The Will of the First Man

Man was created in grace. The subjection of his reason to God, and of his lower appetites to his reason, were gifts of grace, not merely natural perfections.

The lower appetites of man are the tendencies of his bodily nature. Now, that which experiences appetency or tendencyundergoes something. The Latin word for an undergoing is passio. Hence the experience, the kick-back, of sentientappetites (concupiscible and irascible) is called passion. We distinguish the passions, according to the appetites which they follow upon, as concupiscible and irascible passions. And, although the passions belong to the sentient order, we call them the passions of the soul because they exercise an influence which rises into the intellective order and affects the faculties of the soul,especially the will. The passions of the soul are: (a) the concupiscible passions: love-hatred, desire-aversion,joy-grief; (b) the irascible passions: hope-despair,courage-fear, anger. Our first parents, in the state of innocence,were not subject to the passions that have reference to evil, for they had to face no evil, present or threatening; hence they were not subject to fear, grief, despair, anger, or inordinate desire. They had only such passions as refer to present and future good:joy, love, hope, orderly desire. And these passions of our first parents were, before the fall, perfectly subject to their reason,that is, to their intellectually enlightened will.

Virtues are habits (that is, stable qualities) which steadily dispose the soul to act in accordance with reason and God’s law. The first man had all the virtues that suited his state, and he had the habitual aptitude for those virtues which had no place in the state of innocence, such, for instance, as the virtue of penance.

Considering the full and unimpeded flow of grace to thesinless soul, we find that the actions of man in the state of innocence were of greater merit than those performed after the fall. But considering the difficulty which fallen man experiences in performing good works, we may discern a greater merit in good actions performed after the fall. A small thing done with difficulty may mean more than a great thing done with ease. Our Lord said that the poor widow who gave only two small coins in charity, which were all she had, gave more than the rich people who, out of their abundance, made large contributions.