|
State of the Question. This article differs from the first article
only in this, that the work of creation is included under omnipotence
as discussed in the first article, whereas here we are concerned only
with the miraculous transmutation of creatures.
It seems that Christ's soul would be endowed with this omnipotence,
because He possessed most fully the grace of miracles which is
mentioned among the graces gratis datae, and He also illumined the
higher angels, inasmuch as they are ministers in the kingdom of
heaven.
Conclusion. Nevertheless St. Thomas says that Christ's soul did
not have omnipotence with regard to the transmutation of creatures.
1) General proof. It is taken from the counterargument of this
article and may be expressed as follows: To transmute creatures
miraculously belongs to Him who has the power to create and preserve
them, as explained by St. Thomas.[1273] The reason is that
only the most universal cause, which can immediately produce and
preserve any universal effect, whether this effect is embedded in
material things or separated from matter, can immediately effect a
change in it, because this immediate change presupposes the same
universality in the cause as this latter immediate production. Thus
God alone, who created and preserved things in being, can immediately
change being as such by transubstantiation, prime matter by acting
immediately on its obediential potency, also immediately change
internally the intellect and the will that is ordained to universal
good.[1274]
Christ's soul did not have this same universality in causation as the
divine nature, and so it cannot be the principal cause of miracles.
2) Particular proof. It is drawn more from the properties of
Christ's soul, and is explained by three subordinated conclusions.
First conclusion. Christ's soul, by its own natural or gratuitous
power, was able to produce those effects that are befitting to the
soul, such as to rule the body, direct human acts and illumine by His
plenitude of grace and knowledge even the angels. Nevertheless St.
Thomas does not mean to say that Christ's soul is the physical and
principal cause of grace, but that it is the moral cause by way of
merit, and also, as he immediately remarks afterward, it is the
physical and instrumental cause, by its effectiveness.
Second conclusion. Christ's soul, as it is the instrument of the
Word, had instrumental power to effect all the miraculous
transmutations ordainable to the end of the Incarnation, which is to
restore all things either in heaven or on earth.[1275] This is
evident from the end of the Incarnation.
Third conclusion. Christ's soul, even as the instrument of the
Word, has not the power to annihilate the creature, because
annihilation corresponds to creation, which cannot be done by an
instrument, because there is no presupposed subject that can be
disposed for this action, as was shown above.[1276]
Reply to third objection. Thus Christ had most excellently the grace
of working miracles.
|
|
