On Perfection

Hi Father John,

In your answer to Mary's question, you said that only eternal things are perfect. Are you saying that what God creates is less than perfect? Are those joined with God in heaven less than perfect, because they are not eternal (as they had a beginning)?

Brian

Brian, let me start with an ancient definition of perfection, which goes back to the Greek philospher Aristotle. He distinguishes three levels of meaning in the concept of perfection.

A being is perfect :

1. If it is complete, containing all the requisite parts; or
2. If it is so good that nothing of its kind could possibly be better; or
3. If it fulfills the purpose for which it exists.

Those first two definitions are really aspects of the same reality since nothing can be the best of its kind if it is incomplete, and lacks some requisite parts. But there is a real distinction to be made between a being which is complete in itself, and a being which fulfills the purpose for which it exists. The first, is perfection of substance; the second, perfection of purpose.

Moving from philosophy to theology, we turn to Saint Thomas Aquinas, who said: There is only one being absolutely perfect in substance, that is God, because no other being is eternal. All created being has a beginning and an end; therefore all created being is imperfect of substance when compared to God.

Aquinas resolves the philosophical conflict with Aristotle in a rather novel manner. He creates a neologism [a new word] "supernatural", in reference to God, and to the grace which God imparts to his human children. Using Thomistic vocabulary, we might say: "All creation is natural, and every creature is capable of the perfection of nature; only God is supernatural, and the perfection of divine nature is "super-perfect". [That last is not a Thomistic term!]

As God's children, all human beings are called from the first moment of our existence to strive for perfection according to our nature. To assist us in that quest, God grants us grace: sanctifying grace, which is given to us through the sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, Matrimony and the Sacrament of the Sick; and actual grace, which is defined as "the supernatural assistance of God for salutary acts granted in consideration of the merits of Christ." In simpler terms, actual grace is special help from God for a particular moment, or a certain act. One theologian writes, "Think of actual graces as zaps from God that enable to do something salutary." Perform an act of charity, or resist a particular temptation, for instance.