The nature of man is the conformity to God

Aristotle defines a nature to what the being tends towards his own development. Example: the nature of the worm is the butterfly.

Thomas Aquinas, father of the scholastics, takes this concept and affirms that the good is a nature, that is to say that every being tends to his own good or perfection. Example: the fruit is good when it is mature.

So, what is the nature of man? What does the man tend in his development ?. Aristotle give to us the concept of Nature in his book Politics but is Thomas Aquinas who develop this idea, and applies it in his Summa Teologiae. The concept of nature is directly related with God, because every being desires his own good, and God is the source of all good: "Only God is good" Mark 10.

We say that the nature of man is the adulthood or maturity, the adulthood is the conformity to God. Adulhood is to do the right thing because it is right, and in this consist the idea of true freedom. The evil carries pain, that is why the Bible teach about the "slavery of the sin". Continuing with the idea of Adulthood, we can affirm that is the completeness of the human being. Completeness or integrity involves a series of perfections, of spiritual gifts.

These perfections or spiritual gifts are the gift of counsel, the fruits of the spirit, the rule of Gold, the Charity.

To imitate is to replicate a conduct, to imitate God is known as the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would like them do unto you, Matthew 7:12. This is the definition of the good and of the life in grace. An example of the Golden Rule is the Parable of the Good Samaritan: we sin like the Pharisee and the Levite or live righteously.

To emulate is to imitate capturing the personality of the imitated, to emulate is to imitate with the desire to match, explains Aristoteles in Retorica. We emulate God in the gift of counsel: listen, meditate, decide. Examples of emulation are Jesus and the prostitute: John 8: 7; Jesus and the denarii: Matthew 22:21

The likeness in Metaphysics is defined as the participation of the essence. Example: two persons are similar because they participate in the essence of reason. The similarity to God is given in the Charity, in the Good Love, because that is how we participate in the essence of wisdom.

In metaphysics is defined the image as the perfect likeness. Example: the image is between twins. The fruits of the spirit are related to the formation of the character, with being the image of God. The fruits of the spirit can be defined as the ultimate goals of life and as the character of God.

In this consist the holiness, in a progressive and constant transformation towards the divine spiritual gifts and perfections. Thomas Aquinas in his devepment of the concept of nature, introduces us into the idea of the culture of the excelllence: "Be Perfect as your heavenly father is perfect", Matthew 5:48.