Whether Blessing and Sanctifying Are Due to the Seventh Day?
Objection 1: It would seem that blessing and sanctifying are not due
to the seventh day. For it is usual to call a time blessed or holy for
that some good thing has happened in it, or some evil been avoided.
But whether God works or ceases from work nothing accrues to Him or is
lost to Him. Therefore no special blessing or sanctifying are due to
the seventh day.
Obj. 2: Further, the Latin "benedictio" [blessing] is derived from
"bonitas" [goodness]. But it is the nature of good to spread and
communicate itself, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv). The days,
therefore, in which God produced creatures deserved a blessing rather
than the day on which He ceased producing them.
Obj. 3: Further, over each creature a blessing was pronounced, as
upon each work it was said, "God saw that it was good." Therefore it
was not necessary that after all had been produced, the seventh day
should be blessed.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 2:3), "God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work."
_I answer that,_ As said above (A. 2), God's rest on the seventh day
is understood in two ways. First, in that He ceased from producing
new works, though He still preserves and provides for the creatures
He has made. Secondly, in that after all His works He rested in
Himself. According to the first meaning, then, a blessing befits the
seventh day, since, as we explained (Q. 72, ad 4), the blessing
referred to the increase by multiplication; for which reason God said
to the creatures which He blessed: "Increase and multiply." Now, this
increase is effected through God's Providence over His creatures,
securing the generation of like from like. And according to the
second meaning, it is right that the seventh day should have been
sanctified, since the special sanctification of every creature
consists in resting in God. For this reason things dedicated to God
are said to be sanctified.
Reply Obj. 1: The seventh day is said to be sanctified not because
anything can accrue to God, or be taken from Him, but because
something is added to creatures by their multiplying, and by their
resting in God.
Reply Obj. 2: In the first six days creatures were produced in their
first causes, but after being thus produced, they are multiplied and
preserved, and this work also belongs to the Divine goodness. And the
perfection of this goodness is made most clear by the knowledge that
in it alone God finds His own rest, and we may find ours in its
fruition.
Reply Obj. 3: The good mentioned in the works of each day belongs to
the first institution of nature; but the blessing attached to the
seventh day, to its propagation.
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