Pints With Aquinas - 158: Aquinas on the act of faith

Starting point is 00:00:00 G'day and welcome to Pints with Aquinas. How you going? My name's Matt Fradd. If you could sit down over a pint of bloody beer with Thomas Aquinas and ask him any one question, what would it be? In today's episode, we're going to be talking about faith, what that is, what that looks like, why we have to have faith in order to please God. I know it sounded like I was crying then, but I was burping and I didn't want you to hear it. Did you hear it?

Starting point is 00:00:29 It was so gross. I'm so sorry. Okay. So stuff like that, really, and it's going to be great and you're going to enjoy it. And then at the end, we're going to take questions from our patrons and we got some really interesting questions like whether the canonization of saints are infallible teachings of the church, how it is that the saints hear our prayers in heaven without being omniscient. People ask about how my family prays at the end of each night. So it's kind of fun. We have some really personal and funny questions as well as some really interesting theological ones. I think you're really going to bloody enjoy it. I sometimes wonder and fear for those who are listening to this for the first time.

Starting point is 00:01:12 How are you taking it? Have you stopped it yet? Have you clicked stop? Don't click stop. It gets way more normal. Here you go. Welcome back to Pints with Aquinas, the show where you and I pull up a barstool next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. Today I want to talk about an article from the Secunda Secundae, question two, having to do with the act of faith. And I want to look at the second article here,

Starting point is 00:02:03 whether the act of faith is suitably distinguished as belief. Well, actually, let's look at number one and two. So, the first article is whether to believe is to think with assent. The second article is whether the act of faith is suitably distinguished as believing God, believing in a God, and believing in God. So, I just want to read through those, give some commentary and draw out some things that I find interesting. Then towards the end, I'm going to take some of my patrons' questions. Thank you very much. And yeah, so it should be a fun one. I also want to let you know, this is the last day that you can get my Non-Nissite Dominé t-shirts. They are not available for much longer. So, click the link at the top of the show notes. It'll take you over to that page. Get yourself a Non-Nissite Dominé t-shirt or sweater or mug or sticker. They look really great. They're terrific quality and all

Starting point is 00:02:58 the money goes to support Pints with Aquinas. So, that would be super great. All right. Before we get into today's show though, I got to share you, I just whistled really weird with my lips as I said, share. I'm not sure how that happened. Share. Anyway, I want to share with you something that happened to me recently that just blew me away as to the power of God and the goodness of God in our lives. I shared this with y'all over Patreon. So for those of you who have supported me or are supporting me, you already know about this and I sent you those photos of what happened. But for those of you who don't, I had the tremendous joy of going to Washington DC last month, hanging out with Father Gregory Pine. We just did that live episode with him and he's been on the Matt Fradd show and stuff like that. And anyway, while I was there,

Starting point is 00:03:46 I met up with a bloke that I have not seen in a long time. I'm not actually going to say his name just to kind of protect his identity. But let me just tell you the story because this is really powerful. Several years ago, while I was living in Ireland, I went with my wife to a local Irish pub up the road from our house. And it's the sort of pub that plays traditional Irish music. You know, a bunch of Irish blokes sitting around a table with Balrons and Irish bagpipes and the whole deal. The place is always packed. I think every Tuesday night they would do this deal. The place is always packed. I think it was every Tuesday night they would do this. So the place was completely crowded. Everyone's drinking, having a good time.

Starting point is 00:04:31 And there's usually people from overseas there, like tourists and stuff. So anyway, my wife and I went there. We got a drink. We were standing there. And across the pub, I saw this redheaded bloke. and I immediately knew that despite his red hair and Irish complexion, that he was indeed American. I don't know why, probably because of his straight white teeth or something that you Americans all have. Anyway, as soon as I laid eyes on him, I felt, and now I know this is going to sound strange, but I felt that the Lord was telling me to go and evangelize him. This doesn't happen to me often. And so, when it did happen, it was just a strong kind of like push, this urge, you need to go tell him about the gospel. And I think

Starting point is 00:05:19 I probably tried to dismiss it, but it was so strong that I felt like I would be sinning if I didn't. So, I went up to him with my wife who was American. And so, she kind of broke the ice because she's American. Anyway, this is going to sound super creepy and maybe it is. Because when I saw him, I had no idea that he was Catholic, if he believed or anything like that. So, I go over to him and I give him a rosary that I had handmade. And I said, I think Mary wants you to have this. I know that is super creepy of me, but shut up. I did it anyway. Anyway, long story short, the reason my wife and I were living in Donegal at the time was because we were helping to establish the NET Ministries, NET stands for National Evangelization Teams. They're still over there, by the way,

Starting point is 00:06:10 if you want to travel around Ireland for a year. Anyway, we helped set up the office there. Long story short, this guy, well, I don't think he'd mind me telling you his name. His name is Patrick. Patrick Hagen was his name. And so, Patrick did net the next year. And one thing led to another, he ended up joining the Dominicans. So, this month, May, he will be being ordained a priest, a Dominican priest. So, while I was with Father Pine, I said, hey, is Patrick Hagen, he's got a new name now. His name is Brother Joseph. Again, I don't know why I said I hey, is Patrick Hagen, he's got a new name now. His name is Brother Joseph. Again, I don't know why I said I wouldn't share his name. There's nothing kind of incriminating in this at all. So, Brother Joseph. So, he texted Brother Joseph. Brother Joseph came down to the

Starting point is 00:06:54 Starbucks. I was drinking coffee and it was so amazing to see this redheaded fellow again in a complete Dominican habit. So, I kind of bear hugged the guy. He's just so humble and intelligent and awesome. And we had a great chat. And as we were leaving, oh my gosh, as we were leaving, he pulls out that same rosary that I gave him 12 years ago. And I couldn't believe it because I looked at it. And at first I didn't think, oh, this is the rosary I gave you. I just looked at it. I thought, oh, wow, that looks like rosaries that I used to make because I didn't put knots in between the Hail Marys and the Our Father. I didn't like those kind of, you know, anyway. So I'm like, and he said, yeah, this is the rosary

Starting point is 00:07:38 you gave to me in that pub. And the Lord really helped me to be an evangelist during that. And that really got the ball rolling. Glory to Jesus Christ. Here's what I'm going to do. I am going to put a link in the show notes here. So you can click that link and you guys can see the photo of me and brother Joseph, and then another photo of him holding up the rosary that I gave him 12 years ago. But I tell you what, man, I mean, that just, it blows you away. It blows you away. And I think sometimes it's really scary to do stuff like that. And sometimes you fail. I was sharing with my wife, oh my gosh, I'm going to share something really embarrassing with you. Are you ready? I was on a bus in Ireland and I saw this woman sitting at the front of the bus and

Starting point is 00:08:25 she looks sad. And I just felt that woman is beautiful. And so I felt like the Lord was telling me to go tell her she was beautiful. This doesn't end well. Anyway, so she gets off the bus because we had this, I don't know, we were getting off to get tea and refill the bus. And I saw her and I walked up to her and I went, hey, excuse me. My plan was to say, hey, I want to let you know that you are good and you are beautiful and the Lord loves you and he has a plan for your life. And that's what I wanted to do. But I'm following after her and she just keeps walking. I'm like, hey, excuse me, excuse me. And she kept walking. And it wasn't until like an hour later that I realized how freaking creepy that was, that a guy got off a bus and started walking after her.

Starting point is 00:09:05 creepy that was that a guy got off a bus and started walking after her. So, I'm calling out her name and I'm legitimately wondering why she isn't listening to me. And I'm like, of course, you freaking creeper. You had some dude in a bus walking after her to tell her she's beautiful. That's creepy. Anyway, I had the best of intentions, I promise. But anyway, my point is, sometimes these evangelization efforts are embarrassing. They fall flat. We don't know for sure whether or not we're doing the Lord's will. And I think it takes a lot of humility because when you do something that's embarrassing like that, you're like, I will never put myself out again. But this, again, that doesn't happen to me often. So, just like I could probably count on two or,

Starting point is 00:09:40 okay, maybe 20 hands, how many times I've done this. But anyway, in this case, glory to God, what a beautiful thing. And so, I would ask every one of you out there to please pray for Brother Joseph. And again, be sure to click that link and check out those photos of me and him because I think that is really cool. So, there you go. There's two stories, one time where I seemed super holy and one time where I seemed like a super creepy bugger. So, I just thought I'd share that with you. All right, let's talk about faith, baby. Let's talk about faith because, you know, faith and reason, right? People have spoken about this forever. It's a big thing that people talk about online. Isn't faith contrary to reason? Can you genuinely be a reasonable person and hold to Christian doctrine? Don't they conflict? And these sorts of things.

Starting point is 00:10:26 I want to just look at these first two articles from question two of the Secunda Secundae in the Summa Theologiae. So, here's what I'll do. I'll read the respondio, which is going to be a little complicated, and then I'll break it down for you. And hopefully, then it won't be complicated, and you'll see why this is going to be helpful for you in your own faith walk, okay? So, here's the question, whether to believe is to think with assent. So, he's trying to get at, you know, what does it mean to believe? Is it an internal act of faith? So, Aquinas is going to say it is, right? To believe is to, you know, think with assent. And here's his respondio. Again, I a general way for any kind of actual consideration of the intellect, as Augustine observes, quote from Augustine, by understanding, I mean now the faculty whereby we understand when thinking. All right. So, the second way when we talk about to think can mean this,

Starting point is 00:11:48 says Aquinas, to think is more strictly taken for that consideration of the intellect, which is accompanied by some kind of inquiry and which precedes the intellect's arrival at the stage of perfection that comes with the certitude of sight. On this, Augustine says that the Son of God is not called the thought, but the Word of God. When our thought realizes what we know and takes form therefrom, it becomes our word. Hence, the word of God must be understood without any thinking on the part of God, for there is nothing there that can take form or be unformed. In this way, thought is, take form or be unformed. In this way, thought is, properly speaking, the movement of the mind while yet deliberating and not yet perfected by the clear side of truth. Since, however, such a movement of the mind may be one of deliberation either about universal notions,

Starting point is 00:13:07 of deliberation either about universal notions which belong to the intellectual faculty or about particular matters which belongs to the sensitive part, hence it is that to think is taken secondly for an act of the deliberating intellect and thirdly for an act of the cogitative power. for an act of the cogitative power. Accordingly, if to think be understood broadly according to the first sense, then to think with assent does not express completely what is meant by to believe, since in this way a man thinks with assent even when he considers what he knows by science. Science is certain knowledge of a demonstrated conclusion through its demonstration. Or understands. If, on the other hand, to think be understood in the second way, then this expresses completely the nature of the act of believing. For among the acts belonging

Starting point is 00:14:08 to the intellect, some have a firm assent without any such kind of thinking, as when a man considers the things that he knows by science or understands, for this consideration is already formed. But some acts of the intellect have unformed thought devoid of a firm assent, whether they incline to either side, as in one who doubts, or incline to one side rather than the other, but on account of some slight motive, as in one who suspects, or incline to one side, as in one who suspects, or inclined to one side yet with fear of the other, as in one who opines. But this act to believe cleaves firmly to one side, in which respect belief has something in common with science and understanding, yet its knowledge does not attain the perfection of clear sight, wherein it agrees with doubt, suspicion, and opinion. Hence, it is proper to the believer to think with assent so that the

Starting point is 00:15:18 act of believing is distinguished from all the other acts of the intellect, which are about the true or false. All right. That was a lot. It was jam-packed. It was brilliant. Let me give you my less than brilliant breakdown of it. So, what is it that we mean by belief? Presumably, you believe in God. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe all of the truths that the Catholic Church teaches. What is it that we mean by belief? Well, Augustine says, and this is the kind of thing that Thomas is debating in this article, that believing is giving assent to something that one is still thinking about. So, strictly speaking, we think about what we cannot yet fully see to be true. That's why we're thinking. That's why we're moving from premise to premise, trying to arrive at a conclusion. Now, sometimes our mind firmly assents to things it's no longer thinking about.

Starting point is 00:16:29 So, like in this way, it's when we know something, when we see it to be evident, you know, like if I, let's see, well, whole and part, you know, if you're trying to explain to me that the whole is greater than the part, or if I try and're trying to explain to me that the whole is greater than the part, or if I try and explain that to my daughter, and let's say my children don't know what I mean by whole, and I have to explain what I mean by whole. Well, once she understands whole, and once she understands part, she understands that it is self-evident to say that the whole is greater than the part. All right. So, sometimes the mind does firmly assent to things that it no longer thinks about. Now, at other times, we haven't finished thinking about something. And so,

Starting point is 00:17:12 we withhold firm assent. That's what Aquinas means when he says that we're leaning towards neither alternative. And this is what he calls doubting. And so,, like maybe an example for me, quite honestly with you is like, should we legalize marijuana or not? Now, my knee-jerk reaction to that is no. But then when I hear people argue for why it would be good, I no longer know if I'm so certain anymore. So I really, I don't know. Now, some of you may totally disagree with me and say, we must keep it illegal. Well, that would just be an example of your mind firmly assenting to something you believe to be true. Likewise, if you think it's wrong that the government regulate it. I don't know why I'm using this as an example. Gosh, I couldn't have come up with a less controversial one. Anyway, but again, you might have your mind clearly made up about this, but maybe you doubt about it, right? Okay, so that's that. But at other times, we haven't finished thinking about something, right? So, we doubt. So, that would be the example I just gave. Or we suspect one way or the other because we're leaning one way or the

Starting point is 00:18:27 other. That's the other thing that Aquinas mentions. Or perhaps we accept, but not firmly. You know, so we hold an opinion about something, but we're willing to be disavowed of it. So, Aquinas is saying in this respondio that believing, however, means putting faith in something. And this resembles knowing in that it gives firm assent. So, when somebody comes to Christ, has faith in God, one is indeed giving firm assent. We're not saying I have an opinion about God existing and I can be disavowed of it. We're saying, no, I firmly assent to the fact that God exists, that Christ is who he claimed to be and so forth. So, we put faith in this thing. Now, this resembles,

Starting point is 00:19:22 as I say, knowing in that it gives a scent, but it also, in a sense, resembles doubting, suspecting, and holding opinions because it has no finished vision of truth, all right? So, I just think that's really cool because some of you may have placed faith in God and in Christ, and yet someone asks you a question and you do not know how to answer it, and that may shake your belief, but it needn't. I'm reminded of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who said something to the effect of, a thousand questions don't make a doubt. So, we as Christians aren't putting our faith in Christ, right, in the gospel, in the church, in a sense, because we have all of our questions answered, and we see it clearly, like we see that the whole is greater than the part. There are still questions. So, I like that. Like we're assenting to something,

Starting point is 00:20:32 but we're still thinking about it. Now, we can maybe take this the wrong way and we could, like when we're talking about faith, we're not talking about something that we can necessarily prove in the way that we can prove a whole is greater than the part. Faith's ascent is an act of mind, not determined by reasons as Aquinas, but by will. So, obviously, the faith is reasonable, but when we put our faith, that act of faith is an act of the will. Yeah, so I just, I find that really helpful. I mean, back to that point that we can't prove the faith. Obviously, there are things that we can prove by philosophical reasoning. Aquinas thinks that we can prove the existence of God. Aquinas thinks that we can prove,

Starting point is 00:21:28 say, the natural law and other things like that. But Aquinas doesn't think that we can prove that God is a Trinity as previous Christians thought, such as Saint Anselm of Canterbury. He doesn't think, unless I'm mistaken, that we can prove the existence of angels, right? So, God had to reveal this to us and it's because he reveals it to us that we consent to it, even though we still have a long way to go in it, a lot of questions to ask. In article two here, it says, whether the act of faith is suitably distinguished as believing God, believing in a God, and believing God. So, this has to do with Augustine's words. Augustine says that God is what, who, and why we believe. Isn't that cool? God is what we believe, God is who we believe,

Starting point is 00:22:26 and God is why we believe. So, the object of our faith in three different ways. He, that is God, is what we assent to. He is the truth guaranteeing what it is that we've assented to, and He is the goal our will is pursuing when it determines our mind to assent. So, we believe because truth speaks truly, that is to say, God has revealed it. Let's look at the third article here, and this has to do with the idea that without faith, we cannot please God. And that is, in fact, what he says in the said contra in Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. The respondio Aquinas says, wherever one nature is subordinate to another, we find that two things concur towards the perfection of the lower nature, one of which is in respect to the

Starting point is 00:23:34 nature's proper movement, while the other is in respect of the movement of the higher nature. Thus, water by its proper movement moves towards the center of the earth, while according to the movement of the moon, it moves around the center by ebb and flow. Unlike manna, the planets have their proper movements from west to east, while in accordance with the movement of the first heaven, they have a movement from east to west. Now, the created rational nature alone is immediately subordinate to God, since other creatures do not attain to the universal, but only to something particular, while they partake of the divine goodness, either in being only as inanimate things, or also in living and in knowing singulars as plants and animals, whereas the rational nature is as

Starting point is 00:24:27 much as it apprehends the universal notion of good and being is immediately related to the universal principle of being. Here's his just the last small paragraph here. I know that this can be really difficult to kind of take in what I'm throwing at you and you're not reading it, but he says, consequently, the 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. According to John 6 45, everyone that hath heard the father and hath learned cometh to me.

Starting point is 00:25:13 Now man acquires a share of this learning, not indeed all at once, but by little and little, according to the mode of his nature. And everyone who learns thus must needs believe in order that he may acquire science in a perfect degree. Thus also the philosopher remarks that it behooves a learner to believe. Hence, in order that a man arrive at the perfect vision of heavenly happiness, he must first of all believe God as a disciple believes the master who is teaching him. So, okay, we're getting into the third article. Let's face it, we're probably just going to go through all of the articles in this section here. But what he's basically saying here is that when something is naturally subordinated to something else, so when my will is subject to my reason,

Starting point is 00:26:09 is subject to my reason, then my will, for example, perfection consists not only in doing what it can do on its own, but also in what it gets from the higher nature, namely my reason. And so that's where Aquinas uses that example of the water and the moon. So, the point here is the only nature that relates immediately to God is that of reasoning creatures, because we grasp the meaning of good and existence in general, and so we can relate them immediately to the source of existence as such. So, our perfection consists not only in what we can do naturally, like be rational, but it also consists in what we can do supernaturally, by supernaturally, sharing God's own goodness. So, we can say, and this is what Aquinas is saying here in this article, that our ultimate happiness consists in a sort of supernatural sight of God. And then there's that quote from Aristotle that Aquinas throws in that learners, like you and me,

Starting point is 00:27:19 students, if we're to attain full knowledge that we have to put our faith in our teacher. if we're to attain full knowledge that we have to put our faith in our teacher. And so, that's why we need faith. That's why faith is virtuous. We have to subordinate ourselves to what God teaches us. Now, it is dangerous to believe things without evidence, without verification, if we're assenting to things that we can't verify. But we have good reason to believe in God. So, Aquinas isn't saying we don't have any good reason to believe in God. We do have good reason to believe in God, and that's why we ought to assent to it. So, what else should we say here? I think that'll do for that bit. Here's the fourth article. I love this because, you know, yeah, let's talk about the fourth article here. So, this is important, right?

Starting point is 00:28:12 Because, you know, we're saying here, right, there are certain things that we can know by reason, and there are certain things that we can know by faith. And we can argue about those things that we can know by reason, but it's not a good idea to argue about those things that we can know by reason, but it's not a good idea to argue about those things that we can know by faith. Though Aquinas says we ought to be able to show those who try to contradict our faith that it's not illogical and that, you know, if we're both arguing from Scripture, let's say, we could be at a point from Scripture and say, well, here's why we believe that thing. But again, when it comes to things like the Trinity and angels and the incarnation, without scripture, without God actually revealing that to us, we can't actually know it. So, there are things that we can know

Starting point is 00:28:53 by natural reason, and there are things that we can know by faith. And so, you think, well, can everyone know those things? Because just because Aquinas says that we can know that God exists apart from faith, that's what the first Vatican Council, I believe, taught as well, De Fide, right? So, the question in Article 4 is whether it's necessary to believe those things which can be proved by natural reason. And Aquinas says it's necessary for man to accept by faith, not only things which are above reason, such as the incarnation and the existence of angels and the Trinity,

Starting point is 00:29:29 but also those things which can be known by reason and why. And so, I love this. Here's three reasons that you should believe in things, like accept them on faith, even if you haven't thought them through yourself. He says, first, in order that man may arrive more quickly at the knowledge of divine truth, because the science to whose province it belongs to prove the existence of God is the last of all to offer itself to human research, since it presupposes many other sciences, so that it would not be until late in life that man would arrive at the knowledge of God. So, his point here is, all right, you want to understand that God exists and you want to argue for that and come to that truth, you can do that,

Starting point is 00:30:19 but you first have to understand, you know, metaphysics, for example, you have to study that, you have to study logic and these sorts of things. And so, you know, youysics, for example, you have to study that, you have to study logic and these sorts of things. And so, you know, you'd be quite late in life before you came to this firm acceptance that God existed. The second reason, says Aquinas, is in order that the knowledge of God may be more general. That's why we should accept this without needing to prove it. For many are unable to make progress in the study of science, either through dullness of mind or through having a number of occupations and temporal needs, or even through laziness in learning, all of whom would be altogether deprived of the knowledge of

Starting point is 00:30:58 God, unless divine things were brought to their knowledge under the guise of faith. So, that's a good point, right? I mean, we're busy. We are dullards. At least I am a dullard. You know, there's so much I do not understand. I got lots of things that I'm doing. Now, thankfully, this is kind of my job. So, I'm sort of paid to read these things and to explain them. I mean, I think my wife is downstairs, you know, she's doing different things. She's busy. My mom, you know, and dad, they're busy doing different occupations that don't involve thinking about these things. So, many of us are too busy, you know, to kind of think these things. So, you know, it's good. You don't have to take courses in metaphysics and logic to be able to come to knowledge of

Starting point is 00:31:38 God's existence. And again, he's just really honest. Like some of us are lazy. We're like bad at learning and things like that. So, that's another reason that we should accept on faith things that, you know, can be proved, but not necessarily by us. thing. It's deficient in things concerning God. A sign of this is that philosophers in their researches by natural investigation into human affairs have fallen into many errors and have disagreed among themselves. And consequently, in order that men might have knowledge of God, free of doubt and uncertainty, it was necessary for divine matters to be delivered to them by way of faith, being told to them, as it were, by God himself, who cannot lie. So, there you go. That's why we can accept these things. Again, not because we don't have any good reason to accept it, but precisely because we do have good reason, right, that God has revealed himself to us. He has revealed Christ. He has raised him from

Starting point is 00:32:43 the dead. Christianity has been proved through miracles, say. And so, while there are certain things that can be thought through, and I look at some of my friends at the Dominican Institute who are much better at thinking through these things and say, I am, and maybe you are, so that we can look at them and say, okay, I know somebody knows how to explain these well, I've heard them explain them to me well, and I nearly grasped it, but it was a little above my head. That's okay. If you can be a scholar who dedicates your time to these things, great, do it for the glory of God. But for many of us, we won't have that time, and yet we can still accept these things. And again, that doesn't mean we have all the answers. That's precisely what we

Starting point is 00:33:25 don't have. That's why it's faith. We're accepting it, but there's more to be known, but that more to be known doesn't pose a doubt. Okay, what I want to do now is look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church, what it has to say on faith, and then we will take some of your questions here. faith, and then we will take some of your questions here. So, in paragraph 143, the catechism says, by faith, man, that is both men and women, if it has to be said, completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being, man gives his assent to God, the revealer. Sacred scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, the obedience of faith. So, that's what it is. And that kind of gets back to Aquinas' quote of Aristotle there. We are the pupil. We submit ourselves to the teacher. If you are not to

Starting point is 00:34:18 submit yourself to the teacher, you will not learn. If you continually think that you are above the teacher, then you cannot learn. You have to be docile. When you learn things, it's difficult at first, and sometimes it seems counterintuitive. But if we aren't going to be submissive to the teacher, we won't be able to learn. And that's why we need the obedience of faith. What does it mean to obey? What is the obedience of faith? In paragraph 144, it says, to obey, and this word obey comes from the Latin to hear, to listen. To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by sacred scripture, All right. Paragraph 150 says, personal adherence of man to God. At the same time and inseparably, it is a free assent to the

Starting point is 00:35:28 whole truth that God has revealed, a personal adherence to God and assent to his truth. Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. So you might know somebody who is virtuous and intelligent, and to that degree, you might put faith in them, but you don't put faith whole and entire in that person in the way that you do in God, because that, at the end of the day, is an errant, fallible, fallen human being. And God, of course, is truth itself. 151 says, for a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the one he sent,

Starting point is 00:36:18 his beloved son, in whom the father is well-pleased. God tells us to listen to him. in whom the Father is well pleased. God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples, believe in God, believe also in me. We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the word made flesh. So one, sorry, no one has ever seen God, the only son who is in the bosom of the father. He has made him known because he has seen the father. Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him. You know, speaking about having to kind of submit ourselves to the teacher and having to receive information that is difficult. A good example of that is, of course, Mary, like the catechism says. She's the prime example.

Starting point is 00:37:06 But another example would be that of Peter in John chapter 6, where Jesus is going around saying, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And people are freaking out and people are leaving. And he explains this very well. I mean, if you look at it, they object to him, he goes further. They object, he explains again. And at this point, like Peter and the disciples are kind of a little flummoxed. They're not really sure how to respond. And Christ, the teacher, looks at his disciples, right? His students, those who ought to submit to him and says, will you leave too? And Peter says what we should say, where am I to go?

Starting point is 00:37:46 You alone have the words of eternal life. So, like we live in an anti-Christian culture right now. I think anti-Christian is fair, especially, I mean, I live in the United States where you have states passing legislation that allows us to, you know, tear apart children in the womb and all sorts of other crazy things. This is wicked. And it would seem to me that we're going to look pretty bloody weird, you know, and that can be difficult. And sometimes we're preached at by the world more than we are the scriptures because we subject ourselves and submit ourselves to Netflix, say, Amazon Prime, Cosmo, and all that garbage. And so, we're being indoctrinated by the world and then we encounter the gospel and what the Catholic Church teaches about man

Starting point is 00:38:38 and woman, say, about the goodness of sex, about what marriage is and why two men can never be married and why it's always immoral for them to perform sodomy. And we look at the church and we say, that can't be right. So, we're putting our allegiance in the world at that point. My point is just this, there are things that are difficult to understand in our faith. The idea that an all-loving God should send someone to hell is something that might be difficult to understand. It's not irreconcilable, but the point is, I think many of us don't take the time to see how it reconciles because it's so distasteful to us at first. But part of being a disciple is submitting to the word of God. It's submitting to the tradition. It's submitting to what the

Starting point is 00:39:25 church teaches. And when we don't understand it, rather than abandoning Christ, like so many did in John chapter 6, we should turn to Christ and say, where else am I to go? You alone have the words of eternal life. And to use a different analogy, you can imagine the disciples being scandalized by other disciples. You can imagine them being scandalized by Peter, who's denying Christ. You can imagine them being scandalized by Judas, who betrayed him. You can imagine them being scandalized by each other when every one of them abandoned Christ. Everyone except for John at the cross. And you can imagine them saying, like, this is it? Like, this is the community? Christ wants to start

Starting point is 00:40:10 on earth? This is the church? This can't be the church. Look at it. Look at these cowards. Look at these betrayers. Look at these backbiters. Look at these, you know, well, we can do the same thing in our day and age. When we look at certain bishops and priests and Catholics, you know, like, how the heck can this be? Have you seen it? And I think, I don't know if the disciples were tempted to abandon Peter, but you could sympathize with one who's like, look, I cannot follow someone who is betraying the Lord. How can you possibly do that? Well, where can we go? I think that's another thing. You look around at evangelicalism and they share many of the truths that we have, but they do not have the full truth that has been revealed to the Catholic church. You look to orthodoxy and you see how masculine it is and how their liturgy very often is much more reverent than

Starting point is 00:41:11 the Holy Mass is celebrated, at least here in the United States. But they do not have the fullness of the truth, right? They do not have the chair of Peter. They've kind of like dropped the ball when it comes to issues of contraception and divorce and things like this. And that isn't to say that we can't recognize what's good in these different groups or faiths or whatever. But I think the point is that whenever we encounter this, this disturbing fact, these matters, we should look to Christ and like Peter say, where should I go? You alone have the words of eternal life. All right. I hope that was a help, everybody. Now, what I'd like to do is take some of your questions before we wrap up today's show. All right, all right, all right. Big thank you to everybody who supports me on Patreon.

Starting point is 00:42:03 You guys make the Pints with Aquinas possible. You make the Matt Frad Show possible. All this work cannot happen without wonderful folks like you giving five bucks a month, 10 bucks a month, sometimes more. If you're listening out there and you're getting a lot from these podcasts, please support the work that I'm doing so I can continue to bring it to you and to bring it to another level and to bring it to more people. So here come some questions from our patrons. I might butcher some of your last names and y'all will just have to forgive me in advance. First question comes from Brian Ayers. He says, are the canonizations of saints considered infallible teachings? Gosh, it's interesting

Starting point is 00:42:40 that you bring that up because I just interviewed Annie Hickman for the Matt Fradd Show, it's interesting that you bring that up because I just interviewed Annie Hickman for the Matt Fradd Show, which will be coming out in, gee, May. Yeah. So this month. So look out for that. But in there, I made the point that we often think that it's a done deal and that the canonization of saints are infallible. And I said, I don't think that they are. Well, I went and did some research and I think the best answer I could come up with is they're not necessarily infallible. The church hasn't taught that they're infallible, but the majority of theologians tend to hold that opinion. So it would seem that the church sides with the fact that they are infallible, but my understanding is it hasn't actually been defined. Chris Grote says, favorite pipe tobacco. Why should you smoke a pipe or cigar?

Starting point is 00:43:29 Thanks, Chris. My favorite pipe tobacco, I don't have a name, but whenever I go into a cigar shop and buy tobacco, I always look for one that smells like scotch should smell, namely peaty. Me personally, I like the more English blends that are smoky. I don't like the fruit-flavored type tobacco myself. You might like it. I don't like that. But yeah, so that answers your first question. Your second question is, why should you smoke a pipe of cigar? Well, obviously, pipes and cigars are really bad for you. But in a day and age where friendship is becoming near extinct in the lives of many, it might just be the case that smoking a pipe and or a cigar is good for

Starting point is 00:44:13 you because you get to sit and not do anything. You know, one of the lovely things about pipe is it's very contemplative. You get to sit there. You have to continually puff at your pipe or else it'll go out. That's a mistake many new pipe smokers make. They take it out like it's a cigarette or a cigar. It'll stay lit. It won't. You have to kind of keep it in your mouth.

Starting point is 00:44:38 And so it's a very contemplative kind of action, whereas a cigar, you can kind of take out of your mouth, hold it in your hand for a while. But a good cigar, that could take like half hour to get through, maybe more, maybe less. But I love that for that half hour, you have to sit and do nothing. And it's really conducive to a good conversation. So again, don't misunderstand me. Obviously, smoking tobacco is bad for your health, but lots of things are bad for your health. Like sugar is bad for your health, but lots of things are bad for your health. Sugar is bad for your health. Drinking Coca-Cola and high fructose corn syrup is bad for your health. Eating Chick-fil-A is bad for your health. So before you clutch your pearls and look down on the rest of us from your high horse, you might keep

Starting point is 00:45:25 in mind that just because things are bad for us, it doesn't mean that they are disordered, right? Or we shouldn't ever partake in them with moderation. Domian DeGroot says, what's your own favorite episode of Pints with Aquinas and the Matt Frad Show? I've done so many episodes of Pints with Aquinas and the Matt Frad Show. I've done so many episodes of Pints with Aquinas that it's difficult for me to actually, yeah, think of them all. Two come to mind. One would be my interview with Peter Kreeft. I love that. When I interviewed Bishop Robert Barron, that was obviously like a huge deal for me. So I enjoyed that speaking about the Eucharist. And then finally, so you asked for one, I'm going to give you three, would be my interview with Father Damien Ference about Aquinas' Five Remedies for

Starting point is 00:46:13 Sorrow. By the way, if you want to search a podcast, just go to pintswithaquinas.com and in the search bar, type something in there and it'll come up. Let's see. Oh, and my favorite match frad show episode? Probably the one I just did last month with Father Gregory Pine, but I have a lot more in the bank coming out soon, which I'm not going to tell you about, but you're going to love them and I'm going to love them. Trey Weaver says, what do you believe about those who have been cremated and the resurrection of the body at the end of days? So we know from scripture that we will be risen from the dead, not just in that our soul will leave our bodies when we die, but it will be reunited to our bodies. And so the question is, what about those who are cremated? Well, if God created us out of nothing, presumably he can put our bodies back together from the dusts that result or the ashes that result from either cremation or bodily decay in a coffin.

Starting point is 00:47:22 And by the way, the church teaches that it's okay to be cremated, but you cannot have your remains scattered. The reason that was once the church said that you shouldn't be cremated is that it was done in kind of defiance of the belief that God would raise us from the dead. So if one is to cremate their loved ones because of that, that would be inappropriate and sinful even. But to have our body cremated and then placed somewhere respectfully and securely is not sinful. And so it is permissible, I should say. Nicholas Morrill says, what does praying as a family look like for your family? So we have a whole icon wall in our house. I think I've showed you guys some photos.

Starting point is 00:48:00 We've got about, I don't know, like 20 icons nailed into this one wall. And so usually prayer time for us is like the end of the night. We'll read a book or something and we'll all stand before our icon corner and I will chant some things like for nighttime prayer. So things like here, let me give you an example. Well, it's embarrassing, but here we go. example. Well, it's embarrassing, but here we go. Well, here's a prayer that we pray in divine liturgy that I also incorporate into our prayer time. You know, only be God and son and word of immortal, deign for our salvation to become incarnate of the Holy Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, and became man without change. You were also crucified, O Christ our God, and by death have trampled death, being one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Spirit, save us. And I chant that, and we all chant it towards

Starting point is 00:49:18 the end of prayer time. And during that time, one of the kids, usually my youngest, Peter, will pick up an icon and he'll process it around the house and everyone, not the house, but around everyone praying and we'll all kiss it while we're praying, which is always cool. And then he usually puts it in front of Max's face and makes Max kiss it too. But I would just offer this as a warning, like don't stress yourself out when you do family prayer. Allow family prayer to be messy. You know, allow one of your kids to be mucking around. Don't be too strict on them. They're learning to do this. And I think it's more important that our children, you know, enjoy prayer time than it be like super strict and no one speaks out a turn or does anything weird.

Starting point is 00:49:58 But then they end up dreading it because you're always kind of yelling at them. That's a mistake I made earlier on in marriage. And so we're a little more light about it these days. Okay. Antonio Henrique, hello, Antonio, says, how do you see Thomas's writings helping the modern person? And when can a person truly call themselves a neotomist? I think it can help modern man in that it teaches him that his intellect is for something and his intellect has more power than he may have been willing to admit. I was just having coffee with a friend the other day who doubts that we have free will. And I said, well, if you don't have free will and I don't have free will,

Starting point is 00:50:36 then you have come to believe that you don't have free will based on material causes. And I have come to believe that we have free will based on material causes, and neither of us can know who's right. And so, that kind of view of the human mind is very limited. It's not humble. I think it's patronizing to the great capacity our intellects have. And so, recognizing that we can come to know many truths about the world, you know, about the existence of God and our place in it and natural law and things like that. As far as calling yourself a neo-Thomist, oh my gosh, they say no arguments are as heated as between Thomists. So, whatever I say will only be rejected by another one. I suppose certain kind of tenets of Aquinas' teaching like divine simplicity, like the basic kind of Aristotelian metaphysical view of reality.

Starting point is 00:51:47 of reality. But I think more than anything, to be a Thomist is to be someone who loves God and who wants to submit himself to God, who can say to God, non nissite domine, nothing if not you, Lord. You know, if we get everything else right, and we understand Aquinas' teachings perfectly, the way he intended them to be understood, if we can teach others what he has to say, but we ourselves are not holy, then we've missed the boat. So, we don't want to do that. Julia Janowski says, if you had to share a room with a saint, say, once you're in heaven, who would it be? Who do you want your roommate to be? It might not surprise you that I'd like it to be Thomas Aquinas, and I'd like him and I to have a beer. Jasmine Gonzalez says, when people become saints in heaven, how do they know when someone asks for their intercession? I don't want to assume their gained knowledge is the same as God's, but would they not need

Starting point is 00:52:40 to gain some sort of all-knowingness? It's a great question, Jasmine, and that's usually an objection brought up by evangelicals to the idea of saints knowing our prayers. You know, are they omniscient? Wouldn't they have to be to hear the prayers of people throughout the world? Well, the common answer to that is that God makes it known to them, and that's it. And we don't know how that happens. And this gets back to what we were talking about earlier in the episode, right? This idea of we can have faith without knowing all the ins and outs of a certain thing. Look, if you right now, Jasmine, tried to tell me how it is that you just communicated that question to me, how successfully do you think you would be able to do that? I mean, I know you typed something on a keyboard, which you don't know how it works, presumably, at least I certainly don't,

Starting point is 00:53:28 into a computer. What is a computer? How does that connect to the internet? What is the internet? How did that internet push your text to me where I am? Like, it's just understanding how technology works, how one can communicate with another person through technology is bloody baffling. We know we can do it because we experience it, but we're not really sure how. Well, obviously, it's much more mysterious when it comes to heaven because we may not be able to understand it in this life, whereas we might be able to understand how technology works and be able to explain that proficiently. But I think it's still a good analogy. We might not know how the saints here are heaven, but it's not because they're omniscient, and it is because in some way or another, God makes it known to them. Man, this is great. Let's take a few more questions. Hoss Hammond says, how do you evangelize Jehovah's Witnesses?

Starting point is 00:54:28 Really feel called to this at work. Okay, there's a particular man at his work, but he is so convinced he is right. The difficulty with Jehovah's Witnesses is that they don't touch the literature of other religions. So you can at least give a Mormon a book on Catholicism and they'll read it, or at least they'll be able to touch it. But the Jehovah's Witnesses have a rule where they will not touch Catholic literature

Starting point is 00:54:49 or non-Jehovah's Witness literature. So, it's going to be difficult to give them anything. You might just ask them questions. That might be a way to begin. So, you don't necessarily have to teach them things, but just kind of try and ask questions. Like the question I used to ask them is how you knew that the 27 books of the New Testament were indeed inerrant. I remember having this conversation with some Jehovah's Witnesses and they said, well, they were written by apostles. And I said, well, what about the book of Hebrews? And they said, well, that was written by Paul. I said, no, it's not. We don't know who wrote it. And he kind of looked and the point is, you know, we know the New Testament is inspired because it was given to us by the church. So what are you going to do about that?

Starting point is 00:55:29 You know, so, you know, you might do that, not in a kind of arrogant way, but just in a genuinely asking him questions. Okay. Joseph Daly says, are you still going to do an episode on aliens? You mentioned it once in passing, but nothing else ever came up. Also, did you schedule when Dr. Craig is going to be on your show? Thank you, Joseph. Thank you for reminding me of that. So I did have an interview with a professor who has kind of worked with NASA and has a lot to say about aliens, who's also a Catholic and a big proponent of Thomas Aquinas. That never panned out. So I need to get back on that. Regarding your second question with Dr. Craig, I have my assistant

Starting point is 00:56:11 currently hounding him. Dr. William Lane Craig actually wrote to me and said he would be happy to be on the show, but I haven't heard anything from him since, which doesn't surprise me because he's a really busy guy. So yeah, we'll have to wait for that one. All right, man. There is so many more questions to get to, but I just can't right now. So we will try to get to them all at a later date. Thank you very much for listening to Pines with Aquinas. Hey, can I tell you something that's really helpful for me? Would you consider reviewing me on iTunes? It takes like two minutes. That's all it takes. But it is so helpful because when people are in another podcast, you know how you see other podcasts pop up down the bottom? Like if you're on iTunes,

Starting point is 00:56:50 you type a particular podcast in, it says recommended suggestions. That's mine a lot more likely to kind of come up in front of people if I've got a lot of reviews. So if you want this podcast to help other people, go to iTunes and review it, would you? Give me a, you know, well, give me whatever you want. I don't want to tell you what to give me, but I do. Give me five stars. And, you know, that'll be great. That's it, man.

Starting point is 00:57:15 That's all I got to say. Thank you so much, mate. God bless you. Thank you so much for listening. You guys are awesome. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Starting point is 00:57:20 Thank you so much. If you haven't yet, subscribe to The Matt Fradd Show on YouTube and on iTunes, and I will chat with you next week. Cheers. To carry you. And I would give my whole life to carry you. To carry you. And I would give my whole life to carry you, to carry you, to carry you, to carry you, to carry you.

Pints With Aquinas - 158: Aquinas on the act of faith

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