Appendix
Appendix
Three Things We Must Know to Be Saved
Necessary Things
Expressed in . . .
What to believe
The Creed
What to desire
The Lord’s Prayer
What to do
The Law
The Fourfold Law
Law of . . .
Description
Nature
A natural light God implants in our reason to know what to do and what to avoid
Concupiscence
The law Satan gave man after the Fall that allows our flesh to rebel against reason
Scripture/Moses/Fear
The law God gave us, through Moses, after the corruption of the natural law by the law of concupiscence, so that we can conquer sin through the fear of the Lord and be led back to works of holiness.
Scripture/Jesus/Love
The higher law God gave us, through Jesus Christ, to reject evil in our hearts and seek out the good through our love of God.
Threefold Difference in the Two Scriptural Laws
Law of Moses
Law of Jesus
Slaves
Freemen
Temporal rewards
Everlasting rewards
Heavy
Light
Top Ten Effects of Charity or Love
Major Fourfold Effects
Six Other Effects
Transformation of the spiritual life
Forgiveness
Faithfulness in keeping the commandments
Light
Confidence in God
Joy
Everlasting life
Peace
Dignity
Sons of God
Five Conditions Required for Prayer as Expressed in the Lord’s Prayer
Condition
Brief Explanation
Confidence
Prayer should be confident: “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). We can have no greater confidence than the Lord’s Prayer, since Christ gave it to us.
Rectitude
Prayer should have the rectitude to ask for the right things that are truly good for us. St. Paul wrote, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (see Rom. 8:26). The apostles said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). It follows that we pray most rightly when we ask for what He taught us to pray for.
Order
Desires should be orderly, and so should prayer, since it expresses desires. The right order is to pray for spiritual goods before carnal goods: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, Douay-Rheims), and in the Lord’s Prayer we first ask for heavenly things and then for earthly blessings.
Devoutness
The unction (consecrated oil) of devotion makes the sacrifice acceptable to God: “In thy name I will lift up my hands, let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness” (Ps. 62:5–6, Douay-Rheims [RSV = Ps. 63:4-5]). Yet devotion often cools when prayers are too long, so Christ warned: “When you are praying, speak not much” (Matt. 6:7, Douay-Rheims). Further, devotion arises from charity, which is love of God and neighbor, as is expressed in the loving words “Our Father,” in praying for each other, by asking God to give “us,” and forgive “us.”
Humility
Prayer should be humble: “He hath regard to the prayer of the humble” (Ps. 101:18, Douay-Rheims [RSV = Ps. 102:17]), as is seen in the story of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:10–14), and in the words of Judith “The prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16, Douay-Rheims). The Lord’s Prayer observes such humility because in it we do not presume on our own strength but trust in obtaining all things through God’s power.
St. Thomas on the Varieties of Justice133
Types of Justice
Description
Distributive
Distributive justice is one of two “subjective parts” of justice — that is, what justice is all about. Distributive justice is the relation between a whole and its parts. It refers to the way in which a community distributes commons goods to each individual.
Commutative
The other subjective part of justice, commutative justice, regards the relation of one part to another. It refers to private individuals and the mutual dealings between them.
Political
Political justice refers to governmental systems and institutions set up for citizens within a polis (community) based on natural rights or on legal agreement or consent between private individuals or by public agreement regarding community goods.
General
General justice refers to the virtue by which a person is a good citizen and acts for the welfare of the common good.
Legal
Legal justice is the expression of general justice in the form of laws designed to benefit the common good.
Particular
Particular justice directs individuals immediately to the good of other individuals.
Domestic
Domestic justice refers to unique, intimate relationships within a household, such as that between husband and wife, or father and son, in which each person is, in a sense, a part of the other.
Metaphorical
Strictly speaking, justice is always social and between persons. Metaphorical justice refers to treating one’s principles of action, such as reason and the concupiscible and irascible appetites, as if they were agents of actions themselves. Thus, metaphorically speaking, we can say that in the just person, the appetites obey the commands of reason, rendering reason its rightful due.
Parts of the Virtue of Justice
Integral Parts
Subjective Parts
Potential Parts
Doing good
Commutative justice
Religion, piety
Avoiding evil
Distributive justice
Observance, gratitude
Vengeance, truth
Friendliness, liberality
The Hierarchies and Orders of the Angels134
Hierarchy
Order
Characteristics
Highest
They contemplate the idea of things in God Himself and have the closest relation to Him.
Seraphim
They are most closely united to God, singing perpetual praises around His throne.
Cherubim
They know the divine secrets “supereminently” through God Himself.
Thrones
They receive judgments from God and pass them on to the second hierarchy.
Middle
They contemplate the idea of things in universal causes and are involved in governing.
Dominations
They appoint things that are to be done.
Virtues
They possess the power to carry out what is to be done.
Powers
They decide how what has been commanded will be carried out by others.
Lowest
They contemplate the idea of things in their application to particular effects, and they execute God’s works.
Principalities
They act as rulers, presiding over the government of peoples and kingdoms of the earth.
Archangels
They announce to men great things above the power of reason.
Angels
They announce to men small things within the limits of reason.
Foyer
Memorize the 12 Life Lessons135
Location
Image
Life Lesson
1. Front door
You sign for a package labeled “The Best.”
1. Accept only the best.
2. Doormat
Microscope on mat focuses in on a piece of matter.
2. Focus on things that matter the most.
3. Glass panel next to door
You have no peace because a group in the front yard is singing without any harmony.
3. No harmony, no peace!
4. Portrait on wall by door
Your favorite Supreme Court justice is shown walking through his or her own front door.
4. Justice begins at home.
5. Gun rack on side wall
You easily hoist your brothers and sisters on top of the rack.136
5. Our brothers (and sisters) ain’t heavy.
6. Center of foyer
You smile, greet, and hug your double.
6. Be your own best friend.
7. Chandelier
Jesus is up there writing in sand and telling a woman to go and sin no more, while forgiving her for past sins.
7. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
8. Mirror on other wall
You spy two bees in T-shirts, one with an M for “male,” the other with an F for “female.”
8. Be a man (or a woman)!
9. Cushioned bench under mirror
A model of your church sits there surrounded by trees.
9. Go to Mass, not to the woods, every Sunday.
10. Three drawers in bench
As you open the three drawers, out pops your guardian angel, your favorite saint, and Jesus Christ Himself!
10. Listen to that angel on your shoulder
11. Be a saint
12. Get Jesus
12 Life Lessons Thomistic Quotations
Life Lesson
Quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas
1. Accept only the best.
“The ultimate and principal good of man is the enjoyment of God.”
— ST, II-II, 23, 7
2. Focus on things that matter the most.
“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”
— Treatise on the Two Commandments of Charity
3. No harmony, no peace!
“Concord denotes union of appetites among various persons, while peace denotes, in addition to this union, the union of the appetites even in one man.”
— ST, II-II, 29, 1
4. Justice begins at home.
“Justice is a habit, which makes a man capable of doing what is just, and of being just in action and in intention.”
— ST, II-II, 58, 1
5. Our brothers (and sisters) ain’t heavy.
“It is written (Matt 22:39): ‘The second commandment is like this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ . . . This precept is fittingly expressed, for it indicates both the reason for loving and the mode of love. . . . Nor does it matter whether we say ‘neighbor’ or ‘brother’ according to 1 John 4:21, or ‘friend’ according to Leviticus 19:18, because all the words express the same affinity.”
— ST, II-II, 44, 7
6. Be your own best friend.
“Just as unity is the principle of union, the love with which a man loves himself is the form and the root of friendship.”
— ST, II-II, 25, 4
7. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
“To correct the wrongdoer is a spiritual alsmdeed. But almsdeeds are works of charity. . . . Therefore, fraternal correction is an act of charity. . . . The correction of the wrongdoer is a remedy which should be employed against a man’s sin.”
— ST, II-II, 33, 1
8. Be a man (or a woman)!
“Fortitude, as a virtue, perfects the mind in the endurance of all perils whatever; but it does not go so far as to give confidence of overcoming all dangers: this belongs to the fortitude that is the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
— ST, II-II, 139, 1
9. Go to Mass, not to the woods, every Sunday.
“A man is said to be religious from ‘religio,’ because he often ponders over, and, as it were, reads again (religit), the things which pertain to worship. . . . Or again, religion may be derived from ‘religare’ (to bind together), wherefore Augustine says (Of True Religion, 55): May religion bind us to the one Almighty God.”
— ST, II-II, 81, 1
10. Listen to that angel on your shoulder
“There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself. . . . Now God produces the creature by his intellect and will. Hence, the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal faculty limited to here and now. Hence the perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature.”
— ST, I, 50, 1
11. Be a saint
“Do not fail to imitate the lives of saintly and noble men.”
— Letter to Brother John on How to Study
12. Get Jesus
“The way, it has been said, is Christ Himself, so He says, ‘I am the way.’ This is indeed true, for, as stated in Romans (Rom. 5:2), it is through Him that we have access to the Father. . . . Because this way is not separated from its destination but united to it, He adds, ‘and the truth, and the life.’ So Christ is at once both the way and the destination. He is the way by reason of His human nature, and the destination because of His divinity. Therefore, as human, He says, ‘I am the way’; as God, He adds, ‘and the truth, and the life.’ ”
— Commentary on the Gospel of John, chapter14, lecture 2
133 Distributive and commutative justice are defined in ST, II-II, Q. 61, art. 1, legal justice in Q. 58. art. 6, particular and domestic justice in art. 7, political justice in Q. 57, art. 2, and metaphorical justice in Q. 58, art. 2.
134 Derived from I, 108.
135 At the suggestion of an author friend (thank you, Tim Moore), I provide this simple summary chart of suggested memory images for the location system I detailed in my previous books Memorize the Faith! and How to Think Like Aquinas. The method is based, as is so much else in this book, on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, in this case II-II, 49, 1, “Whether Memory Is a Part of Prudence.” (If I should come to give public talks on this book, I’ll be using these very same images in lieu of written notes!) Please note that the foyer illustration is provided to show the memory location system rather than the exact images we load on them with our imaginations. The fourth location has two people because when first used in Memorize the Faith! it housed the Fourth Commandment, to honor your father and mother. If you use your imagination, these locations can be adapted to help you recall any information you should choose to place there.
136 Don’t have any brothers or sisters? No problem at all. Just imagine them.