Part IV (Tertia Pars) Part 84 (2/2)
_I answer that,_ Christ's Pa.s.sion is in two ways the cause of our reconciliation to G.o.d. In the first way, inasmuch as it takes away sin by which men became G.o.d's enemies, according to Wis. 14:9: ”To G.o.d the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike”; and Ps. 5:7: ”Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity.” In another way, inasmuch as it is a most acceptable sacrifice to G.o.d. Now it is the proper effect of sacrifice to appease G.o.d: just as man likewise overlooks an offense committed against him on account of some pleasing act of homage shown him. Hence it is written (1 Kings 26:19): ”If the Lord stir thee up against me, let Him accept of sacrifice.” And in like fas.h.i.+on Christ's voluntary suffering was such a good act that, because of its being found in human nature, G.o.d was appeased for every offense of the human race with regard to those who are made one with the crucified Christ in the aforesaid manner (A. 1, ad 4).
Reply Obj. 1: G.o.d loves all men as to their nature, which He Himself made; yet He hates them with respect to the crimes they commit against Him, according to Ecclus. 12:3: ”The Highest hateth sinners.”
Reply Obj. 2: Christ is not said to have reconciled us with G.o.d, as if G.o.d had begun anew to love us, since it is written (Jer. 31:3): ”I have loved thee with an everlasting love”; but because the source of hatred was taken away by Christ's Pa.s.sion, both through sin being washed away and through compensation being made in the shape of a more pleasing offering.
Reply Obj. 3: As Christ's slayers were men, so also was the Christ slain. Now the charity of the suffering Christ surpa.s.sed the wickedness of His slayers. Accordingly Christ's Pa.s.sion prevailed more in reconciling G.o.d to the whole human race than in provoking Him to wrath.
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FIFTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 49, Art. 5]
Whether Christ Opened the Gate of Heaven to Us by His Pa.s.sion?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not open the gate of heaven to us by His Pa.s.sion. For it is written (Prov. 11:18): ”To him that soweth justice, there is a faithful reward.” But the reward of justice is the entering into the kingdom of heaven. It seems, therefore, that the holy Fathers who wrought works of justice, obtained by faith the entering into the heavenly kingdom even without Christ's Pa.s.sion. Consequently Christ's Pa.s.sion is not the cause of the opening of the gate of the kingdom of heaven.
Obj. 2: Further, Elias was caught up to heaven previous to Christ's Pa.s.sion (4 Kings 2). But the effect never precedes the cause.
Therefore it seems that the opening of heaven's gate is not the result of Christ's Pa.s.sion.
Obj. 3: Further, as it is written (Matt. 3:16), when Christ was baptized the heavens were opened to Him. But His baptism preceded the Pa.s.sion. Consequently the opening of heaven is not the result of Christ's Pa.s.sion.
Obj. 4: Further, it is written (Mic. 2:13): ”For He shall go up that shall open the way before them.” But to open the way to heaven seems to be nothing else than to throw open its gate. Therefore it seems that the gate of heaven was opened to us, not by Christ's Pa.s.sion, but by His Ascension.
_On the contrary,_ is the saying of the Apostle (Heb. 10:19): ”We have [Vulg.: 'having a'] confidence in the entering into the Holies”--that is, of the heavenly places--”through the blood of Christ.”
_I answer that,_ The shutting of the gate is the obstacle which hinders men from entering in. But it is on account of sin that men were prevented from entering into the heavenly kingdom, since, according to Isa. 35:8: ”It shall be called the holy way, and the unclean shall not pa.s.s over it.” Now there is a twofold sin which prevents men from entering into the kingdom of heaven. The first is common to the whole race, for it is our first parents' sin, and by that sin heaven's entrance is closed to man. Hence we read in Gen.
3:24 that after our first parents' sin G.o.d ”placed ... cherubim and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” The other is the personal sin of each one of us, committed by our personal act.
Now by Christ's Pa.s.sion we have been delivered not only from the common sin of the whole human race, both as to its guilt and as to the debt of punishment, for which He paid the penalty on our behalf; but, furthermore, from the personal sins of individuals, who share in His Pa.s.sion by faith and charity and the sacraments of faith.
Consequently, then the gate of heaven's kingdom is thrown open to us through Christ's Pa.s.sion. This is precisely what the Apostle says (Heb. 9:11, 12): ”Christ being come a high-priest of the good things to come ... by His own blood entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.” And this is foreshadowed (Num. 35:25, 28), where it is said that the slayer* ”shall abide there”--that is to say, in the city of refuge--”until the death of the high-priest, that is anointed with the holy oil: but after he is dead, then shall he return home.” [*The Septuagint has 'slayer', the Vulgate, 'innocent'--i.e. the man who has slain 'without hatred and enmity'.]
Reply Obj. 1: The holy Fathers, by doing works of justice, merited to enter into the heavenly kingdom, through faith in Christ's Pa.s.sion, according to Heb. 11:33: The saints ”by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice,” and each of them was thereby cleansed from sin, so far as the cleansing of the individual is concerned. Nevertheless the faith and righteousness of no one of them sufficed for removing the barrier arising from the guilt of the whole human race: but this was removed at the cost of Christ's blood. Consequently, before Christ's Pa.s.sion no one could enter the kingdom of heaven by obtaining everlasting beat.i.tude, which consists in the full enjoyment of G.o.d.
Reply Obj. 2: Elias was taken up into the atmospheric heaven, but not in to the empyrean heaven, which is the abode of the saints: and likewise Enoch was translated into the earthly paradise, where he is believed to live with Elias until the coming of Antichrist.
Reply Obj. 3: As was stated above (Q. 39, A. 5), the heavens were opened at Christ's baptism, not for Christ's sake, to whom heaven was ever open, but in order to signify that heaven is opened to the baptized, through Christ's baptism, which has its efficacy from His Pa.s.sion.
Reply Obj. 4: Christ by His Pa.s.sion merited for us the opening of the kingdom of heaven, and removed the obstacle; but by His ascension He, as it were, brought us to the possession of the heavenly kingdom. And consequently it is said that by ascending He ”opened the way before them.”
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SIXTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 49, Art. 6]
Whether by His Pa.s.sion Christ Merited to Be Exalted?
Objection 1: It seems that Christ did not merit to be exalted on account of His Pa.s.sion. For eminence of rank belongs to G.o.d alone, just as knowledge of truth, according to Ps. 112:4: ”The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens.” But Christ as man had the knowledge of all truth, not on account of any preceding merit, but from the very union of G.o.d and man, according to John 1:14: ”We saw His glory ... as it were of the only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth.” Therefore neither had He exaltation from the merit of the Pa.s.sion but from the union alone.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ merited for Himself from the first instant of His conception, as stated above (Q. 34, A. 3). But His love was no greater during the Pa.s.sion than before. Therefore, since charity is the principle of merit, it seems that He did not merit exaltation from the Pa.s.sion more than before.
Obj. 3: Further, the glory of the body comes from the glory of the soul, as Augustine says (Ep. ad Dioscor.). But by His Pa.s.sion Christ did not merit exaltation as to the glory of His soul, because His soul was beatified from the first instant of His conception.
Therefore neither did He merit exaltation, as to the glory of His body, from the Pa.s.sion.
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