Part IV (Tertia Pars) Part 97 (2/2)
On His part, in regard to those things which, in ascending, He did for our salvation. First, He prepared the way for our ascent into heaven, according to His own saying (John 14:2): ”I go to prepare a place for you,” and the words of Micheas (2:13), ”He shall go up that shall open the way before them.” For since He is our Head the members must follow whither the Head has gone: hence He said (John 14:3): ”That where I am, you also may be.” In sign whereof He took to heaven the souls of the saints delivered from h.e.l.l, according to Ps. 67:19 (Cf. Eph. 4:8): ”Ascending on high, He led captivity captive,”
because He took with Him to heaven those who had been held captives by the devil--to heaven, as to a place strange to human nature.
captives in deed of a happy taking, since they were acquired by His victory.
Secondly, because as the high-priest under the Old Testament entered the holy place to stand before G.o.d for the people, so also Christ entered heaven ”to make intercession for us,” as is said in Heb.
7:25. Because the very showing of Himself in the human nature which He took with Him to heaven is a pleading for us, so that for the very reason that G.o.d so exalted human nature in Christ, He may take pity on them for whom the Son of G.o.d took human nature. Thirdly, that being established in His heavenly seat as G.o.d and Lord, He might send down gifts upon men, according to Eph. 4:10: ”He ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things,” that is, ”with His gifts,” according to the gloss.
Reply Obj. 1: Christ's Ascension is the cause of our salvation by way not of merit, but of efficiency, as was stated above regarding His Resurrection (Q. 56, A. 1, ad 3, 4).
Reply Obj. 2: Christ's Pa.s.sion is the cause of our ascending to heaven, properly speaking, by removing the hindrance which is sin, and also by way of merit: whereas Christ's Ascension is the direct cause of our ascension, as by beginning it in Him who is our Head, with whom the members must be united.
Reply Obj. 3: Christ by once ascending into heaven acquired for Himself and for us in perpetuity the right and worthiness of a heavenly dwelling-place; which worthiness suffers in no way, if, from some special dispensation, He sometimes comes down in body to earth; either in order to show Himself to the whole world, as at the judgment; or else to show Himself particularly to some individual, e.g. in Paul's case, as we read in Acts 9. And lest any man may think that Christ was not bodily present when this occurred, the contrary is shown from what the Apostle says in 1 Cor. 14:8, to confirm faith in the Resurrection: ”Last of all He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time”: which vision would not confirm the truth of the Resurrection except he had beheld Christ's very body.
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QUESTION 58
OF CHRIST'S SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER (In Four Articles)
We have now to consider Christ's sitting at the right hand of the Father, concerning which there are four points of inquiry:
(1) Whether Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father?
(2) Whether this belongs to Him according to the Divine Nature?
(3) Whether it belongs to Him according to His human nature?
(4) Whether it is something proper to Christ?
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FIRST ARTICLE [III, Q. 58, Art. 1]
Whether It Is Fitting That Christ Should Sit at the Right Hand of G.o.d the Father?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should sit at the right hand of G.o.d the Father. For right and left are differences of bodily position. But nothing corporeal can be applied to G.o.d, since ”G.o.d is a spirit,” as we read in John 4:24. Therefore it seems that Christ does not sit at the right hand of the Father.
Obj. 2: Further, if anyone sits at another's right hand, then the latter is seated on his left. Consequently, if Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, it follows that the Father is seated on the left of the Son; which is unseemly.
Obj. 3: Further, sitting and standing savor of opposition. But Stephen (Acts 7:55) said: ”Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of G.o.d.” Therefore it seems that Christ does not sit at the right hand of the Father.
_On the contrary,_ It is written in the last chapter of Mark (16:19): ”The Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up to heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of G.o.d.”
_I answer that,_ The word ”sitting” may have a twofold meaning; namely, ”abiding” as in Luke 24:49: ”Sit [Douay: 'Stay'] you in the city”: and royal or judiciary ”power,” as in Prov. 20:8: ”The king, that sitteth on the throne of judgment, scattereth away all evil with his look.” Now in either sense it belongs to Christ to sit at the Father's right hand. First of all inasmuch as He abides eternally unchangeable in the Father's bliss, which is termed His right hand, according to Ps. 15:11: ”At Thy right hand are delights even to the end.” Hence Augustine says (De Symb. i): ”'Sitteth at the right hand of the Father': To sit means to dwell, just as we say of any man: 'He sat in that country for three years': Believe, then, that Christ dwells so at the right hand of the Father: for He is happy, and the Father's right hand is the name for His bliss.” Secondly, Christ is said to sit at the right hand of the Father inasmuch as He reigns together with the Father, and has judiciary power from Him; just as he who sits at the king's right hand helps him in ruling and judging.
Hence Augustine says (De Symb. ii): ”By the expression 'right hand,'
understand the power which this Man, chosen of G.o.d, received, that He might come to judge, who before had come to be judged.”
Reply Obj. 1: As Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iv): ”We do not speak of the Father's right hand as of a place, for how can a place be designated by His right hand, who Himself is beyond all place? Right and left belong to things definable by limit. But we style, as the Father's right hand, the glory and honor of the G.o.dhead.”
Reply Obj. 2: The argument holds good if sitting at the right hand be taken corporeally. Hence Augustine says (De Symb. i): ”If we accept it in a carnal sense that Christ sits at the Father's right hand, then the Father will be on the left. But there”--that is, in eternal bliss, ”it is all right hand, since no misery is there.”
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