5. According to Augustine sadness is had regarding the things which have happened to us against our will. But the Blessed Virgin felt sorrow at the death of her son, as is indicated in the words of Simeon: "Thy own soul a sword shall pierce" (Luke 2:35). The Blessed Virgin therefore did not wish Christ to suffer, but God wished it. Now if we are obliged to will what God wills, the Blessed Virgin sinned in this instance. But that cannot be granted. Thus it is seen that we are not obliged to conform our will to God's as to the object.

To the Contrary:

1'. Concerning the words of the Psalm (100:4): "The perverse heart did not cleave to me," the Gloss says: "He who does not will whatever God wills has a twisted heart." But everyone is obliged to avoid having a twisted heart. Therefore everyone is obliged to will what God wills.

2'. According to Tully friendship is willing and not willing the same thing. But everyone is obliged to have friendship for God. Hence everyone is obliged to will what God wills and not to will what He does not will.

3'. We should conform our will to God's for the reason that the will of God is the rule of our will, as the Gloss says, commenting on the words of the Psalm (32:1): "Praise becometh the upright." But the object of the divine will, too, is the rule of every other object, since it is the first thing willed, and the first in each genus is the measure of the things that come after, as is said in the Metaphysics. We are therefore obliged to conform the objects of our will to the object of the divine will.

4'. Sin consists principally in perversity of choice. But there is perversity of choice when the lesser good is preferred to the greater. Now whoever does not will what God wills does this, since it is evident that what God wills is best. Hence, whoever does not will what God wills sins.

5'. According to the Philosopher the virtuous man is "the rule and measure" for all human acts. But Christ is most virtuous. We should therefore most of all conform ourselves to Christ as our rule and measure. Now Christ conformed his will to the divine will even as regards its objects; and all the blessed do the same. Therefore we too are obliged to conform our will to the divine even as regards its objects.

REPLY:

In regard to the object of our will we are in a sense obliged to conform our will to God's and in a sense we are not. We are obliged to conform our will to God's in this respect (as has been said , that the divine goodness is the rule and measure of every good will. But since good depends upon the end, a will is called good on the basis of its relation to the reason for willing, which is the end. The reference of the will to the object, however, does not in itself make the act of will good, since the object stands materially, as it were, to the reason for willing, which is an upright end. One and the same object can be desired either rightly or wrongly according as it is referred to different ends; and on the other hand different and even contrary objects can both be willed rightly by being referred to an upright end. Therefore, although the will of God cannot be anything but good, and whatever He wills He wills rightly, nevertheless the goodness in the very act of the divine will is viewed from the standpoint of the reason for willing, that is, the end to which God refers whatever He wills, His own goodness.

Thus we are obliged to conform absolutely to the divine will in regard to the end, but in regard to the object only in so far as it is viewed under the aspect of its relation to the end. This relation must always please us too, though the same object of will can justly displease us under some other aspect, such as its being referable to some contrary end. Hence it is that the human will is found to conform to the divine will in its object inasmuch as it stands related to the divine will.

The will of the blessed, who are in continuous contemplation of the divine goodness and regulate by it all their affections, knowing fully the relationship to it of each object of their desires, is conformed to the divine will in every one of its objects. For everything that they know God wills, they will absolutely and without any motion to the contrary.

Sinners, however, who are turned away from willing the divine goodness, are at variance in many respects from what God wills, disapproving of it and in no way assenting to it.

Righteous wayfarers, on the other hand, whose will adheres to the divine goodness but who yet do not so perfectly contemplate it that they clearly perceive every relation to it of the things to be willed, conform to the divine will as regards those objects for which they perceive the reason, though there is in them some affection for the contrary. It is praiseworthy in them, however, because of the other relation considered in their case. They do not follow this affection obstinately but subject it to the divine will, because it pleases them that the order of the divine will be fulfilled in all things. A man, for instance, who wishes his father to live because of his filial affection while God wishes him to die, if he is saintly, subjects his own will to God's so as not to bear it impatiently if the will of God contrary to his own will is fulfilled.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ as something good in itself. Nonetheless the contrary was pleasing to him with reference to the fruit that God willed to draw from his living. For this reason he said: "But to abide still in the flesh is needful for you" (Philippians 1:24).

2. Although in His absolute power God could reveal to someone his damnation, this can nevertheless not be done in His ordered power, because such a revelation would drive the man to despair. And if such a revelation were made to anyone, it would have to be understood, not as a prophecy of predestination or foreknowledge, but as one of warning, which is based upon the supposition that merits are taken into account. But granted that it were to be understood in the sense of a prophecy of foreknowledge, the one to whom such a revelation were made would still not be obliged to will his own damnation absolutely but only according to the order of justice, in which God wills to damn those who persist in sin. For God does not on His own part wish to damn anyone, but only in accordance with what depends upon us, as is clear from what has been said above.* To will one's own damnation absolutely, then, would not be to conform one's will to God's but to conform it to the will of sin.

3. The will of the superior is not, like the divine will, the rule of our will; rather his command is. Thus the case is not the same.

4. The passion of Christ could be considered in two ways: (1) in itself, inasmuch as it was an affliction of an innocent person, and (2) in its relation to the fruit to which God ordained it. In this latter sense it was willed by God, not in the former. The will of Christ which could consider that relation, namely, His rational will, therefore willed this passion as God did; but the will of sensuality, which is not capable of comparing but is brought to bear upon something absolutely, did not will this passion. In this respect also it was conformed to the divine will, in a sense, even as regards the object, because even God Himself did not will the passion of Christ taken in itself.

5. The will of the Blessed Virgin was averse to the passion of Christ considered in itself; yet it willed the fruit of salvation which was coming from the passion of Christ. Thus it was conformed to the divine will both as regards what it was willing and as regards what it was not willing.

Answers to Contrary Difficulties:

1'. The words of the Gloss are to be understood of the objects of the divine will as they stand under the reference to the end and not absolutely.

2'. Friendship consists in harmony of wills rather as regards the end than as regards the direct objects themselves. A fever patient whose craving for wine was denied by his physician because of their common desire for the patient's health would find in that physician a truer friend than if the latter were willing to satisfy the patient's desire for a drink of wine at the peril of his health.

3'. As was said above, the first object of God's will and the measure and rule of all its other objects is the end which His will has, His own goodness. All other things He wills only for this end. Thus, as long as our will is conformed to the divine will in regard to the end, all the objects of our will are regulated by the first object of will.

4'. Choice includes both the judgment of reason and appetitive tendency. If, then, anyone should in a judgment prefer what is less good to what is more good, there will be perversity of choice, but not if he should prefer it in tending appetitively; for a man is not obliged always to carry out in his action what is better unless it is something that he is bound to by a commandment. Otherwise everyone would be obliged to follow the counsels of perfection, which clearly are better.

5'. There are certain respects in which we can admire Christ but not imitate Him. Examples would be whatever pertains to His divinity and to the beatitude which He had while still in this life. An instance of this is the conformity of Christ's rational will to the divine will even as regards its objects.