|
The question, whether Christ's human nature is the physical
instrument of grace, miracles, and other supernatural effects, or
merely the moral instrument, is one that is disputed in the schools of
theology, and it finds its place here as an appendix to this
article.[1277]
The Thomists maintain that Christ's human nature is a physical
instrument, whereas the Scotists hold that it is a moral instrument.
There is this same divergence of opinion as regards the causality of
the sacraments, which are instruments of grace separated from the
divine nature, whereas Christ's human nature is an instrument that is
personally united with the divine nature.[1278]
It is presupposed as certain (1) that Christ's human nature is not
the principal physical cause of sanctifying grace, because St.
Thomas makes it clear that "the gift of grace surpasses every
capability of created nature, since it is nothing else than a certain
participation in the divine nature.... And thus it is necessary
that God alone should deify... just as it is impossible that
anything but fire can enkindle."[1279] (2) It is likewise
certain that Christ's human nature is also the principal moral cause
of grace and miracles, because He merited these by condign merit, and
there is no other assignable meritorious cause above Christ.
Therefore the only question is whether Christ's human nature, after
the accomplishment of the Incarnation, was not merely the moral
cause, but also the physically instrumental cause of grace and
miracles, and of other supernatural works that serve the end of the
Incarnation.
It is a certainty that before the accomplishment of the Incarnation,
Christ's human nature was not the physical cause, but only the moral
cause of the grace bestowed on the patriarchs of the Old Testament,
because physical operation follows physical being, or the existence of
a physical cause. Therefore the question concerns only the influence
exerted by Christ's human nature after the Incarnation.
The Thomists unanimously admit that after the completion of the
Incarnation, Christ's human nature, either during His life on
earth or as He is in heaven, was and is the physically instrumental
cause of grace and miracles.
1) This conclusion is at least implied in Sacred Scripture, for
the Evangelist says of Christ: "Virtue went out from Him and
healed all,"[1280] and Christ says of Himself: "I know that
virtue is gone out from Me."[1281] This can scarcely be
interpreted as meaning moral power, such as the power of prayer,
which, since it is a mental process, can be said only in a very
improper sense to go forth from the body.
Likewise, according to the Sacred Scripture, Christ by breathing
upon His apostles gave them the Holy Spirit, in a loud voice and
commanding tone raised Lazarus to life. All such acts seem to imply a
causality that is not moral but physical. Likewise, when Christ
says: "The works [miraculous] that I do in the name of My
Father, they give testimony of Me."[1282] In other words,
it was not only by means of prayer and merit that Jesus obtained the
gift of miracles from His Father, but He actually performed them by
His own power.
Similarly the First Council of Ephesus defined in its eleventh canon
that "Christ's flesh has a vivifying power because of its union with
the Word."[1283] But Christ's flesh cannot have vivifying
power morally by way of merit or prayer; therefore the power must be
physical. Likewise, in the liturgy it is said of Christ's body in
the Eucharist, that it is "a living and vital bread,"[1284]
namely, a feeding and nourishing grace; therefore it produces graces
not morally but physically.
But these quotations from Sacred Scripture and the councils are to be
taken in their proper and obvious sense, according to the commonly
accepted rule, unless anything unbefitting results therefrom.
However, the words "healing power has gone forth from the
body..., to do, to operate, to vivify, " in their proper and
obvious sense denote physically instrumental causality, and, as will
at once be seen, nothing unbefitting results therefrom.
Authoritative proof from St. Thomas. In this second article he
says: "If we speak of the soul of Christ as it is the instrument of
the Word united to Him, it had an instrumental power to effect all
the miraculous transmutations ordainable to the end of the
Incarnation." Evidently it is a question here not of moral causality
that operates by way of merit or prayer, but of physical causality.
St. Thomas, in speaking of Christ as head of the Church, taught
that He causes grace both meritoriously and efficiently.[1285]
To be sure, Christ's passion is now something of the past, but does
it not virtually persist in the scars remaining from the wounds? Hence
the physically instrumental cause is now Christ's human nature
qualifiedly changed by His passion. Moreover, there remains in
Christ's soul that willingness by which He offered Himself and by
which "He is always living to make intercession for us,"[1286]
in that, as the Council of Trent says in its treatise on the
Sacrifice of the Mass, "the same victim is now offering by the
ministry of His priests, who then offered Himself on the
cross."[1287]
Theological proof. To act not only morally but also physically is
more perfect than merely moral action, so that a physical concurrence
that truly produces its effect is more perfect than moral concurrence,
by which the effect is obtained only by way of merit or prayer. But it
must be admitted that Christ's human nature is more perfect if it
proves to be compatible either in itself, or to the end of the
Incarnation. Therefore, it must be conceded that Christ's human
nature is the physically instrumental cause of supernatural effects that
serve the end of the Incarnation.
Confirmation. According to the traditional terminology of the
Fathers and theologians, Christ's human nature is the physical
instrument of His divine nature in the production of grace and the
working of miracles. It is not, however, the moral instrument, for
Christ is the principal moral cause of the effects, inasmuch as there
is no assignable meritorious cause above Him. Therefore Christ's
human nature is the physical instrument, provided the distinction is
drawn between physical and moral, to the exclusion of either
metaphysical or spiritual.
Solution of objections.
First objection. An instrument must really contact the subject upon
which it acts. But Christ's human nature, since it is now in
heaven, does not really contact us in the production of our grace.
Therefore Christ's human nature is not the instrument of our grace.
Reply. I distinguish the major: an instrument must really contact
the subject upon which it acts, by virtual contact, this I concede;
by quantitative and personal contact, this I deny. Thus a trumpet is
a physical instrument for the transmission of sound, yet it does not
touch the ears of the hearers. So also the sun illumines and heats the
earth from on high, and the magnet attracts iron to itself from a
distance. I contradistinguish the minor; Christ's human nature as
now existing in heaven does not really contact us, by His quantitative
and personal contact, this I concede; by a virtual contact, that I
deny.
There is no difficulty in this, especially for instruments made use of
by divine power, in virtue of which all things that must be changed are
made present to omnipresent omnipotence. Moreover, the superior part
of Christ's soul is not itself located, and thus it is not locally
distant from our souls. Finally, Christ's soul is united to God,
and also our soul is united to God, although in a different
way.[1288]
Second objection. An instrument, that it be not purely a medium,
must by its own action have a disposing influence in producing the
effect of the principal agent. But Christ's human nature cannot thus
be a disposing influence, by producing some disposition for grace or
for a miraculous effect. We can in no way conceive what would be the
nature of this previous disposition.
Reply. I distinguish the major: that an instrument must by its own
action exert a disposing influence on the manner of operating of the
principal agent, this I concede; thus a trumpet reinforces and
directs the sound in the mode of its transmission; that an instrument
always produces something objectively real that is the result of its
action, this I deny; some instruments do so, such as a pen that
deposits ink on the paper, but not all instruments, such as a
trumpet, act in this manner.
Thus an instrument does not have to produce in the subject to be
changed some prior effect or previous disposition. It suffices that
the instrument operates by disposing the subject that must undergo a
change. Thus Christ's human nature had and has its own action as
regards miracles and grace, for instance, operating by means of
words, signs, gestures, acts of the will, and other ways. Thus it
is a disposing influence in the production of the divine effect at this
particular time and place, for example, the healing of this particular
man, of this particular disease in preference to some other disease.
Third objection. An instrument must receive its power from the
principal cause, so as to be capable of producing the effect that
surpasses its own power. But the power derived from the principal
cause in Christ's human nature is either spiritual, and as such it
cannot be received in Christ's flesh, or else it is corporeal, and
consequently cannot produce grace. Therefore Christ's human nature
cannot be the instrument of the principal cause in His operations.
Reply. I distinguish the major: that an instrument must receive
transient power, or rather a transient motion from the principal
cause, this I concede; a permanent motion, this I deny. I
contradistinguish the minor: that this power is spiritual and cannot be
in Christ's flesh as a permanent motion, let this pass without
comment; as a transient motion, this I deny, because this transient
motion is proportioned rather to the term of the action than to the
subject of the action.
Explanation. This instrumental motion, however, as being something
transient, differs completely from permanent power. For a permanent
power is strictly for the benefit of the subject in which it inheres;
hence it is proportioned to this subject. On the contrary, a
transient motion, although it is in the instrument, since it is an
accident, nevertheless, as it is formally transient, tending to
produce the term of the action, must be proportioned preferably to the
subject of inhesion. Thus, from the expression of a man's
countenance, from the tone of his voice, and the manner of his
utterance, something spiritual goes forth that is adapted to the hearer
so that we say: a few words suffice to the wise.
In fact, this transient motion, also as a spiritual accident, is not
received in Christ's body, inasmuch as Christ's body is formally
something corporeal, but inasmuch as it is a being, for it is received
in His body because of its obediential capacity, which applies to
created things under the general notion of being and created substance.
God makes use of bodies inasmuch as they are beings.
Finally, there seems to be nothing repugnant in the idea of a
spiritual power being subjected to what is corporeal, inasmuch as the
body is born to obey the spirit. Thus the rational soul, although it
is spiritual, is dependent on the body, which it controls rather than
being controlled by the body. Likewise the moral virtues of temperance
and fortitude, although they are spiritual and infused virtues, are
dependent on the sensitive faculties of the soul, which are
intrinsically dependent on the animal organism.
Thus it befits Christ's human nature to be the physically
instrumental cause of grace and miracles or of effects that serve the
end of the Incarnation, as St. Thomas says in the present article.
To exert one's influence on beings in both the moral and the physical
orders shows greater perfection than to manifest it merely in the moral
order, and therefore this greater perfection must be conceded to
Christ as man.
This is a better way of illustrating what was said above concerning
Christ's headship[1289] and His influence on the members of
His Church in the production of both habitual and actual grace.
|
|
