Whether God Is Called Blessed in Respect of His Intellect?
Objection 1: It seems that God is not called blessed in respect to
His intellect. For beatitude is the highest good. But good is said to
be in God in regard to His essence, because good has reference to
being which is according to essence, according to Boethius (De
Hebdom.). Therefore beatitude also is said to be in God in regard to
His essence, and not to His intellect.
Obj. 2: Further, Beatitude implies the notion of end. Now the end is
the object of the will, as also is the good. Therefore beatitude is
said to be in God with reference to His will, and not with reference
to His intellect.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says (Moral. xxxii, 7): "He is in glory,
Who whilst He rejoices in Himself, needs not further praise." To be
in glory, however, is the same as to be blessed. Therefore, since we
enjoy God in respect to our intellect, because "vision is the whole
of the reward," as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxii), it would seem
that beatitude is said to be in God in respect of His intellect. it
would seem that beatitude is said to be in God in respect of His
intellect.
_I answer that,_ Beatitude, as stated above (A. 1), is the perfect
good of an intellectual nature. Thus it is that, as everything desires
the perfection of its nature, intellectual nature desires naturally to
be happy. Now that which is most perfect in any intellectual nature is
the intellectual operation, by which in some sense it grasps
everything. Whence the beatitude of every intellectual nature consists
in understanding. Now in God, to be and to understand are one and the
same thing; differing only in the manner of our understanding them.
Beatitude must therefore be assigned to God in respect of His
intellect; as also to the blessed, who are called blessed [beati] by
reason of the assimilation to His beatitude.
Reply Obj. 1: This argument proves that beatitude belongs to God; not
that beatitude pertains essentially to Him under the aspect of His
essence; but rather under the aspect of His intellect.
Reply Obj. 2: Since beatitude is a good, it is the object of the
will; now the object is understood as prior to the act of a power.
Whence in our manner of understanding, divine beatitude precedes the
act of the will at rest in it. This cannot be other than the act of
the intellect; and thus beatitude is to be found in an act of the
intellect.
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