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State of the question. The meaning of the title to this article is
clear from the tenor of the third objection, in which it is doubted
whether Christ, even as regards His body, is head over other men
even as regards their bodies.
Reply. The answer is in the affirmative, for the whole human nature
of Christ is an instrument united with the divine nature in the
operation of our salvation, which was formerly accomplished in the
passion of our Lord, and is now instrumentally and physically
continued in the Holy Eucharist.
Christ not only bestows both habitual and actual grace on the soul,
but He also influences our bodies, inasmuch as in this life He makes
them to be instruments that cooperate in our sanctification by the
performance of the external acts commanded by the virtues. Thus the
infused virtues of temperance and fortitude are in the sensitive
appetite, and, after the resurrection of the dead, Christ will be
the instrumental and physical cause as regards the glorification of the
bodies of the saints.
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