Part IV (Tertia Pars) Part 38 (1/2)
Obj. 2: Further, the priesthood of Christ has a greater similarity to the Jewish priesthood, inst.i.tuted by G.o.d, than to the priesthood of the Gentiles, by which the demons were wors.h.i.+ped. Now in the old Law man was never offered up in sacrifice: whereas this was very much to be reprehended in the sacrifices of the Gentiles, according to Ps.
105:38: ”They shed innocent blood; the blood of their sons and of their daughters, which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan.”
Therefore in Christ's priesthood the Man Christ should not have been the victim.
Obj. 3: Further, every victim, through being offered to G.o.d, is consecrated to G.o.d. But the humanity of Christ was from the beginning consecrated and united to G.o.d. Therefore it cannot be said fittingly that Christ as man was a victim.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Eph. 5:2): ”Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a victim [Douay: 'sacrifice'] to G.o.d for an odor of sweetness.”
_I answer that,_ As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei x, 5): ”Every visible sacrifice is a sacrament, that is a sacred sign, of the invisible sacrifice.” Now the invisible sacrifice is that by which a man offers his spirit to G.o.d, according to Ps. 50:19: ”A sacrifice to G.o.d is an afflicted spirit.” Wherefore, whatever is offered to G.o.d in order to raise man's spirit to Him, may be called a sacrifice.
Now man is required to offer sacrifice for three reasons. First, for the remission of sin, by which he is turned away from G.o.d. Hence the Apostle says (Heb. 5:1) that it appertains to the priest ”to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Secondly, that man may be preserved in a state of grace, by ever adhering to G.o.d, wherein his peace and salvation consist. Wherefore under the old Law the sacrifice of peace-offerings was offered up for the salvation of the offerers, as is prescribed in the third chapter of Leviticus. Thirdly, in order that the spirit of man be perfectly united to G.o.d: which will be most perfectly realized in glory. Hence, under the Old Law, the holocaust was offered, so called because the victim was wholly burnt, as we read in the first chapter of Leviticus.
Now these effects were conferred on us by the humanity of Christ.
For, in the first place, our sins were blotted out, according to Rom.
4:25: ”Who was delivered up for our sins.” Secondly, through Him we received the grace of salvation, according to Heb. 5:9: ”He became to all that obey Him the cause of eternal salvation.” Thirdly, through Him we have acquired the perfection of glory, according to Heb.
10:19: ”We have [Vulg.: 'Having'] a confidence in the entering into the Holies” (i.e. the heavenly glory) ”through His Blood.” Therefore Christ Himself, as man, was not only priest, but also a perfect victim, being at the same time victim for sin, victim for a peace-offering, and a holocaust.
Reply Obj. 1: Christ did not slay Himself, but of His own free-will He exposed Himself to death, according to Isa. 53:7: ”He was offered because it was His own will.” Thus He is said to have offered Himself.
Reply Obj. 2: The slaying of the Man Christ may be referred to a twofold will. First, to the will of those who slew Him: and in this respect He was not a victim: for the slayers of Christ are not accounted as offering a sacrifice to G.o.d, but as guilty of a great crime: a similitude of which was borne by the wicked sacrifices of the Gentiles, in which they offered up men to idols. Secondly, the slaying of Christ may be considered in reference to the will of the Sufferer, Who freely offered Himself to suffering. In this respect He is a victim, and in this He differs from the sacrifices of the Gentiles.
(The reply to the third objection is wanting in the original ma.n.u.scripts, but it may be gathered from the above.--Ed.)
[*Some editions, however, give the following reply:
Reply Obj. 3: The fact that Christ's manhood was holy from its beginning does not prevent that same manhood, when it was offered to G.o.d in the Pa.s.sion, being sanctified in a new way--namely, as a victim actually offered then. For it acquired then the actual holiness of a victim, from the charity which it had from the beginning, and from the grace of union sanctifying it absolutely.]
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THIRD ARTICLE [III, Q. 22, Art. 3]
Whether the Effect of Christ's Priesthood Is the Expiation of Sins?
Objection 1: It would seem that the effect of Christ's priesthood is not the expiation of sins. For it belongs to G.o.d alone to blot out sins, according to Isa. 43:25: ”I am He that blot out thy iniquities for My own sake.” But Christ is priest, not as G.o.d, but as man.
Therefore the priesthood of Christ does not expiate sins.
Obj. 2: Further, the Apostle says (Heb. 10:1-3) that the victims of the Old Testament could not ”make” (the comers thereunto) ”perfect: for then they would have ceased to be offered; because the wors.h.i.+pers once cleansed should have no conscience of sin any longer; but in them there is made a commemoration of sins every year.” But in like manner under the priesthood of Christ a commemoration of sins is made in the words: ”Forgive us our trespa.s.ses” (Matt. 6:12). Moreover, the Sacrifice is offered continuously in the Church; wherefore again we say: ”Give us this day our daily bread.” Therefore sins are not expiated by the priesthood of Christ.
Obj. 3: Further, in the sin-offerings of the Old Law, a he-goat was mostly offered for the sin of a prince, a she-goat for the sin of some private individual, a calf for the sin of a priest, as we gather from Lev. 4:3, 23, 28. But Christ is compared to none of these, but to the lamb, according to Jer. 11:19: ”I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim.” Therefore it seems that His priesthood does not expiate sins.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Heb. 9:14): ”The blood of Christ, Who by the Holy Ghost offered Himself unspotted unto G.o.d, shall cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living G.o.d.” But dead works denote sins. Therefore the priesthood of Christ has the power to cleanse from sins.
_I answer that,_ Two things are required for the perfect cleansing from sins, corresponding to the two things comprised in sin--namely, the stain of sin and the debt of punishment. The stain of sin is, indeed, blotted out by grace, by which the sinner's heart is turned to G.o.d: whereas the debt of punishment is entirely removed by the satisfaction that man offers to G.o.d. Now the priesthood of Christ produces both these effects. For by its virtue grace is given to us, by which our hearts are turned to G.o.d, according to Rom. 3:24, 25: ”Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom G.o.d hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood.” Moreover, He satisfied for us fully, inasmuch as ”He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:4).
Wherefore it is clear that the priesthood of Christ has full power to expiate sins.
Reply Obj. 1: Although Christ was a priest, not as G.o.d, but as man, yet one and the same was both priest and G.o.d. Wherefore in the Council of Ephesus [*Part III, ch. i, anath. 10] we read: ”If anyone say that the very Word of G.o.d did not become our High-Priest and Apostle, when He became flesh and a man like us, but altogether another one, the man born of a woman, let him be anathema.” Hence in so far as His human nature operated by virtue of the Divine, that sacrifice was most efficacious for the blotting out of sins. For this reason Augustine says (De Trin. iv, 14): ”So that, since four things are to be observed in every sacrifice--to whom it is offered, by whom it is offered, what is offered, for whom it is offered; the same one true Mediator reconciling us to G.o.d by the sacrifice of peace, was one with Him to Whom it was offered, united in Himself those for whom He offered it, at the same time offered it Himself, and was Himself that which He offered.”
Reply Obj. 2: Sins are commemorated in the New Law, not on account of the inefficacy of the priesthood of Christ, as though sins were not sufficiently expiated by Him: but in regard to those who either are not willing to be partic.i.p.ators in His sacrifice, such as unbelievers, for whose sins we pray that they be converted; or who, after taking part in this sacrifice, fall away from it by whatsoever kind of sin. The Sacrifice which is offered every day in the Church is not distinct from that which Christ Himself offered, but is a commemoration thereof. Wherefore Augustine says (De Civ. De. x, 20): ”Christ Himself both is the priest who offers it and the victim: the sacred token of which He wished to be the daily Sacrifice of the Church.”
Reply Obj. 3: As Origen says (Sup. Joan. i, 29), though various animals were offered up under the Old Law, yet the daily sacrifice, which was offered up morning and evening, was a lamb, as appears from Num. 38:3, 4. By which it was signified that the offering up of the true lamb, i.e. Christ, was the culminating sacrifice of all. Hence (John 1:29) it is said: ”Behold the Lamb of G.o.d, behold Him Who taketh away the sins [Vulg.: 'sin'] of the world.”
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