Thomas Aquinas on Vocational Discernment - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.

Welcome to The Domestic Institute Podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square. The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Domestic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at DomesticInstitute.org. So rather than beginning with St. Thomas Aquinas, we'll instead turn to the frightfully powerful and quick discernment of the father of Christian monasticism, the third century desert father St. Anthony the Great. In the widely popular work, The Life of St. Anthony, written by St. Athanasius in the fourth century, one sees the peculiar instance of a young man's life being changed rapidly by a potent hearing of the gospel. At the age of 18 to 20, he was a regular church attendee, perhaps motivated by the condition of being orphaned. On one faithful day, roughly six months removed from the burial of his parents, he attended mass with his mind already pondering the example of the apostles. So he recalled how they had left all things behind to follow Christ. It was in this context, Athanasius writes, that Anthony heard the Lord's voice in the gospel of Matthew, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you have, and give the money to the poor, you will have riches in heaven, come follow me." In the gospel, Christ speaks to a nameless, rich young man who had asked the question, "What must I do to be perfect?" Anthony, however, heard these words from the eternal word, as though they had only ever been spoken to him and for him. It was an invitation, a calling to leave all things behind and follow Christ. The future desert father responded, selling his inheritance, providing for the poor, making arrangement for his sister's care, and followed Christ out into the desert. How did Anthony come to such a bold decision? Looking closely at the text, we see some clues. He not only listened attentively to the sacred scriptures proclaimed during the liturgy, he also acknowledged that the Lord was at work prior to mass beginning. Anthony knew that Christ was not only present in the liturgy, but also in his mind, secretly inspiring his meditation on the example of the apostles, the event that preceded his entrance into the church. And short, Anthony discerned that God was at work within him, directing his imagination to the life of the apostles, and awakening a desire to be like them. Responding to the call, Anthony gave himself to unceasing prayer and became known to the villagers as the friend of God. The example of St. Anthony depicts a bold, fearless, and readyed man capable of responding to the daunting and high call of God. This model of discernment is most alien in comparison to the language used today, which all but expects, timid, fearful, and hesitant responders. Perhaps the example is hageographical, whereas our current condition is more real. Or perhaps our thoughts are incredulous. Our current way of approaching vocation could be deficient in comparison to other periods in the church. Turning to St. Thomas Aquinas, we see something of the spirit of St. Anthony both in his own vocational journey and his teaching about entrance into religious life. So there's less prevalent talk about discernment. Maybe the title is clickbait. I'm not sure. You can accuse me later. So first, a word about modern notions of vocation and discernment. The example of Anthony does not model a long deliberative process. In the minds of many young persons considering a state of life, it's presumed that one must deliberate for a long period, whether it's marriage, religious life, or the priesthood. Some falling this model endured long, undefined periods of introspection, questioning, and uncertainty. This can slip into a type of paralysis by which one discerns one's discernment. This endless feedback loop is the dreaded discernment trap. This unenviable position can last for days, weeks, years, and in rare cases, one's whole life. You can ask me for names later. One possible reason for this stagnation is that the discerner seeks certainty about matters of the heart. That domain belongs to God, who alone probes a mind and tests the heart. Our own heart is an enigma to us. Additionally, the discerner may seek certainty about the very plans of God, which again is only discerned by the Spirit of God. Apart from an extraordinary grace, the ways and thoughts of God remain other to us. We are ordinarily called to follow him in faith one step at a time. In response to this discernment pitfall, contemporary guides offer some sound and pragmatic solutions. Some suggest asking a set of three questions each day. Questions that ultimately direct one's attention toward concrete objectives like avoiding sin, seeking union with God, fulfilling daily responsibilities, and maintaining friendship with God through prayer. This process can be a helpful reorientation of one's thoughts and anxieties. It gets one out of oneself. So one is likely not to enter the discernment trap by living out of those questions and accomplishing the tasks suggested by it. Other more technologically savvy programs include apps, daily reflections, prayers, goals for charitable actions. It even models intentional programming found in exercise communities, perhaps to motivate and structure fretful minds and hearts that otherwise would retreat into the ambiguous and therefore comfortable practices of discernment. Considering that Thomas Aquinas does not use the expression "spiritual discernment," it's worth asking how we arrive at the prevalence of this practice and this subsequent turn to the concrete particular, as I just mentioned, of those two programs prior. Well, I certainly cannot answer the full extent of that question. There's some evidence that the common usage of the expression developed in the late 17th and early 18th century in the popularization and commentary on St. Ignatius of Loyola's spiritual exercises. Though a classical notion of discernment for the Jesuit priest concerned which course of action gave greater glory to God, that was what discernment was about. What gives greater glory to God? In a similar vein, St. Catherine Asianna's treatment of discrepancy in her mystical masterpiece, the dialogue, concerned itself with what love demanded in a given situation. Discernment was about what is love calling me to here and now. These earlier notions of discernment have an orientation to what is high or more noble, which seems different from the current model of discernment, which is more preoccupied with what is best for me. If we return to the example of St. Anthony, we can recall that the question asked of our Lord is, what must I do to be perfect? When Thomas Aquinas comments on this section of the Gospel of Matthew, he addresses the two ways we can consider perfection in the following of Christ. Perfection itself and the state of perfection. Now, for Aquinas, perfection consists in charity and therefore one who is perfect, absolutely speaking, is perfect in charity, has charity to the full. If you read his small treatise on the perfection of the spiritual life, you can see he speaks of various degrees of charity, that which belongs to God, that which belongs to the saints, and that which belongs to the Wayfarer, so that's you and I. So we can consider one's own perfection of charity and also whether one's state of life is more perfect or less perfect. This consideration, this latter consideration, is largely absent from conversations concerning religious life today. So what does Aquinas mean when he speaks of a state of perfection? Aquinas writes about it in several works throughout his life because his chosen form of religious life, the order of preachers, was under scrutiny and attack. The Dominicans along with the Franciscans were involved. and what historians call the mendicant controversies. So in addition to his philosophical and theological writing, Aquinas has many writings defending the legitimacy of the Dominican form of religious life. A concise treatment of the state of perfection appears in questions 171 through 189 in the Sakunda Sakunday, what is typically classified as his treatise of particular men given special graces, or special graces given to particular men. The general premise of the treatise is that God gives sanctifying grace to all the baptized. But for the upbuilding of the church, for the manifestation of his glory, he bestows particular gifts ordered toward particular missions and favors. We need only recall the example of the Blessed Virgin married to understand this principle. Chialone received the grace to be immaculately conceived, and Chialone became the mother of God. While teaching about the state of perfection, Aquinas also orders various states of life. So he's talking about different versions we can find. While there are degrees of perfection in charity, not possible to us in this life, there is one degree that remains for an individual to pursue. That is, for one to holdy love God and avoid that which draws him away from the love of God. The one's perfection is essentially found in charity. One can enter into a state of life by renouncing certain goods, which are not opposed to charity, but that nevertheless hinder it. These goods are marriage, material possessions, and the exercise of one's own will to chart your own path. The evangelical councils, poverty-chasing obedience, are then considered instruments of charity by which one seeks a greater freedom for following Christ by professing those vows, poverty-chasing obedience. Put another way, Aquinas states it as this. Properly speaking, one is said to be in a state of perfection, not through having the act of perfect love, that is being strictly speaking, but through binding himself in perpetuity and with a certain salinity to those things that pertain to perfection. Aquinas clarifies prior to that statement and subtly within it that one who is in a state of perfection is not necessarily perfect in charity. The mirror image of that truth is that those who are perfect in charity are not necessarily in a state of perfection. The latter example is exemplified by the many saints of the church who were married, never becoming priests or religious, while the former is exemplified by the example of many bishops, men and women religious, who fall short of perfect charity. So no need to name names, but if you're curious, you can just read Dante's Inferno, get his take on the matter. His account of the damned does not exactly give the same assurance as ecclesial canonizations, but the Florentine poet helps put all those in the state of perfection on notice. While entering the state of perfection is not a guarantee that one is or will become perfect in charity, it is an entrance into a way of life more directly ordered toward perfection simply speaking. The perfection of the spiritual life requires a vigilant adherence to the will of God, the renunciation of all that is not him and cooperation with the action of his grace. There is merit for one who does not enter the state of perfect. There is merit for one who does enter the state of perfection because this way of life removes distracting goods that weigh one down with anxiety, preoccupation, and attention to the way of the world. This is attested to by St. Paul, who writes in 1 Corinthians chapter seven. I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, but a married man, it's anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit. Not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety, and adherence to the Lord without distraction. This teaching may seem somewhat foreign to our more contemporary teaching about the sanctity of marriage in the universal call to holiness that appears in the Second Vatican Council. We can, however, maintain the notion that marriage leads to sanctity and that the life of virginity or consecrated life is a better way of following Christ or seeking sanctity. Again, the distinction between the state of perfection and being perfect in charity is important. So although it may not be egalitarian, Aquinas was keenly aware of the teaching of St. Paul and the state of perfection when writing about different paths in the Christian way of life. In his treatment on virginity and the summa, he asks whether virginity is more excellent than marriage. In the set Contra, he cites St. Augustine's writing on his writing on the work on virginity, which states that marriage is neither sinful nor is it to be equaled to virginity. To explain this further, Aquinas writes the following in his "Respondeo". According to Jerome, the error of Jemidian consisted in holding virginity not to be preferable to marriage. This error is refuted above by the example of Christ, who both chose a virgin for his mother and remained himself a virgin. And it's also refuted by the teaching of the Apostle, which is from the passage I just quoted. He counsels virginity as the greater good. Continuing on, he says it is also refuted by reason, both because a divine good takes precedence of a human good, and because the good of the soul is preferable to the good of the body, and again, because the good of the contemplative life is better than that of the act of life. Now virginity is directed to the good of the soul in respect of the contemplative life, which consists in thinking on the things of God, whereas marriage is directed to the good of the body, namely the bodily increase of the human race, and it also belongs to the act of life since the man and woman who embraced the married life have to think on the things of the world, as St. Paul had alluded to. And he finishes by saying without doubt, therefore virginity is preferable to conjugal continents. At the beginning of his response, Aquinas references the controversy surrounding Javinianism, which taught that marriage was equal in merit to celibacy. This teaching has been repeatedly condemned by the church from the fourth century to canon 12, canon 10, of the 24th session of the Council of Trent. You can find similar corrections in paragraph 1620 of the Catechism, and John Paul II, familiarist consortium. In that apostolic exhortation, the St. Paul writes, rightly indeed, the St. John Christusum say, whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of virginity, whoever praises it makes virginity more admirable and resplendent. Continuing on, he writes, "Virginity or celibacy by liberating the human heart in a unique way, so as to make it burn with greater love for God and all humanity bears witness that the kingdom of God and his justice bears witness to the kingdom of God and his justice. It is for this reason that the church throughout her history has always defended the superiority of this charism to that of marriage by reason of the holy singular link which it has with the kingdom of God." So that concludes the quote from St. John Paul II. So Aquinas has a very clear understanding of the state of marriage in that of celibacy, and particularly as lived in consecrated life. This will give greater clarity. When we look at the boldness, Aquinas suggests in pursuing the state of perfection, the saintly theologian is able to hold the dignity and goodness. of both marriage and religious life, while also holding that the latter possesses a greater merit in orientation toward beatitude. Having established the proper understanding of the state of perfection and its relation to marriage, we need to cover two more teachings of Aquinas prior to exploring his question dedicated, holy dedicated to entrance into religious life. The first teaching concerns the reality of the act of creation, the second, the virtue of prudence. Aquinas is clearly aware that without God, we can do nothing. In his commentary on John 155, he states that Christ and referring to himself as the true fine, fine indicates the absolute dependence the apostles have on him and by extension our dependence. This teaching not only concerns matters of grace, but also matters of nature as well. By grace, it means that we cannot will our own salvation, but we rather receive it from God as a gift. The heresy of Pelagianism suggested that it was possible for one by the virtue present within him to will himself to salvation without divine assistance. Baptism in this version of this heresy is considered optional. And grace not needed and it's utterly false. Aquinas states that even beyond this teaching, concerning grace are very acts of nature require the assistance of God. For it is in him and through him that we live and move and have our being. We cannot even think without God being at work. Willing us in the very moment to exist and move and live. You can recall St. Anthony pondering the apostles. The act of creation is not simply a historic event, a divine act that happened eons ago. We are not merely riding the wave of God's first interested nudge. The truth about ourselves and all of reality that we experience is that it possesses its being or receives its being in a contingent mode. We exist, but we could also not exist. This is true of everyone in this room listening to this recording and walking about in Tampa this evening. It's true of the trees, the animals and the brush, the birds in the air and even the elements that compose all the stuff of life. They exist and could not exist. And therefore require something or someone to bring about that existence in the here and now. If God stopped willing, the existence of ourselves or any of the contingent beings I've mentioned, we and they would all cease to exist. This form of annihilation would take place faster than the fading music of a violin should the violinist cease his play. That means in a clear and direct way, God wills into existence each and every one of us and everything around us. Aquinas, even like in this act of creation, to a relation found in the creature. God is a principle of the very existence of the thing and he wills the movement in time of everything that exists. This theological fact can help ease some of the modern fears concerning one's second act. Before any person begins to will, move and even think God is already at work in a foundational way bestowing being, it bestowing existence. Many, most anxieties in life do not even begin to ponder this dependence but rather focus on whether one is taking a correct step, pursuing the right goal, getting something right or wrong. Prior to these decisions, important as they might be, there is a gratuitous gift of creation coming from a benevolent creator. This is a great freedom when one's awareness, this bestows a great freedom when one's awareness of their free choice rests upon the creative act of God. One is never alone without guidance or direction. This is all the more true in matters of grace when God bestows a further gift of being and favor on those being sanctified. Aquinas was very aware of the primacy of God's action in the realm of nature and of grace. The other teaching from Aquinas that gives us some context for this question on entrance into religious life is his articulation of the virtue of prudence. This virtue of prudence is not simply being cautious or hesitant or safe. When we commonly speak of fiscal prudence, it suggests actions like diversifying your portfolio to reduce risk or other cautious behavior. Rather than simply playing its safe prudence is right reason in action. The prudent person is one who makes the right choice moves at the right time and then the right measure. Prudence can be shrewd, bold, insurprisingly clever to use a football metaphor. Prudence resembles a masterful quarterback. You think of Tom Brady with the Tampa Bay book nearest, right? He effortlessly marshals the team during a two-minute drill bringing about victory and glory for the city. This virtue is particularly interesting when considering pursuing your vocation because its terminus is not simply in judgment, thinking correctly about what you're to do, but the terminus of the virtue is in action, moving toward something. Discernment focuses on one's perception or judgment about what is suitable or best. And at a certain point, it seems inappropriate, right? So imagine a couple that's been dating for several months, perhaps they've met each other's families and then the man says, okay, this has been great, but I think I should discern whether to get the ring, I'm going to take a step back and maybe take a retreat. We certainly don't expect someone to rush into marriage, but there's something quite unnatural about that move, about that conversation. Frankly, it suggests that things have not been going well in that he wants it out. So this is sometimes used. It's like, oh, I think I need to discern the priesthood or I need to discern religious life and it's basically the end of a relationship. A more natural expression of this dating circuit would be for a couple to continue to spend time with each other, pursuing together the good of marriage until the man asks her father buys the ring and boldly gets down on one knee. This version of entering into the vocation of marriage models prudence rather than discernment because the suitor follows the natural steps of seeking the end of marriage by the integral means of dating, visiting, and fostering a friendship. There are, of course, moments of deliberation or considering the next step, but reason in action continues to pursue the good in the proper context. Not all discernment consists of removing oneself from the pursuit of an end, but there are instances of discernment in which changes, there are instances of discernment that sort of change course or stop the action steps towards a particular end. Desirment seemingly revisits the end chosen all the while halting the means that were previously decided upon for the given end. And this becomes a trip hazard for the natural process of exercising prudence. The more natural choices in life, those that don't involve the spiritual life or vocation, we tend to pursue them naturally according to prudence. So you consider a career. One ponders, you know, say, whether to be a lawyer, a scientist, a doctor, a teacher, or something else. So this period of election requires research and likely talking to those who are already in the profession. And at a certain point, one chooses a profession. And that's what we'll call the end, the chosen end. And then deliberation considers what steps are necessary for that end. So a lawyer. So, you know, a lawyer trains out of firm and firm select applicants with qualifications. One gains qualifications from internships and a law degree. Law degrees come from law schools and law schools accept competitive candidates who score well on the LSAT, have stellar recommendations from the Tymist Institute. have obtained undergraduate degrees. Those degrees come from various institutions who also have their competitive application process and you see how you move from the end and go back and you keep reasoning about the means until there's some step that you have to take. So it might be applying to the school or taking a nap to build up your energy before taking that next step. It starts to chart your course. So when Aquinas begins to write about taking the action steps or the action step of entering religious life, he's drawing from previous thought in his moral section of the Summathology. Instead of writing about a natural end such as becoming a lawyer, he's much more interested in the one true end of all mankind. The perfection of human nature found in the attitude. The question, what must I do to be perfect? He understands that human nature has a perfect end. There are means to that end such as the life of charity, reception of the sacraments, prayer, etc. Now it belongs to prudence to shape one's life toward the end of perfection and there are various states of life that are on offer. Some are considered to be the state of perfection and others are considered to be good, such as marriage. Aquinas boldly describes one entering religious life. He describes that one as one who has the grace to live it. That's why it's in this section on special graces given to particular men, right, particular persons. This presupposes God's action according to creation and the gift of grace. It also sherks a type of caution, much like the example of St. Anthony the Great, who quickly responded to the call in the gospel. Thomas Aquinas himself was not wavering in his own entrance into the Dominican order as his family greatly resisted his call and they even went so far as the kidnap and tempt him away from the life of virtue. With all that in mind, I'd like to run through a question 189, the closing question of the secundi secundi, the entrance into religious life, where we see Aquinas boldly suggest action according to prudence rather than a self-searching, self-searching discernment. Article 1 asks whether those who are not practice and the observance of the commandments should enter religious life. It's important to note that he is not talking about the priesthood, but simply the taking on of evangelical councils, the evangelical councils of poverty, chastity and obedience by which one seeks sanctification. Aquinas is clear that the apostle Matthew served as a tax collector and was not yet perfected in obeying the commandments. He was fresh from the life of sin. In Aquinas' argument, he states that the life of conversion is tested in the probationary period, what we call the novice. In principle, religious life is for those practice in seeking greater virtue, but it is also for the weak, he says, who are seeking to avoid sin and to receive the helps of the life. Entrance is for those seeking perfection, not those who are already perfect. The second, third and fourth articles raise questions about vowing to enter religious life, or to, sorry, vowing to enter the religious state. And this is somewhat a historically situated problem, but it still offers insight for those who are serious about pursuing a vocation. Here, Aquinas is not referring to the solemn vow by which one promises obedience until death, and it also does not concern the contemporary version of simple vows, which are made only for a period of time. These more solemn versions of vows are unique with respect to other promises. For Aquinas, it's essential for a vow to be a vow that it concern what is higher, so that is the sacrifice of a natural good for the spiritual good. So we commonly talk about wedding vows, yet this is written about, and I think, in the missile and in canon law, it doesn't use the language of wedding vows, but rather of consent. And this is because it's a continuation of the understanding. Vows are about that which is higher. So Aquinas has this notion. So returning to the question of a vow to enter religious life, or enter the religious safe, it's helpful to reframe it as a private promise to God. So perhaps a relevant example involves our Lenten promises, which are not exactly vows, but they nevertheless hold us accountable to God. So whereas Lenten penances are for a season, the firm resolution of which Aquinas writes concerns leading the world to enter the probationary period of religious life. That is the novice. And making this firm resolution, one does not intend religious life in perpetuity, but does resolve to see about it to the exclusion of other options. That would mean resolving not to date until one enters an inhibition or in our contemporary setting, applying to a religious order. The current vetting process for one's entrance into religious life takes into account psychological and mental evaluations, and there is often a vocation council that interviews the candidate and evaluates whether God has bestowed the grace of a religious vocation. Such processes were not present in the time of Aquinas. There were even stories of friars immediately entering the religious state upon hearing a sermon. In one famous chronicle, John of Saint Giles, a secular theologian at the University of Paris, received the habit and dramatic fashion. He was preaching about voluntary poverty, and then convicted of the truth of his sermon, he descended the pulpit, received the habit, the Dominican habit from Blessed Jordan of Saxony, and then returned to the pulpit to complete his lecture. I have yet to hear of a contemporary account of this. Somebody is coming down to receive a usually sign that they may not have the grace tender, different context, different time. So it is probably for the best that we have more testing of one's vocation prior to the probationary period that Aquinas writes about, and this kind of testing is a wonderful help for those that need to grow in self-knowledge. It is sometimes a blessing and guiding direction for a young man or woman to receive a no, or not at this time response from the vocation director or council as it may be. This testing or vetting is also important when considering Aquinas' fifth article, which concerns children entering religious life. The social and legal structure of the 13th century was quite different from our own. In the time of Aquinas, there existed child oblates, which were children given to the care of monasteries for the sake of instruction and training in virtue. Aquinas, as a youngest child of his family, was destined for religious life, and so his parents sent him to the famous Abbey of Montecacino at the age of five. It was more or less the medieval version of boarding school, and with the gift of Aquinas, the wisdom of the Church is a fruit of this movement. These pseudo-boarding/monastic schools even had a similar tuition structure to the contemporary versions. Families were expected to make large benefactions to the monastery for the care of the child and the upkeep of the facilities. Though this article in the summa may not have as much application today, it still offers some insights with respect to vocational discernment. For one, Aquinas mentions that the possession of reason is essential for making a vow. A person who is mentally insane is incapable of making a vow, and so is a child who does not yet possess the use of reason. Church law today states that the age of reason is seven years old, and it is only after that age in the Latin Church that a child is capable of receiving holy communion. So we have laws governing the sacraments in relation to this. Aquinas comments in this article that the age of reason is later corresponding to the age of puberty. For boys, he considers the typical age to be fourteen, and for girls who are quicker to mature, says the age is twelve. Yet, Aquinas also comments that nature being what it is, some children develop reason faster and others later. So today, perhaps it's much later if delayed adolescence. it prudence. This moves one to profess religious vows. It only makes sense for one to have the use of reason and possess a competent command of it. Right reason and action does not require the cultivation—sorry, right reason and action requires the cultivation of the other virtues as well, which might not be present in the adolescent. There's nothing, however, preventing one from entering religious life while still young in the world's eyes. One who passes from adolescence into adulthood may have all the maturity needed to respond to God's grace, leave behind the opportunities of the world, and explore religious life. Some communities accept those without college education while others require a little more experience prior to accepting the application. So some can enter at 18, others at 22. In the next article, Aquinas questions whether the command to honor mother and father extends to vocational discernment. As I alluded to earlier, his choice of the Dominicans was deeply protested by his parents. Just as James and John left their nets and their father, so one called the "Follow Christ" is freed from the obligations of secular life. However, Aquinas cites one exception that is still present today. If one's parent is not in a position to care for himself or herself as a case may be, there is a duty according to the faith and the virtue of piety that the child care for that parent. Provided that the parent truly has resources or other siblings or children to take care of him or her, the child called to religious life is under no obligation to remain in the house. In the reverse fashion, a parent who has an obligation to his or her children may not forsake the responsibility of parenting to enter a religious life. These matters pertain to the demands of charity which always remain the highest governing principle. It would be a "porant" for one to deny charity in order to enter the school of charity, which is commonly known as a state of perfection. In articles 7 and 8, Aquinas considers the possibility of moving from one state of life to the other. If one is a parish priest, it is possible to enter religious life. So you see that in the example of John St. Giles, Aquinas states that unlike bishops, priests are not under the same solemn and perpetual vow to care for souls. And thus are able to renounce it to pursue their own sanctification and religious life. In addition to priests moving from one state to the religious state, there is a question of a friar becoming a monk or a monk becoming a friar. Aquinas articulates that it is better for one to remain in the religious order he has set out because focusing on the path and custom set better enables one to make progress and virtue. However, one may move legitimately for the sake of zeal or the pursuit of a higher order, a contemplative order, or one dedicated to the sharing, the fruits of contemplation. There is also the happy instance in which one's order has fallen into laxity or one has noticed their own practice declining. So in these instances, it is sometimes better for one to pursue a more suitable and observant order, even if objectively speaking, it is less strict. So typically, those dedicated to contemplative life with severe like austere acts of penance are considered to be the stricter way and therefore the higher way. So there's a sense you can move towards that. So he's saying, if something is not right, there are instances in which one can move from a contemplative order to an active order. Article 9 asks whether one might induce or encourage another to enter a religious life. It is not only not sinful, and you can see the mendicant controversy in the background here that he's saying it's not sinful, but he says it's actually meritorious and noble. By encouraging one to enter the state of perfection, one teaches, is able to teach one in the way of justice and conversion, which is celebrated in Scripture. By leading one to observe the evangelical councils, one invites another into the life of penance and the school of charity. Rounding out the articles concerning entrance into religious life, Aquinas asks whether it is praiseworthy to enter religion without taking counsel of many and previously deliberating for a long time discernment. This is the key article of this talk. Aquinas writes the following, "Long deliberation in the advice of many are required in great matters of doubt as the philosopher Aristotle says in the ethics, while advice is unnecessary and matters that are certain and fixed." Now with regard to entering religion, three points may be considered. First, the entrance itself into religion considered by itself. And thus, it is certain that entrance into religion is a greater good. And to doubt about this is to disparage Christ, who gave this counsel. As Augustine says in his sermon, sorry, on his writing on the Lord's sermon on the mount, "The East, that is Christ, calleth thee, and thou turnest to the West, namely mortal infallible man." So he's reprimanding here. Notice how Aquinas does not refer to church teaching or javineanism or the writing of Saint Jerome. He says that denying that religious life is a greater good disparages Christ, who's given this counsel to come follow me. Aquinas continues with the second point. The entrance into religion may be considered in relation to the strength of the person who intends to enter. And here again, there is no room for doubt about entrance to religion. Since those who enter religion trust not to be able to stay by their own proper power, but by the assistance of the divine power according to Isaiah, they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be wary, they shall walk and not faint. Remember the teaching about creation and grace. God is at work in our lives in ways that surpass our knowledge, and so there is no reason to simply look to one's natural gifts or progress in virtue to justify or find certainty to one's call. The certainty is only found in the strength of God without whom we can do nothing. Aquinas does, however, point to the reality of obstacles, clarifying that it happens in individual's lives that bodily weakness, burden of debts and other matters do require one to seek counsel of those who are trustworthy. In my opinion, the contemporary setting for this advice is found in the application processes in spiritual direction. I know individuals with insurmountable debts that were cleared out, freeing them to enter religious life. I also know individuals who had issues with body and some with mental health that were ultimately told that this obstacle would not allow them to enter religious life. In these disappointing discoveries, the individual is required to trust in God's provenance, knowing that he has permitted this for their good. Though it may be painful, one is through this configured to the cross in such moments and able to make progress toward the true end of Beatitude and Perfect Charity. I know some that have pursued, found this out, and have married. So Aquinas suggests taking counsel in those matters, he said, "It should not be long." He then quotes St. Jerome who writes, "Hasen, I pray thee, cut off rather than loosen the rope that holds the boat to the shore." In the third matter, Aquinas switches from discussing the end of entering religious life and he now considers the means. So one who has grace and seeks holiness should not spend time discerning the greater good of religious life, yet when one considers which form of religious life, one ought to take counsel of those who will not stand in one's way, such as Aquinas' parents. By this he means holy people who objectively see the good of religious life and will not deter one because of fear, attachment, or mistrust of God's grace. So with the final word, we might say that Aquinas would not support long periods of discernment. You're rather encouraging. is the individual who is alive and gracing instead of the most expedient means towards be attitude, which would be entrance of the state of perfection. He frames his discussion with respect to the primacy of God's grace and the flourishing of human nature, which is found in the exercise of prudence. This results in him suggesting that one act boldly, perhaps even like St. Anthony of the Desert. Thank you. 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