OBEDIENCE BEFORE UNDERSTANDING: A THOMISTIC APPROACH TO THE ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND THE GREAT BENEFITS OF FAITH IN THIS

LIFE

John Paul Dominic Brodeur Honors 202 September 21, 2010

1 Faith and reason have a long drama in the history of the Catholic Church. Especially since the Reformation, the alleged harmony and interrelated character of both disciplines has been thrown into question time and time again. This present moment in history is no exception: various movements in the Church today still promote vastly different lifestyles derived from varying notions of what faith and reason are and how they relate to one another. At one end of the spectrum are the Fideists, who believe that reason is hopelessly impoverished and incapable of aiding faith in any way. On the other end of the spectrum, the Rationalists maintain that faith is hopelessly unreliable. The Church, in her great wisdom, stakes its claim between the two camps, maintaining that faith and reason cooperate like the two wings of a dove ascending to the heavens: not only are they useful to one another, but each is necessary to the other in order to achieve its particular purpose. This middle-ground approach is not simply a guileless solution to a senseless debate. It is a bold and difficult position to be in, one with its own set of questions and uncertainties. One such question, whose practical implications are so apparent in various Catholic practices of today, is whether or not faith ought to be primarily understood or primarily obeyed. In the pages that follow, the systematic writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Universal Doctor of the Catholic Church, specifically his Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles, and Jean-Pierre de Caussades work, The Abandonment to Divine Providence, will be used to help illustrate how the obedience of faith, and consequently the virtue of charity, is naturally prior to an empirical understanding of faith. This will be achieved by way of an extensive discussion on knowledge, faith, and mans final end. According to Aquinas, mans ultimate beatitude his happiness consists in the use of his highest function, which is the intellect. Aquinas posits that since the intellect is made to know, it was made to know fully, and that if it was ultimately incapable of seeing God, it would never attain to

2 beatitude.1 God is supremely knowable because everything is knowable according as it is actual2 and God is pure act. In other words, if the intellect were incapable of knowing that which is most knowable namely, God man could never achieve happiness. Thus, Aquinas defines the form of happiness as the perfect activity of the human intellect.3 Aquinas then concludes that the saints who have inherited eternal life must see the essence of God4 since they are said to be perfectly happy experiencing their ultimate beatitude which is the perfect activity of their intellect: knowledge of the supremely knowable. Aquinas elaborates further by distinguishing how God can be supremely knowable in himself, yet unknowable to a particular intellect given the excess of the intelligible object (namely, Gods essence) above that particular intellect.5 This is further expounded by a double requirement which Aquinas posits for intellectual sight. He illustrates how intellectual vision is only actualized when the thing seen is, in a certain way, in the seer. There must be 1) a thing seen and 2) a visual power to see it. Since, in eternal beatitude, Gods intelligibility is infinitely above the visual power of the created intellect, God must be both the thing seen and the principle of the visual power.6 Thus,

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, Vers. Second and Revised Edition, New Advent, Edited by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, (Kevin Knight, 1920), http://newadvent.com/summa/ (accessed April 2010), I, q.12, a.1. 2. Ibid. 3. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles (Of God and His Creatures), Jacques Maritain Center, Edited by S.J. Joseph Rickaby. Burns and Oates, (1905), http://www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/gc.htm (accessed April 2010), III, q.26. 4. Aquinas, ST, I, q.12, a.1. 5. What is supremely knowable in itself, may not be knowable to a particular intellect, on account of the excess of the intelligible object above the intellect; as, for example, the sun, which is supremely visible, cannot be seen by the bat by reason of its excess of light. Ibid. 6. Two things are required both for sensible and for intellectual vision--viz. power of sight, and union of the thing seen with the sight. For vision is made actual only when the thing seen is in a certain way in the seer. Now in corporeal things it is clear that the thing seen cannot be by its essence in the seer, but only by its likeness; as the similitude of a stone is in the eye, whereby the vision is made actual; whereas the substance of the stone is not there. But if the principle of the visual power and the thing seen were one and the same thing, it would necessarily follow that the seer would receive both the visual power and the form whereby it sees, from that one same thing. Ibid., a.2.

3 the saints see Gods essence by means of Gods essence. This, Aquinas determines, is impossible for any man who is still living a mortal life. Aquinas then distinguishes between knowledge of God by means of a created similitude the kind of knowledge man has on earth and the vision of Gods essence in eternal beatitude.7 This sets up an interesting paradigm. Man is, in a real sense, destined to see God, not just to know him in a limited analogous way. The perfection of mans rational nature must then necessarily involve a supernatural participation in Divine goodness. And this, Aquinas says, he cannot accomplish unless he be taught by God8 that is, he cannot grow in supernatural participation by his own isolated efforts. To be taught by God, man must also believe God, just as a disciple believes the master who is teaching him.9 This insight is echoed throughout the whole of Scripture, especially in Johns gospel: It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me10 and again, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things11 Futhermore, if a man is to believe God, he must also believe in God, as Hebrews further clarifies: without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.12 To believe, Aquinas asserts, is an

7. Ibid., a.11. 8. [T]he perfection of the rational creature consists not only in what belongs to it in respect of its nature, but also in that which it acquires through a supernatural participation of Divine goodness. Hence it was said above that man's ultimate happiness consists in a supernatural vision of God: to which vision man cannot attain unless he be taught by God. Ibid., III, q.2, a.3. 9. Ibid. 10. John 6:45 (NRSV). 11. John 14:26 (NRSV). 12. Hebrews 11:6 (NRSV).

4 act of faith; an act of the intellect determinate to an object of the wills command.13 Thus an act of faith is related not only to the true (via the intellect), but also to the good and the end (via the will). Aquinas further stipulates that Faith is a kind of knowledge since by means of faith, the intellect can grasp some knowable object. Yet, in the act of faith, it is not the believer who sees, but Him who is believed. In this way, Aquinas explains that, as far as faith falls short of vision, it falls short of the knowledge which belongs to science, for science determines the intellect to one object by the vision and understanding of first principles.14 Aquinas describes the phenomenon elsewhere: In the knowledge that is of faith, though there is high perfection on the part of the object so apprehended, there is great imperfection on the side of intellect, for intellect does not understand that to which it assents in believing.15 According to Aquinas, then, faith has great value with respect to the object being made known, but he simultaneously admits a great deficiency in faith: it does not satisfy the intellect, and consequently cannot, in and of itself and devoid of empirical knowledge, communicate eternal beatitude to man; the eternal practice of faith will never lead to mans happiness. Nevertheless, it is faith which gives us the hope of happiness since it contains virtually all that man hopes for and promises him the vision of unveiled truth to which faith cleaves.16 Paul

13. Now the act of faith is to believe ...which is an act of the intellect determinate to one object of the will's command. Hence an act of faith is related both to the object of the will, i.e. to the good and the end, and to the object of the intellect, i.e. to the true. And since faith, through being a theological virtues, as stated above, has one same thing for object and end, its object and end must, of necessity, be in proportion to one another. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.1. 14. Ibid., I, q.12, a.13. 15. Aquinas, SCG, III, q.40, a.1. 16. We hope for that which we see not: because to see the truth is to possess it. On this way then faith is said to be the "substance of things to be hoped for," for the reason that in us the first beginning of things to be hoped for is brought about by the assent of faith, which contains virtually all things to be hoped for. Because we hope to be made happy through seeing the unveiled truth to which our faith cleaves, as was made evident when we were speaking of happiness. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.1.

5 says it most eloquently in his letter to the Hebrews: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.17 Faith itself spurs man on to empirical knowledge of the object. The intellect, unsatisfied with the proposition, will naturally desire the object itself.18 This desire which faith ignites is thus a function of Divine Providence, perceivable by the believer, which directs men to a higher good than the human intellect is capable of something presently unattainable, and causes man to tend toward something which transcends this mortal life.19 Faith whets the appetite of the intellect and promises it the delights of eternal satisfaction, and is eventually succeeded by it.20 This was readily understood by the early Christians, and it is a promise echoed in more than one apostolic letter.21 Indeed, the promise of the beatific vision which faith bestows is the hope and comfort of all professed Christians. Jean-Pierre de Caussade further reflects upon this great promise of faith in the Abandonment to Divine Providence: Although I believe now, when the day of glory dawns the secrets of so many mysteries will be shown to me that I shall realize how imperfect my knowledge was during my earthly life. What now seems to me so confused, so incoherent, so foolish and so fanciful will then delight and entrance me by its order, its beauty, its wisdom and the incomprehensible wonders I shall explore for all eternity. 22 And elsewhere, [W]hen it comes to the moment of our death, the Holy Spirit, who secretly moves all the pieces on the board of life by
17. Hebrews 11:1 (NRSV). 18. Now the act of the believer does not terminate in a proposition, but in a thing. For as in science we do not form propositions, except in order to have knowledge about things through their means, so is it in faith. Aquinas, ST, III, q.1, a.2. 19. Divine Providence directs men to a higher good than human frailty can experience in the present life, the mental faculties ought to be evoked and led onward to something higher than our reason can attain at present, learning thereby to desire something and earnestly to tend to something that transcends the entire state of the present life. Aquinas, SCG, I, q.5, a.1. 20. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.2. 21. Beloved, we are Gods children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 (NRSV); For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSV). 22. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Translated by John Beevers, (New York: Image Books, 1993), p. 46.

6 continual and fruitful activity, will say: "Let there be light." Then we shall behold all the riches which faith alone knew were hidden in those depths of peace and contentment with God.23 And finally, God in his glory will give us this union in heaven; here on earth we can enjoy it by faith.24 To begin to answer the question of whether the obedience of faith or an understanding of faith ought to be primary, Aquinas must be further consulted. As he has already shown, things held by faith are not things seen. Where sight is involved, faith ceases to be. However, sight ought to be distinguished from signs of credibility, for it is perfectly possible and necessary to have evidence for what ought to be believed,25 the very first of which would be the knowledge that God exists and that he exceeds mans intellect (something which can be proved philosophically apart from Divine Revelation). These do not eliminate faith but rather spur it on to greater perseverance. Unbelievers, then, dwell in ignorance, not only of the faith, but much of the credibility of faith,26 because such evidence proceeds from the light of faith itself and not by demonstration. This is why it can be difficult for any Catholic to articulate the reasons for his beliefs to those who do not share the Faith: his rationale is not simply a philosophical demonstration, but a gift of God to the believer as a gratuitous aid in their conviction. Nevertheless, Peter exhorted the faithful to make a defense for anyone seeking a reason for the hope they which was in them;27 we must therefore engage grace with reason.

23. Ibid., p. 117. 24. Ibid., p. 37. 25. Those things which come under faith can be considered in two ways. First, in particular; and thus they cannot be seen and believed at the same time, as shown above. Secondly, in general, that is, under the common aspect of credibility; and in this way they are seen by the believer. For he would not believe unless, on the evidence of signs, or of something similar, he saw that they ought to be believed. Aquinas, ST, III, q.1, a.4. 26. Aquinas, ST, III, q.1, a.5. 27. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect 1 Peter 3:15 (NRSV).

7 As such, grace affords man more knowledge of God than natural reason does,28 and the certainty of faith is of the highest order, greater than any science29 precisely because it is God, the truth itself, who reveals it to us. This absolute certainty may appear to be at odds with the intellects dissatisfaction with faith, and this conflict would appear to be the cause of many misunderstandings between faith and reason. Faith is enough for conviction, but the intellect desires more. Thus it is understandable why Caussade would remark, The mind and all its activities would like to hold first place among the tools used by God, but it must be relegated to the lowest, as if it were a dangerous slave.30 Initially there seems to be a disparity present. How can the intellect be both a dangerous slave and a means of eternal beatitude? Surely, Caussade has erred in this renunciation; surely he has gone too far and yet, in the divinely revealed word of Scripture, Sirach gives support to Caussades sentiment: Do not meddle in what is beyond your tasks, for matters too great for human understanding have been shown you. For their hasty judgment has led many astray, and wrong opinion has caused their hearts to slip ...A stubborn mind will be burdened by troubles, and the sinner will heap sin upon sin. The mind of a wise man will ponder the words of the wise, and an attentive ear is the wise mans desire.31 What can be made of all this? Must man despair of his intellect as an obstacle to faith? And if so, how can he ever hope for happiness? It is the perfect use of the intellect which is eternal beatitude, not its eternal submission. Is not faith the predecessor of that vision? How then can faith be so diametrically opposed to reason? Must the wise man forever abandon his eye for the ear? No, for the dangerous slave is only dangerous insofar as it has been affected by concupiscence, and the mind is only a burden when it is stubborn; judgment leads man astray when it
28. We have a more perfect knowledge of God by grace than by natural reason. Aquinas, ST, I, q.12, a.13. 29. [N]othing is more certain than the word of God. Therefore science is not more certain than faith; nor is anything else. Ibid., III, q.4, a.8. 30. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 29. 31. Sirach 3:23-24, 27, 29 (NRSV).

8 is hasty it need not be so. This sobering reality of how original sin has affected the intellect led Aquinas to reflect upon a further advantage of faith, namely the repression of presumption, which is the mother of error.32 This is why the wise man ponders the words of the wise with an attentive ear instead of simply either listening to the words of the wise or speaking his own words. Indeed, he is not speaking and he is doing more than just listening. There is, then, a healthy pessimism about the man who claims to be wise and has more confidence in his own ability than in Gods revelation. As Caussade observes, the condition of a man united to God by faith is more one of internal confusion than of self-assurance.33 Assurance is received by means of faith, certitude found in the God who speaks the truth of himself. In this life, when mans intellect is marked by the consequences of original sin, it is the authority of the Holy Spirit, not our own empirical understanding, which characterizes our knowledge. As scripture says, For the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail, for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind. We can hardly guess at what is on earth, and what is at hand we find with labor; but who has traced out what is in the heavens? Who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?34 This reality is another undeniable proof of Divine Providence, for it effectively teaches the intellect how to be docile and grateful unto God rather than grasping and avaricious in its pursuits. Not surprisingly, this disposition of the intellect one of docility and openness ultimately allows for its satisfaction by the Divine Essence, because it must eternally depend upon that essence as the principle by which it sees God. Thus Caussades states: He deliberately leads them along this path
32. [An] advantage is thence derived, to wit, the repression of presumption, which is the mother of error. For there are some so presumptuous of their own genius as to think that they can measure with their understanding the whole nature of the Godhead, thinking all that to be true which seems true to them, and that to be false which does not seem true to them. In order then that the human mind might be delivered from this presumption, and attain to a modest style of enquiry after truth, it was necessary for certain things to be proposed to man from God that altogether exceeded his understanding. Aquinas, SGC, I, q.5, a.2. 33. Though united to God by faith and love, they find nothing but confusion within themselves. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 90. 34. Wisdom 9:14-17 (NRSV)

9 so that he alone can delight them.35 This is also why Caussade can say that his spirit seeks the light but his heart longs for the dark.36 His heart yearns for the dependence upon God by which the intellects independence is gained. What a blessed paradox! What a wholesome arrangement of divine clemency! 37 By making faith necessary as a prerequisite to vision, God has made even the darkness a forerunner of brilliant light! And the nature of faith is such that even those things which can be investigated and proven by use of reason are commanded to be held. In such a way, faith becomes a stronghold for all a refuge in the night. It makes the same truths accessible to those who have not the intellectual faculty to achieve it. Again, Caussade puts it beautifully, There is nothing safer and less likely to lead us astray than the darkness of faith.38 How can this be? How can there be such certainty in the darkness of an intellect which cannot demonstrate what it knows? Aquinas helps explain by making a distinction in the way certitude can be understood: [C]ertitude can be looked at in two ways. First, on the part of its cause, and thus a thing which has a more certain cause, is itself more certain. On this way faith is more certain than human reason. Secondly, certitude may be considered on the part of the subject, and thus the more a man's intellect lays hold of a thing, the more certain it is. On this way, faith is less certain, because matters of faith are above the human intellect39

35. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 91. 36. The spirit seeks the light, but the heart longs for the dark. The words of every intellectual person fascinate my mind, but my heart cares only for incomprehensible talks and lectures. The whole of my being is so immersed in faith that I love and appreciate those principles, those truths and those methods in which I can see no point and where, in contemplating them, my mind becomes confused and falters. Yet I still feel certain, though I don't know why, that everything is all right, not through any evidence but because faith convinces me. Ibid., pp. 99100. 37. [I]t was necessary for the real truth concerning divine things to be presented to men with fixed certainty by way of faith. Wholesome therefore is the arrangement of divine clemency, whereby things even that reason can investigate are commanded to be held on faith, so that all might easily be partakers of the knowledge of God, and that without doubt and error. Aquinas, SCG I, q.4. 38. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 99. 39. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.8.

10 The subjective component is the determinant of light and dark, but light the full understanding of truth by the intellect is not required to know something with absolute certitude. Caussades more existential reflections on this matter are a powerful witness to the truth of the matter. He speaks to both modes of certitude: In this union [of abandonment] there is on God's side the absolute certitude of faith, and in our hearts a similar certitude but one tinged with fear and hope.40 The fear and hope he describes are wonderful descriptions of the dynamic of faith: the hope of vision the hope of light and the uncertainty of darkness. He writes elsewhere, God is the center of faith, and faith is a gulf of shadows, and these shadows emerge and veil all the divine operations. All his words and all his works are only, as it were, murky rays from a clouded sun. With our bodily eyes we can see the natural sun and its beams, but the eyes of our soul, by which we want to see God and his works, remain shut. There is darkness instead of light; knowledge is ignorance and we see without understanding.41 The type of certitude which penetrates the darkness of faith resides in the cause of mans faith namely Gods truthfulness, and this Truth is spoken to us through Divine Revelation. We then receive what is spoken by way of hearing. In the case of faith, hearing is more certain than seeing because the person speaking holds more authority than the individuals sight. God, who cannot be deceived, is that unrivaled authority,42 and just as a child understands and responds with confidence to the authority of a parent, so too must the believer conduct himself in a similar manner toward God;43 not only should he listen to God, but the very nature of his faith obliges him to do so.

40. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 62. 41. Ibid., p. 42. 42. Other things being equal sight is more certain than hearing; but if (the authority of.the person from whom we hear greatly surpasses that of the seer's sight, hearing is more certain than sight: thus a man of little science is more certain about what he hears on the authority of an expert in science, than about what is apparent to him according to his own reason: and much more is a man certain about what he hears from God, Who cannot be deceived, than about what he sees with his own reason, which can be mistaken. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.8. 43. We should try always to carry ourselves with the air of a child blessed by God's grace and his good will. As his children, led and upheld by him, our whole attitude should be one of fearlessness. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 111.

11 He must either listen confidently for the voice of the good shepherd44 or attempt to illuminate the darkness of his subjectivity alone. Thus Aquinas also agrees that faith is more like hearing than seeing,45 and that hearing, as Paul writes, comes through the words of Christ.46 Furthermore, just as the wise man not only listens but ponders, so Aquinas also says, Faith implies assent of the intellect to that which is believed.47 The act of faith is necessitated by the gift of faith. Absolute confidence in the midst of darkness can only be maintained if the intellect gives assent, and it is this very action the assent of the intellect which reveals the essential role of the will in a study of faith. In matters of faith, the intellect is moved to knowledge of something not of its own proper object namely, reason but through an act of choice, whereby it turns voluntarily to one side rather than to the other.48 When it turns voluntarily to certainty, there is faith. If it is accompanied by doubt, it is merely opinion. This is why to live by faith is joyful49 despite the absence of perfect happiness: because the believer is untroubled by doubts. He knows, despite the darkness he experiences in his own intellect, the truths which God saw fit to reveal to humanity with unwavering certainty and it inspires hope. This life of faith is one marked by the habit of an intellect which is well disposed to following the command of the will,50 and it is thus that faith has a relation to the

44. My sheep hear my voice, and I know then, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28 (NRSV). 45. He who believes, yields assent to things proposed to him by another, which himself he does not see: hence the knowledge of faith is more like hearing than seeing. Since then happiness consists in the highest knowledge of God, it cannot consist in the knowledge of faith. Aquinas, SCG, III, q.40, a.3. 46. Romans 10:17 (NRSV). 47. Aquinas, ST, III, q.1, a.4. 48. Ibid. 49. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 95. 50. Not only does the will need to be ready to obey but also the intellect needs to be well disposed to follow the command of the will, even as the concupiscible faculty needs to be well disposed in order to follow the command of reason; hence there needs to be a habit of virtue not only in the commanding will but also in the assenting intellect. Aquinas, ST, III, q.4, a.2.

12 good: because the good is the object of the will whenever it is formed by charity.51 So Charity the very will of God is directly responsible for Faith in this way. Cooperation with Gods will is essential to the act of faith. This virtuous habit of the intellect assenting to the object of the will is what Aquinas calls living faith. He surmises that if it be made perfect, 1) the intellect must infallibly tend toward the truth, and 2) the will must infallibly tend toward the last end, which is the good52 mans ultimate beatitude: the very activity of happiness; the eternal love of God loving in man for all eternity. The importance of charity in its relation to truth even allows Aquinas to conclude that he who possesses the more charity, will see God the more perfectly, and will be the more beatified. 53 This is extremely provocative: Aquinas is claiming that the quantity of charity will determine the quality of the beatific vision for each individual. This sheds further light on how faith is an aid to vision. Because faith requires charity, it enriches the experience of vision once it is attained, 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.54 In what way can charity be quantified? Aquinas says that every human act proceeding from free-will is meritorious if it be referred to God, and since the act of faith the act of believing can be freely willed in relation to God, it can also be meritorious55, and reason does not diminish this

51. The truth is itself the good of the intellect, since it is its perfection: and consequently faith has a relation to some good in so far as it directs the intellect to the true. Furthermore, it has a relation to the good considered as the object of the will, inasmuch as it is formed by charity. Ibid., a.5. 52. [I]t is by human virtue that human acts are rendered good; hence, any habit that is always the principle of a good act, may be called a human virtue. Such a habit is living faith. two things are required that this act may be perfect: one of which is that the intellect should infallibly tend to its object, which is the true; while the other is that the will should be infallibly directed to the last end, on account of which it assents to the true: and both of these are to be found in the act of living faith. Ibid. 53. Ibid., I, q.12, a.6. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid., III, q.2, a.9.

13 merit.56 Only if reason were used as a sort of conditional limit on faith, preceding the act of the will, would it diminish the merit of faith.57 The intellect must assent not to human authority, but to the Divine authority.58 Otherwise, the act of faith will be subject to imperfections and its merits will be diminished. Thus Caussade says, Faith wants no proofs, and those who demand them are lacking in faith.59 However, human reason can be a sign of greater merit if it is consequent to the will of the believer: For when a man's will is ready to believe, he loves the truth he believes, he thinks out and takes to heart whatever reasons he can find in support thereof; and in this way human reason does not exclude the merit of faith but is a sign of greater merit.60 The example of this which Aquinas gives is the woman at the well: They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.61 In addition to human reasoning consequent to the act of the faith, opposition to faith (e.g. thoughts, persecution) also increase the merit of faith in so far as the will is shown to be more prompt and firm in believing.62 On the other hand, things favorable to faith will not diminish the merit of faith in so far as the promptness of the will is not consequently diminished. The opposition to faith and the phenomenon of pure faith essentially faith without consolation is a major theme in the Abandonment to Divine Providence. Caussade is quick to laud its merits:

56. Ibid., a.10. 57. Now human reason in support of what we believe, may stand in a twofold relation to the will of the believer. First, as preceding the act of the will; as, for instance, when a man either has not the will, or not a prompt will, to believe, unless he be moved by human reasons: and in this way human reason diminishes the merit of faith. [A man ought to] believe matters of faith, not on account of human reason, but on account of the Divine authority. Ibid. 58. Acts 5:29 (NRSV). 59. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 65. 60. Aquinas, ST, III, q.2, a.10. 61. John 4:42 (NRSV). 62. Aquinas, ST, III, q.2, a.10.

14 [W]hen souls are living in distress it is called pure faith, because all they know is the pitch black darkness of night. ...Pure faith believes, though it neither sees nor feels.63 Elsewhere, [O]ur faith is never more alive than when what we experience through our senses contradicts and tries to destroy it. The battle with our senses gives our faith a splendid victory.64 And finally, The more unreliable, disgusted, despairing and unsure of themselves our senses are, the more emphatically does faith exclaim: God is here! All goes well! There is nothing that faith cannot overcome. It pierces through the darkest shadows and the thickest clouds to reach the truth, embraces it and can never be torn from it.65 Once again, Caussade proves his great ability to illustrate Aquinas claims. He illustrates the dynamic well: faith acquires more merit whenever the senses are less convincing.66 Faith is more alive in the merits of charity functioning under oppressive and difficult circumstances. It increases a mans capacity for charity and enriches him with a faith enlivened by greater merit. Indeed, these trials and tribulations are a sort of cleansing which the act of faith undergoes: ever purifying the act of faith and increasing its merits: [Y]ou rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without seeing him you love him, though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.67 Caussade asserts that the greatest merits come from the trials which one endures during a state of self-abandonment a continuous act of submission to the will of God, and a simple obedience of faith. This, he says, is achieved by performing the duties of the present moment,68 in which Gods will is revealed. These, then, are acts of charity which overflow naturally and simply

63. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 62. 64. Ibid., p. 39. 65. Ibid., p. 40. 66. Ibid., p. 97. 67. 1 Peter 1:6-9 (NRSV). 68. The state of self-abandonment gains its greatest merit from these trials. In performing the duties of the present moment, everything tends to draw us from the path of love and simple obedience. We need great love and heroic courage to hold fast to a straightforward and active faith. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 94.

15 from the obedience of faith, and they in turn become meritorious themselves. Aquinas explains, [O]ther acts of virtue are meritorious before God through being performed out of obedience to God's will.69 Aquinas goes even further to assert how apart from this same obedience, charity cannot exist.70 Thus John is able to say, Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.71 This same theme, John returns to over and over again: that obedience is the love of God, and that it is through obedience that the believer comes to know God made manifest to him.72 This is also how Caussade can say, The whole business of self-abandonment is only the business of loving, and love achieves everything.73 Ultimately, then, charity is responsible for faith. It is love which makes faith possible, and it is obedience which guarantees man the beatific vision, through the merits of Christs sacrifice on the cross. Love as expressed practically in obedience is the assurance of right faith in this life, and the hope of vision in the next. To love well that is to obey will ever purify and perfect a mans faith. Thus, Caussade again rightly concludes: we have to do nothing except allow his holy will to work within us and surrender ourselves to it blindly with absolute confidence, 74 and elsewhere,

69. Aquinas, ST, III, q.104, a.3. 70. Ibid. 71. 1 John 2:4-5 (NRSV). 72. If you love me, you will keep my commandments He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14:15, 21 (NRSV); For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. 1 John 5:3-4 (NRSV); All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. 1 John 3:24 (NRSV); et al. 73. Caussade, Abandonment, p.113. 74. Ibid., p. 28.

16 there is absolutely nothing that gives us more peace or does more to make us holy than obeying God's will.75 How wonderful a thing it is to obey! What a profoundly simple way to live; to will the good in the present moment: to continually give intellectual assent to revealed truth, and then to act in accordance with that truth. By this virtue, more praiseworthy than all the other moral virtues, we contemn our own will for Gods sake,76 and by this same virtue, we shall become one with God.77 The obedience of faith, and consequently obedience to God, witnesses the beginning of this union in time by the Divine Indwelling: All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.78 It is true; obedience itself is not the equivalent of charity because the direct object of it could be any superior, not only God.79 However, the object of obedience in the state of self-abandonment is God specifically by means of intermediaries other people, things, and circumstances which reveal His Divine Will in the present moment:80 Most precious moment! How small it is to my bodily eyes, but how great to the eyes of my faith!81 The state of self-abandonment is thus the blending of faith, hope, and love in a single act a single raising of the heart to God which unites a man with his God

75. Ibid., p. 31. 76. Aquinas, ST, III, q.104, a.3. 77. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 35. 78. 1 John 3:24 (NRSV). 79. Obedience is not a theological virtue, for its direct object is not God, but the precept of any superior, whether expressed or inferred, namely, a simple word of the superior, indicating his will, and which the obedient subject obeys promptly. Aquinas, ST, III, q.104, a.2. 80. [T]here are certain intermediaries of God's providence; for He governs things inferior by superior, not on account of any defect in His power, but by reason of the abundance of His goodness; so that the dignity of causality is imparted even to creatures. Ibid., I, q.22, a.3. 81. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 52.

17 by the Divine Indwelling.82 This single act is a reflection of the Divine Simplicity, by which Gods intellect and will are one and the same thing.83 Already, in the state of abandonment, the creature is becoming more and more like his Creator. The state of abandonment shows us how the task of understanding the faith may never take precedence over the obedience of faith. It practically illustrates the absolute necessity of charity in the act of faith and the essential character of obedience as a response to faith, whereby faith becomes enlivened by the hope of eternal beatitude the vision which the intellect longs for. Of its own accord, intellectual pursuit lacks the divine aid which obedience affords the believer. Whereas obedience can only be achieved by supernatural grace, intellectual pursuit can be performed by natural means. While intellectual pursuit may itself be an act of obedience, it is not of its accord capable of accomplishing that which God must ultimately provide: vision of the Divine Essence for all eternity. Caussade once again puts it wonderfully, Holiness is produced in us by the will of God and our acceptance of it. It is not produced by intellectual speculation about it. ...We must put all speculation aside and, with childlike willingness, accept all that God presents to us.84 Once again, this is not to say that diligent theological study and intellectual heavy-lifting are inappropriate or even unbeneficial in this life. In fact, they may even be critical tasks for certain individuals (like Aquinas himself!) to accomplish, but always in obedience to God within the context of living faith. Otherwise, man has already failed before beginning, and following the pattern of Lucifers own fall, his intellectual pursuit will crowd out the dwelling place of true charity: What use to us is the most profound insight and even revelations coming direct from God, if we do not love his will? ...a simple soul enlightened only by faith never tires of admiring, praising and loving every manifestation of God's will. ...One grain of pure faith gives more
82. This state of abandonment is a blending of faith, hope and love in one single act which unites us to God and all his activities. When these three virtues are united, they of course become one and so form a single act, a single raising of the heart to God and a simple abandonment to him Ibid., p. 62. 83. Aquinas, ST, I, q.22, a.1. 84. Caussade, Abandonment, p. 27.

18 true enlightenment to a simple soul than Lucifer ever gained by his vastly superior intelligence.85 Thus, Holy Mother Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, calls her children to live lives of radical faith, and to use their natural reason as an obedient response to Gods gratuitous and supernatural gift of faith, by which He sanctifies his children and beckons them to their ultimate fulfillment: the vision of his Divine Essence.

85. Ibid., p. 115.

19 WORKS CITED Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles (Of God and His Creatures). Jacques Maritain Center. Edited by S.J. Joseph Rickaby. Burns and Oates. 1905. http://www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/gc.htm (accessed April 2010). . Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. Vers. Second and Revised Edition. New Advent. Edited by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Kevin Knight. 1920. http://newadvent.com/summa/ (accessed April 2010). Caussade, Jean-Pierre de. Abandonment to Divine Providence. Translated by John Beevers. New York: Image Books, 1993.