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Reply. Christ's soul did not know in the Word all possible things,
but it knew all present, past, and future things that will be.
Proof of negative part. If Christ's soul knew all possible things,
this would mean that it comprehended all that God can do, which would
mean that it comprehended the divine power, and consequently the divine
essence.[1215]
Proof of affirmative part. It may be presented in the following
syllogistic form.
No beatified intellect fails to know in the Word whatever pertains to
itself. But to Christ all things belong, inasmuch as all things are
subject to Him, as the head of the Church, the end of the universe,
the Lord of heaven and earth, the judge of the living and the dead.
Therefore Christ's intellect knows in the Word all things that are
subject to Him.
Evidently it belongs to the moral head to know his members and his
influence for them; to one who has knowledge of the end to know the
means by which it can be attained; to the judge to know all things that
concern his tribunal, such as each and every thought of all men; the
judge must also know whom to punish, and whom to reward.
In fact, Christ's soul seems to have not only habitual knowledge but
also actual knowledge of all these things,[1216] like a perfect
theologian who not only could at will successively contemplate all
theological conclusions, but who could simultaneously and actually
contemplate all of them. The reason for this is that the beatific
vision, objectively considered, is measured by eternity, which admits
of neither succession nor change. Hence all the thoughts and actions
of angels and men, known by Christ, although as regards their own
duration they are successive, nevertheless are simultaneously present
in the Word, according to the one now of eternity. It is like an
intelligible panorama, just as in the sensible order the visible stars
of the firmament are all seen in one glance. It must be observed that
beatific love is likewise measured by participated eternity, as also
Christ's adoration, thanks, and internal offering of Himself to
His Father. Such enduring acts as these constitute, so to speak,
the soul of the sacrifice of the Mass, whose principal priest is
Christ as man.
The outstanding difficulty concerns the Judgment Day, inasmuch as we
read in the Gospel that Christ says: "But of that day or hour no
man knoweth, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the
Father."[1217]
Reply to first objection. St. Thomas says: (1) "Arius and
Eunomius understood this saying... of the divine knowledge of the
Son, whom they held to be less than the Father.... But this will
not stand, since all things were made by the Word of God" (John
1:3). Hence, especially inasmuch as Christ is God, He knew
everything. (2) The Son knows also in the human nature the Day of
Judgment, because, as Chrysostom argues (hom. 78 in Matt.);
"If it is given to Christ as man to know how to judge which is
greater, much more is it given to Him to know the less, namely, the
time of Judgment" But "He is said not to know the day and the hour
of the Judgment, because He does not make it known." Pope St.
Gregory the Great spoke similarly against the Agnoetae.[1218]
If some of the earlier Fathers spoke less accurately on this subject,
this is because they were disputing with the Arians, to whom they
replied: Christ did not know the Judgment Day, not indeed as God
as if they conceded that He did not know it as man.
The question of the knowledge given to Christ's soul had not yet
arisen, and it had not yet occurred to anyone to distinguish between
knowledge acquired naturally by human efforts, and knowledge not so
acquired but received from a supernatural source, which is not meant to
be made known to men.
Reply to second objection. "The soul of Christ knows all things
that God knows in Himself by the knowledge of vision," yet not so
clearly and distinctly.[1219]
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