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The doctrine of this article, which is examined by St. Thomas,
must be carefully considered. The holy Doctor begins by presenting
three difficulties: (1) It seems wicked and cruel to hand over an
innocent man to suffering and death. This objection is again brought
up in these days by the liberal Protestants. (2) Christ delivered
Himself to death;[1796] therefore it was not God the Father
who did it. (3) Judas is accounted guilty for having delivered up
Christ to the Jews. Therefore it seems that God the Father did not
deliver up Christ to His passion.
Reply. Nevertheless the reply is in the affirmative, the Apostle
saying: "He that spared not even His own Son but delivered Him up
for us all."[1797] The following explanation is given.
Christ suffered voluntarily and out of obedience to the Father.
Hence in three respects, God the Father delivered up Christ to the
Passion: (1) because God eternally preordained Christ's passion
for the liberation of the human race from sin;[1798] (2)
inasmuch as God inspired Him with the will to suffer;[1799]
(3) by not protecting Him from the Passion, but abandoning Him to
His persecutors; hence Christ on the cross said: "My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?",[1800] because, as St.
Augustine says,[1801] He had abandoned His Son to the power
of His persecutors.
The earlier Protestants adulterated this doctrine when they said that
the Father delivered up Christ by inspiring the Jews to put Him to
death and urging them to it.
What is said in the article has its foundation in what St. Thomas
teaches about the efficacy of the decrees of God's will.[1802]
This divine will does not make our acts necessary, because God wills
them to be accomplished freely, and He does not destroy but actualizes
human freedom. Thus Christ freely and meritoriously suffered.
Reply to first objection. It would be cruel to hand over an innocent
man to suffering and death against his will. "Yet God the Father
did not so deliver up Christ, but inspired Him with the will to
suffer for us. God's severity is thereby shown, for He would not
remit sin without penalty... and His goodness in that... He gave
us a satisfier." Wherefore the Apostle says: "God spared not even
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all."[1803]
Reply to second objection. "Christ as man gave Himself up by a will
inspired of the Father." So also it is with victim souls, and for
this reason it is imprudent to vow to become a victim soul except under
special inspiration, or presupposing this as a condition.
Reply to third objection. "The Father delivered up Christ, and
Christ surrendered Himself, from charity; but Judas betrayed
Christ from greed, the Jews from envy, and Pilate from worldly
fear." All these things make it increasingly clear for St. Thomas
as for all posterity that the mystery of redemption is especially a
mystery of love.
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