That some people cannot see goodness is others may be because they have been subjected to so much evil that they no longer believe in rectitude of the will. One of the greatest heresies is the denial of free will. Another, which follows on is the denial of grace.
Here are two more reposts hinging on these subjects. More later today....
Saturday, 22 September 2012
SS. Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
I wrote of St. Bernard's reference to Rectitude of Intention, or the Will a while ago. Here is the link.
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/st-bernard-on-using-knowledge-as.html
Aquinas as well as Bernard knew what this meant. We need to come to perfect rectitude of the will, otherwise we shall not go to heaven, and not straight to heaven.
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen also wrote on this
Rectitude of Intention
By Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
J.M.J.
I might begin by telling you younger people about the way bishops dress. This [pointing to himself] is what is known as 'choir dress.' It is used formally in churches. Then we have another dress, which is really for social purposes, the black cassock, and a long, long scarlet purple garment called the 'feriola' that reaches all the way to the knees.
I was once giving a lecture in Cleveland. I arrived just a short time before the lecture, and I had nothing to eat so I asked the members of the committee if they would go with me to the dining room while I had a glass of milk and some graham crackers. I was dressed in this black cassock and long feriola. The waitress in the early 'flirties' took the orders of the men that were with me and then she looked at me and said:
"Well, Cock Robin, what will you have?"
Now, this is not the cock robin dress. But let me tell you about this. This is called a 'rochet.' It is, you see, linen down to the waist and then lace to the knees.
I was in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, a short time ago, and I went up to my room at night and I found my pajamas on one bed and the rochet on the other.
I know, it takes a little time to get that, but you do.
Now, a word to you, younger people, it is very hard for you to realize that your parents lived in a day when no bicycle needed to be locked, when doors were left unlocked at night, when anyone could walk the streets of a large city without being mugged or attacked. Those were the days of peace. You have never seen them. It probably is hard for you to realize that that is the way America once was.
Now, how did this change come about in America? Why suddenly have we had so much dishonesty?
Let me tell you this story about dishonesty. I was in one of the big hotels of this country. The manager told me that he found a cashier stealing money. This woman had a very wide pocket in her skirt and she would reach in the drawer, take bills, and stick them in.
They saw her and one day they caught her in the act and discharged her. The union said to the hotel, "You may not discharge her. If you discharge her, we will call a strike on the hotel and call everyone out of the hotel."
The litigation went on for about three months. The union won. They had to take the girl back. Do you know what their argument was? The union said the hotel manager never told the girl it was wrong to steal.
The hotel agreed that they never told the girl it was wrong to steal. Then [laughing], how would she know?
See how much the world has changed. How? What made it change? It changed because we want no one limiting us.
You people have heard the popular song, "I've got to be me?" You have sung it yourselves, most of you. "I gotta be free." You want no restraint, no boundaries, no limits. "I have to do what I want to do."
Let us analyze that for a moment. Is that happiness? "I gotta be me? I got to have my own identity?" Are you on a basketball or football team? You cannot be yourself; you have got to live for the team.
The coach of the Oakland Raiders, Coach John Madden, asked me one day:
"What's happening to our Catholic schools? I have boys from Catholic colleges coming to my football team and they say 'I've got to do my thing.' How am I ever going to have a football team if everybody has got to do his own thing?"
A team means doing the other person's thing. But, we want no limits, no boundaries.
Just suppose, now, to get very practical, just suppose your parents never gave you potty training. Think it out. You gotta do your thing. Two things would happen. Today, you would hate your parents for never having trained you and second, you would hate yourself. So, you are what you are today simply because your parents laid hold of you and said, "We're going to train you to use the potty." They did not allow you to do your own thing.
Now, if I've made myself clear up to this point, you're living in an age where freedom is described as license, the right to do whatever your please. But that's chaos.
If everyone did what he pleased, drove a car as he pleased, we'd have disorder in the streets. Certainly you can do whatever you please, you can stuff your Aunt Maise's mattress with old razor blades. You can turn a machine gun on your neighbor's chickens. The, freedom becomes just a physical power. And the one who is most free is the one who is most strong.
So, the world has changed. We used to have laws. We had obedience. We have disciplines. Today, no boundaries, no limits. And, you're not happy that way.
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Rectitude of the Will Two
Perfect Rectitude of the Will from the Master, St. Thomas Aquinas. If God allows me to do so, I just want to study St. Thomas for the rest of my life. There is so much in his work to ponder..............
Whether rectitude of the will is necessary for happiness?
Objection 1: It would
seem that rectitude of the will is not necessary for Happiness. For
Happiness consists essentially in an operation of the intellect, as
stated above (Q[3], A[4]).
But rectitude of the will, by reason of which men are said to be clean
of heart, is not necessary for the perfect operation of the intellect:
for Augustine says (Retract. i, 4) "I do not approve of what I said in a
prayer: O God, Who didst will none but the clean of heart to know the
truth. For it can be answered that many who are not clean of heart, know
many truths." Therefore rectitude of the will is not necessary for
Happiness.
Objection 2: Further,
what precedes does not depend on what follows. But the operation of the
intellect precedes the operation of the will. Therefore Happiness, which
is the perfect operation of the intellect, does not depend on rectitude
of the will.
Objection 3: Further,
that which is ordained to another as its end, is not necessary, when the
end is already gained; as a ship, for instance, after arrival in port.
But rectitude of will, which is by reason of virtue, is ordained to
Happiness as to its end. Therefore, Happiness once obtained, rectitude
of the will is no longer necessary.
On the contrary, It is written (Mat. 5:8): "Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God": and (Heb. 12:14): "Follow peace with all men, and holiness; without which no man shall see God."
I answer that, Rectitude of will is necessary for Happiness both
antecedently and concomitantly. Antecedently, because rectitude of the
will consists in being duly ordered to the last end. Now the end in
comparison to what is ordained to the end is as form compared to matter.
Wherefore, just as matter cannot receive a form, unless it be duly
disposed thereto, so nothing gains an end, except it be duly ordained
thereto. And therefore none can obtain Happiness, without rectitude of
the will. Concomitantly, because as stated above (Q[3], A[8]),
final Happiness consists in the vision of the Divine Essence, Which is
the very essence of goodness. So that the will of him who sees the
Essence of God, of necessity, loves, whatever he loves, in subordination
to God; just as the will of him who sees not God's Essence, of
necessity, loves whatever he loves, under the common notion of good
which he knows. And this is precisely what makes the will right.
Wherefore it is evident that Happiness cannot be without a right will.
Reply to Objection 2: Every
act of the will is preceded by an act of the intellect: but a certain
act of the will precedes a certain act of the intellect. For the will
tends to the final act of the intellect which is happiness. And
consequently right inclination of the will is required antecedently for
happiness, just as the arrow must take a right course in order to strike
the target.
Reply to Objection 3: Not
everything that is ordained to the end, ceases with the getting of the
end: but only that which involves imperfection, such as movement. Hence
the instruments of movement are no longer necessary when the end has
been gained: but the due order to the end is necessary.
