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Objection 1: It would seem that impassibility excludes actual
sensation from glorified bodies. For according to the Philosopher
(De Anima ii, 11), "sensation is a kind of passion." But the
glorified bodies will be impassible. Therefore they will not have
actual sensation.
Objection 2: Further, natural alteration precedes spiritual
alteration, just as natural being precedes intentional being. Now
glorified bodies, by reason of their impassibility, will not be
subject to natural alteration. Therefore they will not be subject to
spiritual alteration which is requisite for sensation.
Objection 3: Further, whenever actual sensation is due to a new
perception, there is a new judgment. But in that state there will be
no new judgment, because "our thoughts will not then be
unchangeable," as Augustine says (De Trin. xv, 16).
Therefore there will be no actual sensation.
Objection 4: Further, when the act of one of the soul's powers is
intense, the acts of the other powers are remiss. Now the soul will
be supremely intent on the act of the contemplative power in
contemplating God. Therefore the soul will have no actual sensation
whatever.
On the contrary, It is written (Apoc. 1:7): "Every eye
shall see Him." Therefore there will be actual sensation.
Further, according to the Philosopher (De Anima i, 2) "the
animate is distinct from the inanimate by sensation and movement."
Now there will be actual movement since they "shall run to and fro
like sparks among the reeds" (Wis. 3:7). Therefore there will
also be actual sensation.
I answer that, All are agreed that there is some sensation in the
bodies of the blessed: else the bodily life of the saints after the
resurrection would be likened to sleep rather than to vigilance. Now
this is not befitting that perfection, because in sleep a sensible body
is not in the ultimate act of life, for which reason sleep is described
as half-life. But there is a difference of opinion as to the mode of
sensation.
For some say that the glorified bodies will be impassible, and
consequently "not susceptible to impressions from without" [Question
74, Article 4, On the contrary] and much less so than the
heavenly bodies, because they will have actual sensations, not by
receiving species from sensibles, but by emission of species. But
this is impossible, since in the resurrection the specific nature will
remain the same in man and in all his parts. Now the nature of sense
is to be a passive power as the Philosopher proves (De Anima ii,
text. 51,54). Wherefore if the saints, in the resurrection,
were to have sensations by emitting and not by receiving species, sense
in them would be not a passive but an active power, and thus it would
not be the same specifically with sense as it is now, but would be some
other power bestowed on them; for just as matter never becomes form,
so a passive power never becomes active. Consequently others say that
the senses will be actualized by receiving species, not indeed from
external sensibles, but by an outflow from the higher powers, so that
as now the higher powers receive from the lower, so on the contrary the
lower powers will then receive from the higher. But this mode of
reception does not result in real sensation, because every passive
power, according to its specific nature, is determined to some special
active principle, since a power as such bears relation to that with
respect to which it is said to be the power. Wherefore since the
proper active principle in external sensation is a thing existing
outside the soul and not an intention thereof existing in the
imagination or reason, if the organ of sense be not moved by external
things, but by the imagination or other higher powers, there will be
no true sensation. Hence we do not say that madmen or other witless
persons (in whom there is this kind of outflow of species towards the
organs of sense, on account of the powerful influence of the
imagination) have real sensations, but that it seems to them that they
have sensations. Consequently we must say with others that sensation
in glorified bodies will result from the reception of things outside the
soul. It must, however, be observed that the organs of sense are
transmuted by things outside the soul in two ways. First by a natural
transmutation, when namely the organ is disposed by the same natural
quality as the thing outside the soul which acts on that organ: for
instance, when the hand is heated by touching a hot object, or becomes
fragrant through contact with a fragrant object. Secondly, by a
spiritual transmutation, as when a sensible quality is received in an
instrument, according to a spiritual mode of being, when, namely,
the species or the intention of a quality, and not the quality itself
is received: thus the pupil receives the species of whiteness and yet
does not itself become white. Accordingly the first reception does not
cause sensation, properly speaking, because the senses are receptive
of species in matter but without matter. that is to say without the
material "being" which the species had outside the soul (De Anima
ii, text. 121). This reception transmutes the nature of the
recipient, because in this way the quality is received according to its
material "being." Consequently this kind of reception will not be in
the glorified bodies, but the second, which of itself causes actual
sensation, without changing the nature of the recipient.
Reply to Objection 1: As already explained, by this passion that
takes place in actual sensation and is no other than the aforesaid
reception of species, the body is not drawn away from natural quality,
but is perfected by a spiritual change. Wherefore the impassibility of
glorified bodies does not exclude this kind of passion.
Reply to Objection 2: Every subject of passion receives the action
of the agent according to its mode. Accordingly if there be a thing
that is naturally adapted to be altered by an active principle, with a
natural and a spiritual alteration, the natural alteration precedes the
spiritual alteration, just as natural precedes intentional being. If
however a thing be naturally adapted to be altered only with a spiritual
alteration it does not follow that it is altered naturally. For
instance the air is not receptive of color, according to its natural
being, but only according to its spiritual being, wherefore in this
way alone is it altered: whereas, on the contrary, inanimate bodies
are altered by sensible qualities only naturally and not spiritually.
But in the glorified bodies there cannot be any natural alteration,
and consequently there will be only spiritual alteration.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as there will be new reception of
species in the organs of sensation, so there will be new judgment in
the common sense: but there will be no new judgment on the point in the
intellect; such is the case with one who sees what he knew before.
The saying of Augustine, that "there our thoughts will not be
changeable," refers to the thoughts of the intellectual part:
therefore it is not to the point.
Reply to Objection 4: When one of two things is the type of the
other, the attention of the soul to the one does not hinder or lessen
its attention to the other: thus a physician while considering urine is
not less but more able to bear in mind the rules of his art concerning
the colors of urine. And since God is apprehended by the saints as
the type of all things that will be done or known by them, their
attention to perceiving sensibles, or to contemplating or doing
anything else will nowise hinder their contemplation of God, nor
conversely. Or we may say that the reason why one power is hindered in
its act when another power is intensely engaged is because one power
does not alone suffice for such an intense operation, unless it be
assisted by receiving from the principle of life the inflow that the
other powers or members should receive. And since in the saints all
the powers will be most perfect, one will be able to operate intensely
without thereby hindering the operation of another power even as it was
with Christ.
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