prayer......study.....
And it has come to be known in me that the morning stars, the lower part of heaven who are called to praise god join together heaven and earth some way and I am part of that within me with every early morning rise I sing into and it bring a tear of great happiness....
Such solitude, wind, connection, love all joined together in this moment....
So each lesson thomas aquinos writes is quite lengthy but I take one a day....and read it day and night here in mexico as a 'internal study"
Each lesson breaks down every few sentences of the bible book of job t
.. Below is first lesson, but requires time and silence..and reflection.....
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CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT: GOD RESOLVES THE QUESTION
The First Lesson: What Can Man Understand?
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 Who is that man who envelops his opinions with inept arguments? 3 Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you answer me. 4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, 5 who determined its measurements, if you know it? Or who stretched the measuring line upon the earth? 6 On what were the bases of the land sunk or who has laid the cornerstone 7 when each of the morning stars praised me, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth as though coming from a womb, 9 when he laid out the clouds as its clothing, and I wrapped it in fog like the swaddling clothes of an infant? 10 I surrounded it with my limits and placed the bar and the doors. 11 And I said: Thus far shall you come and you will not proceed further and here shall your proud waves break. 12 After your rising, did you command the dawn and have you shown the dawn its place?
After the discussion of Job and his friends about divine providence took place, Eliud had assumed to himself the office of determining the answer, contradicting Job in some things and his friends in others. But because human wisdom is not sufficient to understand the truth of divine providence, it was necessary that this dispute should be determined by divine authority. Since Job thought correctly about divine providence, but in his manner of speaking he had gone to excess that he had caused scandal in the hearts of the others when they thought that he did not show due reverence to God, therefore, the Lord, as the determiner of the question, contradicts the friends of Job because they did not think correctly, (42:7) Job himself for expressing himself in an inordinate way, (v. 3ff. and Eliud for an inadequate determination of the question. (v.2) So the text continues, “The Lord answered Job,” because this answer was more on his account, although he had not spoken immediately before. Then he shows the manner of response saying, “out of the whirlwind,” which can certainly be understood according to the literal sense to mean that the voice of God was formed miraculously in the air by some disturbance of the air, as happened on Mt. Sinai in Exodus20:18, or like the voice which spoke to Christ, which some said, “was like a clap of thunder,” as one reads in John 12:29. Or this can be understood metaphorically, so that this answer of the Lord is an interior inspiration divinely given to Job himself, and so the Lord is said to have answered him, “out of the whirlwind,” both because of the disturbance which he still suffered and also because of the darkness which accompanies a whirlwind, since we cannot perceive divine inspiration clearly in this life, but with the darkness of sensible likenesses, as Dionysius says in chapter I of The Heavenly Hierarchy. The Lord indicated this if he had made his voice sensibly heard from a corporeal whirlwind.
Once a dispute has been determined by the opinion of the judge, nothing else remains to be said unless the statement of the determination is rejected. So the Lord first rejects the determination of the question which Eliud had made. He rejects it because Eliud had enveloped the true opinions which he had proposed with many false and frivolous words, and so the text continues, “He said: Who is that man who envelops his opinions with inept arguments?” In his arguments Eliud had accused Job of saying he wanted to dispute with God and said that he was just do vigorously that he seemed to detract from the justice of the divine judgment.
So after the Lord rejected the determination of Eliud, he himself begins to determine the question. First, he gets Job’s attention when he says, “Gird up your loins like a man,” which here is used as a metaphor. For men usually gird up their loins in preparation for a journey or some work.
First, he begins in his determination to accuse Job for seeming to have spoken presumptuously when he provoked God to discussion. Since Job seems to have given God two options when he said, “Call me and I will answer you, and let me speak and you answer me,” (13:22) and as Job had already said enough, the Lord, as though he choosing the second alternative, says, “let me speak and you answer me.” God certainly does not question to learn, but to convince man of his ignorance.
He questions Job about his effects which are accessible to the experience of the human senses. When a man is shown to be ignorant of these, he is much even convinced that he does not have knowledge of the higher realities. Among other sensible effects he begins to ask about the principle parts of the earth. Of these earth is more known to us because it is more immediate to our experience. He begins to ask him about this and says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” He rightly compares the earth to a foundation because as a foundation is the lowest part of a building, so also the earth is the lowest of bodies and it lies under everything. Since the earth is the principal matter of the human body, matter precedes in time that which is made from it, and even more the plan of the artisan who puts together the matter precedes it. So he clearly says, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth,” as if to say: You cannot know the plan of the foundation of the earth, because when the earth was laid on its foundation you did not yet exist in the nature of things.
Consider that some of the ancients did not attribute the position of the earth and of the other elements to some ordering plan, but to material necessity, according to which the heavy elements sank under the light ones. So to disprove this opinion, the Lord as a consequence compares the foundation of the earth to the foundation of a building. This foundation is constructed from the plans of the architect. In the same way the foundation of the earth was made according to divine providence, which human intelligence is not capable of understanding fully. He makes this clear when he says, “Tell me, if you have understanding,” as if to say: Therefore, you cannot indicate the reason for these things because your intelligence is not capable of grasping them. Consider that an artisan puts four things in order in the foundation of a building. First, he orders how large the foundation ought to be. In the same way, divine reason has disposed how great a quantity the earth should have, and not larger or smaller. He expresses this saying, “Who determined its measurements,” in all its dimensions. He clearly says, “determined,” for the shape of the earth does not require a certain quantity by necessity, but this quantity was only imposed on the earth from divine reason, which man cannot know. So he says, “If you know it,” since man cannot know or tell this. Second, an artisan puts in order in his plan the determination of the site of the foundation, which he encompasses by the extension of the measuring line, and so he says, “or who stretched the measuring line upon the earth?” This means the plan of divine government which clearly determined the place for the earth in the parts of the universe. Third, after the artisan has determined the size of the foundation and where it is to be located, he determines on what the foundation can be solidly laid. As to this he says, “On what were the bases,” of the land, “sunk,” because it was founded on the center of the world. Fourth, after thinking through these three things, the artisan now begins to lay the stones in the foundation. First, he lays the corner stone to which the different walls are aligned. As to this he says, “or who has laid,” put down, “the cornerstone,” on which the very center of the earth is clearly determined, according to which the different parts of the earth are aligned.
A man usually lays the foundation of a building because he needs a place to live. But to show that God does not lay the foundation of the earth from need, he adds, “when each of the morning stars praised me,” as if he should say: Although heaven whose stars praise me is my dwelling, yet I founded the earth, not because I need the servants who live there, but from my will alone.
He does not say this as though heaven was made before the earth, especially as we read in Genesis, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” (1:1) Whereas the text says that the stars which he mentions here were created on the fourth day. (Gen. 1:14) But Genesis says this to show that in the order of nature heaven and the stars are prior to the earth as incorruptible to corruptible and mover to moved. He says the “morning stars,” i.e. ones newly created, as we call morning stars the ones which usually appear at the beginning of the day. The fact that the morning stars are said to praise God can be understood materially in one way, inasmuch as they were the material of divine praise in their brightness and nobility. If not to men, who did not exist yet, they were so at least for the angels who already existed. In another way, according to those who say the heavenly bodies have souls, the stars in the beginning of their institution praised God, not with vocal, but with mental praise. This can even refer to the angels whose ministry is to move the heavenly bodies, as the text continues, “and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” which refers to the angels of the highest hierarchy, whom Dionysius says are located in the entrance court of God. Therefore, as he clearly attributes praise to former stars as to the lower angels, but he attributes shouting for joy to the latter as to the higher angels, because this connotes a kind of excellence in praise.
After the foundation of the earth, he continues then speaking about the waters which are immediately placed over the land. The natural order of the elements requires that water surrounds the earth at every point like air surrounds earth and water at every point. But by divine disposition, it has been effected for the generation of men, animals, and plants, some part of the land remains uncovered by the waters, as God holds back the waters of the sea within their certain limits by his power, and so he says, “Who shut up the sea with doors,” with determined limits. There were some who thought the action of the sun dried up some part of the earth, but the Lord shows that it has been disposed from the beginning that the sea does not cover the land everywhere. He describes the production of the sea using the comparison of the birth of a living thing, a child, because water is especially apt to be changed into living things. This is why the seed of all things is moist. The child first comes forth from the womb of its mother, and he means this when he says, “when it burst forth as though proceeding from the womb.” He uses the word “to break forth” because it is a property of water to move almost continually. He says the sea proceeds, “from the womb,” not because it has had its origin from other corporeal matter, but because it proceeded from the hidden origin of divine providence as from the womb. Second, a newborn child is dressed, and expressing this he says, “when he laid out the clouds as its clothing.” For since the clouds are born from vapors released from water, clouds are much more numerous in maritime places. Third, a child who is born is wrapped in swaddling clothes, and expressing this he says, “and I wrapped it in fog like the swaddling clothes of an infant.” The fog does not mean those water vapors raised up or condensed in the clouds, but darkening of the air on the face of the sea, and perhaps he alludes to what Genesis says, “and darkness covered the face of the abyss.” (Gen. 1:2)
After he posits these things which express the primordial production of the sea, he explains his conclusion as if he said: When the sea was newly made, then, “I surrounded it with my limits.” He posits three things which pertain to the boundary of the sea. One of these is shown when he says, “within my limits,” that is, those placed by me. The second is when he says, “I placed the bar,” and the third when he says, “and doors.” These three things pertain to the rule of divine power, and so he explains them in this way, “and I said: Thus far shall you come,” which pertains to the nature of boundaries, i.e. for a boundary the farthest extent of motion, “and you will proceed no further,” which pertains to the bar by which one’s progress is blocked, “and here shall your proud waves break.” This pertains to the gates which are placed for the purpose of not allowing entrance or exit at random, but according to a determined measure. Thus even the sea does not change its shore at random, but according to the determined measure of the ebb and flow of the waves.
After the land and the water, he proceeds on to the air, which, according to appearances, is joined to heaven. The first disposition common to the whole body which stretches over the waters and the land is the variation of night and day, which happens from the motion of the day which is first of movements. Therefore, he says as a consequence, “After your rising did you command the dawn?” as if to say: Do day and night succeed each other on this earth by your command? For dawn is a kind of boundary between day and night. He clearly says, “After your rising,” as when he spoke about the earth before he had said, “Where were you?” (v.4) For just as the earth is the first material principle of man, so also the highest heaven, which varies night and day by its motion is the first principle of the human body among corporeal causes. Consider that the clarity of the break of day or the dawn is diversified according to the diverse degress of the intensity of signs which accompany the sun, because when there is the sign of a quick rising, in which the sun rises immediately, the dawn lasts only a little while. When the sun shows signs of a delayed rising it endures longer. The measure of place is determined out of which the brightness of the daybreak begins to appear when the sun is rising there, and expressing this he then says, “and have you shown the dawn its place?” as if to say: Have you ordered the places in the heaven from which the dawn will gives its light? He implies the answer, “No”. From all these things you can understand that your reason fall short of the comprehension of divine things, and so it is clear that you are no suited to dispute with God.
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