Blog Owner's note: This is a guest post by a good friend of mine, Micah Espiritu. Hope you enjoy reading this fine reflection essay.
By: Ma. Roxanne Micah Espiritu
St. Thomas Aquinas, adapting Aristotelian realism, analyzes all material objects, including humans, in terms of being composed of form and matter. This is the doctrine of Hylomorphism (from two greek words “Hyle”, meaning “form”, and “Morphe”, which means “matter”). In Thomistic analysis, however, the human person is a special case of this ontological composition. For instance, in Quaestiones disputatae de anima XIV, Aquinas argues that since the intellect grasps universals which is abstracted from individual particulars, a capacity that cannot be done vie pure material processes, the rational aspect of man, therefore, is immaterial. This gives us humans a higher spot in the hierarchy of beings. Looking at it carefully: unlike the inanimate objects in the cosmos, vegetative life, and the other animals, not only are we able to move from one place to another, use senses, take in nutrients via immanent causation, and reproduce, we can also perform logical activities, like solving math problems and follow modus ponens logic.
St. Thomas Aquinas, adapting Aristotelian realism, analyzes all material objects, including humans, in terms of being composed of form and matter. This is the doctrine of Hylomorphism (from two greek words “Hyle”, meaning “form”, and “Morphe”, which means “matter”). In Thomistic analysis, however, the human person is a special case of this ontological composition. For instance, in Quaestiones disputatae de anima XIV, Aquinas argues that since the intellect grasps universals which is abstracted from individual particulars, a capacity that cannot be done vie pure material processes, the rational aspect of man, therefore, is immaterial. This gives us humans a higher spot in the hierarchy of beings. Looking at it carefully: unlike the inanimate objects in the cosmos, vegetative life, and the other animals, not only are we able to move from one place to another, use senses, take in nutrients via immanent causation, and reproduce, we can also perform logical activities, like solving math problems and follow modus ponens logic.
Reflecting on this, one also realizes that even the things we can do together with fellow living beings are elevated to another level due to our rationality. Consider the ability to take on nutrients, which we regularly do through consuming food. It seems that rationality is the reason why we attach cultural significance in eating through feasts and the like. Even the ability to reproduce, which is naturally done through sexual intercourse, is elevated to another level, which gives rise to concepts like romantic love and the institution of marriage. Following, then, the natural conclusions of the hylomorphic analysis of man, we find that not only is man animated by his soul, but also gives him his capacities that makes him unique in the ontological order.
And yet, I think, the most interesting part of this is the fact that our "hyle" is united with our "morphe". It's not that we are pure spirits, just like the angels, nor are we just pure matter, just like a stone. It's that we are body and soul, or, as St. John Paul II used to say: we are embodied souls. We have a material and an immaterial aspect. This gives a wonderful definition to what man is: we are what makes heaven and earth kiss. We are the one standing between pure spirituality and mere materiality. This opens up the possibility of a supernatural event that I aim to focus my reflection upon.
Two core aspects of hylomorphism are: that the form of a particular object is the form of that object alone and the existential persistence of the soul after death. The particular, instantiated form cannot be transferred to something else, or else it was never a form of its former matter at all. And since the substantial form of man is immaterial, given his rationality, the rational soul persists even when the matter undergoes corruption and death. Not only does this refute reincarnation, but also opens up, as I said, to a doctrine that Christianity has been teaching all along: the resurrection of the body.
Death terrifies the common man. It gives us sorrow. It makes us grieve. Just thinking of a dying loved one, or reminiscing memories with a dead friend makes us shake to our very emotional cores. As much as possible, we want to avoid it, because, in our feeble human eyes, it looks like it all ends there. After death, there's nothing left for us. Death signifies that our whole being ceases. Death is synonymous to annihilation.
But the Christian faith says otherwise. In the creed, we proclaim: "I believe in… the resurrection of the body and life everlasting". The religion founded upon Christ proclaims this extraordinary, and even somewhat unthinkable belief: that just like Christ, who was raised from the dead, we have the hope of rising up with him in the end, and "being conformed in (His) image" (Romans 8:29), we will have not only our body which is subject to wounds and diseases, but that it will also be glorified. This means that at the resurrection of the dead in the end times, the dead who were once lame can finally walk properly and the blind will suddenly see.
This is the hope Christianity offers. Death is not the end. In fact, it somehow teaches that death is just the beginning of future glory, which will culminate in the day we get our bodies back, bodies which are now glorified and sanctified, just like Christ.
This is always possible given hylomorphism. Whether resurrection is certain is, of course, a theological topic which cannot be settled here. But nonetheless, the Aristotelian-Thomistic analysis of being in terms of form and matter gives this article of faith an improved credibility. Indeed, philosophy is the handmaid to theology. And if Hylomorphism is correct, then this philosophical truth points to an even higher theological truth!!! Philosophy, then, should move us to a reasonable hope, a hope that we will one day rise from the dead and that we will be with our loved ones again.
This also gives us a point of reflection in these trying times. The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many lives throughout the globe. Indeed, that's a reason of concern. But if the resurrection is true, given hylomorphism, then I propose that maybe the hysteria on this pandemic might as well be exaggerated, that the modern, materialistic world should be corrected of its shortsightedness of not seeing beyond the grave in which we will be buried six feet under. We Christians, then, if the resurrection is true, ought to evangelize the culture and proclaim this wonderful hope, for it is part of our mission of charity to our hopeless brethren. This doctrinal beauty has its criteria as founded on hylomorphism.
Here, we see that hylomorphism is not just a theoretical concept that has nothing to do with our lives. Indeed, it is quite the opposite. If it is true, then it gives us a fair reason to think: one day, we will rise again. One day, our "hyle" will unite once again with our "morphe" in a glorified way. There's no reason, then, to despair, for beyond the terror of death can be the possibility of a new life!
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