Sect. 198Specific Power of Christ’s Humanity to Produce Supernatural EffectsSpecific Power of Christ’s Humanity to Produce Supernatural Effects
I. In the preceding section we have dealt with Christ’s power of meriting supernatural goods. A question now arises as to the share of Christ’s humanity in the production of these Divine goods. Does He only procure them in the sense that His merit moves God to confer the goods, or does He participate in the Divine producing power, so as to have a direct part in their production? In technical language: Is Christ’s influence on the production of supernatural goods merely ethico-juridical, or also organico-dynamical? We hold, with the Fathers and St. Thomas, that Christ, besides His ethico-juridical power, possesses a “Divine dynamic power,” viz. that He participates in that supernatural and spiritual power of God from which proceed all Divine benefactions and graces relating to the salvation of creatures; whether they be physical operations, such as miraculous healings and the granting of sanctifying grace, or juridical acts, such as the remission of sins and legislation. In the exercise of this Divine power, the humanity of Christ acts as an instrument of the Divinity, that is, in formal connection with the superior Divine power: as an official acts in the name or by the authority of the king, and as a tool works through the skill of the artist. He is, however, instrumental after the manner of a mystico-physical organ of the Divinity: the “flesh of the Word,” being “eminently” actuated and informed by His Divinity, is the seat, the bearer, the vehicle of the Divine power; this power works through it in the same way as the powers of the human soul work through the organs of the body (supra, p. 86).
II. Christ’s humanity possessed the power of producing supernatural effects, at least in the form of the grace of miracles and of the ministerial power held by the ministers of the Sacraments; and He possessed this power to its fullest extent from the beginning. Such power was necessary for the objects of His mission, and as part of the fulness of His grace. The power of Christ, however, differs in many ways from the analogous power in mere creatures. It is universal, embracing all supernatural effects within the domain of creation; it is transferable to others, and not bound up with fixed forms and ceremonies; it is natural to Christ, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost is His own Spirit by substantial union. For this latter reason the supernatural works of Christ are produced by a power corporally dwelling in Him, although not inherent in His human nature; whereas similar works of creatures are produced by a power external to them.
The Fathers teach the Divine virtue and power of Christ’s humanity, as here described, in connection with the life-giving power of His flesh in Holy Eucharist. They attribute this δύναμις ζωοποιός, vis vivifica, of the Flesh to its impregnation with Divinity, and consider it as an essential element of the θεώσις (deification) and of the spiritualisation (1 Cor. 15:45) of Christ’s humanity. So little do they doubt this power, that they use it against the Nestorians as one of the chief arguments in proof of the physical reality of the Hypostatic Union. (For passages of the Fathers, see Petavius, 1. x. c. 2.)
III. Holy Scripture sets forth the same doctrine in many ways.
1. The principle is laid down that “God anointed Him (Jesus) with the Holy Ghost and with power; Who went about doing good …” (Acts 10:38). The union of Christ with the Holy Ghost is substantial.
2. The working of the power received through the Anointing appears where Christ calls His Flesh as true a food as bread (John 6); but bread is a substance which nourishes by its own physical power. “Virtue went out from Him and healed all” (Luke 6:19, and 8:46), evidently attributes a Divine power to Christ’s body. The Fathers connect this healing “virtue” with the vivifying power of Christ’s Body in the Holy Eucharist.
3. Christ is the principle of our life after the manner in which God is the principle of Christ’s life: “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me” (John 6:58). Hence Christ stands between us and the Father as an “organic” mediator.
4. The Scriptural figures of Christ, the true Vine, the Head of the Church, and the comparison “the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last man a quickening spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45), are almost meaningless if Christ’s humanity is not organically active in the granting of supernatural life.
IV. 1. The form in which the power under consideration is exercised, may be stated as follows: Although Christ’s whole humanity is the organ of His Divinity, yet the Divine Union chiefly impregnates the soul, and thence spreads to the flesh. The human will, then, can pronounce the “word of His power” (Heb. 1:3) upon which supernatural effects will follow, on the ground of its mystical and organic relation to the Divine will. As the acts of Christ’s human will essentially belong to the Person of the Logos and proceed from Him, they are intrinsically and essentially impregnated with the co-operating Divine power. The supernatural effect follows upon them, not as the answer to a prayer or the fulfilment of a promise, but in obedience to the “word of power” uttered in the name and authority of God. What is true of Christ’s will, is likewise true of all His human actions, in as far as these are dependent on the will. In order to acknowledge the dependence of His power on Divine co-operation, Christ often accompanies its exercise with prayer and thanksgiving (e.g. Matt. 26:26, et passim). Through such prayer the organic relation becomes also an ethical (moral) relation; the prayer itself is like the spiritual absorption of the influence of the spiritual power to which the soul is connected organically.
2. The Body of Christ, as well as His soul, is invested with Divinity. Christ clearly implies this in His teaching on the Eucharist (John 6, et passim), and the Fathers so much insist upon this point that sometimes they appear to know of no other “vivifying power” in Christ’s humanity.
3. By means of the blood the soul maintains the vegetative life of the body. The blood, as a vehicle of life, represents the life-giving power of God in a special manner: in Christ the Blood is like a stream of Divine power and life. Nay, the Eucharistic Flesh is a life-giving Bread because it contains the vivifying Blood of Christ. For this reason also Christ could speak of the necessity of drinking His Blood without making the chalice obligatory to all: the Blood is taken with the Flesh.
4. The power of Christ as organ of the Divinity, being a participation in the Divine Power, works also under the same external conditions as the Divine Omnipotence. Thus it is not restricted to space. As a matter of fact, in the Holy Eucharist the power is exercised by contact; but this is not as a matter of necessity. Again, according to St. Thomas, Christ can perform acts which will have their effect at a future time. E.g. the institution of the Sacraments, which act virtually contained the future effects of the Sacraments, in analogy to the act of the law-giver which binds future generations.
V. The power of Christ as organ of God is the complement of His ethico-juridical power. These are not two heterogeneous powers, but work together organically. They have the same object, the salvation of man; and the same root, the union of Christ’s humanity with Divinity, which diffuses both the odour of sweetness and the odour of virtue (odor suavitatis et virtutis). The authoritative power of Christ’s will completes to perfection the meritorious efficiency of His acts, and the same is at the foundation of all His physical works of power. The same act, or set of acts, e.g. the Passion, may be and probably is endowed with twofold efficiency: meritorious efficiency on account of Christ’s personal dignity; dynamic efficiency on account of His investment with Divine power. St. Thomas attributes to the Passion an “effective virtue” in addition to its merit; and the Greek Fathers attribute its saving force to the dynamic power of Christ as Divine organ. The same notion seems implied in Heb. 9:13 sqq: “For if the blood of goats and of oxen … sanctify such as are defiled … how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Holy Ghost (Πνεύματος αἰωνίου) offered Himself unspotted to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works …”
VI. The language of the Church attributes a certain efficacy to events in Christ’s life which cannot be classed with meritorious actions. Thus His Resurrection and Ascension, His death and burial, even the opening of His side after death, are styled mysteries of salvation (sacramenta salutis). They have first a certain efficacy as symbols, types, and pledges of similar events ordained to take place in redeemed man. St. Thomas, however, and after him the Catechism of the Council of Trent (Part 1. ch. 6, n. 13), also attribute to them an “efficient” causality, for which no better reason can be found than Christ’s power as organ of the Divinity; e.g. the Resurrection of Christ “virtually” contains ours, because the virtue or power of Christ’s will is such that the act by which He willed His Resurrection to be a type of ours, is also sufficient to warrant our resurrection. See St. Thomas, 3, q. 50, a. 6; q. 56, a. 1.
I. In the preceding section we have dealt with Christ’s power of meriting supernatural goods. A question now arises as to the share of Christ’s humanity in the production of these Divine goods. Does He only procure them in the sense that His merit moves God to confer the goods, or does He participate in the Divine producing power, so as to have a direct part in their production? In technical language: Is Christ’s influence on the production of supernatural goods merely ethico-juridical, or also organico-dynamical? We hold, with the Fathers and St. Thomas, that Christ, besides His ethico-juridical power, possesses a “Divine dynamic power,” viz. that He participates in that supernatural and spiritual power of God from which proceed all Divine benefactions and graces relating to the salvation of creatures; whether they be physical operations, such as miraculous healings and the granting of sanctifying grace, or juridical acts, such as the remission of sins and legislation. In the exercise of this Divine power, the humanity of Christ acts as an instrument of the Divinity, that is, in formal connection with the superior Divine power: as an official acts in the name or by the authority of the king, and as a tool works through the skill of the artist. He is, however, instrumental after the manner of a mystico-physical organ of the Divinity: the “flesh of the Word,” being “eminently” actuated and informed by His Divinity, is the seat, the bearer, the vehicle of the Divine power; this power works through it in the same way as the powers of the human soul work through the organs of the body (supra, p. 86).
II. Christ’s humanity possessed the power of producing supernatural effects, at least in the form of the grace of miracles and of the ministerial power held by the ministers of the Sacraments; and He possessed this power to its fullest extent from the beginning. Such power was necessary for the objects of His mission, and as part of the fulness of His grace. The power of Christ, however, differs in many ways from the analogous power in mere creatures. It is universal, embracing all supernatural effects within the domain of creation; it is transferable to others, and not bound up with fixed forms and ceremonies; it is natural to Christ, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost is His own Spirit by substantial union. For this latter reason the supernatural works of Christ are produced by a power corporally dwelling in Him, although not inherent in His human nature; whereas similar works of creatures are produced by a power external to them.
The Fathers teach the Divine virtue and power of Christ’s humanity, as here described, in connection with the life-giving power of His flesh in Holy Eucharist. They attribute this δύναμις ζωοποιός, vis vivifica, of the Flesh to its impregnation with Divinity, and consider it as an essential element of the θεώσις (deification) and of the spiritualisation (1 Cor. 15:45) of Christ’s humanity. So little do they doubt this power, that they use it against the Nestorians as one of the chief arguments in proof of the physical reality of the Hypostatic Union. (For passages of the Fathers, see Petavius, 1. x. c. 2.)
III. Holy Scripture sets forth the same doctrine in many ways.
1. The principle is laid down that “God anointed Him (Jesus) with the Holy Ghost and with power; Who went about doing good …” (Acts 10:38). The union of Christ with the Holy Ghost is substantial.
2. The working of the power received through the Anointing appears where Christ calls His Flesh as true a food as bread (John 6); but bread is a substance which nourishes by its own physical power. “Virtue went out from Him and healed all” (Luke 6:19, and 8:46), evidently attributes a Divine power to Christ’s body. The Fathers connect this healing “virtue” with the vivifying power of Christ’s Body in the Holy Eucharist.
3. Christ is the principle of our life after the manner in which God is the principle of Christ’s life: “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me” (John 6:58). Hence Christ stands between us and the Father as an “organic” mediator.
4. The Scriptural figures of Christ, the true Vine, the Head of the Church, and the comparison “the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last man a quickening spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45), are almost meaningless if Christ’s humanity is not organically active in the granting of supernatural life.
IV. 1. The form in which the power under consideration is exercised, may be stated as follows: Although Christ’s whole humanity is the organ of His Divinity, yet the Divine Union chiefly impregnates the soul, and thence spreads to the flesh. The human will, then, can pronounce the “word of His power” (Heb. 1:3) upon which supernatural effects will follow, on the ground of its mystical and organic relation to the Divine will. As the acts of Christ’s human will essentially belong to the Person of the Logos and proceed from Him, they are intrinsically and essentially impregnated with the co-operating Divine power. The supernatural effect follows upon them, not as the answer to a prayer or the fulfilment of a promise, but in obedience to the “word of power” uttered in the name and authority of God. What is true of Christ’s will, is likewise true of all His human actions, in as far as these are dependent on the will. In order to acknowledge the dependence of His power on Divine co-operation, Christ often accompanies its exercise with prayer and thanksgiving (e.g. Matt. 26:26, et passim). Through such prayer the organic relation becomes also an ethical (moral) relation; the prayer itself is like the spiritual absorption of the influence of the spiritual power to which the soul is connected organically.
2. The Body of Christ, as well as His soul, is invested with Divinity. Christ clearly implies this in His teaching on the Eucharist (John 6, et passim), and the Fathers so much insist upon this point that sometimes they appear to know of no other “vivifying power” in Christ’s humanity.
3. By means of the blood the soul maintains the vegetative life of the body. The blood, as a vehicle of life, represents the life-giving power of God in a special manner: in Christ the Blood is like a stream of Divine power and life. Nay, the Eucharistic Flesh is a life-giving Bread because it contains the vivifying Blood of Christ. For this reason also Christ could speak of the necessity of drinking His Blood without making the chalice obligatory to all: the Blood is taken with the Flesh.
4. The power of Christ as organ of the Divinity, being a participation in the Divine Power, works also under the same external conditions as the Divine Omnipotence. Thus it is not restricted to space. As a matter of fact, in the Holy Eucharist the power is exercised by contact; but this is not as a matter of necessity. Again, according to St. Thomas, Christ can perform acts which will have their effect at a future time. E.g. the institution of the Sacraments, which act virtually contained the future effects of the Sacraments, in analogy to the act of the law-giver which binds future generations.
V. The power of Christ as organ of God is the complement of His ethico-juridical power. These are not two heterogeneous powers, but work together organically. They have the same object, the salvation of man; and the same root, the union of Christ’s humanity with Divinity, which diffuses both the odour of sweetness and the odour of virtue (odor suavitatis et virtutis). The authoritative power of Christ’s will completes to perfection the meritorious efficiency of His acts, and the same is at the foundation of all His physical works of power. The same act, or set of acts, e.g. the Passion, may be and probably is endowed with twofold efficiency: meritorious efficiency on account of Christ’s personal dignity; dynamic efficiency on account of His investment with Divine power. St. Thomas attributes to the Passion an “effective virtue” in addition to its merit; and the Greek Fathers attribute its saving force to the dynamic power of Christ as Divine organ. The same notion seems implied in Heb. 9:13 sqq: “For if the blood of goats and of oxen … sanctify such as are defiled … how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Holy Ghost (Πνεύματος αἰωνίου) offered Himself unspotted to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works …”
VI. The language of the Church attributes a certain efficacy to events in Christ’s life which cannot be classed with meritorious actions. Thus His Resurrection and Ascension, His death and burial, even the opening of His side after death, are styled mysteries of salvation (sacramenta salutis). They have first a certain efficacy as symbols, types, and pledges of similar events ordained to take place in redeemed man. St. Thomas, however, and after him the Catechism of the Council of Trent (Part 1. ch. 6, n. 13), also attribute to them an “efficient” causality, for which no better reason can be found than Christ’s power as organ of the Divinity; e.g. the Resurrection of Christ “virtually” contains ours, because the virtue or power of Christ’s will is such that the act by which He willed His Resurrection to be a type of ours, is also sufficient to warrant our resurrection. See St. Thomas, 3, q. 50, a. 6; q. 56, a. 1.
Seção 67% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.