Reflections on SUMMA THEOLOGICA

-Article 3. Whether man was placed in paradise to dress it and keep it?

Aquinas dealt with the objections contending that God did not place man on paradise to dress and keep it. The objections can be summarized like this:

Man, being positioned on the paradise, doesn’t serve as a keeper of it but a receiver of the punishment. Also, paradise doesn’t have to be kept because that would mean paradise can be trespassed with violence, and it is not. Finally, paradise was made for the sake of man, not the other way around.

                Referring to the Book of Genesis (2:15), Aquinas replied to the objections with a clear statement that can be summarized like this:

The labor of keeping and maintaining the paradise was given to man so that God will work for the sanctification of man and keep him from corruption. Also, man’s labor for the earth is indeed for the man’s sake and goodness and not for the paradise itself.

MY REFLECTION

                The article brought me to a question: was paradise created for man or was man created for paradise? Paradise here, I believe pertains not only to the place of pre-Adam time, it is also the place after the sin was committed and God placed judgment on it (hence, the earth).

                If we are going to look at the sequence of God’s creation, we realized that He created the paradise (and everything on it) first before the man. That would provide a logical thread that will lead us to clarify the issue raised by the objections. God created the paradise for man to be nurtured and sustained but God gave man a part of His governing nature so that man can nurture himself through the paradise’ wealth in whatever way he chooses . It is therefore in his sovereignty what to do with the paradise he was given.

Also, God is powerful enough that whatever He says or whatever he will shall happen. And if it is God’s will to let the paradise to be incorruptible or free from distraction then it will stand strong amidst anything, then why does it need a keeper? However, God would have wanted to let His people decide and choose to keep and protect it without necessarily demanding for it. It can be liken to a father who gave a ball to his son not to display it on the top of his dresser but to use it for his own advancement, so to speak. A father doesn’t give slippers to his child to keep the slippers and make it look new everyday but to protect his feet. But the father expects his child to take good care of those possessions because he believes that it is a good thing to do. In the like manner, God made the paradise not for the sake of paradise itself but for the man’s sake. And whether the man decides to keep it or not, it all belongs to man’s call- to his own choice and discernment. Will it be God’s command that man is compelled to keep and maintain the earth?