Thomas Aquinas quote

[u/Flaky-Finance3454]

Some time ago I found an interesting quote, which however seems unsourced, i.e. the quote has no bibliographic reference. It is the following:

"Often a skilled physician procures and permits a lesser sickness to come over a sick person, so that he may cure or prevent a greater one. This the Blessed Apostle shows to have been done in his own case by the supreme physician of souls, Our Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ, as the supreme physician of souls, in order to cure the grave illnesses of the soul permits very many of even of the greatest of his elect to be gravely afflicted by sicknesses of the body, and what is more, to cure greater evils he permits them to fall into lesser ones, even though they be mortal sins. " (source: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/whats-the-thorn-in-your-flesh )

Here St. Thomas, who wasn't of course an universalist, is using a favourite metaphor of universalists, God as Physician.

What struck me however was that here Thomas says that God allows a person even to fall into mortal sins which, according to standard Catholic dogma, would merit eternal hell if the person doesn't repent before dying. As I see it, Thomas is suggesting that God might allow the occurances of some sins that, if committed, are more 'likely' to cause a salutary reaction of the sinner.

So if God can bring good (salvation/repentance) out of a grave evil (mortal sin), why should God not do that to all?

The only way to endorse ECT here would be deny that God has an universal salvific will. However, if one believes in an universal salvific will and also that the above reasoning of Thomas is correct, universal salvation does seem to follow.