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Reply. The answer is that it was the most fitting for Christ to have
suffered on the cross; (1) because Christ gave us an example of
virtue, so that no kind of death ought to be feared by an upright man;
(2) "so that whence death came [from the tree], thence life might
arise, and that He who overcame by the tree, might also by the tree
be overcome";[1773] (3) and (4) that dying on a high
rood, He might purify the air and prepare our ascent into heaven;
(5) the fact that Christ died with outstretched hands signifies the
universality of redemption; (6) because, as St. Augustine says,
"The tree on which were fixed the members of Him dying was even the
chair of the Master teaching";[1774] (7) because there were
very many figures in the Old Testament of this death on the cross.
First objection. In this kind of death the fire pertaining to
holocausts is wanting. St. Thomas replies by saying that, "instead
of material fire, there was the spiritual fire of charity in Christ's
holocaust."[1775]
Second objection. Death on the cross is most ignominious. St.
Thomas replies to this by quoting St. Paul: "He endured the
cross, despising the shame,"[1776] so that by His humility,
He made reparation for our sins of pride.
Third objection. Death on the cross is a death of malediction. St.
Thomas again quotes the following text from St. Paul: "Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us,"[1777] that is, He took upon Himself the penalty of sin.
All these remarks clearly manifest the fittingness of the Passion,
and they better illustrate both God the Father's love and Christ's
love for us. As the Evangelist says: "For God so loved the
world, as to give His only-begotten Son."[1778] As St.
Paul says: "He that spared not even His own Son but delivered Him
up for us all."[1779] Therefore our redemption is predominantly
a mystery of love.
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