Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Man, dowered with free will, had to exercisethat free will in choosing or rejecting God. Had there been notrial, no temptation, man would have had a kind of mechanicalprogress from Paradise to heaven, and the greatest of his gifts,the gift that makes him most like to God in his being (that is,free will) would have been a vain and unused gift. Free humannature had to have a chance to choose freely, and this was given inthe temptation. There was no need for Adam to succumb to thetemptation. He had a perfect human nature, and he had supernaturalgrace and supernatural gifts. No creature could harm him or forcehis choice, against his will. That Adam sinned, that he chose toabuse freedom instead of using it, was his own fault.
2. The manner and order of the first man's temptationwere entirely suitable. The temptation was rounded and complete. Itappealed to the intellect and will; the appeal was made through thesenses; into the whole event of the temptation there entered one ofthe man's own species, the woman; one thing of the animalorder, the serpent; and one thing of the vegetal order, the treewith its fruit.
"The supreme perfection of man in this life is to be so united to God that all his soul with all its faculties and powers are so gathered into the Lord God that he becomes one spirit with him, and remembers nothing except God, is aware of and recognises nothing but God, but with all his desires unified by the joy of love, he rests contentedly in the enjoyment of his Maker alone."
St Albert the Great
* * *
"It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come."
Thomas á Kempis
* * *
"Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life eases the mind and a clean conscience inspires great trust in God."
Thomas á Kempis
* * *