The Paradise

St. Thomas Aquinas

He composed numerous works like the "Summa contra gentiles", the "De regimine principum", the "De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas" and the masterpiece, the "Summa Theologiae". After the ecstasy he had in the church of San Domenico he stopped writing why: "Everything I wrote seems to me a bunch of straw compared to what I saw and was revealed to me. The end of my writing has come".
(Antonio Livi, from the common-sense to the dialectics).

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THE WORLD AFTER THE TRIAL

1. The world was created by God as men's room: a room must agree who inhabit it. After the trial the man will be glorified, therefore also the world, its room will have its innovation, by the addition of a perfection of glory that best reflects the majesty of God.
   
2. All the world and also the stars of heaven were created for man, but when will be glorified, he will not need those influences and movements of the stars that now feed here the development of life: thus, the movements of the stars then will cease.
   
3. The innovation that the world will have after the trial, aims to do just sensitive to God to men, who serves the greater glory that the world will, and since the splendor of the stars is in the light, in the innovation of the world, the stars will have greater clarity and light. The darkness then will be reduced to the center of the earth, therefore, is convenient for the damned.
   
4. Innovation in the world, will have greater clarity and light the stars of heaven, and also will reflect in the bodies of the earth, not all alike, but each according to his attitude.
   
5. Then there will be no need for animals or plants, because they were created to preserve the life of man, and the man then will be incorruptible.
   
   

1. If the bliss, which is the ultimate end of man consists in the beatific vision, we must say that the human intellect can see God in his essence, that is to say, he can see God as He is, despite the insurmountable distance between our intellect and the divine essence, so that the divine essence, which is pure act, to know cognitively if the blessed soul and a kind of union happen, as there is in us from the spiritual soul, which is the shape, and the body, which is the subject.
   
2. The bliss, however, will not see God after the Resurrection with the physical eyes, because they only perceive colors and dimensions that there is not in God, the blessed physical eyes may select to see the beauty of the world God announced innovated, and to see the humanity of Christ: that God may be considered for the sensitive eye by accident, but it can never be sensitive to each other.
   
3. However, the Saints, even seeing God, do not see what God sees, because He knows all the realities and vision science knows best with simple science of intelligence: the blessed can not know everything because the intellect of God is infinite while their intellect is always finite they do not know all the facts, although they see God, because knowing the cause does not mean to know all the effects: the knowledge of the blessed varies depending on how light of glory they see the divine essence.

1. The bliss of the Saints will be higher after the trial, because the soul gathered the glorified body will be more perfect and their nature will be more perfect too, their activity will be, however, more extensively, not intensively.
   
2. Mansion mean place reached in which they remain, so the mansions of the saints are the forms achieved by moving the last will end; such modes are different, as they are more or less close to the end itself: different then they are in mansions in Heaven, that is to say, degrees of beatitude.
   
3. The mansions are different according to the different degrees of charity, which here is the basis of merit which a principle for the remote start of the blessed, and Heaven is the reason for the beatific vision of beatitude proximate principle.
   
   

1. El Paraiso is a kind of spiritual marriage of the soul with Christ, therefore, as in earthly marriages, the wife brings the dowry and ornaments, and for entry in Paradise the soul, as the Scripture comes to the Father provided the dowry and spiritual ornaments.
   
2. Since happiness is an operation and the dowry, however, is a possession. The latter consists in provisions and qualities ordered to beatitude.
   
3. To Christ is not competent to have such a dowry, because in Him, the union of human nature to the divine nature, it is not a spiritual marriage, but is a hypostatic union with this, however, it does not deny that Christ holds an excellent degree which in the Saints forms the dowry.
   
4. Brides of Christ become in Paradise the souls of the faithful in accordance with the nature of Christ himself, but the angels have not such agreement, therefore they can not compel the marriage to Christ and not compel the dowry of the Father. Nothing still prevent that it can be attributed, at least metaphorically, those powers that form the dowry of the blessed.
   
5. The blessed soul dowry consists of three gifts: to see God, to know him as good present, and to know that such good this is for us possessed, corresponding to the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.
   
   

1. In Paradise the prize consists essentially in the perfect union of the soul with God owned and loved. This award is defined metaphorically as golden crown. The aura, however, is a diminutive, it is something inferior or accidental, derived from or produced, so called aura to the joy of their own good works, in which it is seen the own victory that is added to the joy of owning God, and so the aura is different from the golden crown.
   
2. From the halo depends the fruit, which is the joy that comes from the same provision of the soull of the Blessed by a higher degree of spirituality, consistent with being outdone in the Word of God: this is attributed to the Scripture also to those those who are not attributed the halo.
   
3. Continence gives more fruit than other virtues, because it frees man from the subjection of the flesh, and so it introduces to the spiritual life
   
4. And in proportion to the extent of spirituality that seeks continence,there are three fruits, mentioned in the Gospel, that is to say, the thirtieth, conjugal continence due to the sixtieth due to the widowhood continence and a hundred percent as virginal continence.
   
5. Virginity, then, particularly because of the victory over the flesh that it represents, and the halo is responsible, however, as virginity is a virtue in that it is the will of perpetual integrity of mind and body, such halo corresponds to those who were intended to preserve virginity perpetually.
   
6. It is due to the aura of virginity, which is the perfect victory inside the halo whichshould also be external to the perfect victory, which is that of the martyrs, and it is the perfect victory of the maryrs because they face death itself, which is the external greatest evil, and the face it for Christ, this is the most beautiful cause that exists. So Augustine says: " The Martyr is not the sorrow, but the cause." Martyrdom does not cause the faith, precisely, but Christ: all the virtues infused which have for objective to Christ are finally due to martyrdom;
   
7. And as a perfect victory is also brougth by the doctors that chase the devil himself, and from others, with the preaching and doctrine, that is why the halo should be also given to the doctors, as it should be, to the virgins, to the martyrs for the victory over the flesh and the world.
   
8. To Christ who is the main reason and full of every victory, it is not due to the aura, which is only the participation of victory, and this is said not to deny an award but to assert over the aura, which is a diminutive voice.
   
9. To the Angels are not given aura, because it corresponds to a victory, which also concerns the body, and the angels do not have bodies.
   
10. The Saints have the aura in Paradise, it is joy and merits that are specific to the soul: the body then it is not given the aura but as redundancy of the splendor of the soul.
    
11. Three are the battles incumbent upon every man, against the flesh, the world, and the devil. Three are the privileged victories to be won. Three are the corresponding priviledges or auras, which are the halo of virgins, the martyrs and doctors.
    
12. The aura of the martyrs is the most excellent, because their battle is the most rough, but in a sense is the aura of the virgings is superior, because their battle is longer, more dangerous and more rigorous.
    
13. The award is proportionate to the merit, and this may be higher or lower, so the prize can also be accidental, that is to say, the halo. One then, can have a halo brighter than another.
    
    

1. Who sins mortally against God, who is infinite, deserves infinite pain and this should be paid in eternal Hell: in fact, in the penalties, it is distinguished the duration and tartness. The fault is then proportional to bitterness, not the length. A adultery committed in a moment, it is not punishable for a moment even to the human law. The length of the sentence is proportional, however, to the disposition of the spirit of those who sin, and as the traitor is forever unworthy of his country and offends God who is forever worthy of their consortium. And who despises eternal life deserves eternal death.
   
2. That the punishment of Hell, whether of men or of demons, in order to have divine mercy is a mistake of Origin, contrary to Scripture and the very justice of God, because if he finishes the sentence of the convicted also must end the joy of the Blessed.
   
3. The mercy of God would not prevent that men as well as the demons will be punished because each other are always obstinate in evil and can not be forgiven.
   
4. It will not end to the divine mercy, even the penalty of those convicted who were Christians, because they too, like the other condemned, have not taken the path of salvation even if they had known it, that is why, they are more the convicted than the others.
   
5. Also the Christians who do works of mercy will be eternally punished if they die in sin, because without grace nothing deserves eternal life.
   
   

  

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