|
State of the question. It seems that Christ's soul was not
passible, both because His soul was nobler than all creatures, and
because the passions of the soul seem to be ailments of the soul as
Tully says. Furthermore, the passions of the soul seem to be the
same as the fomes of sin.
Reply. St. Thomas says, however, that in Christ there were both
bodily passions and animal or psychological passions; yet they were
otherwise in Christ than in us, and they are preferably called
propassions.
Scriptural proof. The Psalmist says, speaking in the person of
Christ: "My soul is filled with evils,"[1352] meaning that
it is filled with pains and sadness. The Evangelist says that in the
Garden of Gethsemane, "Jesus began to fear and to be
heavy."[1353]
Theological proof. First part. There are two kinds of passions in
the soul: some are bodily passions, such as physical pain, by which
the soul suffers when the body is hurt; others are called animal or
psychological passions, because of some object that is presented to
it, such as sensible sadness on foreseeing the details of a horrible
death.
But Christ had a passible body and a sensitive appetite, both of
which belong to the human nature, otherwise He would not have been
truly man. Therefore Christ had both bodily passions, and animal or
psychological passions.
Second part. These passions were in Christ otherwise than in us In
us the passions often tend toward what is unlawful, often enough
forestalling the judgment of reason, and sometimes they deflect the
reason and obtain the consent of the will.
But in Christ the passions were able to produce none of these
effects, because "in Christ all movements of the sensitive appetite
sprang from the disposition of the reason,"[1354] and according
to the consent of His will, as St. Augustine says.[1355]
Hence, in Christ the passions never preceded the judgment of reason
and the consent of the will, but followed them. Therefore they are
preferably called propassions.
Therefore St. Jerome, commenting on the words, "He began to grow
sorrowful and to be sad,"[1356] says: "Our Lord, in order
to prove the reality of the assumed manhood, was sorrowful in very
deed; yet lest a passion should hold sway over His soul, it is by a
propassion that He is said to have begun to grow
sorrowful."[1357] Thus Christ's sensitive nature was most
holy, and devotion to His most Sacred Heart is an expression of this
sensibility.
|
|
