Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Q12 A6: Whether of those who see the essence of God, one sees more perfectly than another?

Yes. He who possesses the more charity, will see God the more perfectly, and will be the more beatified.

The faculty of seeing God does not belong to the created intellect naturally, but is given to it by the light of glory, which establishes the intellect in a kind of "deiformity" (quod intellectum in quadam deiformitate constituit).

Hence the intellect which has more of the light of glory will see God the more perfectly; and he will have a fuller participation of the light of glory who has more charity; because where there is the greater charity, there is the more desire; and desire in a certain degree makes the one desiring apt and prepared to receive the object desired.