Thursday, October 08, 2009

1a 2ae q5 a1: Whether man can attain happiness? Yes.

Quod autem homo perfecti boni sit capax, ex hoc apparet, quia et eius intellectus apprehendere potest universale et perfectum bonum, et eius voluntas appetere illud. Et ideo homo potest beatitudinem adipisci.

That man is capable of the Perfect Good, is proved both because his intellect can apprehend the universal and perfect good, and because his will can desire it. And therefore man can attain happiness.

Apparet etiam idem ex hoc quod homo est capax visionis divinae essentiae, sicut in primo habitum est, in qua quidem visione perfectam hominis beatitudinem consistere diximus.

This can be proved again from the fact that man is capable of seeing God, as stated in Ia q12 a1, in which vision, as we stated above (q3 a8) man's perfect Happiness consists.

Et ideo ad id quod intellectus apprehendit, ratio per quendam motum pertingit. Unde rationalis natura consequi potest beatitudinem, quae est perfectio intellectualis naturae, tamen alio modo quam Angeli. Nam Angeli consecuti sunt eam statim post principium suae conditionis, homines autem per tempus ad ipsam perveniunt. Sed natura sensitiva ad hunc finem nullo modo pertingere potest.

Reason arrives by a kind of movement at that which the intellect grasps. Consequently the rational nature can attain Happiness, which is the perfection of the intellectual nature, but otherwise than the angels. Because the angels attained it forthwith after the beginning of their creation, whereas man attains it after a time. But the sensitive nature can nowise attain this end.