Pints With Aquinas - The Light Shines in the Darkness | Bible Study W/ Aquinas

Episode Date: June 25, 2020

Today we'll take a look at what Thomas Aquinas has to say about the first few lines found in John 1:4-5 GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show. LINKS Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/  SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd   MY BOOKS Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx  CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform -- Website - mattfradd.com Facebook - facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter - twitter.com/mattfradd 

G'day everybody, welcome to another Bible study with Thomas Aquinas. I'm not Thomas Aquinas, I'm Matt Fradd. But we will be reading from his commentary on John's Gospel, so we'll get to that in a bit. Good to have you here. If you like these videos, you could click subscribe and click that bell button. you could click subscribe and click that bell button. If you don't like them, obviously you shouldn't do those things. But if you do, click subscribe, click the bell button. It's good to have you here. We just passed 50,000 subscribers recently, which was a pretty cool milestone. Okay, let's begin with the sign of the cross. And I also want to say to our beautiful Protestants who are also tuning in, you don't have to be afraid of the sign of the cross. And I also want to say to our beautiful Protestants who are also tuning in, that you don't have to be afraid of the sign of the cross, even though it's often associated with Catholics. All it is, is we're remembering

the salvation Christ won for us, right, through his death and resurrection. And so we trace on our bodies the sign of the cross. So you're welcome to do that with me, and we'll just offer that as a little prayer as we begin. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, here's what I want to look at today. This verse here. It's quite, let's make that a little bigger. It's quite short. This is from the, obviously, very beginning of John's God. Why don't we just cover up my face, there you go now you can just see Harold Harold's the name of my beard

you're welcome let's see in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life and the life was the light of men. All right, so this is kind of what we want to start. This is what I want to drill down on in this particular Bible study. Just this line here, right? The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. That's what we want to look at. All right, so let's delve in here. Right, and the life was the light of men.

What does this mean? Aquinas says, here we should note first that, according to Augustine and many others, that according to Augustine and many others, light is more properly said of spiritual things than of sensible things. Ambrose, however, thinks that brightness is said metaphorically of God. But this is not a great issue, for in whatever way the name light is used, it implies manifestation, For in whatever way the name light is used, it implies manifestation, whether that manifesting concerns intelligible or sensible things. If we compare sensible and intelligible manifestation, then according to the nature of things, light is found first in spiritual things. But for us who give names to things on the basis of their properties as known to us,

light is discovered first in sensible things. Because we first used this name to signify sensible light before intelligible light. Although as to power, light belongs to spiritual things in a prior and truer way than to sensible things. All right. So, you know, Aquinas being an Aristotelian accepts the idea that everything that is in the intellect comes first through the senses. So the first thing we encounter is being insensible things in animate and inanimate objects. And we come to say light of different things but he's saying that properly speaking um you know we should say light of spiritual things kind of like how um so aquinas's five ways all begin with observations of the world around us you know so we see causation right in the world that would be an example. You clicked play on this video.

You are the efficient cause of the fact that this video is now playing, I suppose. But even though we experience causation in sensible things, it's primarily in spiritual things. That is to say, God being the first cause. Okay, to clarify the statement, and the life was the light of men, we should remark that there are many grades of life. For some things live, but do so without light, because they have no knowledge. For example, plants. Hence their life is not light. Alright, so again, we're talking about light in the spiritual sense.

So he's obviously talking about it as it pertains to understanding the intellect. talking about it as it pertains to understanding the intellect. Other things both live and know, but their knowledge, since it is on the sense level, is concerned only with individual and material things, as is the case with the brutes. Right, so, you know, Aristotle talks about the fact, and so does the church, because, you know, it's true, that any living thing has a soul, right? So your dog has a soul. The plant that I have up there, which you probably can't see, has a soul. The difference between a living thing and a dead thing is the soul.

It's what animates the thing, okay? And so we refer to plants as having vegetative souls. We refer to the brutes like dogs and cats and things as having sensitive souls because they do sense. They have sensation, unlike plants. Whereas we go one step further. We have intellect. So we are intellectual souls. No, what's the word he uses?

Vegetative, sensitive, rational. Rational souls, right? We can reason. Let's see here. So they have both life and a certain light. So plants and animals have a certain sort of light, but they do not have the light of men who live and know not only truths, but also the very nature of truth itself. Oh, and I like what he says here, too, when he's talking about the brutes, how they know things singularly, but they don't know them as a class.

So here he says, let's see, So a dog does not know humanity. A dog does not know red, per se. A dog knows individual things, like this man and that man and this red thing, if to the degree in which dogs can sense color. So they know individual things where we know groups of things, right? We know the difference between, you know, this is part of the species of man, for example, and this is a plant. And so we can kind of categorize these things because of the intellect in a way that animals can't. Such are rational creatures to whom not only this or that are made manifest, but truth itself, which can be manifested and is manifested to all. Man, this is a big book. It's just really fun to hold a big bloody book. And so the evangelist, speaking of the word, not only says that he is life,

but also light, lest anyone suppose he means life without knowledge. Yeah, I don't think anybody would have ever thought that, but that's maybe they would have. What do I know? And he says that he is the light of men, lest anyone suppose he meant only sensible knowledge, such as exists in brutes. But since he is also the light of angels, why did he say of men? Two answers have been given to this. Chrysostom says that the evangelist intended in the gospel to give us a knowledge of the word precisely as directed to the salvation of men, therefore refers in keeping with his aim more to men than to angels. Origen, however, says that participation in this light pertains to men

insofar as they have a rational nature. Accordingly, when the evangelist says the light of men, he wants us to understand every rational nature. All right, There is so much we could dig into, but I just want to jump forward a bit here to where John says this light shines in the darkness. What does he mean by this? Aquinas says that this can be explained in two ways according to the two meanings of darkness. First, we might take darkness as a natural defect, that of the created mind. Listen to this, for the mind is to that light of which the evangelist speaks here, as air is to the light of the sun. So the mind is to that light that John is talking about as air is to the light of the sun because although air is receptive of the light of the sun considered in itself it is in darkness

so just like air would not be light without the sun our minds would have no knowledge if it weren't for the holy spirit if it weren't for the Holy Spirit, if it weren't for God. It would be in utter ignorance. According to this, the meaning is the light, that is, the life which is the light of man shines in the darkness, that is, created souls and minds by always shedding its light on all. And here he quotes Job 3.23, always shedding its light on all. And here he quotes Job 3, verse 23,

on a man from whom the light is hidden. All right, now the next bit, and the darkness did not comprehend it. What does that mean? Aquinas says, well, that means it was not able to enclose it. For to comprehend something is to enclose and understand its boundaries. As Augustine says, to reach God with the mind is a great happiness, but to comprehend him is impossible. Right. Why can't we comprehend God?

Interestingly, Aquinas says, not only can we not comprehend God in this life, but we will not comprehend him in the life to come. We will know him in the life to come. We will know him in the life to come. We cannot know him now. We cannot know what God is, only that he exists, and we can know what he has revealed to us. But even in heaven, we will not be able to comprehend him because he is infinite in being. So just like it's easier to understand a rock than a fly, and it is easier to understand a fly than your mother, well, that's because there are these differing degrees in being. Your mother has more being than the fly, and the fly has more being than the rock,

and God is infinite being, and so you can't actually comprehend it. You can't grasp it. You can't enclose it with your mind. As Augustine says, To reach God with the mind is a great happiness, but to comprehend him is impossible. And so the darkness did not comprehend it. Behold, God is great, exceeding our knowledge.

As Jeremiah says, great in counsel, incomprehensible in thought. That comes from Jeremiah 32, 19. Read that again. Jeremiah says, great in counsel, incomprehensible in thought. This explanation found in that homily, which begins the spiritual voice of the eagle. I have no idea what that means. We can explain this passage in another way by taking darkness as Augustine does. All right. so how does Augustine take it? He takes it for the natural lack of wisdom in man,

which is called a darkness. And this comes from Ecclesiasticus. And I saw that wisdom excels folly as much as light excels knowledge. I saw that wisdom excels folly as much as light excels knowledge. Someone is without wisdom, therefore, because he lacks the light of divine wisdom. Consequently, just as the minds of the wise are lucid by reason of a participation in the divine light and wisdom, so by the lack of it, they are darkness. So Aquinas is saying that apart from God, we would

actually be in utter darkness. So just like, let's see what's he saying here. Just like we would not exist except we are participating in God, in some sense, we would not know anything except for the fact that we are participating in that divine light and wisdom. Now, the fact that some are darkness is not due to a defect in the light, since on its part, it shines in the darkness and radiates upon all. Rather, the foolish, and you and I are the foolish to differing degrees, maybe me more, the foolish are without that light because the darkness did not comprehend it. That is, they did not apprehend it, not being able to attain a participation in it due to their

foolishness. After having been lifted up, they did not persevere. From the savage, that is from the proud, he, okay, so here's a beautiful quote from Job, right? From the savage, that is from the proud, he hides. Okay, so here's a beautiful quote from Job, right? From the savage, he hides his light. Aquinas says that's the light of wisdom. And shows his friend that it belongs to him and that he may approach it. And then from Baruch, they did not know the way to wisdom, nor did they remember her paths. Although some minds are darkness, that is, they lack savory and lucid wisdom,

nevertheless, no man is in such darkness as to be completely devoid of divine life, light, rather, because whatever truth is known by anyone is due to a participation in that light which shines in the darkness. For every truth, no matter by whom it is spoken, comes from the Holy Spirit.

Say that again. Every truth, no matter by whom it is spoken, comes from the Holy Spirit. We need to do a whole episode on this because I understand what he's saying, but I don't understand how to explain it because I don't have enough light. Yet the darkness, that is men in darkness, did not comprehend it. That is, they didn't apprehend it in truth. This is the way to explain this clause according to Origen and Augustine. Starting from, and the light, life was the light of men, we can explain this according to the influx of grace, since we are illuminated by Christ and he thus continues to excel.

After he had considered the creation of things through the word, the evangelist considers here the restoration of the rational creature through Christ, saying, and the life of the word was the light of men, that is, of all men in general, and not only of the Jews. For the Son of God assumed flesh and came into the world to illumine all men with grace And we read in John 18.37, right? To back that point up, For this I was born, and for this I came to the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. And then in John 9.5, So he does not say the light of the Jews because although previously he had been known only in Judea,

he later became known to the whole world. It was fitting to join light and life by saying, and the life was the light of men. Okay, why? In order to show that these two have come to us through Christ. Life through a participation in grace. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. We read in John chapter 1 verse 17. And light through a knowledge of truth and wisdom. According to this explanation, the light shines in the darkness. And this can be expounded in three ways the light shines

in the darkness okay let's go over these three ways there okay in the light of the three meanings of darkness okay so in one way we can take darkness for punishment for any sadness and suffering of heart can be called a darkness, just as any joy can be called a light. And he quotes from Micah, When I sit in darkness and in suffering, the Lord is my light, that is, my joy and consolation. And so Origen says, in this explanation, the light shines in the darkness, What does that mean? Well, this means, according to Origen, The light is in the flesh, that is, the flesh of Christ,

which is called a darkness insofar as it has likeness to sinful flesh. As if to say, the light, that is the word of God, veiled about by the darkness of the flesh, shines on the world. I will cover the sun with a cloud. Ezekiel 32.7. Here's the second way we can understand it. We can take darkness to mean the devils. In our struggle, as in our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rules of the world and of this darkness. All right, let's just pause there for a second. It can mean the devils. As in our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rules of the world of this darkness. All right. We are going through a seemingly very dark period

here in the United States and indeed to one degree or another around the world, wherever you're watching this from. But in America, as I record this, there is tremendous unrest. Riots were taking place not long ago. My understanding is that bloody Antifa has taken a portion of Seattle over. And I don't fully understand what's going on. I just know that I'm bloody tired of hearing about it. I'm exhausted. And when we see this darkness in the world, we can be tempted to attribute it to flesh and blood, this political group or this particular religious group or this association of people.

And certainly people can be guilty of sin and be culpable for that sin and groups of people can be. But as a Christian, how do we interpret these events? I think if we are interpreting these events without reference to the demonic, we are not acting as Christians. I think many of us misunderstand our lives and the events that take place within them because we do not believe in Satan and the demons. You ask a Christian, like, tell me about Christianity. And they say something like, well, God exists and he loved us and we separated ourselves from him. So he sent his son to redeem us so that now we can have life in him and be saved. That's what you'll hear.

Fine. That's fine. I mean, you can't say the whole thing in an elevator pitch. But I think what often happens is we don't even reference the demonic. Did you notice that? What I just said about Christianity really didn't directly reference the demonic. said about Christianity really didn't directly reference the demonic. Trying to understand Christianity without reference to the demonic is like trying to understand the Lord of the Rings without referencing Sauron, you know? Suppose I said, or suppose you said to me, tell me about

the Lord of the Rings. I said, oh, sure. Well, there was this ring, right? And it was the worst. And it really wasn't conducive to the flourishing of middle earth and so anyway there was this hobbit and he was like i need to get rid of this bloody thing you know because it's causing all this strife and so him and a few of his buddies they went and they they destroyed it they destroyed it and then peace uh came eventually, you know, in Hobbiton and Middle-earth. And thank goodness, you know. That is a woeful explanation of the Lord of the Rings, you know. Okay, so we are struggling, not against flesh and blood,

but against the principalities and powers, against the rules of the world and this darkness. You are hated immensely by Satan and the demons, and they want to drag you to hell. You and I will not make sense of our lives until we understand the spiritual warfare that is raging all around us. And this, you know, gosh, we could do a whole episode on this. I don't want to get into it now because I'm sure I wouldn't do it justice. But the way Satan lies to us, in Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, Satan is called the accuser of our brethren. Accuser. What's interesting is the Holy Spirit is called our advocate, right? Or the paraclete. Paraclete is a word that means defense attorney. So you have Satan accusing and the paraclete

defending, right? And so often when Satan accuses, we accept his accusations and this leads us either to despair or to reject God or something like that. Like think of, let's just try to think of a scenario, right? Suppose a young girl is raised in a home and she is not loved and appreciated by her parents and siblings. She's too much for them. She's too loud. She's too chaotic. She demands too much.

Her other siblings do not. And so the parents are very critical of this girl. And so this girl has learned to live in a defensive posture to her parents and to everybody. So any sort of criticism that comes her way or anybody who tries to get in, you know, like what's going on with you? She cannot receive it and must defend herself because it feels like an attack. It's like Satan takes these natural things and throws gasoline on them. And so one is raised now, this girl in this situation, to not have this sort of appropriate receptivity before the Word of God, before the Holy Spirit, before her loved ones who actually do

love her because she takes everything as a threat. Like, I'm just giving an example here, right? Just like you would say, okay, a girl who had a loving father makes it easier for her to accept the love of God the Father. Well, we all get that, and we all say that as Christians, but if that's true, we can also recognize that just like we can see God more clearly if you want because of rightly ordered relations, God can also become obscured through the lies that we believe. Anyway, you know what I'm saying? Tell me if you know what i'm saying tell me if you know what i'm saying below i mean we all just kind of are raised with these lies about god who he is his intentions towards us who we are what we're about the holy spirit comes to shed light on this where the spirit is there is freedom

but the point is that i was just trying to make is we are at war with spiritual beings. Okay. Looked at this way, he says, and who is he? Is he talking about John or Origen? I've got mixed up here. Let's see. Looked at this way, the light, that is the sun, God shines in the darkness, has descended into the world where darkness, that is the devil's, holds sway.

Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, John 12, 31. And the darkness, that is the devil's, did not comprehend it, that is, were unable to obscure him by their temptations. That's fantastic. Okay. Third, we can take darkness for the error of ignorance, which filled the whole world before the coming of Christ. All right. So those three interpretations of darkness again. Darkness can mean punishment.

Darkness can mean the demonic. And darkness can mean the ignorance which filled the whole world before the coming of Christ. And so he says, darkness saw a great light, Isaiah 9, 2, and the darkness did not comprehend it. That is, did not overcome him. For in spite of the number of men darkened by sin, blinded by envy, shadowed over by pride, who have struggled against Christ as his plane from the gospel by unbraiding him, heaping insults and calamities on him, and finally killing him. Nevertheless, they did not comprehend it. That is, they did not gain the victory of so obscuring him that his brightness would not shine throughout the whole world.

Wisdom says in chapter 10, verse 12, compared to light, she takes precedence for night supplants it. But wisdom, that is the incarnate son of god is not overcome by wickedness that is of the jews and of heretics because it says she gave him the prize for his stern struggle that he might know that wisdom is mightier than all else. All right, guys, I want to hear your reflections in the comment section below. I am in no way considering myself an expert on Thomas Aquinas. You know, it's said that an evangelist is one who it's it's it's one beggar showing another beggar where the bread is. So I, too, am a beggar.

So I want to learn from you below. I do read the comments. So please, please let me know what you think. Okay. Let's read this again as we wrap up. It is awkward, isn't it? Having this here. Where do you want me to put this? Over my face again. That'll be fun. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. And without Him was not anything made. That was made. In Him was life.

And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it. Thanks very much for watching. Hope that was a help. in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Thanks very much for watching. Hope that was a help. That's it. That's all I got to say. Subscribe, hit the bell button if you want

and have a lovely day. God bless you.