Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection 22/.
Why Christ willed to die Evidently, therefore, as we see from this discussion, Christ took some of our defects on Himself, not out of necessity, but for a definite purpose (namely, for our salvation). But every potency and every habit or capacity are ordained toward act as their end. Hence capacity to suffer is not enough for satisfaction or merit apart from actual suffering. A person is called good or evil, not because he is able to perform good or evil actions but because he performs them; praise and blame are duly rendered not for power to act but for acting. To save us, consequently, Christ was not content merely to make our passibility His portion, but He willed actually to suffer that He might satisfy for our sins. He endured for us those sufferings which we deserved to suffer in consequence of the sin of our first parent. Of these the chief is death, to which all other human sufferings are ordered as to their final term. "For the wages of sin is death," as the Apostle says in Romans 6:23.
Accordingly, Christ willed to submit to death for our sins so that, in taking on Himself without any fault of His own the
Aquinas's Shorter Summa punishment charged against us, He might free us from the death to which we had been sentenced, in the way that anyone would be freed from a debt of penalty if another person undertook to pay the penalty for him. Another reason why He wished to die was that His death might be for us not only a remedy of satisfaction but also a sacrament of salvation, so that we, transferred to a spiritual life, might die to our carnal life, in the likeness of His death. This is in accord with 1 Peter 3:18: "Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit."
Christ also wished to die that His death might be an example of perfect virtue for us. He gave an example of charity, for "greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."*°' The more numerous and grievous are the sufferings a person does not refuse to bear for his friend, the more strikingly his love is shown forth. But of all human ills the most grievous is death, by which human life is snuffed out. Hence no greater proof of love is possible than that a man should expose himself to death for a friend.
By His death Christ also gave an example of fortitude, which does not abandon justice in the face of adversity. Refusal to give up the practice of virtue even under fear of death seems to pertain most emphatically to fortitude. Thus in Hebrews 2:14-15, the Apostle says with reference to Christ's Passion: "That through death He might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the Devil, and might deliver them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude." In not refusing to die for truth, Christ overcame the fear of dying, which is the reason men for the most part are subject to the slavery of sin.
308 Iohn 15:13.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection Further, He gave an example of patience, a virtue that prevents sorrow from overwhelming man in time of adversity. The greater the trials, the more splendidly does the virtue of patience shine forth in them. Therefore an example of perfect patience is afforded in the greatest of evils, which is death, if it is borne without distress of mind. Such tranquillity the prophet foretold of Christ: He "shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and He shall not open His mouth."
Lastly, our Lord gave an example of obedience. For the more difficult are the precepts one obeys, the more praiseworthy is the obedience. But the most difficult of all the objects of obedience is death. Hence, to commend the perfect obedience of Christ, the Apostle says, in Philippians 2:8, that He was obedient to the Father even unto death.
The death on the Cross The same reasons reveal why Christ willed to suffer death on the Cross. In the first place, such a death was suitable as a salutary means of satisfaction. Man is fittingly punished in the things wherein he has sinned, as is said in Wisdom 11:17: "By what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented." But the first sin of man was the fact that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, contrary to God's command. In his stead Christ permitted Himself to be fastened to a tree, so that He might pay for what He did not carry off, as the Psalmist says of Him.?"°
30 Tea. 53:7.
310 Psalm 58:5: "Neither is it my iniquity, nor my sin, O Lord: without iniquity have I run, and directed my steps" (RSV: Ps. 59:4).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa Death on the Cross was also appropriate as a sacrament. Christ wished to make clear by His death that we ought so to die in our carnal life that our spirit might be raised to higher things. Hence
He Himself says, in John 12:32: "I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all things to myself."
This kind of death was likewise fitting as an example of perfect virtue. Sometimes men shrink no less from a disgraceful kind of death than from the painfulness of death. Accordingly, the perfection of virtue seems to require that a person should not refuse to suffer even a disgraceful death for the good of virtue. Therefore, to commend the perfect obedience of Christ, the Apostle, after saying of Him that He was "obedient unto death," added: "even to the death of the Cross."""' This sort of death was looked on as the most ignominious of all, in the words of Wisdom 2:20: "Let us condemn him to a most shameful death."
The death of Christ In Christ three substances — the body, the soul, and the divinity of the Word — are joined together in one person. Two of these, the soul and the body, are united to form one nature. Accordingly, at the death of Christ the union between body and soul was dissolved. Otherwise the body would not have been truly dead, since death of the body is nothing else than the separation of the soul from it.
But neither soul nor body was separated from the Word of God, as far as union with the person is concerned. Human nature results from the union of soul and body; hence Christ could not be said to 311 phil. 2:8.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection be a man during the three days of His death, when His soul remained separated from His body by death. However, as was shown above," on account of the union of the human nature with the Word of God in one person, whatever is said of the man Christ can rightly be predicated also of the Son of God. Consequently, since the personal union of the Son of God both with the soul and with the body of Christ remained in death, whatever is said of either of them could be predicated of the Son of God. Hence the Creed asserts that the Son of God was buried (for the reason that the body united to Him lay in the tomb) and likewise that He descended into Hell (because His soul descended).
We should also recall that the masculine gender designates a person and that the neuter gender designates nature. Thus in speaking of the Trinity we say that the Son is another person
(alius) than the Father, but not that He is another thing (aliud).
Accordingly, during the three days of His death the whole (totus) Christ was in the sepulcher and in Hell and in Heaven, because of His person which remained united to His flesh reposing in the tomb and to His soul which was emptying Hell, and which continued to subsist in the divine nature reigning in Heaven. But we cannot say that the whole (totum) of Christ was in the sepulcher or in Hell, because only a part of the human nature and not the whole of it was in the sepulcher or in Hell.
The voluntary character of Christ's death Christ's death was like our death as regards the essence of death, which consists in the separation of the soul from the body. But in 312CF£ chap. 211.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa another respect the death of Christ was different from ours. We die for the reason that we are subject to death by a necessary law of nature, or in consequence of some violence done to us. But Christ did not die because of any necessity. He gave up His life by His power and His own will, as He Himself attested of His life: "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again."
The reason for this difference is that physical things are not subject to our will. But the joining of the soul to the body is physical. Hence the fact that the soul remains united to the body or that it is separated from the body, is not subject to our will, but must be brought about by the power of some agent. But whatever was physical in Christ as regards His human nature was completely subject to His will because of the power of His divinity, to which all nature is subject. Therefore Christ had it in His power that so long as He willed, His soul would remain united to His body, and that the instant He willed, the soul would depart from the body.
The centurion standing near the Cross of Christ felt the presence of this divine power when he saw Him expire with a loud cry. By this Christ clearly showed that He was not dying like other men, from the breaking down of nature. For men cannot send forth their last breath with a loud cry; in the moment of death they can scarcely move their tongue in a quavering whisper. Hence the fact that Christ died uttering a loud cry gave evidence of the divine power in Him. It was for this reason that the centurion said:
"Indeed, this was the Son of God."?"* Yet we may not aver that the Jews did not kill Christ or that Christ took His own life. For the one who brings the cause of death to bear on a person is said to kill him. But death does not ensue unless the cause of death prevails over nature, which conserves
313 John 10:18.
314 Matt. 27:54.
Zo4
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection life. Christ had it in His power either to submit His nature to the destructive cause or to resist that influence, just as He willed. Thus
Christ died voluntarily, and yet the Jews killed Him.
Jol The Passion of Christ as regards his body Christ wished to suffer not only death, but also the other ills that flow from the sin of the first parent to his posterity, so that, bearing in its entirety the penalty of sin, He might perfectly free us from sin by offering satisfaction. Of these ills, some precede death, others follow death. Prior to the death of the body come natural sufferings
(such as hunger, thirst, and weariness) and also sufferings inflicted by violence (such as wounding, scourging, and the like). Christ wished to endure all these sufferings, since they stem from sin. If man had not sinned, he would not have experienced the affliction of hunger or of thirst or of fatigue or of cold, and he would not have had to undergo the sufferings caused by external violence.
Christ bore these sufferings for a different reason from that on account of which other men endure them. In other men there is nothing that can resist these sufferings. But Christ had at His disposal means to withstand evils of this sort: not only the uncreated power of His divinity but also the beatitude of His soul, which is so powerful that, as Augustine says, its happiness in its own way flows over into the body.''? Thus after the resurrection, by the very fact that the soul will be glorified by the vision of God in unrestricted and full fruition, the body united to the glorified soul will be rendered glorious, impassible, and immortal. Therefore, since the soul of Christ enjoyed the vision of God in the 315 Fist, CXVIIL, ad Dioscorum, 3 (PL, XXXIII, 439).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa highest degree of perfection, His body should in consequence, so far as the power of this vision is concerned, have been rendered impassible and immortal by an overflowing of glory from the soul to the body. But divine wisdom so disposed matters that Christ's body would suffer at the very time His soul was enjoying the vision of God, with no overflow of glory from the soul to the body. For, as we have said, all that was physical in Christ's human nature was subject to His will?"® Hence at His good pleasure he could prevent natural redundance from His higher to His lower parts, and so could allow any part to suffer or to do whatever would be proper to it without interference from any other part. This, of course, is impossible in other men.
This also accounts for the fact that during His Passion Christ suffered most excruciating pain of body. For His bodily pain was in no way lessened by the higher joy of His rational soul, just as, conversely, pain of body did not obstruct the joy of His rational soul.
This reveals, too, that Christ alone was both a viator and a comprehensor."'' He enjoyed the vision of God, which characterizes the comprehensor, but in such a way that His body remained subject to sufferings, which characterizes the wayfarer. And since a wayfarer has power to merit, either for himself or for others, by the good works he performs from the motive of charity, Christ, too, although He was a comprehensor, merited both for Himself and for others by His works and sufferings.
For Himself Christ merited, not indeed glory of soul, which He had from the first instant of His conception, but glory of body, which He won by suffering. For us, too, each of His sufferings and 316C£ chap. 230.
31715 other words, Christ alone enjoyed the Beatific Vision, i.e., He was a comprehensor while still a wayfarer (viator) on Earth.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection actions was profitable unto salvation, not only by way of example, but also by way of merit: owing to the abundance of His charity and grace, He could merit grace for us, so that thus the members might receive of the fullness of the head.
Any suffering of His, however slight, was enough to redeem the human race, if the dignity of the sufferer is considered. For the more exalted the person on whom suffering is inflicted, the greater is the injury judged to be; for instance, a greater outrage is committed if one strikes a prince than if one strikes a common man of the people. Consequently, since Christ is a person of infinite dignity, any suffering of His has an infinite value and so suffices for the atonement of infinitely many sins. Yet the redemption of the human race was accomplished, not by this or that slight suffering, but by Christ's death, which, for reasons listed above,'!® He chose to endure to redeem the human race from its sins. For in any purchasing transaction there is required not only a stipulated amount of appreciable commodity, but also the application of the price to the purchase.
Moy The passibility of Chvist's soul Since the soul is the form of the body, any suffering undergone by the body must in some way affect the soul. Therefore in that state in which the body of Christ was passible, His soul was passible also.
We may note that the suffering of the soul is of two kinds. One kind of suffering arises from the body, the other from the object that causes suffering; and this can be observed in any one of the faculties. For the soul is related to the body in the same way that a
C£ chap. 227,
Aquinas's Shorter Summa part of the soul is related to a part of the body. Thus suffering may be caused in the faculty of sight by some object, as when vision is dimmed by an excessively bright light; suffering can also arise from the organ itself, as when vision is dulled because of an injured pupil.
Accordingly, if the suffering of Christ's soul is regarded as arising from the body, the whole soul suffered when the body suffered. For the soul in its essence is the form of the body; and the faculties, too, are all rooted in the essence of the soul. Consequently, if the body suffers, every power of the soul suffers in some way. But if the suffering of the soul is considered as arising from an object, not every power of Christ's soul suffered (if we understand suffering in the proper sense as connoting harm). For nothing that arose from the object of any of these powers could be harmful, since, as we saw above, the soul of Christ enjoyed the perfect vision of God." Thus the higher reason of Christ's soul, which is immersed in the contemplation and meditation of eternal things, embraced nothing adverse or repugnant that could cause it to suffer any harm.
But the sense faculties, whose objects are material things, could receive some injury from the suffering of the body; and so Christ experienced pain of sense when His body suffered. Furthermore, just as laceration of the body is felt by the senses to be injurious, so the inner imagination apprehends it as harmful; hence interior distress follows even when pain is not felt in the body. We assert that suffering of such distress was experienced by the soul of Christ.
More than this: not the imagination alone, but also the lower reason apprehends objects harmful to the body; and so, as a result of such apprehension by the lower reason (which is concerned
19CF chap. 216.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection with temporal affairs), the suffering of sorrow could have place in Christ so far as the lower reason apprehended death and other maltreatment of the body as injurious and as contrary to natural appetite.
Moreover, in consequence of love, which makes two persons, as it were, one, a man may be afflicted with sadness not only on account of objects he apprehends through his imagination or his lower reason as harmful to himself, but also on account of objects he apprehends as harmful to others whom he loves. Thus Christ suffered sadness from His awareness of the perils of sin or of punishment threatening other men whom He loved with the love of charity. And so He grieved for others as well as for Himself.
However, although the love of our fellow men pertains in a certain way to the higher reason (inasmuch as our neighbor is loved out of charity for God's sake), the higher reason in Christ could not experience sorrow on account of the defects of His fellow men, as it can in us. For, since Christ's higher reason enjoyed the full vision of God, it apprehended all that pertains to the defects of others as contained in the divine wisdom, in the light of which the fact that a person is permitted to sin and is punished for his sin, is seen to be in accord with becoming order. And so neither the soul of Christ nor of any of the blessed who behold God can be afflicted with sadness by the defects of their neighbors. But the case is otherwise with wayfarers who do not rise high enough to perceive the plan of wisdom. Such persons are saddened by the defects of others even in their higher reason, when they think that it pertains to the honor of God and the exaltation of the Faith that some should be saved who nevertheless are damned.
Thus, with regard to the very things for which He was suffering in sense, imagination, and lower reason, Christ was rejoicing in His higher reason, so far as He referred them to the order of divine wisdom. And since the referring of one thing to another is the
Aquinas's Shorter Summa proper task of reason, we generally say that Christ's reason, if it is considered as nature, shrank from death (meaning that death is naturally abhorrent), but that if it is considered as reason, it was willing to suffer death.
Just as Christ was afflicted with sadness, so He experienced other passions that stem from sadness, such as fear, wrath, and the like. Fear is caused in us by those things whose presence engenders sorrow, when they are thought of as future evils; and when we are grieved by someone who is hurting us, we become angry at him.
Such passions existed otherwise in Christ than in us. In us they frequently anticipate the judgment of reason, and sometimes pass the bounds of reason. In Christ they never anticipated the judgment of reason and never exceeded the moderation imposed by reason.
His lower appetite, which was subject to passion, was moved just so far as reason decreed that it should be moved. Therefore
Christ's soul could desire something in its higher part that it shrank from in its lower part, and yet there was no conflict of appetites in Him or rebellion of the flesh against the spirit, such as occurs in us owing to the fact that the lower appetite exceeds the judgment and measure of reason.
In Christ this appetite was moved in accordance with the judgment of reason, to the extent that He permitted each of His lower powers to be moved by its own impulse, in keeping with propriety.
In the light of all this we see clearly that Christ's higher reason was completely happy and full of joy in respect to its proper object.
On the part of this object, nothing that might engender sorrow could arise in Him. But on the part of the subject it was full of suffering, as we indicated in the beginning of this chapter. Yet that enjoyment did not lessen the suffering, nor did the suffering prevent the enjoyment, since no overflowing from one power to
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection another took place; each of the powers was allowed to exercise the '
function proper to it, as we mentioned above.
The prayer of Christ Since prayer manifests desire, the nature of the prayer Christ offered when His Passion was upon Him may be gathered from the different desires He expressed. In Matthew 26:39 He begs: "My
Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless, not as | will, but as Thou wilt." In saying, "Let this chalice pass from me," He indicates the movement of His lower appetite and natural desire, whereby all naturally shrink from death and desire life. And in saying, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt,"
He gives expression to the movement of His higher reason, which looks on all things as comprised under the ordinations of divine wisdom. The same is the bearing of the added words, "If this chalice may not pass away,">"" whereby He showed that only those events can occur which take place according to the order of the divine will.
Although the chalice of the Passion did not pass from Him, but He had to drink it, we may not say that His prayer went unheard.
For, as the Apostle assures us in Hebrews 5:7, in all things Christ "was heard for His reverence." Since prayer, as we have remarked, is expressive of desire, we pray unconditionally for what we wish unconditionally; and so the very desires of the just have the force of prayer with God, according to Psalm 9:17: "The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor.""" But we wish unconditionally only what we
320CF£ chap. 231.
321 Matt. 26:42.
322RSV: Ps. 10:17.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa desire with our higher reason, which alone has the power of assenting to an undertaking.
Christ prayed absolutely that the Father's will might be done, for this was what He wished absolutely. But He did not thus pray that the chalice might pass from Him, because He wished this not absolutely, but according to His lower reason, as we have noted earlier.
The burial of Christ In consequence of sin, other defects, both on the part of the body and on the part of the soul, overtake man after death. With regard to defects on the part of the body, the body returns to the earth from which it was taken.
This defect on the part of the body has two phases in the case of ourselves: it is laid away and it corrupts. It is laid away, inasmuch as the dead body is placed beneath the earth in burial; and it corrupts, inasmuch as the body is resolved into the elements of which it was composed.
Christ wished to be subject to the first of these defects, namely, the placing of His body beneath the earth. But He did not submit to the other defect, the dissolving of His body into dust. Thus
Psalm 15:10 says of Him: "Nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see 2 that is, decay of the body. The reason for this is corruption, plain: although Christ's body received matter from human nature, its formation was accomplished not by any human power but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, the substance of His matter being what it was, He wished to be subject to the place
323RSV: Ps. 16:10.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection beneath the earth usually given over to dead bodies; for that place which is in keeping with the matter of the predominant element in bodies is rightly assigned to them. But He did not wish the body that had been formed by the Holy Spirit to undergo dissolution, since in this respect He was different from other men.
USS The descent of Christ into Hell On the part of the soul, death among men is followed, in consequence of sin, by descent into Hell, not only as a place, but as a state of punishment. However, just as Christ's body was buried beneath the earth regarded as a place but not with respect to the common defect of dissolution, so His soul went down to Hell as a place, not to undergo punishment there, but rather to release from punishment others who were detained there because of the sin of the first parent for which He had already made full satisfaction by suffering death.
Hence nothing remained to be suffered after death, and so without undergoing any punishment He descended locally into Hell that He might manifest Himself as the Savior of the living and the dead. For this reason He alone among the dead is said to have been free, since His soul was not subject to punishment in Hell and His body was not subject to corruption in the grave.
When Christ descended into Hell, He freed those who were detained there for the sin of our first parent but left behind those who were being punished for their own sins. And so He is said to have bitten into Hell but not to have swallowed it, for He freed a part and left a part.
The Creed of our Faith touches on the various defects of Christ when it states: "He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into Hell."
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
The resurrection of Christ Since the human race was freed by Christ from the evils flowing from the sin of our first parent, it was fitting that, as He bore our ills to free us from them, the first fruits of man's restoration effected by Him should make their appearance in Him. This was done that Christ might be held up to us as a sign of salvation in two ways.
First, we learn from His Passion what we brought down on ourselves by sin and what suffering had to be undergone for us to free us from sin. Secondly, we see in His exaltation what is proposed to us to hope for through Him.
In triumph over death, which resulted from our first parent's sin, Christ was the first of all men to rise to immortal life. Thus, as life first became mortal through Adam's sin, immortal life made its first appearance in Christ through the atonement for sin He offered. Others, it is true, raised up either by Christ or by the prophets, had returned to life before Him; yet they had to die a second time. But "Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more."""* As He was the first to escape the necessity of dying, He is called "the first begotten of the dead"" and "the first fruits of them that sleep.""° Having thrown off the yoke of death, He was the first to rise from the sleep of death.
Christ's resurrection was not to be long delayed, nor, on the other hand, was it to take place immediately after death. If He had returned to life immediately after death, the fact of His death would not have been well established; and if His resurrection had been long delayed, the sign of vanquished death would not have
324R om. 6:9.
325 Rey, 1:5.
3261 Cor, 15:20.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection appeared in Him, and men would not have been given the hope that they would be rescued from death by Him. Therefore He put off His resurrection until the third day, for this interval was judged sufficient to establish the truth of His death and was not too long to wither away the hope of liberation. If it had been delayed for a longer time, the hope of the faithful might have begun to suffer doubt. Indeed, on the third day, as though hope were already running out, some were saying: "We hoped that it was He that should have redeemed Israel."?"'
However, Christ did not remain dead for three full days. He is said to have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights,"® according to that figure of speech whereby a part is often taken for the whole. For, since one natural day is made up of a day and a night, Christ is said to have been dead during the whole of any part of a day or a night that is counted while He was lying in death.
Moreover, in the usual practice of Scripture, night is figured in with the following day, because the Hebrews reckon time by the course of the moon, which begins to shine in the evening. Christ was in the sepulcher during the latter part of the sixth day, and if this is counted along with the preceding night, it will be more or less one natural day. He reposed in the tomb during the night following the sixth day, together with the whole of the Sabbath day, and so we have two days. He lay dead also during the next night, which preceded the Lord's Day, on which He rose, and this occurred either at midnight, according to Gregory," or at dawn, as others think." Therefore, if either the whole night, or a part of 3271 uke 24:21 (RSV: Luke 24:20).
328 See Matt. 12:40.
3295+. Gregory the Great, In Evangelia, Il, hom. 21 (PL, LXXVI, 1173).
330Thus St. Augustine, De Trinitate, IV, 6 (PL, XLII, 894).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa it together with the Lord's Day following, is taken into our calculation, we shall have the third natural day.
The fact that Christ wished to rise on the third day is not without mysterious significance; for so He was able to show that He rose by the power of the whole Trinity. Sometimes the Father is said to have raised Him up, and sometimes Christ Himself is said to have risen by His own power.
These two statements do not, in fact, contradict each other, for the divine power of the Father is identical with that of the Son and that of the Holy Spirit. Another reason for Christ's resurrection on the third day was to show that the restoration of life was accomplished, not on the first day of the world (that is, under the natural law) nor on the second day (that is, under the Mosaic Law) but on the third day (that is, in the era of grace).
The fact that Christ lay in the sepulcher for one whole day and two whole nights also has its meaning: by the one ancient debt
Christ took on Himself (punishment), He blotted out our two ancient debts (sin and punishment) which are represented by the two nights.
23/, Qualities of the risen Christ Christ recovered for the human race not merely what Adam had lost through sin, but all that Adam could have attained through merit. For Christ's power to merit was far greater than that of man prior to sin. By sin Adam incurred the necessity of dying because he lost the power which would have enabled him to avoid death if he had not sinned. Christ not only did away with the necessity of dying, but even gained the power of not being able to die. Therefore
His body after the Resurrection was rendered impassible and immortal. Thus Christ's body was not like that of the first man, which
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection had the power not to die, but was absolutely unable to die. And this is what we await in the future life for ourselves.
Furthermore, the mystery of man's Redemption was now accomplished. To enable Christ to achieve that end, the glory of fruition had, in God's dispensation, been restricted to the higher regions of His soul, so that no overflowing to the lower parts and to the body itself would occur, but each faculty would be allowed to do or suffer what was proper to it.
But now the body and the lower powers were wholly glorified by an overflow of glory from the higher regions of the soul.
Accordingly, Christ, who before the Passion had been a comprehensor because of the fruition enjoyed by His soul and a wayfarer because of the passibility of His body, was now, after the Resurrection, no longer a wayfarer, but exclusively a comprehensor.
Arguments demonstrating Chvist's resurrection As we stated above, Christ anticipated the general resurrection in order that His own resurrection might bolster up our hope of our
*! To foster our hope of resurrection, Christ's own resurrection. resurrection and the qualities of His risen nature had to be made known by suitable proofs. He manifested His resurrection not to all alike, in the way that He manifested His human nature and His
Passion, but only "to witnesses preordained by God"'*" (namely, the disciples whom He had selected to bring about man's salvation). For the state of resurrection, as was mentioned above, belongs to the glory of the comprehensor,*" and knowledge of this
331C£ chap. 236.
332 Acts 10:41.
333C£. chap. 237.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa is not due to all but only to such as make themselves worthy. To the witnesses He had chosen, Christ revealed both the fact of His resurrection and the glory of His risen nature.
He revealed the fact of His resurrection by showing that He, the very one who had died, rose again both in His nature and in His suppositum. As regards nature, He showed that He had a true human body when He offered Himself to be touched and seen by the disciples, to whom He said: "Handle and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have."*** He gave further evidence of the same by performing acts that belong to human nature (such as eating and drinking with His disciples, conversing with them, and walking about). These are the acts of a living man.
Of course, such eating was not dictated by necessity. The incorruptible bodies of the risen will have no need of food; there occurs in them no deterioration that has to be repaired by nourishment.
So the food consumed by Christ did not become nourishment for His body but was dissolved into preexisting matter. Yet He proved that He was a true man by the fact that He ate and drank.
As regards His suppositum, Christ showed that He was the same person who had died, by displaying to His disciples the marks of His death on His body, namely, the scars of His wounds. Thus, in John 20:27 He says to Thomas: "Put in thy finger hither and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand and put it into my side." And in Luke 24:39 He says: "See my hands and feet, that it is I myself."»"' It was by divine dispensation that He kept the scars of His wounds in His body, so that the truth of the Resurrection might be demonstrated by them; for complete integrity is the proper condition of the incorruptible risen body, although we may say that in the case of the martyrs some indications of the wounds
3347 uke 24:39 (RSV: Luke 24:38).
335RSV: Luke 24:38.
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection they bore will appear with a certain splendor, in testimony of their virtue. Christ further showed that He was the same suppositum by His manner of speech and by other familiar actions whereby men are recognized. Thus the disciples knew Him "in the breaking of bread." Also, He openly showed Himself to them in Galilee, where He was accustomed to converse with them.
Christ manifested the glory of His risen nature when He came »337 sd when "He vanished among them, "the doors being shut, out of their sight."'® For the glory of risen man gives him the power to be seen in glorious vision when he wishes, or not to be seen when he so wishes. The reason why Christ demonstrated the truth of His resurrection and the glory of His risen body by so many proofs, was the difficulty that faith in the Resurrection presents. If He had displayed the extraordinary condition of His glorified body in its full splendor, He would have awakened prejudice against faith in the Resurrection: the immensity of its glory would have excluded belief that it was the same nature. Further, He manifested the truth not only by visible signs, but also by proofs appealing to the intellect, such as when "He opened their understanding so » and showed that that they might understand the Scriptures, according to the writings of the prophets He was to rise again.
The twofold life restored in man by Christ As Christ destroyed our death by His death, so He restored our life by His resurrection. Man has a twofold death and a twofold life.
3367 uke 24:35 (RSV: Luke 24:34).
337} ohn 20:26.
338] uke 24:31 (RSV: Luke 24:30).
3397 uke 24:45 (RSV: Luke 24:43).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa The first death is the death of the body, brought about by separation from the soul; the second death is brought about by separation from God. Christ, in whom the second death had no place, destroyed both of these deaths in us — that is, the bodily and the spiritual — by the first death He underwent (namely, that of the body).
Similarly, opposed to this twofold death we are to understand that there is a twofold life. One is a life of the body, imparted by the soul, and this is called the life of nature. The other comes from God and is called the life of justice or the life of grace. This life is given to us through faith, by which God dwells in us, according to Habakkuk 2:4: "The just shall live in his faith."
Accordingly, resurrection is also twofold: one is a bodily resurrection, in which the soul is united to the body for the second time; the other is a spiritual resurrection, in which the soul is again united to God. This second resurrection had no place in Christ, because His soul was never separated from God by sin. By His bodily resurrection, therefore, Christ is the cause of both the bodily and the spiritual resurrection in us.
However, as Augustine says in his commentary on St. John,*""° we are to understand that the Word of God raises up souls but that the Word as incarnate raises up bodies. To give life to the soul belongs to God alone. Yet, since the flesh is the instrument of His divinity, and since an instrument operates in virtue of the principal cause, our double resurrection — bodily and spiritual — is referred to Christ's bodily resurrection as cause.
For everything done in Christ's flesh was salutary for us by reason of the divinity united to that flesh. Hence the Apostle, speaking of the resurrection of Christ as the cause of our spiritual resurrection, says, in Romans 4:25, that Christ "was delivered up
34 In Ioannis evangelium, XIX, 15f. (PL, XXXV, 1552f.).
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection for our sins and rose again for our justification." And in 1 Corinthians 15:12 he shows that Christ's resurrection is the cause of our bodily resurrection: "Now if Christ be preached, that He rose again from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
Most aptly does the Apostle attribute remission of sins to Christ's death and our justification to His resurrection, thus tracing out conformity and likeness of effect to cause. As sin is discarded when it is remitted, so Christ by dying laid aside His passible life, in which the likeness of sin was discernible. But when a person is justified, he receives new life. In like manner Christ, by rising, obtained newness of glory.
Therefore Christ's death is the cause of the remission of our sin: the efficient cause instrumentally, the exemplary cause sacramentally, and the meritorious cause. In like manner Christ's resurrection was also the cause of our resurrection: the efficient cause instrumentally and the exemplary cause sacramentally. But it was not a meritorious cause, for Christ was no longer a wayfarer, and SO was not in a position to merit; and also because the glory of the Resurrection was the reward of His Passion, as the Apostle declares in Philippians 2:9ff.
Thus we see clearly that Christ can be called the first-born of those who rise from the dead. This is true not only in the order of time, inasmuch as Christ was the first to rise, as was said above,>"! but also in the order of causality, because His resurrection is the cause of the resurrection of other men; and in the order of dignity, because He rose more gloriously than all others.
This belief in Christ's resurrection is expressed in the words of the Creed: "The third day He arose again from the dead."
341.
Cf. chap. 236.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
The twofold reward of Christ's humiliation: resurrection and ascension According to the Apostle, the exaltation of Christ was the reward of His humiliation.'" Therefore a twofold exaltation had to correspond to His twofold humiliation.
Christ had humbled Himself, first, by suffering death in the passible flesh He had assumed; secondly, He had undergone humiliation with reference to place, when His body was laid in the sepulcher and His soul descended into Hell. The exaltation of the Resurrection, in which He returned from death to immortal life, corresponds to the first humiliation. And the exaltation of the Ascension corresponds to the second humiliation. Hence the Apostle says, in Ephesians 4:10: "He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens."
However, as it is narrated of the Son of God that He was born, suffered, was buried, and rose again — not in His divine nature but in His human nature — so also, we are told, He ascended into Heaven, not in His divine nature but in His human nature. In His divine nature He had never left Heaven, as He is always present everywhere. He indicates this Himself when He says: "No man hath ascended into Heaven but He that descended from Heaven, the Son of man who is in Heaven."'" By this we are given to understand that He came down from Heaven by assuming an earthly nature, yet in such way that He continued to remain in Heaven. The same consideration leads us to conclude that Christ alone has gone up to Heaven by His own power. By reason of His origin, that abode belonged by right to Him who had come down from Heaven. Other men cannot ascend of themselves, but are
342 Phil. 2:8-9, 343 John 3:13. at2
Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection taken up by the power of Christ, whose members they have been made.
As ascent into Heaven befits the Son of God according to His human nature, so something else is added that becomes Him according to His divine nature: namely, that He should sit at the right hand of His Father. In this connection we are not to think of a literal right hand or a bodily sitting. Since the right side of an animal is the stronger, this expression gives us to understand that the Son is seated with the Father as being in no way inferior to Him according to the divine nature, but on a par with Him in all things. Yet this same prerogative may be ascribed to the Son of God in His human nature, thus enabling us to perceive that in His divine nature the Son is in the Father Himself according to unity of essence, and that together with the Father He possesses a single kingly throne (that is, an identical power). Since other persons ordinarily sit near kings (namely, ministers to whom kings assign a share in governing power) and since the one whom the king places at his right hand is judged to be the most powerful man in the kingdom, the Son of God is rightly said to sit at the Father's right hand even according to His human nature, as being exalted in rank above every creature of the heavenly kingdom.
In both senses, therefore, Christ properly sits at the right hand of God. And so the Apostle asks, in Hebrews 1:13: "To which of the angels said He at any time: sit on my right hand?"
We profess our faith in this ascension of Christ when we say in the Creed: "He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father."
a oo 3 nutty 8 Tat then ae ae arsipd fom deed Saiates Hie ae ieee ; ete}, pate: Iyeoetioecs q3 : eartie evils ath er raw nennietin ae Wethnanstes nna cn Soa Vitae meee erty has ah ie 's if aae rem tae cee with a
The Last Judgment 24] Christ as judge We clearly gather from this that by the Passion and death of Christ and by the glory of His resurrection and ascension, we are freed from sin and death, and have received justice and the glory of immortality — the former in actual fact, the latter in hope.
All these events we have mentioned (the Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension) were accomplished in Christ according to His human nature. Therefore we must conclude that Christ has rescued us from spiritual and bodily evils, and has put us in the way of spiritual and eternal goods, by what He suffered or did in His human nature.
He who acquires goods for people also, in consequence, distributes the same to them. But the distribution of goods among many requires judgment, so that each may receive what corresponds to his degree.
Therefore Christ, in the human nature in which He has accomplished the mysteries of man's salvation, is fittingly appointed by God to be judge over the men He has saved. We are told that this is so in John 5:27: "He [the Father] hath given Him [the Son]
Aquinas's Shorter Summa power to do judgment, because He is the Son of man."? There is also another reason. Those who are to be judged ought to see the judge. But the sight of God, in whom the judicial authority resides, in His own proper nature is the reward that is meted out in the Judgment. Therefore the men to be judged — the good as well as the wicked — ought to see God as judge, not in His proper nature, but in His assumed nature. If the wicked saw God in His divine nature, they would be receiving the very reward of which they had made themselves unworthy.
Furthermore, the office of judge is a suitable recompense by way of exaltation, corresponding to the humiliation of Christ, who was willing to be humiliated to the point of being unjustly judged by a human judge. To give expression to our belief in this humiliation, we say explicitly in the Creed, that He suffered under Pontius
Pilate. Therefore this exalted reward of being appointed by God to judge all men, the living and the dead, in His human nature, was due to Christ, according to Job 36:17: "Thy cause hath been judged as that of the wicked. Cause and judgment Thou shalt recover."
Moreover, since this judicial power pertains to Christ's exaltation, as does the glory of His resurrection, Christ will appear at the Judgment, not in humility — which belonged to the time of merit
— but in the glorious form that is indicative of His reward. We are assured in the Gospel that "they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty."*" And the sight of His glory will be a joy to the elect who have loved Him; to these is made the promise in Isaiah 33:17, that they "shall see the King in His beauty." But to the wicked this sight will mean confusion and lamentation, for the glory and the power of the judge will bring grief and dread to those who fear damnation. We read of this in 44RSV: John 5:26.
3457 uke 21:27.
The Last Judgment Isaiah 26:11: "Let the envious people see and be confounded, and let fire devour Thy enemies."
Although Christ will show Himself in His glorious form, the marks of the Passion will appear in Him, not with disfigurement, but with beauty and splendor, so that at the sight of them the elect, who will perceive that they have been saved through the sufferings of Christ, will be filled with joy; but sinners, who have scorned so great a benefit, will be filled with dismay. Thus we read in Revelation 1:7: "Every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him.
And all the tribes of the Earth shall bewail themselves because of Him."
All judgment is given to the Son Since the Father "hath given all judgment to the Son," as is said in John 5:22,°"° and since human life even at present is regulated by the just judgment of God — for it is He who judges all flesh, as Abraham declared in Genesis 18:25 — we cannot doubt that this judgment, by which men are governed in the world, pertains likewise to the judicial power of Christ. To Him are directed the words of the Father reported in Psalm 109:1: "Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool.'?*" Christ sits at the right hand of God according to His human nature, inasmuch as He receives His judicial power from the Father. And this power
He exercises even now before all His enemies are clearly seen to lie prostrate at His feet. He Himself bore witness to this fact shortly after His resurrection, in Matthew 28:18: "All power is given to me in Heaven and on Earth."
346RSV: John 5:21.
347RSV: Ps. 110:1. ait
Aquinas's Shorter Summa There is another judgment of God whereby, at the moment of death, everyone receives as regards his soul the recompense he has deserved. The just who have been dissolved in death remain with Christ, as Paul desired for himself;**® but sinners who have died are buried in Hell.
We may not suppose that this division takes place without God's judgment, or that this judgment does not pertain to the judicial power of Christ, especially as He Himself tells His disciples in John 14:3: "If I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you also may be." To be taken in this way means nothing else than to be dissolved in death, so that we may be with Christ; for, as is said in 2 Corinthians 5:6, "while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord."
However, since man's recompense is not confined to goods of the soul but embraces goods of the body (which is again to be resumed by the soul at the resurrection) and since every recompense requires judgment, there has to be another judgment by which men are rewarded for what they have done in the body as well as for what they have done in the soul. This judgment, too, belongs rightfully to Christ, in order that, as He rose and ascended into Heaven in glory after dying for us, He may also by His own power cause the bodies of our lowliness to rise again in the likeness of His glorified body, and may transport them up to Heaven whither He has preceded us by His ascension, thus opening the way before us, as had been foretold by Micah." This resurrection of all men will take place simultaneously at the end of the world,
348CF£ Phil. 1:23.
34 Mic. 2:13: "For he shall go up that shall open the way before them: they shall divide, and pass through the gate, and shall come in by it; and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them."
The Last Judgment d.>° Therefore this judgment will be a as we have already indicate general and final judgment, and we believe that Christ will come a second time, in glory, to preside at it.
In Psalm 35:7! we read: "Thy judgments are a great deep"; and in Romans 11:33 the Apostle exclaims: "How incomprehensible are His judgments!" Each of the judgments mentioned contains something profound and incomprehensible to human knowledge.
In the first of God's judgments, by which the present life of mankind is regulated, the time of the judgment is, indeed, manifest to men, but the reason for the recompenses is concealed, especially as evils for the most part are the lot of the good in this world, while good things come to the wicked. In the other two judgments of God the reason for the requitals will be clearly known, but the time remains hidden, because man does not know the hour of his death, as is noted in Ecclesiastes 9:12: "Man knoweth not his own end"; and no one can know the end of this world. For we do not foreknow future events, except those whose causes we understand.
But the cause of the end of the world is the will of God, which is unknown to us. Therefore the end of the world can be foreseen by no creature, but only by God, according to Matthew 24:36: "Of that day and hour no one knoweth; no, not the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone."
In this connection, some have found an occasion for going astray in the added words, "nor the Son," which are read in Mark
13:32.°" They contend that the Son is inferior to the Father, on 350C£. chap. 154.
351 RSV: Ps. 36:6.
352Thus Arius and Eunomius. Cf. St. Athanasius, Contra Arianos, III, 26 (PG, XXVI, 380); St. Hilary, De Trinitate, IX, 2 (PL, X, 282); St.
Ambrose, De fide, V, 16 (PL, XVI, 688); St. Jerome, In evangelium Matthaei, IV, on chap. 24:36 (PL, XXVI, 181).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa the score that He is ignorant of matters which the Father knows.
The difficulty could be avoided by replying that the Son is ignorant of this event in His assumed human nature, but not in His divine nature, in which He has one and the same wisdom as the Father or, to speak with greater propriety, He is wisdom itself intellectually conceived. But the Son could hardly be unaware of the divine judgment even in His assumed nature, since His soul,
as the Evangelist attests," is full of God's grace and truth, as was pointed out above.' Nor does it seem reasonable that Christ, who has received the power to judge "because He is the Son of man" should be ignorant in His human nature of the time appointed for Him to judge. The Father would not really have given all judgment to Him, if the judgment of determining the time of His coming were withheld from Him.
Accordingly, this text is to be interpreted in the light of the usual style of speech found in the Scriptures, in which God is said to know a thing when He imparts knowledge of that thing, as when He said to Abraham, in Genesis 22:12: "Now I know that thou fearest God." The meaning is not that He who knows all things from eternity began to know at that moment, but that He made known Abraham's devotedness by that declaration. In a similar way the Son is said to be ignorant of the day of Judgment, because He did not impart that knowledge to the disciples, but replied to them (as we see in Acts 1:7): "It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father hath put in His own power." But the Father is not ignorant in this way, since in any case
He gave knowledge of the matter to the Son through the eternal generation. Some authors extricate themselves from the difficulty
33 ohn 1:14.
P5Ce chap. 213.
35 John 5:27 (RSV: John 5:26).
The Last Judgment in fewer words, saying that Mark's expression is to be understood of an adopted son.°"° However that may be, the Lord wished the time of the future
Judgment to remain hidden, that men might watch with care so as not to be found unprepared at the hour of Judgment. For the same reason He also wished the hour of each one's death to be unknown.
For each man will appear at the Judgment in the state in which he departs from this world by death. Therefore the Lord admonishes us in Matthew 24:42: "Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come."
The universality of the Judgment According to the doctrine thus set forth, Christ clearly has judicial power over the living and the dead. He judges both those who are living in the world at present and those who pass from this world by death. At the Last Judgment, however, He will judge the living and the dead together. In this expression the living may be taken to mean the just who live by grace and the dead may be taken to mean sinners who have fallen from grace. Or else by the living may be meant those who will be found still alive at the Lord's coming and by the dead those who have died in previous ages.
We are not to think that certain of the living will be judged without ever having undergone death of the body, as some have argued.*'' For in 1 Corinthians 15:51, the Apostle says clearly:
3°6St. Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, |, prol. (PL, LXXI, 163); Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica: In evangelia, 142 (PL, CXCVIII, 1611).
357S¢. John Chrysostom, In Epistolam primam ad Corinthios, hom. XLII, 2 (PG, LXI, 364); St. Jerome, Epist. LIX, 3 (PL, XXII, 587); Epist. CXIX,
7(PL, XXII, 971). Cf. St. Augustine, Epist. CXCIII, 4 (PL, XXXIII, 872). a2i
Aquinas's Shorter Summa "We shall all indeed rise again." Another reading has: "We shall indeed sleep" (that is, we shall die); or, according to some books,
"We shall not indeed all sleep," as Jerome notes in his letter to Minervius on the resurrection of the body.'"® But this variant does not destroy the force of the doctrine under discussion. For a little previously the Apostle had written: "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."'"? Hence the text which reads: "We shall not all sleep," cannot refer to death of the body, which has come down to all through the sin of our first parent (as is stated in Romans 5:12), but must be interpreted as referring to the sleep of sin, concerning which (in Ephesians 5:14) we are exhorted: "Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee."
Accordingly, those who are found alive at the Lord's coming will be marked off from those who have died before, not for the reason that they will never die, but because in the very act by which they are taken up "in the clouds to meet Christ, into the «99360 ir" a they will die and immediately rise again, as Augustine teaches."
In discussing this matter, we must take cognizance of the three phases which, apparently, constitute a judicial process. First, someone is haled into court; secondly, his cause is examined; and thirdly, he receives sentence.
As to the first phase, all men — good and evil, from the first man down to the very last — will be subject to Christ's judgment, for, as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:10, "We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ." Not even those who 358 Fist. CXIX, 2 (PL, 967).
27 t Coreto:22, 3601 Thess. 4:16 (RSV: 1 Thess. 4:17).
36! Retractationes, Il, 33 (PL, XXXII, 644).
Dey
The Last Judgment have died in infancy, whether they were baptized or not, are exempt from this universal law, as is explained by the Glossary on this text."
With regard to the second phase (namely, the examination of the case), not all, either of the good or of the wicked, will be judged. A judicial investigation is not necessary unless good and evil actions are intermingled. When good is present without admixture of evil, or evil without admixture of good, discussion is out of place. Among the good there are some who have wholeheartedly despised temporal possessions and have dedicated themselves to God alone and to the things that are of God. Accordingly, since sin is committed by cleaving to changeable goods in contempt of the changeless Good, such souls exhibit no mingling of good and evil. This is not to imply that they live without sin, for in their person is asserted what we read in 1 John 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Although certain lesser sins are found in them, these are, so to speak, consumed by the fire of charity, and so seem to be nothing. At the Judgment, therefore, such souls will not be judged by an investigation of their deeds.
On the other hand, those who lead an earthly life and in their preoccupation with things of this world use them, not indeed against God, but with excessive attachment to them, have a notable amount of evil mixed up with the good of faith and charity, so that the element predominating in them cannot easily be perceived. Such souls will undergo judgment by an examination of their merits.
Similarly, with reference to the wicked, we should recall that the principle of approach to God is faith, according to Hebrews
11:6: "He that cometh to God must believe." Therefore in him 362\¥/alafrid Strabo, Glossa ordinaria (PL, CXIV, 558).
O28
Aquinas's Shorter Summa who lacks faith there is found nothing of good which, mixed with evil, might render his damnation doubtful. And so such a one will be condemned without any inquiry into merits. Again, he who has faith but has no charity and, consequently, no good works, possesses, indeed, some point of contact with God. Hence an examination of his case is necessary, so that the element predominating in him," whether good or evil, may clearly emerge. Such a person will be condemned only after an investigation of his case. In the same way an earthly king condemns a criminal citizen after hearing him, but punishes an enemy without any hearing.
Lastly, regarding the third phase of a judgment (pronouncement of the sentence), all will be judged, for all will receive glory or punishment according to the sentence. The reason is given in 2 Corinthians 5:10: "That every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil."
The procedure and place of the Judgment We are not to suppose that judicial examination will be required in order that the judge may receive information, as is the case in human courts; for "all things are naked and open to His eyes," as we are told in Hebrews 4:13. The examination is necessary for the purpose of making known to each person, concerning himself and others, the reasons why each is worthy of punishment or of glory, so that the good may joyfully acknowledge God's justice in all things and the wicked may be roused to anger against themselves.
Nor should we imagine that this examination is to be conducted by verbal discussion. Endless time would be required to 363 \Jivas: "in isto"; Mandonnet et al.: "in Christo."
The Last Judgment recount the thoughts, words, and deeds — good or evil — of each person. Therefore Lactantius was deceived when he suggested that the day of Judgment would last a thousand years.*™ Even this time would scarcely be enough, as several days would be required to complete the judicial process for a single man in the manner proposed. Accordingly, the divine power will bring it about that in an instant everyone will be apprised of all the good or evil he has ever done, for which he is to be rewarded or punished. And all this will be made known to each person, not only about himself, but also about the rest. Hence, wherever the good is so much in excess that the evil seems to be of no consequence or vice versa, there will seem, to human estimation, to be no conflict between the good and the evil. This is what we meant when we said that such persons will be rewarded or punished without examination."
Although all men will appear before Christ at that Judgment, the good will not only be set apart from the wicked by reason of meritorious cause, but will be separated from them in locality. The wicked, who have withdrawn from Christ in their love of earthly things, will remain on Earth; but the good, who have clung to Christ, will be raised up into the air when they go to meet Christ, that they may be made like Christ not only by being conformed to the splendor of His glory, but by being associated with Him in the place He occupies. This is indicated in Matthew 24:28: "Wheresoever the body shall be, there also shall the eagles (by which the saints are signified) be gathered together." According to Jerome, instead of body the Hebrew has the significant word joatham,*"
364Divinae institutiones, VII: De beata vita, 24 (PL, VI, 808).
3©5C£ chap. 243.
366 In evangelium Matthaei, IV (PL, XXVI, 179). St. Thomas here misreads ptoma (corpse), which occurs in the Greek Matthew and is quoted by Jerome, for some fancied Hebrew or Aramaic word.
32)
Aquinas's Shorter Summa which means "corpse," to commemorate Christ's Passion, whereby
Christ merited the power to judge and men who have been conformed to His Passion are admitted into the company of His glory, as we are told by the Apostle in 2 Timothy 2:12: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."
This is the ground for our belief that Christ will come down to judge somewhere near the place of His Passion, as is intimated in Joel 3:2: "I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat; and I will plead with them there." This valley lies at the foot of Mount Olivet, from which Christ ascended into Heaven. For the same reason, when Christ comes for the Judgment, the sign of the Cross and other signs of the Passion will be displayed, as is said in Matthew 24:30: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven," so that the wicked, looking upon Him whom they have pierced, will be distressed and tormented, and those who have been redeemed will exult in the glory of their Redeemer. And as Christ is said to sit at God's right hand according to His human nature (inasmuch as He has been lifted up to share in the most excellent goods of the Father), so at the Judgment the just are said to stand at Christ's right, as being entitled to the most honorable place near Him.
The role of the saints in the Judgment Christ will not be the only one to judge on that day; others will be associated with Him. Of these, some will judge only in the sense of serving as a basis for comparison. In this way the good will judge the less good, or the wicked will judge the more wicked, according to Matthew 12:41: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it." And some will judge by giving their approval to the sentence; in this way all the just
The Last Judgment shall judge, according to Wisdom 3:7-8: "The just . .
. shall judge nations." But some will judge with a certain judicial power delegated to them by Christ, having "two-edged swords in their hands," as is indicated in Psalm 149:6.
This last kind of judicial power the Lord promised to the Apostles (in Matthew 19:28) when He said: "You who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." We are not to conclude from this that only the Jews who belong to the twelve tribes of Israel will be judged by the Apostles, for by the twelve tribes of Israel are understood all the faithful who have been admitted to the Faith of the patriarchs. As for infidels, they will not be judged, but have already been judged.
Similarly, the twelve Apostles who walked with Christ during His earthly life are not the only ones who will judge. Judas assuredly will not judge, and Paul, on the other hand, who labored more than the rest, will not lack judicial power, especially as he himself says in 1 Corinthians 6:3: "Know you not that we shall judge angels?" This dignity pertains properly to those who have left all to follow Christ, for such was the promise made to Peter in answer to his question in Matthew 19:27: "Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee; what therefore shall we have?"
The same thought occurs in Job 36:6: "He giveth judgment to the poor."
And this is reasonable, because, as we said, the investigation will deal with the actions of men who have used earthly things well or ill °°' Correctness of judgment requires that the mind of the judge should be unswayed by those matters about which he has to 367C£. chap. 243.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa judge; and so the fact that some have their minds completely detached from earthly things gives them title to judicial authority.
The announcing of the divine commandments also contributes to the meriting of this dignity. In Matthew 25:31 we read that Christ will come to judge accompanied by angels (that is, by preachers), as Augustine suggests in a work on penance.' For they who have made known the precepts of life ought to have a part in examining the actions of men regarding the observance of the divine precepts.
The persons mentioned will judge by cooperating in the task of revealing to each individual the cause of the salvation or damnation both of himself and of others, in the way that higher angels are said to illuminate the lower angels and also men.
We profess that this judicial power belongs to Christ when we say, in the Apostles' Creed: "From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."
The foregoing teachings comprised in articles of Faith Having reviewed the doctrines pertaining to the truth of the Christian Faith, we should advert to the fact that all the teachings thus set forth are reduced to certain articles: twelve in number, as some think, or fourteen, according to others.
Faith has to do with truths that surpass the comprehension of reason. Hence, whenever a new truth incomprehensible to reason is proposed, a new article is required. One article pertains to the divine unity. For, even though we prove by reason that God is one, the fact that He governs all things directly or that He wishes to be
38 Sermo 351, De utilitate agendae poenitentiae (PL, XXXIX, 1544).
The Last Judgment worshiped in some particular way, is a matter relating to Faith.
Three articles are reserved for the three divine persons. Three other articles are formulated about the effects produced by God: creation, which pertains to nature; justification, which pertains to grace; and reward, which pertains to glory. Thus seven articles altogether are devoted to the divinity.
Concerning the humanity of Christ, seven more are proposed.
The first is on the incarnation and conception of Christ. The second deals with the nativity, which involves a special difficulty because of our Lord's coming forth from the closed womb of the Virgin. The third article is on the death, Passion, and burial; the fourth on the descent into Hell; the fifth on the Resurrection; the sixth on the Ascension; and the seventh treats of Christ's coming for the Judgment. And so there are fourteen articles in all.
Other authorities, reasonably enough, include faith in the three persons under one article, on the ground that we cannot believe in the Father without believing in the Son and also in the Holy Spirit (the bond of love uniting the first two persons).
However, they distinguish the article on the Resurrection from the article on eternal reward. Accordingly, there are two articles about God; one on the unity; the other on the Trinity. Four articles deal with God's effects: one with creation; the second with justification; the third with the general resurrection; and the fourth with reward. Similarly, as regards belief in the humanity of Christ, these authors comprise the conception and the nativity under one article; and they also include the Passion and death under one article.
According to this way of reckoning, therefore, we have twelve articles in all.
And this should be enough on Faith.
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