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Objection 1: It would seem unbecoming that Christ should pray.
For, as Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 24), "prayer is
the asking for becoming things from God." But since Christ could do
all things, it does not seem becoming to Him to ask anything from
anyone. Therefore it does not seem fitting that Christ should pray.
Objection 2: Further, we need not ask in prayer for what we know
for certain will happen; thus, we do not pray that the sun may rise
tomorrow. Nor is it fitting that anyone should ask in prayer for what
he knows will not happen. But Christ in all things knew what would
happen. Therefore it was not fitting that He should ask anything in
prayer.
Objection 3: Further, Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii,
24) that "prayer is the raising up of the mind to God." Now
Christ's mind needed no uplifting to God, since His mind was always
united to God, not only by the union of the hypostasis, but by the
fruition of beatitude. Therefore it was not fitting that Christ
should pray.
On the contrary, It is written (Lk. 6:12): "And it came to
pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain, and He passed
the whole night in the prayer of God."
I answer that, As was said in the SS, Question 83, Articles
1,2, prayer is the unfolding of our will to God, that He may
fulfill it. If, therefore, there had been but one will in Christ,
viz. the Divine, it would nowise belong to Him to pray, since the
Divine will of itself is effective of whatever He wishes by it,
according to Ps. 134:6: "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, He
hath done." But because the Divine and the human wills are distinct
in Christ, and the human will of itself is not efficacious enough to
do what it wishes, except by Divine power, hence to pray belongs to
Christ as man and as having a human will.
Reply to Objection 1: Christ as God and not as man was able to
carry out all He wished, since as man He was not omnipotent, as
stated above (Question 13, Article 1). Nevertheless being both
God and man, He wished to offer prayers to the Father, not as
though He were incompetent, but for our instruction. First, that
He might show Himself to be from the Father; hence He says (Jn.
11:42): "Because of the people who stand about I have said
it" (i.e. the words of the prayer) "that they may believe that
Thou hast sent Me." Hence Hilary says (De Trin. x): "He
did not need prayer. It was for us He prayed, lest the Son should
be unknown." Secondly, to give us an example of prayer; hence
Ambrose says (on Lk. 6:12): "Be not deceived, nor think
that the Son of God prays as a weakling, in order to beseech what He
cannot effect. For the Author of power, the Master of obedience
persuades us to the precepts of virtue by His example." Hence
Augustine says (Tract. civ in Joan.): "Our Lord in the form
of a servant could have prayed in silence, if need be, but He wished
to show Himself a suppliant of the Father, in such sort as to bear in
mind that He was our Teacher."
Reply to Objection 2: Amongst the other things which He knew would
happen, He knew that some would be brought about by His prayer; and
for these He not unbecomingly besought God.
Reply to Objection 3: To rise is nothing more than to move towards
what is above. Now movement is taken in two ways, as is said De
Anima iii, 7; first, strictly, according as it implies the passing
from potentiality to act, inasmuch as it is the act of something
imperfect, and thus to rise pertains to what is potentially and not
actually above. Now in this sense, as Damascene says (De Fide
Orth. iii, 24), "the human mind of Christ did not need to rise
to God, since it was ever united to God both by personal being and by
the blessed vision." Secondly, movement signifies the act of
something perfect, i.e. something existing in act, as to understand
and to feel are called movements; and in this sense the mind of Christ
was always raised up to God, since He was always contemplating Him
as existing above Himself.
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