Whether Sin Causes a Stain on the Soul?
Objection 1: It would seem that sin causes no stain on the soul. For
a higher nature cannot be defiled by contact with a lower nature:
hence the sun's ray is not defiled by contact with tainted bodies, as
Augustine says (Contra Quinque Haereses v). Now the human soul is of
a much higher nature than mutable things, to which it turns by
sinning. Therefore it does not contract a stain from them by sinning.
Obj. 2: Further, sin is chiefly in the will, as stated above (Q. 74,
AA. 1, 2). Now the will is in the reason, as stated in _De _Anima
iii, text. 42. But the reason or intellect is not stained by
considering anything whatever; rather indeed is it perfected thereby.
Therefore neither is the will stained by sin.
Obj. 3: Further, if sin causes a stain, this stain is either
something positive, or a pure privation. If it be something positive,
it can only be either a disposition or a habit: for it seems that
nothing else can be caused by an act. But it is neither disposition
nor habit: for it happens that a stain remains even after the removal
of a disposition or habit; for instance, in a man who after
committing a mortal sin of prodigality, is so changed as to fall into
a sin of the opposite vice. Therefore the stain does not denote
anything positive in the soul. Again, neither is it a pure privation.
Because all sins agree on the part of aversion and privation of
grace: and so it would follow that there is but one stain caused by
all sins. Therefore the stain is not the effect of sin.
_On the contrary,_ It was said to Solomon (Ecclus. 47:22): "Thou hast
stained thy glory": and it is written (Eph. 5:27): "That He might
present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle":
and in each case it is question of the stain of sin. Therefore a
stain is the effect of sin.
_I answer that,_ A stain is properly ascribed to corporeal things,
when a comely body loses its comeliness through contact with another
body, e.g. a garment, gold or silver, or the like. Accordingly a
stain is ascribed to spiritual things in like manner. Now man's soul
has a twofold comeliness; one from the refulgence of the natural
light of reason, whereby he is directed in his actions; the other,
from the refulgence of the Divine light, viz. of wisdom and grace,
whereby man is also perfected for the purpose of doing good and
fitting actions. Now, when the soul cleaves to things by love, there
is a kind of contact in the soul: and when man sins, he cleaves to
certain things, against the light of reason and of the Divine law, as
shown above (Q. 71, A. 6). Wherefore the loss of comeliness
occasioned by this contact, is metaphorically called a stain on the
soul.
Reply Obj. 1: The soul is not defiled by inferior things, by their
own power, as though they acted on the soul: on the contrary, the
soul, by its own action, defiles itself, through cleaving to them
inordinately, against the light of reason and of the Divine law.
Reply Obj. 2: The action of the intellect is accomplished by the
intelligible thing being in the intellect, according to the mode of
the intellect, so that the intellect is not defiled, but perfected,
by them. On the other hand, the act of the will consists in a
movement towards things themselves, so that love attaches the soul to
the thing loved. Thus it is that the soul is stained, when it cleaves
inordinately, according to Osee 9:10: "They . . . became abominable
as those things were which they loved."
Reply Obj. 3: The stain is neither something positive in the soul,
nor does it denote a pure privation: it denotes a privation of the
soul's brightness in relation to its cause, which is sin; wherefore
diverse sins occasion diverse stains. It is like a shadow, which is
the privation of light through the interposition of a body, and which
varies according to the diversity of the interposed bodies.
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