Whether It Is Expedient to Take Vows?
Objection 1: It would seem that it is not expedient to take vows. It
is not expedient to anyone to deprive himself of the good that God
has given him. Now one of the greatest goods that God has given man
is liberty whereof he seems to be deprived by the necessity
implicated in a vow. Therefore it would seem inexpedient for man to
take vows.
Obj. 2: Further, no one should expose himself to danger. But whoever
takes a vow exposes himself to danger, since that which, before
taking a vow, he could omit without danger, becomes a source of
danger to him if he should not fulfil it after taking the vow. Hence
Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et Paulin.): "Since thou hast
vowed, thou hast bound thyself, thou canst not do otherwise. If thou
dost not what thou hast vowed thou wilt not be as thou wouldst have
been hadst thou not vowed. For then thou wouldst have been less
great, not less good: whereas now if thou breakest faith with God
(which God forbid) thou art the more unhappy, as thou wouldst have
been happier, hadst thou kept thy vow." Therefore it is not expedient
to take vows.
Obj. 3: Further, the Apostle says (1 Cor. 4:16): "Be ye followers of
me, as I also am of Christ." But we do not read that either Christ or
the Apostles took any vows. Therefore it would seem inexpedient to
take vows.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ps. 75:12): "Vow ye and pay to the
Lord your God."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (AA. 1, 2), a vow is a promise made
to God. Now one makes a promise to a man under one aspect, and to God
under another. Because we promise something to a man for his own
profit; since it profits him that we should be of service to him, and
that we should at first assure him of the future fulfilment of that
service: whereas we make promises to God not for His but for our own
profit. Hence Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et Paulin.): "He
is a kind and not a needy exactor, for he does not grow rich on our
payments, but makes those who pay Him grow rich in Him." And just as
what we give God is useful not to Him but to us, since "what is given
Him is added to the giver," as Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment.
et Paulin.), so also a promise whereby we vow something to God, does
not conduce to His profit, nor does He need to be assured by us, but
it conduces to our profit, in so far as by vowing we fix our wills
immovably on that which it is expedient to do. Hence it is expedient
to take vows.
Reply Obj. 1: Even as one's liberty is not lessened by one being
unable to sin, so, too, the necessity resulting from a will firmly
fixed to good does not lessen the liberty, as instanced in God and
the blessed. Such is the necessity implied by a vow, bearing a
certain resemblance to the confirmation of the blessed. Hence,
Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et Paulin.) that "happy is
the necessity that compels us to do the better things."
Reply Obj. 2: When danger arises from the deed itself, this deed is
not expedient, for instance that one cross a river by a tottering
bridge: but if the danger arise through man's failure in the deed,
the latter does not cease to be expedient: thus it is expedient to
mount on horseback, though there be the danger of a fall from the
horse: else it would behoove one to desist from all good things, that
may become dangerous accidentally. Wherefore it is written (Eccles.
11:4): "He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that
considereth the clouds shall never reap." Now a man incurs danger,
not from the vow itself, but from his fault, when he changes his mind
by breaking his vow. Hence, Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et
Paulin.): "Repent not of thy vow: thou shouldst rather rejoice that
thou canst no longer do what thou mightest lawfully have done to thy
detriment."
Reply Obj. 3: It was incompetent for Christ, by His very nature, to
take a vow, both because He was God, and because, as man, His will
was firmly fixed on the good, since He was a _comprehensor._ By a
kind of similitude, however, He is represented as saying (Ps. 21:26):
"I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear Him," when He is
speaking of His body, which is the Church.
The apostles are understood to have vowed things pertaining to the
state of perfection when "they left all things and followed Christ."
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