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This article is strictly concerned with priority of time, for the
purpose of denying such priority against Origen, and thus it differs
from the first article. Origen not only maintained that all immortal
souls were created in the beginning along with the angels, before they
were united to bodies, but he also said this especially of Christ's
soul, inasmuch as it is nobler than the angels.
Reply. The answer is that Christ's soul was not created prior to
its union with the Word, and it is of faith, as evident from the
condemnation of Origen by Pope Vigilius.[767]
In the counter-argument St. Thomas quotes the authority of St.
John Damascene, who most clearly is against Origen's opinion.
Theological proof. It shows the unfittingness of Origen's view.
It is derogatory to Christ's dignity to suppose that His soul was
created before its assumption, because then it would have had its own
subsistence, and hence there would be two subsistences in Christ, and
two supposita, or else one subsistence would have been destroyed,
which is unbecoming to Christ, as well as being a mere assertion
without any foundation.
Likewise it is derogatory to Christ's dignity to suppose that His
soul was created and simultaneously assumed before His body was
formed, because then this soul of Christ would not seem to be of the
same nature as our souls, which are created at the same time that they
are infused into our bodies, inasmuch as it is the very nature of the
soul to be the form of the body, and thus it differs from the angels.
As St. Thomas says in this article, quoting St. Leo:
"Christ's soul excels our soul not by diversity of genus, but by
sublimity of power."[768]
Doubt. Is St. Thomas speaking only of sublimity of supernatural
power, that is, of plenitude of grace, whereby Christ's most holy
soul excels the sanctity even of the first and second highest among the
choirs of angels, namely, the seraphim and cherubim; or has he in
mind the natural and individual nobility of the soul, whereby
Christ's soul excels in nobility the soul of any human being?
Reply. The holy Doctor admits inequality of power among human souls
in the same species.[769]
Since matter and form are mutually causes, and "since the form is not
for the matter, but rather the matter for the form,"[770]
Providence made Christ's body more apt for its union with the nobler
part, which is the soul, just as He made the body of the Blessed
Virgin Mary more fitting so that she might be worthy of becoming the
Mother of God.
St. Thomas says: "It is plain that the better the disposition of a
body, the better the soul allotted to it. This clearly appears in
things of different species, and the reason thereof is that act and
form are received into matter according to the capacity of matter.
Thus, because some men have bodies of better disposition, their souls
have a greater power of understanding, wherefore it is said that it is
to be observed that 'those who have soft flesh are of apt
mind.’[771] Secondly, this occurs in regard to the lower powers
of which the intellect has need in its operations; for those in whom
the imaginative, cogitative, and memorative powers are of better
disposition, are better disposed to understand."[772]
St. Thomas applies this teaching to Christ, showing that the body
was miraculously formed from the most pure blood of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.[773]
On the one hand, the soul, although it is created and not educed from
matter, thus depends materially, but not intrinsically, on the body,
and therefore it can continue to exist after its separation from the
body.
On the other hand, the body is better disposed, inasmuch as it
depends finally and formally and in some way in the evolution of the
embryo efficiently on the better disposed soul. Hence St. Thomas
says: "What is received in anything can be considered both being and
perfection. According to its being it is in the one in which it is
received, after the manner of the recipient; nevertheless, the one
that received it is drawn to its perfection."[774] Thus heat is
received in water, light in the air, the soul in the body, grace in
the soul, and the subject that receives is made conformable to the
perfection received.
So there is a mutual transcendental relation between matter and form,
body and soul, which therefore remains individuated after its
separation from the body by reason of this transcendental relation to
the body, which will be again informed by the soul on the day of the
resurrection of the dead.
Father Gredt correctly remarks that "one human soul differs from
another in perfection substantially, of course, though not essentially
but accidentally, taking the word 'accidentally' as a predicable
accident,"[775] but not as a predicamental accident, which is an
operative faculty that is really distinct from substance. Thus the
soul of Christ, even as a substance, is individually, although not
specifically, nobler than the soul of any other human being, just as
His body, which was miraculously formed in the womb of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, was better disposed than any other human body whatever.
It is also evident that the souls of great doctors of the Church, in
which there are signs of great genius, are individually nobler than
many other souls.
Thus we have a beautiful verification of the principle that causes
mutually interact, but in a different genus; for the form determines
the matter, and the latter is ordained for the form, as also the agent
attains the end which attracts it.
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