Take that naturalism!

[Kephapaulos]

I've been meaning to mention this for quite awhile, but I've let other things get in the way, but I was reading a little from The Josias here: https://thejosias.com/2015/02/03/the-good-the-highest-good-and-the-common-good/ The article by Pater Edmund Waldstein, O. Cist. is titled The Good, the Highest Good, and the Common Good.

I looked at the second footnote citation and found the paper referenced and uploaded by Pater Waldstein: https://www.scribd.com/document/234217445/The-Primacy-of-the-Common-Good-as-the-Root-of-Personal-Dignity-in-the-Doctrine-of-St-Thomas-Aquinas

It is a dissertation or treatise by a Sebastiane Walshe, O. Praem. titled  The Primacy of the Common Good as the Root of Personal Dignity in the Doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas.

In that treatise I then noticed the quote from St. Thomas' Summa (Summa Theologica, I-IIae, q.2, a.8, ad3) on the second page:

Bonum creatum non est minus quam bonum cuius homo est capax ut rei intrinsecae et inhaerentis, est tamen minus quam bonum cuius est capax ut obiecti, quod est infinitum.

(https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/sth2001.html)

("Created good is not less than that good of which man is capable, as of something intrinsic and inherent to him: but it is less than the good of which he is capable, as of an object, and which is infinite."(Copied from Summa Theologica found in iPieta app))

The very statement of St. Thomas debunks the naturalism of our day and age. Our last end is in God, not this finite universe. Deo gratias!

[Geremia]

Summa Theologica, I-IIae, q.2, a.8, ad3) on the second page:

Bonum creatum non est minus quam bonum cuius homo est capax ut rei intrinsecae et inhaerentis, est tamen minus quam bonum cuius est capax ut obiecti, quod est infinitum.

(https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/sth2001.html)

("Created good is not less than that good of which man is capable, as of something intrinsic and inherent to him: but it is less than the good of which he is capable, as of an object, and which is infinite."

Integralism ch. 2 reinvigorated my interest in the common good (which is a spiritual/immaterial good, able to be shared equally by all).

De Koninck's The Primacy of the Common Good against the Personalists and The Principle of the New Order refute Maritain's "integral humanism" idea that "human dignity" is a greater good.
This interesting argument for political marriages involves the supremacy of the common good:

There could also be other reasons why it could be expedient for him to marry, for example, if some great good of a spiritual nature would result for a multitude, for example, woman who foresees that she would convert her pagan husband who is a very powerful man, such as a king, or some other man of great power.

If only there were more Esther-like wives of kings and presidents!

pt. 1, §3 "Soul Immensity and Beatific Vision" of Life Everlasting:

Following St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas writes: Temporal goods appear desirable when we do not have them; but when we do have them, we see their poverty, which cannot meet our desire and which therefore produces disillusion, lassitude, and often repugnance. In spiritual goods the inverse is true. They do not seem desirable to those who do not have them and who desire especially sensible good. But the more we possess them the more we know their value and the more we love them.¹ For the same reason, material goods, the same house, the same field, cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to many persons. Spiritual goods, on the contrary, one and the same truth, one and the same virtue, can belong simultaneously and completely to all. And the more perfectly we possess these goods, the better we can communicate them to others.² This is especially true of the sovereign good.

• Ia IIae, q.31, a.5; q.32, a.2; q.33, a.2.
• Ia IIae, q. 28, a.4 ad 2; IIIa, q. 23, a. 1 ad 3.

I really like SCG III qq. 26-44, where the Angelic Doctor addresses questions like "That human felicity does not consist in pleasures of the flesh," "That ultimate felicity does not lie in the act of prudence," "That felicity does not consist in the operation of art," ending with (q. 37) "That the ultimate felicity of man consists in the contemplation of God." But he goes further, arguing "That human felicity does not consist in the knowledge of God gained through demonstration" and even that "Human felicity does not [even] consist in the knowledge of God which is through faith"! Only He Himself can truly fulfill us!

The very statement of St. Thomas debunks the naturalism of our day and age. Our last end is in God, not this finite universe. Deo gratias!

My favorite verse of the the Good Friday hymn Crux fidelis is "Nulla silva talem profert, fronde, flore, germine." ("No forest has produced your like in foliage, flower and fruit") because it's an excellent, concise refutation of naturalism!

[Geremia]

https://thejosias.com/2015/02/03/the-good-the-highest-good-and-the-common-good/ The article by Pater Edmund Waldstein, O. Cist. is titled The Good, the Highest Good, and the Common Good.

A friend printed out his "The Primacy of the Common Good" for me to read. It's good. Have you read it?
It's based on these lectures:

[Kephapaulos]

I have not read, but it seems like a good read.