St. Paul's luminous teaching that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life does *not* mean that the law is unimportant nor that it may be broken for good reasons. St. Paul's teaching is that the moral aspects of the New Law must always be followed but *out of love for the law!* The old law's ceremonial and judicial precepts have passed away, but the moral precepts are maintained and deepened. As such, Christ perfects Sabbath rest to be ordered toward faith, hope, and love, not merely physical rest or ceremony. As such, Christ permits healing on that day

@Brandon_Eaves7 I think you've got it! The bridge between the two is further elucidated by Cajetan who recognizes that man's nature is somewhat proportionate or fitting to be elevated even if beatitude is a truly supernatural end and desire for it is elicited. Man has a specific obediential... @Brandon_Eaves7 potency for beatitude since man reflects God in having intellect and will. As such, the supernatural end perfects and elevates the natural end rather than obliterating it or merely stacking upon it like a layer cake.

The will and the passions are similar in that they are both appetites, but there is, of course, a crucial distinction between them. The sense appetites have no interior principle of action or motion. When the nose smells baked cookies, the sense appetites (love, desire, etc.)... are immediately and deterministically called *into action* by the object perceived (e.g. cookies). But when the intellect apprehends some good in an external object the will is not immediately or automatically moving and will only be *in action* if we ourselves, through the...

Thread on what does and does not constitute human freedom from a Thomistic point of view:

Many hold that the source of human freedom is a negation or lack of divine causality or governance. In other words, we are free insofar as God is not involved with our actions. C.S. Lewis argues this way. He says that sin is the price we must pay for not being automatons. The implicit argument is that if God holds any providential governance over our actions they cease to be free. Thus the human will is only free insofar as it is a no-fly zone for God.

Thread:
I was raised Catholic but quite nominally so. The education I received at home was largely Protestant. We only attended church a few times a year. Easter/Christmas Catholics. I actually attended Catholic school K - 12 but the religious education was very poor. 2. I had always had a deep interest in the question of God but given the superficial Catholic education which I received, I spent mt early high school years studying Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. I was looking for answers and open to finding them anywhere except Christianity.