Article 7 — Whether sensuality can be healed in this life from the previously mentioned corruption

Seventh, it is asked whether sensuality can be healed in this life from the previously mentioned corruption. (Parallel text: ST I-II.74.3, ad 2.)

Obj. 1: It seems that it can, for the previously mentioned corruption is called the incitement for evil desire; (Cf. Petrus Lomb. Lib. Sent. II d. 30 c. 8.) however, it is said of the Blessed Virgin that she was completely free from evil desire even in this life, especially after the conception of the Son of God; (Cf. Bonaventure, In III Sent., d. 3, part 1, a. 2, q. 2; Aquinas, In II Sent., d. 3, a. 2, ad 3.) therefore sensuality is curable in this life.

Obj. 2: Furthermore, all that obeys reason is susceptible to reason’s rectitude; but the powers of sensuality, namely the irascible and the concupiscible, obey reason, as is clear from what was said; (Above: a. 4.) therefore, sensuality is susceptible to reason’s rectitude, and so it can be healed from the contrary corruption.

Obj. 3: Furthermore, virtue is opposed to sin; but virtue can be in sensuality; for as the Philosopher says in the Nichomachean Ethics, (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 3.19, 1117b23.) temperance and fortitude belong to the irrational parts; therefore sensuality can be healed in this life from sin’s corruption.

Obj. 4: Furthermore, it pertains to sensuality’s corruption that disordered movements proceed from it, which are depraved desires; but the temperate man does not have these desires, in which he differs from the continent man who has them, though he does not follow them, as is clear in the Nichomachean Ethics. (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 7.9, 1152a1.) Therefore, sensuality can be completely healed in this life.

Obj. 5: Furthermore, if this corruption is incurable, it is either from the one doing the curing, or from the medicine, or from the sickness, or from the nature that is to be cured; but it is not from the one doing the curing, namely God, for he is all powerful; neither is it from the medicine, for as is clear in Romans 5:15, Christ’s gift is more powerful than Adam’s sin, by which such a corruption was introduced; neither is it from the sickness, since it is against nature, for it had not been initiated in nature; and neither is it from the nature that is to be cured, for it would have been useful for this infirmity to be removed, for because of it man is prone to evil and sluggish toward the good; therefore, sensuality in this life is curable.

On the contrary (1), the necessity to commit sin, at least venially, follows upon the necessity to die; but the necessity to die is not taken away in this life; therefore neither is the necessity for sinning venially, nor the corruption of sensuality, from which comes the previously mentioned necessity.

Furthermore (2), if sensuality were curable in this life, it would be cured most of all by the Church’s sacraments, which are spiritual medicines; yet after having received the sacraments, the corruption still remains, as is clear by experience; therefore sensuality is not curable in this life.

I answer that it must be said that sensuality is not able to be cured in this life except by a miracle. The reason for this is that what is natural cannot be wholly changed except by a supernatural power. However, such a corruption by which the soul’s parts are said to be corrupted follows in some way upon nature’s inclination. For that it was granted to man in his original state that reason should completely encompasses the lower powers, and the soul the body, was itself not from the power of natural principles, but from the power of original justice, added on because of divine generosity. Indeed, with this justice being removed by sin, man returned to a state appropriate for himself according to his own natural principles; hence Dionysius says in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, (Pseudo-Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. 3, para. 11 (PG 3:441A).) that by sin human nature was deservedly brought to an end consistent with its beginning. Therefore, just as man naturally dies, and he cannot be made immortal except miraculously, in the same way does the concupiscible naturally tend toward the pleasurable and the irascible towards the arduous, outside the order of reason. Hence, this corruption cannot be removed except miraculously by a supernatural power bringing it about.

Reply Obj. 1: Therefore, to the first it must be said that the Blessed Virgin was miraculously delivered from evil desire.

Reply Obj. 2: To the second it must be said that the irascible and the concupiscible obey reason inasmuch as their movements are either ordered or restrained by reason, but not such that their inclination be completely removed.

Reply Obj. 3: To the third it must be said that virtue in the irascible and the concupiscible powers is not opposed to the previously mentioned corruption, hence it does not remove it completely; but it is opposed to any excess of inclination of these previously mentioned powers towards their own objects, and this is taken away by virtue.

Reply Obj. 4: To the fourth it must be said that according to the Philosopher, the temperate man does not utterly lack desires, but violent desires, which can nevertheless exist in the continent man.

Reply Obj. 5: To the fifth it must be said that it does follow on the part of all four of those that sensuality is not cured in this life: for God himself, even though he able to cure it, has nevertheless ordained according to the order of his own wisdom that it not be cured in this life; similarly, the gift of grace which is granted to us by Christ, even though it is more efficacious than the sin of the first man, is nevertheless not ordered toward removing the previously mentioned corruption which is of the nature, but toward removing the fault of the person; likewise, such corruption, though it be contrary to the state of nature as first created, is nevertheless consistent with the principles of nature left to itself. It is also useful for man that the weakness of sensuality remain so as to avoid the vice of self-exaltation; 2 Corinthians 12:7, lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given to me a sting of my flesh; and so this weakness remains in man after baptism, as when a wise doctor allows a certain sickness to remain uncured, which could not be cured without the danger of a greater illness. (Cf. Albert the Great, q. "De sensualitate," a. 4; ST II-II.162.6, ad 3; Commentary on 2 Corinthians, ch. 12, lect. 3.)