Angels- “Exposition of the Angelic Salutation (Ave Maria)"
Aquinas expounds, “For the angel is familiar of God, as assisting him. Daniel 7.10: ‘Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him. But man is like an outsider; put a distance from God through sin. Psalm 54.8: ‘Lo, I have gone far off, flying away.’ Thus it was fitting that man should reverence the angel as one close to and familiar with the king.” The numerous angels are familiar and closer to God due to their holiness. Unlike human beings, these angels are spineless; hence, they are ranked more highly than human beings are. Angels are comparable to insiders who serve God; God delegates his duties to them, and they perform them as servants would in a government.
“Parts of Plants”-“Definitions of Soul. On Aristotle’s De anima”
Aquinas explains, “ The parts of plants in spite of their extreme simplicity are ‘organs,’ for example the leaf serves to shelter the pericarp, the pericarp to shelter the fruit, while the roots of plants are analogous to the mouth of animals, both serving for the absorption of the food. If, then, we have to give a general formula applicable to all kinds of soul, we must describe it as the first grade of actuality of natural organized body.” The organization of various organs of plants expounds the nature of the soul which is a foremost component of a human. Plant organs function mutually in the same way that souls and bodies do. Due to the mutuality, a body cannot exist without a soul and vice versa.
River-“The Nature of Theology”
Aquinas elaborates, “Order, because as a brook is derived from a river, so the temporal procession of creatures [derives] from the eternal procession of persons. Hence in Psalm 148.5 is said, ‘He commanded and they were made.’ The Word gave birth to what was in him in order that it might be.” The imagery of a brook’s origins elaborates on the concept of order. A river cannot be derived from a brook. The imagery of a brook underscores that creates and human beings originate from God; God cannot originate from them. Existence of creatures is analogous to the procession of a river.
Living-“The Active and Contemplative Lives”
Aquinas insists, “It should be said that those things are properly called living that move themselves or act. That especially belongs to a thing in itself which is proper to it and to which it is especially inclined. Therefore, every living thing shows itself to be alive by the activity most proper to it, to which it is most incline, as the life of plants is said to consists in that is that they are nourished and generate, that of animals is this that they sense and move, that of men in this that they understand and act according to reason.” Living should be perceptible. Creatures that cannot move or nourish themselves are deemed to be liveliness. Living is defined and confirmed by activeness and involvement in activities that contribute to the existence of a creature.
