On Prayer and The Contemplative Life | Page 8

Greek scholar, possessing no
mean acquaintance with Hebrew, he deserves, by reason of the
clearness and precision of his thought, the title of "Prince of
Commentators." Here, however, we are concerned with the devotional
rather than with the critical aspect of his writings, and the reader will
gain from some of Cajetan's terse and pithy comments a very great deal
of instruction.
In conclusion, a few words may be desirable regarding the method of S.
Thomas.
S. Thomas divides his Summa Theologica into three main parts. The
First Part treats of God, the Exemplar.[22] The Second, of man made
to the image of God;[23] the Third, of God Incarnate, of His
Sacraments by which we attain to union with Him in this life, and of
Eternal Life to which we attain ultimately by our resurrection. Here we
are solely concerned with the Second part.[24] It is subdivided into two
portions, known as the Prima Secundæ and the Secunda Secundæ

respectively, or as the First and Second portions of the Second part. In
the Prima Secundæ the Saint treats of the principles of Morals--namely,
of man's ultimate end and of the habits, acts, and principles by which
he attains it. In the Secunda Secundæ, after having laid in the Prima
Secundæ the foundations of Moral Theology, he proceeds to treat of the
individual virtues, firstly of the Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope, and
Charity; then of the Cardinal Virtues, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and
Temperance. Under each of these heads he treats of the Gifts
corresponding to each Virtue, of the vices opposed to them, and of the
Precepts regarding them.[25] Apropos of the Cardinal Virtue of Justice,
he treats of the Moral Virtue of Religion, which is comprised under
Justice, since Religion may be defined as the offering to God the
worship which is His due, Question LXXXI. He then treats of Devotion,
Question LXXXII., and then of Prayer, Question LXXXIII. These
three Questions we here present in an English dress.
After these Treatises on individual virtues, he passes to the
consideration of those virtues which concern, not men as a whole, but
only certain classes of men.[26] And first of all he treats of those Gifts
which are bestowed upon certain men not so much for their own benefit
as for the good of others--viz., of Prophecy, of Ecstasy, of the Gift of
Tongues, and of the Gift of Miracles. He then discusses the two kinds
of operations or "lives"--the active, namely, and the
contemplative--which find a place in the Mystical Body of Christ,
which is the Church. These treatises in reality constitute a commentary
on 1 Cor. xii. 4-11. Question CLXXIX., On the Division of Life into the
Active and the Contemplative, is here given; as also Question CLXXX.,
On the Contemplative Life; Question CLXXXI., On the Active Life;
Question CLXXXII., On the Comparison of the Active with the
Contemplative Life.
S. Thomas then proceeds to treat of various states of life--viz., of the
state of perfection, of the Episcopal and of the Religious state. Only
one question raised in this connection concerns us here: Whether,
namely, Contemplative Religious Orders are superior to Active Orders?
(Question CLXXXVIII. 6).

Each Question is, as will be seen from the Table of Contents, divided
into Articles.
The framework of what is termed an "article" of the Summa is familiar
to those who use that work, but it may not be amiss to explain S.
Thomas's method in brief fashion. Each "article" is couched in the form
of a question, thus: Has contemplation its joys? And the Saint at once
sets forth in succession three, sometimes more, arguments which seem
to militate against the view he himself holds. These are commonly
known as the objections. He then gives us a short paragraph opening
with the words: Sed contra, or But on the contrary; and in this
paragraph he gives some authority, generally that of Holy Scripture or
one of the Fathers, for the view he is going to hold. This paragraph is
generally known from its opening words as the Sed contra; there is no
argument in it save from authority. He then proceeds to discuss the
question from the standpoint of pure reason. This portion is known as
the Corpus articuli, or Body of the Article, and in it the Saint presents
his reasoning in clear, precise fashion. It will be apparent, of course,
that many questions cannot be answered with a categoric yes or no, but
the precise sense in which certain terms in the discussion are to be used
has to be clearly ascertained; according to the diverse ways in which
they may be understood the answer will be affirmative or negative. It is
important for those not familiar with S. Thomas' works to grasp this
point; they must not, for instance, presume