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State of the question. In the title to this article the word
"contracted" implies something more than "assumed" and "subjected
to, " for what is derived from some cause is said to be contracted,
and so a disease or bad habit is said to be contracted. On the one
hand, it seems that Christ contracted these defects, because together
with His passible nature He derived them through His birth from His
mother; for these infirmities are natural, resulting from the
principles of nature, as stated in the preceding article, and Christ
was like other men in His human nature, and they contracted these
defects. On the other hand, however, St. Paul says. "By one
man sin entered into this world, and by sin, death."[1303]
But there was neither original sin nor actual sin in Christ, and the
same must be said of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Reply. Christ did not, like us, contract these defects as the
result of original sin, but He voluntarily took them upon Himself.
First part of conclusion. It is proved by the following theological
reasoning in syllogistic form.
That is said to be contracted which is derived of necessity together
with its cause. Thus a person suffering from some congenital
hereditary disease is said to have contracted it from birth. But the
cause of death and suffering is sin,[1304] which had absolutely
no place in Christ. Therefore Christ did not contract these
defects.[1305]
Second part of conclusion. It is proved from the consideration that
Christ willed for our salvation to assume a naturally passible body,
which is composed of contraries.[1306]
Reply to first objection. St. Thomas does not say: "the Virgin
as a person was conceived in original sin, " but "the flesh of the
Virgin was conceived in original sin, " and in accordance with this
terminology of the thirteenth century, he distinguished between
conception and subsequent animation when the rational soul comes that is
created by God.
Nowadays we firmly believe, however, that the Blessed Virgin by a
privilege was redeemed by preservative redemption. Thus she was
preserved from sin, which from her birth she ought to have contracted
with all its consequences. Hence in the Blessed Virgin death was not
the effect of sin, but the consequence of a passible nature, which she
voluntarily accepted to be offered up in sacrifice in union with
Christ. Hence the death of Christ and that of the Blessed Virgin
are not the result of original sin, although they presuppose it in this
sense, that the Incarnation in passible flesh presupposes the
reparation of sin. On this point confusions frequently arise because
not sufficient attention is paid to the distinctions so magnificently
formulated by St. Thomas.
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