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This testimony concerns the redemption by way of merit, satisfaction,
and sacrifice, if not as to the actual meaning of these words, at
least as to what is signified by them.
It must be observed that Christ only gradually manifested His divine
sonship so far as the people were able to assimilate this doctrine, so
that He announced His sorrowful passion to His apostles only after
Peter's confession of faith on their way to Caesarea Philippi, when
he said: "Thou are Christ, the Son of the living
God."[1714] It was more difficult, however, for the people
to accept this revelation of Christ's passion and impending death on
the cross, especially for those who still awaited the coming of the
Messias as a temporal king, who would restore the kingdom to Israel,
as the apostles said even on the day of the Ascension.[1715]
Synoptic Gospels. Hence Jesus at the beginning of His preaching
manifests Himself as the Savior, not asserting as yet by what manner
of sacrifice and satisfaction He had to save men. So He began by
saying: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, wherefore He hath
anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor... to heal the contrite
of heart."[1716] "I am not come to call the just, but
sinners."[1717] When, after Peter's confession, "Thou are
Christ, the Son of the living God,"[1718] Jesus announces
His passion for the first time, "Peter, taking Him, began to
rebuke Him saying: Lord be it far from Thee, this shall not be unto
Thee. Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind Me Satan, thou art
a scandal unto Me because thou savorest not the things that are of
God, but the things that are of men."[1719] Peter unknowingly
spoke against the mystery of redemption that had to be accomplished
according to God's most sublime decrees. From this moment Jesus
speaks more clearly of His sacrifice that must be offered for the
salvation of men. He says: "For the Son of man is come to save
that which was lost."[1720] "The Son of man is not come to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption
for many."[1721] This text of the Synoptics is of great
importance in establishing against the Modernists and liberal
Protestants that the doctrine of the sacrificial death of Christ is
not merely of Pauline origin, but is also Evangelical.
Jesus likewise on several occasions announces His passion to His
disciples, saying: "The Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief
priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death... and
they shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and
crucified, and the third day He shall rise again.... Can you
drink the chalice that I shall drink?"[1722] But the apostles
did not yet understand this most sublime mystery.
Before His passion, in instituting the Holy Eucharist, Jesus said
more clearly: "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this
for a commemoration of Me.... This is the chalice, the new
testament in My blood, which shall be shed for you."[1723]
Thus He explicitly enunciates the mystery of redemption both as
sacrifice and as satisfaction, or as a propitiatory sacrifice.
Gospel of St. John. Here again this same truth is several times
enunciated so that it becomes increasingly apparent that the value of
Christ's satisfaction or of His propitiatory sacrifice is the result
of His exceeding love for God and for souls that are to be saved.
Penal satisfaction is indeed expressed, but the price to be paid is to
be attributed more to Christ's love. This love is especially
proclaimed in the parable of the Good Shepherd, where He says: "I
am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth His life for his
sheep.... Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down
My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from Me;
but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down, and
I have power to take it up again. This commandment I have received
of My Father."[1724] Thus Christ enunciates the sacrifice of
satisfaction to be offered because of His exceeding love for God and
souls.
Somewhat later, Jesus says: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they
shall not perish forever and no man shall pluck them out of My
hand."[1725] This is the fruit of sacrifice; therefore it is
not only a moral example of self-denial, such as the example given by
Socrates.
Afterward His sorrowful satisfaction is expressed in these words:
"Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into
the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit.... Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I
say? Father, save Me from this hour."[1726] He means,
deliver Me, if it be possible, as He had said in the Garden of
Gethsemane. Then Jesus continues to say: "But for this cause I
came into this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.... Now is the
judgment of the world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from this world, will draw all things to
Myself." Now this He said signifying what death He should
die.[1727] Truly this concerns the sorrowful mystery of
redemption. Christ came to offer Himself in sacrifice on the cross;
of this hour, predetermined by the Father, Jesus several times
says: "The hour is come."[1728]
Likewise, before the passion, He said: "Greater love than this no
man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."[1729]
Therefore clearly and publicly Christ taught the dogma of
redemption,[1730] and it is absolutely false to say with the
Modernists that "the doctrine of Christ's sacrificial death is not
evangelical, but only of Pauline origin."[1731]
Acts of the Apostles. St. Peter likewise says to the Jews:
"Jesus of Nazareth... by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain.
Whom God hath raised up."[1732] And again he says: "But
the Author of life you killed, whom God hath raised from the dead,
of which we are witnesses."[1733] Also: "But those things
which God before had showed by the mouth of all the prophets, that
His Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled."[1734]
Finally, he says of Jesus: "This is the stone which was rejected
by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither
is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under
heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved."[1735] Thus
Christ's sacrifice is evident, as foretold by the prophets, in
accordance with God's eternal decree, and it is simultaneously the
fount of salvation.
St. Paul. He explained, however, the evangelical teaching
concerning the value of Christ's death, especially as it referred to
the removal of original sin. On this subject he says: "For all have
sinned and do need the glory of God. Being justified freely by His
grace, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, whom God
hath proposed to be a propitiation through faith in His
blood."[1736] He afterward explains these texts, saying:
"For as by the disobedience of one man [Adam] many were made
sinners: so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made
just,"[1737] which means, inasmuch as "Christ became obedient
unto death, even to the death of the cross."[1738] The time
eternally predetermined for this propitiatory sacrifice is also
proclaimed in these words: "God spared not even His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all."[1739]
Finally, He says: "Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered
Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of
sweetness."[1740] This doctrine is developed throughout the
Epistle to the Hebrews, which strictly concerns the offering of
propitiatory sacrifice for the redemption of man. St. John also
says: "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world."[1741]
Moreover, this revealed doctrine on the sacrifice of the cross is
confirmed from what is said in the New Testament about the sacrifice
of the Mass, whereby the fruits of the Passion are applied to us,
according to our Lord's words at the time of its institution, who
said: "Do this for a commemoration of Me."[1742]
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