Beatitudo non consistit in operatione sensitiva quia essentialiter quidem non potest pertinere operatio sensus ad beatitudinem, nam beatitudo hominis consistit essentialiter in coniunctione ipsius ad bonum increatum, quod est ultimus finis.
Happiness does not consist in a sensitive operation because the operation of sense cannot belong to happiness essentially, for man's happiness consists essentially in his being united to the Uncreated Good, Which is his last end.
Possunt autem operationes sensus pertinere ad beatitudinem antecedenter et consequenter. Antecedenter quidem, secundum beatitudinem imperfectam, qualis in praesenti vita haberi potest, nam operatio intellectus praeexigit operationem sensus. Consequenter autem, in illa perfecta beatitudine quae expectatur in caelo, quia post resurrectionem, "ex ipsa beatitudine animae", ut Augustinus dicit in epistola ad Dioscorum, "fiet quaedam refluentia in corpus et in sensus corporeos, ut in suis operationibus perficiantur"—ut infra magis patebit, cum de resurrectione agetur. Non autem tunc operatio qua mens humana Deo coniungetur, a sensu dependebit.
Nevertheless the operations of the senses can belong to happiness, both antecedently and consequently: antecedently, in respect of imperfect happiness, such as can be had in this life, since the operation of the intellect demands a previous operation of the sense; consequently, in that perfect happiness which we await in heaven; because at the resurrection, "from the very happiness of the soul," as Augustine says (Ep. ad Dioscor.) "the body and the bodily senses will receive a certain overflow, so as to be perfected in their operations"—a point which will be explained further on when we treat of the resurrection (II-II, 82 -85). But then the operation whereby man's mind is united to God will not depend on the senses.
In perfecta beatitudine perficitur totus homo, sed in inferiori parte per redundantiam a superiori. In beatitudine autem imperfecta praesentis vitae, e converso a perfectione inferioris partis proceditur ad perfectionem superioris.
In perfect happiness the entire man is perfected, in the lower part of his nature, by an overflow from the higher. But in the imperfect happiness of this life, it is otherwise; we advance from the perfection of the lower part to the perfection of the higher part.