B. The Intellect of Christ’s Soul can be Perfected First and Immediately with the Most Perfect Vision of the Word

18. As to the second article, it can be said that insofar as the intellect has the idea of receptivity with respect to vision, no other form needs to be received beforehand in order for vision to be received in the intellect

19. Proof of the first proposition [n.18]:

If another form is posited, the object is not present unless, in absolute freedom, it represents itself, for the form cannot be a necessary reason for the object to be present as something seen, because “if he wishes he is seen; if he does not wish he is not seen” [Ambrose, on Luke 1 n.24]; also, when the form is not posited, the object can voluntarily impress itself on the intellect, and do so by actually causing vision in the intellect;     therefore etc     .

20. Further, if some form were necessarily in the intellect prior to vision, let it be called a: then a is related to vision either under the idea of efficient cause, or under the idea of material cause as that which properly receives vision (the way that the surface of a body is related to color, because surface is what properly receives color):

21. But if a is related in the first way [as efficient cause; Aquinas], then vision could be present in the intellect without a, for whatever God can do by an intermediate efficient cause he can do immediately as well, and do so as to anything that is receptive of vision.

22. If a is related in the second way [as material cause; Bonaventure], then it cannot be posited as something necessary for what is being proposed:

First because then the intellect, as it is some part of the soul, would receive blessedness in a, for matter that is receptive of many forms is immediately brought to rest when it has the most perfect form of which it is capable; the case here is of this sort, for the intellect cannot of itself receive other forms save through this form (just as a substance would receive blessedness in its surface if it could not of itself receive per se another form); and so the intellect, as it is some part of the soul, would be naturally at rest before the vision of the Word was present in it - which is impossible.

23. Second because if something absolute, which is the idea of receiving some form, exists per se, it can receive per se (as a surface, if it per se exists, can per se receive color); therefore if a is a something absolute other than vision and is the reason for receiving vision, and if it existed per se, it could per se receive vision, and thus, as existing per se, it could be beatified by vision - and consequently even now it would be immediately beatified; the consequence would also follow that the intellect would not be beatified now save per accidens (just as substance, as regards its passive potency, would be at rest per accidens in a color able to exist in its surface).

24. If, however, it be said that the whole, namely the intellect informed by a, would be per se beatified by vision [Bonaventure] - on the contrary: of one per se act there is one per se power (Metaphysics 8.6.1045b17-19), so of this one act, namely per se vision, the potency is not a per accidens whole; therefore the second [sc. the a by itself] will precisely be the proper and immediate reason for receiving vision; and so, as proved by the first two reasons [nn.19, 20-23], the intended conclusion follows.

25. Therefore it can be said that the intellect of Christ’s soul can passively receive the vision of the Word first and immediately [sc. without any preceding light or habit, nn.26-27]:

26. And such that it is not perfected first by some light as by an absolute form other than vision:

First because vision is perfect light; for, in the case of natural understanding, a light preceding vision is required due to the imperfection of the object, either because the intelligible thing is not actual of itself but through the agent intellect (which is the light whereby what is potentially intelligible becomes actually intelligible), or because, if it is actually intelligible, it is not sufficient of itself to move the intellect to second act. Neither of these is found in the present case because the divine essence is of itself supreme light and is intelligible in itself and is of itself most perfectly a mover of the intellect; therefore, no light to cooperate with it is required; for the more an object possesses the idea and perfection of a light able to cooperate with it, the less it needs it; therefore an object possessing altogether perfectly in itself a light of a nature to cooperate with it does not at all require light.

27. Similarly, no habit prior to vision itself is required for receiving vision, for a habit does not dispose a power to receive act but rather act is of a nature to be received first before the habit is. However, because an acquired habit in us has this perfection (because it is immanent in the soul as such when there is second transient act), the intellect, which cannot have the most perfection knowledge of several objects at once (for it is not in act), has a permanent knowledge of them at least in the way it is able to, and so it has this knowledge in habit; but if some act were of its nature as permanent in act as the habit with respect to it is, there would be no need to posit a habit, for such an act would have the perfection of both first and second act. But the beatific vision is of its nature a form as permanent in the intellect as is the habit that is posited as prior to it; for both always persist through the perpetual presence of the beatific object, and neither could persist otherwise.

28. And if an objection be raised against this, that then the intellect could see the Word by its purely natural powers, for it could do so without the light of glory and without a habit preceding vision - I respond according to your own statement, and say that this conclusion seems in some way to follow if one posits a light or habit preceding vision such that it is a necessary or sufficient reason for vision; for although a blind man may be given light miraculously, nevertheless he is, having been given light, seeing naturally, because he has a created form [sc. eyes] for the natural use of that operation. Thus, if some habit is supernaturally given to the intellect through which, when given, the intellect can, as through a sufficient form, see God, then, since this habit is something created and perfects the intellect naturally, the result would be that one could see God naturally through some created form. But this result would not follow if one denied such a disposition or preceding light (whether it is called a light or habit I care not), because in each instant naturally prior to the vision there is no cause naturally prior to it; for up to the instant of nature when the intellect sees, a created intellect does not have in itself power for that vision, but all that precedes is the intellect itself in itself, and the object - which object has the power to elicit the vision, and is not a moving power naturally proportioned to the created intellect, and is not of a nature to move it naturally.

29. Next to the form of the argument [n.28]: the conclusion does not follow save as to the fact that the intellect of Christ’s soul could naturally see the Word; but it does not follow that the vision could be in that intellect by its natural powers or by some natural cause; for it can only be made present by the Word immediately causing it, and when the Word causes he causes supernaturally. And to say this is the same as to say that the intellect of Christ’s soul could formally or receptively see the Word by its natural powers, but not that it could effect or elicit seeing the Word by its natural powers.

30. But if it be asked whether a created intellect without such a habit or light (let it be called a) could be disposed for such vision not only passively but also actively so as to elicit it, and to elicit it as perfectly as when it has a, I reply: Take the supposition that the intellect could be disposed actively with respect to the vision of the Word (which supposition was made above, n.21). Then, just as the intellect is actively disposed with respect to natural vision (namely insofar as the intellect is beatified in the same power, nn.26-27, and insofar as it is the principle of natural intellection, and thus insofar as its way of operating with respect to both objects is the same), one can, on the basis of the above supposition, say what was said to the fourth question of the preceding question, namely that if there is a necessary connection of second causes [d.13 n.84] one must say about the intellect what was said there about the will [d.13 n.85]. But as to the receiving of the vision, which the question here is about, there seems to be no simple necessity to concede that a must perfect the intellect first before vision; but if the intellect can receive two perfections in order, namely a as first act and vision as second act, then it is fitting that intellect and vision should be perfected in the same order, even though either perfection could, absolutely, be present without the other.