Thomas Aquinas, on 2Cor 4:4

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them.”

“The cause of this concealment is not on the part of the Gospel, but on account of their own guilt and malice; and this is what he adds: in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. This can be explained in three ways: in one way so that the god of this world, i.e. God, who is the Lord of this world and of all things by creation and nature: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein" (Ps. 24:1), has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, not by producing malice, but by the merit, or rather demerit of preceding sins, by withdrawing his grace: "Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed" (Is. 6:10). Therefore he hints at their preceding sins when he says, of unbelievers, as though their unbelief is the cause of this blindness. In a second way, so that the god of this world, i.e., the devil, who is called the god of this world, i.e., of those who live in a worldly manner, not by reason of creation but by imitation, because worldly persons imitate him: "They follow him that are on his side" (Wis. 2:25, Vulgate). Here he blinds them by suggesting, by attracting and by inclining to sins. And so, when they are already in sin, they work in the darkness of sin, lest they see: "Darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18). In the third way thus: God has the nature of the ultimate end and fulfillment of the desires of every creature. Hence, whatever a person assigns to himself as an ultimate end in which his desire rests, can be called his god. Hence, when you have pleasure as end, pleasure is called your god, and the same for pleasures of the flesh and for honors. Then it is explained so that the god of this world, i.e., that which men living in a worldly way set up as their end, say pleasure or riches and the like. And God blinds their minds, inasmuch as he prevents them from seeing the light of grace here, and the light of glory in the future: "Fire", namely of concupiscence, "has fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun" (Ps. 57:9, Vulgate). Thus, therefore, the blindness of unbelievers is not on the part of the Gospel, but from the sin of unbelievers. Therefore, he adds, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Here it should be noted that God the Father is the source of all light: "God is light and in him is no darkness at all" (1 Jn. 1:5). From this fountain of light is derived the image of this light, namely the Son, the Word of God: "He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature" (Heb. 1:3). Therefore, this brightness of glory and image of the fountain of light took our flesh and accomplished many glorious and divine works in this world. The disclosing of this light is the Gospel. Hence, the Gospel is also called the knowledge of the glory of Christ, which knowledge has the power to enlighten: "Wisdom is radiant and unfading" (Wis. 6:12). As far as it is concerned, it shines upon all and enlightens all. But those who place an obstacle are not enlightened. And this is what he says: the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing, namely, with their unbelieving minds, the light of the gospel, which enlightens because it is the glory of Christ, i.e. his brightness: "We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (Jn. 1:14). This glory is Christ's, inasmuch as he is the likeness [image] of God: "He is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). Note, according to a Gloss, that Christ is the most perfect image of God. For in order that something be perfectly an image of something, three things are necessary, and these three are perfectly in Christ. First, a likeness; second, origin; third, perfect equality. For if there is unlikeness between the image and that of which it is the image, and one does not arise from the other, or even if there is not perfect equality according to the same nature, then the notion of perfect image would not be there. For the likeness of a king on a coin is not called a perfect image of the king, because equality according to the same nature is lacking; but the likeness of a king in his son is called a perfect image of the king, because it possesses the three marks mentioned. Therefore, since those three are present in Christ, the Son of God, because namely he is similar to the Father, arises from the Father and is equal to the Father, he is in the highest degree and perfectly called the image of God.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.