Summa III q.49 aa.1–3: Christ's Passion Frees Us from Sin, the Devil and Punishment

Orientation #

He opens by noting “we got to question forty nine” and returns briefly to Article One, which the class had already treated (prev. lecture), before reading Articles 2 and 3. The neighbouring classes continue in the same part of the Tertia Pars on the effects of Christ’s Passion.

The class, in order #

1. Opening joke on forty-nine (“Thomas died in his forty-ninth year”) #

Aside: Thomas died in his 49th year, and Aristotle said the mind is best at forty-nine (“seven times seven”); so the rest of us rise at thirty or thirty-three, but Thomas will rise at forty-nine. He flags it as a joke.

2. Review of a. 1: three ways the Passion remits sins (“Isn’t marvelous those three ways”) #

The point: the Passion is the proper cause of the remission of sins in three distinct ways.

1. By provoking us to love through the example of His love for us — nothing moves us to love someone so much as experiencing an unselfish love for us (Augustine, cited by Thomas); and love dismisses sins (Luke 7: many sins dismissed because she loved much).
2. As head of the mystical body, whose members are liberated by what the head suffers — Thomas’s “homely example”: a man doing something meritorious with his hand to relieve the sin of his foot that kicked you. He returns to this later: “I can pick you up with my hand” — and notes we do call it a penance.
3. As instrument of His divinity — not by our membership in the body but by His flesh as divinity’s organ; he connects it to the thing held up by Moses, Christ not being sin but symbolizing it. Difficulty he leaves open: why the second way in particular is called redemption. “I don’t have enough economics there” — thinking aloud: to redeem a slave you need something common between you and the holder, usually money; what did Christ pay? Perhaps that He shared our nature. He does not settle it; he only insists the second way is plainly different from the first and third. Attached: Thomas’s prayer before Communion asks to receive the body taken from the Blessed Virgin so as to be numbered among the members of His mystical body. St. Alphonsus makes meditation on the Passion the best way to grow in love of God — which fits the first way, and it is interesting Thomas gives that one first, since it demands a response from us, whereas the second and third might seem more efficacious. He asks whether anyone has ever heard a sermon spell out these three ways; even the Gospel’s reason for the name Jesus (“he will save us from our sins”) does not spell out how. Aside: Chesterton said his principal reason for becoming Catholic was to be sure his sins were forgiven.

3. Leo XIII on the Scholastics (“in their theological treatises and in their Scripture commentaries”) #

Reading Providentissimus Deus: to the Scholastics we owe the clear distinction of the senses of the sacred words, the assignment of each sense’s value in theology, the division of books into parts with summaries, the investigation of the writers’ objects, and the demonstration of the connection of sentence with sentence and clause with clause. The sentence he wants: their valuable work in Holy Scripture shows both in their Scripture commentaries and in their theological treatises — “and in this respect the greatest name among them all is Saint Thomas Aquinas. I rest my case.” Application: the fourfold division of what Christ did and suffered in this part of the Summa corresponds to the Gospel narration, so one can go back and forth, each refreshing the other — not a substitute for reading the Gospels. Asides: reading the Sentences that morning on the Word, and how rich “In the beginning was the Word” seems afterwards. The convert on a Catholic television convert program, formerly of the “full gospel” movement, who ended by saying if you really want the full gospel church, this is it.

4. Article 2, objections: are we freed from the devil’s power? (“whether we are freed from the power of the devil”) #

1. The devil never had power over men at all, since he can do nothing without divine permission — Job 1–2 (he harmed Job’s goods first, then his body, only on receiving power); Matthew 8 (the demons could not even enter the pigs unless Christ conceded). So there is nothing to be freed from.
2. The devil still tempts men and vexes them bodily after the Passion — so the Passion did not free us. Example: the Curé of Ars, in the first infestation of his house, a man from the village walking in to find the Curé (invisibly) held by the feet and whirled around the room; the man ran.
3. The power of the Passion endures forever (Hebrews 10: by one offering he consummated forever them that are sanctified), but liberation from the devil is neither everywhere — many parts of the world still have idolaters — nor always, since in the time of Antichrist he most of all exercises power to harm men (2 Thessalonians: his advent according to the operation of Satan, in all power, signs and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity). Aside: “We’re almost there, I guess.” Sed contra: John 12, His Passion being evident — “Now the prince of this world is cast out; and I, if I be exalted from the earth, will draw all things to myself.” He was exalted from the earth through the Passion; therefore through it the devil was cast out of the power he had.

5. Article 2, corpus: three things to consider (“three things should be considered”) #

On the devil’s pre-Passion power over men:

1. On man’s side — by his sin he merited to be handed over to the devil, by whose tempting he was first overcome. Answer: the Passion frees him because it is the cause of the remission of sins (the previous article — hence the order of the articles).
2. On God’s side — whom man offended by sinning, and who in His justice left man in the devil’s power. Answer: the Passion frees us insofar as it reconciled us to God, “as will be said below” (a. 4).
3. On the devil’s side — by his most wicked will he impedes man from attaining his salvation. Answer: in the Passion the devil exceeded the measure of power handed over to him by God, by scheming (machinando) the death of Christ, who had no merit of death, being without sin. Augustine, De Trinitate XIII: by the justice of Christ the devil was overcome, because in Him he found nothing worthy of death, yet killed Him; and it is just that the debtors he held should be dismissed free, believing in Him whom he killed without any reason. “It’s very interesting the way he thinks that out. Thomas thought a lot of things out — more than I can say for people. They never think anything out.”

6. Article 2, replies (“justly he was permitted to harm men”) #

• To 1: the devil is not said to have men in his power as if he could harm them without God permitting, but because he was justly permitted to harm those whom he led to consent by tempting. Aside: the devil has, as it were, a right to tempt us — “kind of frightening.” He suspects the devil behind abortion, making a mother harm her own child; Dr. Carroll’s point that the devil, because of the Blessed Mother and the Christ child, is always against women and children — Pharaoh in Egypt, Moloch and pagan sacrifices, feminism and abortion today.
• To 2: the devil can still tempt as regards the soul and vex as regards the body, God permitting; but a remedy is prepared from the Passion by which one can protect himself from the enemy’s attacks lest he be led into eternal death. Those before the Passion who resisted did so through faith in the Passion, though it was not yet enacted; and before it no one could escape descending to hell, from which after the Passion men can guard themselves by His power. So Thomas is not denying the devil is still permitted; He gives us more aid than before.
• To 3: God permits the devil to deceive men in particular persons, times and places according to the hidden reason of His judgments; yet always the remedy is prepared, even in the time of Antichrist — and if some neglect to use it, nothing is thereby lost to the efficacy of the Passion. “Lead a horse to water.” This is why you need the sacraments: that is how the merits of the Passion are applied, from the universal cause; neglecting them does not make Christ’s death inefficacious, you are ignoring the means. St. Alphonsus: every sinner has a grace and has to pray when tempted; they don’t use it, and everything follows from that.

7. Digression: persevering in prayer (“If that doesn’t work, I say another Hail Mary”) #

Stories, all on the one point: the Curé’s counsel — say a Hail Mary; if that doesn’t work, another; then another. The Way of the Pilgrim: the man struggling with drink told to read a chapter of the Gospel, then another; “but what if I don’t understand it?” — “The demons understand, and they’re terrified.” John Paul II as bishop in Poland with a priest thinking of leaving: pray half an hour; still leaving; pray again; again — and he came out saying he should stay. Fr. Hardon on the vocations crisis: you must pray to hear a vocation, pray to respond, pray to persevere — most fail at the third. “You don’t ask, you don’t receive.” The Anima Christi after Communion asks especially for perseverance — “hide me in your wounds.” Peter on the water: he did not persevere, but he called out, “Save me.”

8. Article 3, objections and corpus: freed from the debt of punishment (“in hell there is no redemption”) #

Objections:

1. The chief punishment of sin is eternal damnation, and the damned are not freed, since “in hell there is no redemption” (Office of the Dead, responsory — he notes the italicized reference).
2. Those freed from the obligation of punishment should have no punishment enjoined; but penitents are enjoined a satisfactory penance. He puts it to the class: “if we’re freed from the punishment due to sin, then why does the priest give us this?” (a student: “frosting on the cake”; “gravy”).
3. Death is the punishment of sin (Romans 6:23, “the stipend of sin is death”), yet after the Passion men still die. Sed contra: Isaiah 53 — truly He has borne our iniquities. Corpus: through the Passion we are freed from the reatus of punishment — he stops to ask the class the best English (“obligation to punishment”; a student offers “accusation, charge”; he resists plain “guilt,” settling on our being bound to it) —

• directly, in that the Passion was a sufficient and superabundant satisfaction for the sins of the whole human race, and when sufficient satisfaction is shown all the debt of punishment is taken away;
• indirectly, in that the Passion is the cause of the remission of sin, in which the debt of punishment is founded. His gloss: one way He takes on our punishment and satisfies; the other way, taking away sin, He takes away the cause that obligates you to punishment.

9. Reply 1 and a digression (“through faith and charity and through the sacraments of faith”) #

The Passion takes effect in those to whom it is applied through faith and charity and the sacraments of faith; the damned are not joined to the Passion in that way and so cannot receive its effect. He adds: are the damned part of the mystical body in any sense? It seems not — so they cannot be affected that way either; that day’s Gospel, branches cut off, gathered and burned. Attached: Thomas’s Adoro te devote, in whose middle quatrain one asks for faith, hope and charity; and the prayer to the crucified Christ said after Communion, which asks for faith, hope and charity and then the remission of sins. “You could stick in hope there too.” Aside (long, off topic): populations and fortunes in the Middle East — Israel’s seven million against Iran’s seventy-three; the Six-Day War, Egyptian planes destroyed on the ground; a Near East Welfare Association publication on each country; the collapse of Christian numbers in Iraq (Mosul, once perhaps a hundred thousand Christians, now reckoned about two thousand), Lebanon’s Christians now a minority, Cyprus.

10. Reply 2: baptism, and why the penitent gets a penance (“we are configured to him in baptism sacramentally”) #

To share the effect of the Passion we must be configured to Christ. In baptism we are configured sacramentally (Romans 6:4, buried with Him through baptism into death); hence no satisfactory penance is imposed on the baptized, since they are wholly freed by Christ’s satisfaction. But Christ died semel, once only, for our sins, so a man cannot be configured to Christ’s death a second time by the sacrament of baptism — “you only die once.” Hence those who sin after baptism must be configured to Christ’s suffering through some punishment or passion they sustain themselves, much less than the sin deserves, because of the cooperation of Christ’s satisfaction. Attached: this is why some delayed baptism to the last moment — “that’s so human” — Constantine; and St. Alphonsus’s counsel that a priest should not worry much about giving light penances, since who can weigh such things: take advice from elders, but if they do not do enough they will make it up in purgatory. His summary: less than the desert, but one way or another they are purified by the merits of Christ, and some penance they will do.

11. Reply 3: why we still die (“members ought to be conformed to the head”) #

Christ’s satisfaction affects us insofar as we are incorporated into Him as members to the head, and members ought to be conformed to the head. As Christ first had grace in His soul with a passible body and through His Passion arrived at the glory of immortality, so we, freed by His Passion from the debt of some punishment, first receive in our soul the spirit of adoption of sons, by which we are inscribed for the inheritance of a glorious immortality, while still having a passible and mortal body; afterwards, configured to His passion and death, we are led to immortal glory. Romans: if sons of God then heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, if nevertheless we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together. “It doesn’t make it terribly easy, does it?” He adds Thomas’s reason: if immortality were given at once, everybody would rush in and there would be no merit — “there’d be long lines” to be baptized. Closing story: Paula’s grandfather, named Israel, a catechumen and an old man, driving his granddaughter to school, had a heart attack in the car; the girl ran for help, and Brother Francis Malouf came out, went on his knees and shouted, “Israel, do you want baptism?” — “If it’ll help.”

His words #

• “dismisses sins” — his rendering for the remission/forgiveness of sins (Luke 7).
• “organ of divinity” / “instrument of His divinity” — the third way the Passion causes remission, through Christ’s flesh.
• “the mode of power” / “the measure of power” — modus, the amount of power handed over to the devil by God, which he exceeded.
• machinando — “by scheming” for the death of Christ.
• “the obligation for punishment” — his working translation of reatus poenae; he canvasses “accusation,” “charge,” and rejects bare “guilt.”
• “stipend of sin” — his literal rendering of Romans 6:23 (stipendium), “the wages of sin, I guess.”
• semel — “once, once upon a time,” Christ died only once for our sins.
• “configured” / “made like him in some way” — configurari, the condition of receiving the Passion’s effect.

Texts #

Read in class

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 49, a. 2 (whole article: objections, sed contra, corpus, replies).
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 49, a. 3 (whole article).
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 49, a. 1 — reviewed, not re-read.
• Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus — the passage on the Scholastics (quoted at length).

Mentioned

• Scripture cited within the articles: Job 1–2; Matthew 8 (the pigs); Hebrews 10; 2 Thessalonians 2 (inferred); John 12; Luke 7; Isaiah 53; Romans 6:4; Romans 6:23; Romans 8 (inferred, heirs and co-heirs).
• Augustine, De Trinitate XIII (as cited by Thomas); Office of the Dead, responsory (“in hell there is no redemption”).
• Thomas’s prayer before Communion; Adoro te devote; the prayer to the crucified Christ; Anima Christi.
• St. Alphonsus on meditation on the Passion, on the one grace given every sinner, and on light penances; The Way of the Pilgrim; Fr. Hardon on vocations; Dr. Carroll on the devil, women and children; Chesterton.

His questions #

• Why is our liberation from sin as members of the mystical body called redemption in particular? Left open; he guesses at the analogy of paying a ransom for a slave, and that what Christ “paid” is that He shared our nature.
• Have you ever heard a sermon spell out these three ways the Passion saves us from sin? No — even the Gospel’s explanation of the name Jesus does not spell out how.
• If the devil can do nothing without God’s permission, did he ever have power over men at all? He had power in that God justly permitted him to harm those whom he had led by tempting to consent.
• Does the devil still tempt and vex men after the Passion? Yes, God permitting; but a remedy is now prepared from the Passion, and before it no one could escape descending to hell.
• If the remedy is everywhere available, why are there still idolaters and will there be Antichrist? God permits deception in particular persons, times and places by hidden judgment; neglect of the remedy takes nothing from the Passion’s efficacy.
• What is the best way of translating reatus? “The obligation to punishment” — not simply “guilt,” though we are bound to it.
• If we are freed from the punishment due to sin, why does the priest give us a penance? Because after baptism one cannot be configured to Christ’s death sacramentally a second time, so one is configured through some punishment sustained oneself — far less than the sin deserves, by Christ’s cooperation.
• If death is the wages of sin, why do we still die? Because members must be conformed to the head: grace in the soul now with a passible body, glory of immortality afterwards — and if immortality came at once there would be no merit.