INTRODUCTION

The reasons given in the news article vary, ranging from the opinion that
seeing two men kiss is unsightly, to the statement that there is something
“irregular” about belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT)
community, and to the judgment that two people of the same sex being together is
unnatural. Likewise, people would judge something as unacceptable on the basis
that it is supposedly “unnatural.”
In order to proceed, it is therefore necessary to ask: "What do the words
natural and unnatural mean?” Sometimes, the word “natural” seems to be used to
refer to some kind of intuition that person has, one which is so apparently true to
him that it is unquestioned.
For example, a woman may claim that it is simply ”unnatural” to eat any kind of
insect, and what this means is that she personally finds herself averse to the idea of
doing so.
 THOMAS AQUINAS
THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY
The fundamental truth maintained and elaborated by Aquinas in all his
works is the promise right at the Christian faith: that we are created by God in order to
ultimately return to Him. The structure of this magnum opus Summa Theologiae
follows the trajectory of this story.
In the first part, Aquinas speaks of God, and although we acknowledge that
our limited human intellect cannot fully grasp Him, we nevertheless are able to say
something concerning His goodness, His might, and His creative power. Recognizing
then that we are created by God, we move on to the second part, which deals with
man or the dynamic of human life.
This is characterized by our pursuit of happiness, which we should realize rests
ultimately not on any particular good thing that is created by God, but in the highest
good which is God Himself. Our striving for this ultimate happiness, while important,
will not in itself bring us to this blessed state. In other words, salvation is only possible
through the presence of God’s grace and that grace has become perfectly incarnate
in the person of Jesus. Thus, the third part focuses on Jesus as our Savior.

THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’s ETHICS

A full consideration of Aquinas’s ethics would require us to explore his
discussion of other matters, such as how, in our pursuit of happiness, we direct our
actions toward specific ends. We might explore how emotions-”the passions”- are
involved in this process, and therefore require a proper order if they are to properly
contribute to a good life. We might explore how our actions are related to certain
dispositions (often referred to as “habits”) in a dynamic way since our actions both
arise from our habits and at the same time reinforce them. We might explore his
discussion of how we develop either good or bad habits with a good disposition
leading us toward making moral choices, thereby contributing to our moral virtue, and
a bad disposition inclining us toward making immoral choices, bringing us to vice. The
Christian life, therefore, is about developing the capacities given to us by God into a
disposition of virtue inclined toward the good.
 So, we are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoined to develop
and maintain a life of virtue. However, these both require content, so we need
something more. We need a basis for our conscience to be properly informed, and we
need a clearer guidepost on whether certain decisions we make lead us toward virtue
or vice.
We can recall how the ethical approach called the divine command theory
urges a person toward unthinking obedience to religious precepts. In doing so, one’s
sense of right and wrong would be grounded on something stable: human nature
itself.

NEOPLATONIC GOOD
This central belief of the Christian faith, while inspired by divine revelation,
has been shaped and defined by an idea stated in the work of the ancient Greek
philosopher Plato, which had been put forward a thousand years before Aquinas. He
is credited for giving the subsequent history of philosophy in one of its compelling and
enduring ideas: the notion of a supreme and absolutely transcendent good.
 In his work The Republic, it is often supposed that Plato is trying to
envision the ideal society. It can be said that Plato was trying to answer questions
such as, “Why should I bother trying to be good?” and “Why cannot ’good’ be just
whatever I say it is?” His answer, placed in the mouth of the main character Socrates,
is that the good is real and not something that one can pretend to make up or ignore.
The Idea of the Good
Excerpt from The Republic Plato.
“Now, that which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to
the knower is what I would have you term the idea of good, and this you will deem to
be the cause of science, and of truth in so far as the letter becomes the subject of
knowledge; beautiful too, as are both truth and knowledge, you will be right in
esteeming this other nature as more beautiful than either; and, as in the previous
instance, light and sight may be truly said to be like the sun, and yet not to be the
sun, so in this other sphere, science and truth may be deemed to be like the good,
but not the good; the good has a place of honor yet higher.”
 The Good and the One
Excerpt from the Enneads Plotinus.
“It is The Good since, being a power, it is the cause of the intelligent and
intellective life as of life and intellect; for these grow from it as from the source of
essence and of existence, the Source as being One, simplex and first because before
it was nothing. All derives from this; it is the origin of the primal movement which it
does not possess and of the repose which is but its absence of needs; for neither rest
nor movement can belong to that which has no place in which either could occur;
center, object, ground, all are alike unknown to it, for it is before all.”

THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY

The fundamental truth maintained and elaborated by Aquinas in all his
works is the promise right at the Christian faith: that we are created by God in order to
ultimately return to Him. The structure of this magnum opus Summa Theologiae
follows the trajectory of this story.
ARISTOTELIAN BEING AND BECOMING
Any being, according to Aristotle, can be said to have four causes. First, we
recognize that any being we can see around is corporeal, possessed of a certain
materiality or physical “stuff”. We can refer to this as the material cause. The “shape”
that makes a being a particular kind can be called its form. Thus, each being also has
a formal cause.
Once can also realize that a being does not simply “pop up” from nothing,
but comes from another being which is prior to it. Parents beget a child. A mango tree
used to be a see that itself came from an older tree. A chair is built as the product of
a carpenter. Thus, there is something which brings about the presence of another
being. This can be referred to as the efficient cause. Also, since a being has an
apparent end or goal, a chair to be sat on, a pen for writing, a seed to become a tree,
or a child to become an adult, one can speak of the final cause of each being.
Identifying these four causes – material, formal, efficient, and final- gives a way to
understand any being.
Of course, it is not a case of a being that is something which is already permanently
set as it is and remains forever unchanging. So in addition to describing a being,
Aristotle also has to explain to us the process of becoming or the possibility of change
that takes place in a being. A new pair of principles is introduced by him, which we
can refer to as potency and act.

SYNTHESIS
The idea of a transcendent good prior to all being resurfaces in Aquinas in
the form of the good and loving God, who is Himself the fullness of being and of
goodness; as Aquinas puts it, God is that which essentially is and is essentially good.
So we recognize that all beings are only possible as participating in the first being,
which God Himself. God’s ace, like an emanation of light, is the creation of beings.
We see here the beginning of the synthesis by noting how the Neoplatonic
movement from and back toward the transcendent is fused with the Aristotelian
notion of causes. It must be noted, though, that this is not some mechanistic
unthinking process. It is God’s will and love that are the cause of all things; to every
Existing thing, God wills some good. Creation therefore is the activity of the
outpouring or overflowing of God’s goodness. However, while beings are good
because they are created by God, the goodness possessed by being remains
imperfect. “For Aquinas, only God in the fullness of His being and goodness is perfect;
all other beings are participating in this goodness, and are good to God did not create
us to simply be imperfect and to stay that way as He leaves us alone.
God communicates to each being his perfection and goodness. Every
creature then strives to its own perfection; thus the divine goodness is the end of all
actions. All things come from God and are created by Him in order to return to Him.
We now need to recall that beings are created by God in a particular way. Each being
is created as a determinate substance, as a particular combination of form and
matter. The unique way that we have been created can be called our nature. This
nature as a participation in God’s goodness, is both good and imperfect at the same
time. Given that we are beings with a capacity for reason, our way of reaching God is
by knowing and loving him. This applies not only to an individual human being, but
also to all humankind. But we should not forget how the whole community of being,
which is the universe itself, is directed toward its return to God. We shall now try to
understand this dynamic once again, but this time think of it in terms of law.