Sect. 202The Passion of ChristThe Passion of Christ
I. The voluntary abasement of Christ attained its lowest depth in His Passion and ignominious death. But He died “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4). viz. as foretold by the Prophets and by Himself, and thus His death impressed the seal of divinity on His whole mission. The prophecies of Christ’s Passion in the Old Testament are expressed in words and in types. The Proto-evangelium itself contains the germ of such a prophecy, but its fullest statement is to be found in the Psalms, especially in Ps. 21, and in Isaias 52:13; 53:12. Daniel (9:26) points out the time of Christ’s death. Zacharias concludes the prophecies of the Old Testament referring to the Passion (11:12 sqq.; 12:10, cf. John 19:39; 13:7, cf. Matt. 26:31). Types of the Passion are the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Brazen Serpent (Num. 21:9; cf. John 3:14), Jonas, the Paschal Lamb and the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic Law. For Christ’s own predictions, see Matt. 16:21; Luke 18:3; Matt. 26:24; Luke 24:35, 44 sqq.
II. It was not physically necessary for Christ to suffer death. Many other ways were open to Him to effect the salvation of mankind. Yet as this way had actually been chosen by God and foretold by the Prophets, Christ was under a moral necessity of accepting it. “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day; and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name unto all nations” (Luke 24:46, 47).
III. Independently of the soldiers who actually crucified Christ, several other efficient causes of His death must be considered, viz. God and Christ Himself, His human persecutors, and the powers of hell.
1. The repeated assertion of Scripture that God gave His Son for us, or handed Him over to His enemies, implies a direct intention on the part of God, and of Christ Himself as God, that the Saviour should suffer death. The Divine intention directly bore on the good arising out of Christ’s sufferings, viz. the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. Hence God caused the sufferings, inasmuch as He gave Christ the mandate to suffer, and inspired Him with the willingness to carry out the mandate, at the same time permitting the immediate authors of the Passion to work unchecked. He intended the Passion as a means to higher ends, and did not prevent it as He might have done.
2. In the same manner Christ Himself caused His own Passion and death. His complying with the Divine mandate is a perfect act of obedience, such as the final object of the Passion (Rom. 5:19) and the perfection of His self-sacrifice required. Directly, the Saviour caused, e.g. His sadness (tristitia) for the sins of man and the Agony in the Garden; indirectly, the persecutions which His open and fearless teaching challenged, and which He did not resist with His Divine power. Hence His sufferings exhibit the most perfect self-sacrifice: He died of His own will, renouncing the use of His Divine power to save Himself, and using His dominion over His own life to lay it down as the perfect victim of His great Sacrifice (Isa. 53:7; John 10:17, 18).
3. Besides the soldiers who crucified Jesus, three moral causes of His death are to be considered: Judas, who delivered Him to the Jews; the Jews who, moved by hatred, gave Him up to the Romans; and the Roman authorities who, to please the Jews, commanded the crucifixion. The co-operation of human causes was necessary if Christ had to die the shameful death of the cross. God permitted this greatest of crimes in order to make sin subservient to its own destruction. The sin of the Jews, taken objectively, differs from all other sins in this, that it directly strikes at a Divine Person, whereas all other sins only affect the Divinity externally. Taken subjectively, the guilt of the deicides was diminished in many by their ignorance, however culpable that ignorance may have been. For these the Saviour implored forgiveness with His last breath, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), although He had said of them, after the Last Supper, “All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and the Father” (John 15:21–24).
4. The human causes of Christ’s passion were the instruments of Satan, under whose instigation they acted. The hatred of the Jews towards Christ is ascribed by Scripture to the devil, and so, too, is the treason of Judas. The Fathers dwell on this point in connection with the Proto-evangelium, in which they see foretold the great war between Christ and Satan, ending in the crushing of Satan’s head under the heel of Christ. From many passages in Holy Scripture it is certain that the devil, though perhaps not from the beginning, knew of Christ’s divinity, although he may have been ignorant of the mystery of the Redemption and its benefits to mankind (1 Cor. 2:8). In his hatred of God, he did his utmost to put the Man-God to death (St. Thomas, 3, q. 47).
IV. Christ suffered something from all external causes which can inflict pain upon man; but from organic disease He was free: on account of His supernatural perfection. Heathens and Jews, princes and their servants, and His own Apostles, contributed their share to His sufferings. He suffered in all that is dear to man: in His friends, who deserted Him; in His honour and good name through insults and blasphemy; in His possessions, when even His garments were taken from Him; in His soul through sadness and sorrow; in His body through blows and wounds—nay, in all the members of His body, and in all His senses. The pains He suffered exceeded all those which man can suffer in this life: not only because of their bitterness and their number, but also because of the supernatural perfection of the Sufferer’s constitution, and of His voluntary assuming an amount of suffering proportionate to the end for which He suffered, viz. the liberation of man from sin. Read St. Thomas, 3, q. 46, aa. 5, 6; Newman, “On; the Mental Sufferings of Christ” (Sermons to Mixed Congregations).
I. The voluntary abasement of Christ attained its lowest depth in His Passion and ignominious death. But He died “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4). viz. as foretold by the Prophets and by Himself, and thus His death impressed the seal of divinity on His whole mission. The prophecies of Christ’s Passion in the Old Testament are expressed in words and in types. The Proto-evangelium itself contains the germ of such a prophecy, but its fullest statement is to be found in the Psalms, especially in Ps. 21, and in Isaias 52:13; 53:12. Daniel (9:26) points out the time of Christ’s death. Zacharias concludes the prophecies of the Old Testament referring to the Passion (11:12 sqq.; 12:10, cf. John 19:39; 13:7, cf. Matt. 26:31). Types of the Passion are the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Brazen Serpent (Num. 21:9; cf. John 3:14), Jonas, the Paschal Lamb and the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic Law. For Christ’s own predictions, see Matt. 16:21; Luke 18:3; Matt. 26:24; Luke 24:35, 44 sqq.
II. It was not physically necessary for Christ to suffer death. Many other ways were open to Him to effect the salvation of mankind. Yet as this way had actually been chosen by God and foretold by the Prophets, Christ was under a moral necessity of accepting it. “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day; and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name unto all nations” (Luke 24:46, 47).
III. Independently of the soldiers who actually crucified Christ, several other efficient causes of His death must be considered, viz. God and Christ Himself, His human persecutors, and the powers of hell.
1. The repeated assertion of Scripture that God gave His Son for us, or handed Him over to His enemies, implies a direct intention on the part of God, and of Christ Himself as God, that the Saviour should suffer death. The Divine intention directly bore on the good arising out of Christ’s sufferings, viz. the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. Hence God caused the sufferings, inasmuch as He gave Christ the mandate to suffer, and inspired Him with the willingness to carry out the mandate, at the same time permitting the immediate authors of the Passion to work unchecked. He intended the Passion as a means to higher ends, and did not prevent it as He might have done.
2. In the same manner Christ Himself caused His own Passion and death. His complying with the Divine mandate is a perfect act of obedience, such as the final object of the Passion (Rom. 5:19) and the perfection of His self-sacrifice required. Directly, the Saviour caused, e.g. His sadness (tristitia) for the sins of man and the Agony in the Garden; indirectly, the persecutions which His open and fearless teaching challenged, and which He did not resist with His Divine power. Hence His sufferings exhibit the most perfect self-sacrifice: He died of His own will, renouncing the use of His Divine power to save Himself, and using His dominion over His own life to lay it down as the perfect victim of His great Sacrifice (Isa. 53:7; John 10:17, 18).
3. Besides the soldiers who crucified Jesus, three moral causes of His death are to be considered: Judas, who delivered Him to the Jews; the Jews who, moved by hatred, gave Him up to the Romans; and the Roman authorities who, to please the Jews, commanded the crucifixion. The co-operation of human causes was necessary if Christ had to die the shameful death of the cross. God permitted this greatest of crimes in order to make sin subservient to its own destruction. The sin of the Jews, taken objectively, differs from all other sins in this, that it directly strikes at a Divine Person, whereas all other sins only affect the Divinity externally. Taken subjectively, the guilt of the deicides was diminished in many by their ignorance, however culpable that ignorance may have been. For these the Saviour implored forgiveness with His last breath, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), although He had said of them, after the Last Supper, “All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and the Father” (John 15:21–24).
4. The human causes of Christ’s passion were the instruments of Satan, under whose instigation they acted. The hatred of the Jews towards Christ is ascribed by Scripture to the devil, and so, too, is the treason of Judas. The Fathers dwell on this point in connection with the Proto-evangelium, in which they see foretold the great war between Christ and Satan, ending in the crushing of Satan’s head under the heel of Christ. From many passages in Holy Scripture it is certain that the devil, though perhaps not from the beginning, knew of Christ’s divinity, although he may have been ignorant of the mystery of the Redemption and its benefits to mankind (1 Cor. 2:8). In his hatred of God, he did his utmost to put the Man-God to death (St. Thomas, 3, q. 47).
IV. Christ suffered something from all external causes which can inflict pain upon man; but from organic disease He was free: on account of His supernatural perfection. Heathens and Jews, princes and their servants, and His own Apostles, contributed their share to His sufferings. He suffered in all that is dear to man: in His friends, who deserted Him; in His honour and good name through insults and blasphemy; in His possessions, when even His garments were taken from Him; in His soul through sadness and sorrow; in His body through blows and wounds—nay, in all the members of His body, and in all His senses. The pains He suffered exceeded all those which man can suffer in this life: not only because of their bitterness and their number, but also because of the supernatural perfection of the Sufferer’s constitution, and of His voluntary assuming an amount of suffering proportionate to the end for which He suffered, viz. the liberation of man from sin. Read St. Thomas, 3, q. 46, aa. 5, 6; Newman, “On; the Mental Sufferings of Christ” (Sermons to Mixed Congregations).
Seção 68% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.