|
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not suffer at a suitable
time. For Christ's Passion was prefigured by the sacrifice of the
Paschal lamb: hence the Apostle says (1 Cor. 5:7): "Christ
our Pasch is sacrificed." But the paschal lamb was slain "on the
fourteenth day at eventide," as is stated in Ex. 12:6.
Therefore it seems that Christ ought to have suffered then; which is
manifestly false: for He was then celebrating the Pasch with His
disciples, according to Mark's account (14:12): "On the
first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Pasch";
whereas it was on the following day that He suffered.
Objection 2: Further, Christ's Passion is called His
uplifting, according to Jn. 3:14: "So must the Son of man be
lifted up." And Christ is Himself called the Sun of Justice, as
we read Mal. 4:2. Therefore it seems that He ought to have
suffered at the sixth hour, when the sun is at its highest point, and
yet the contrary appears from Mk. 15:25: "It was the third
hour, and they crucified Him."
Objection 3: Further, as the sun is at its highest point in each
day at the sixth hour, so also it reaches its highest point in every
year at the summer solstice. Therefore Christ ought to have suffered
about the time of the summer solstice rather than about the vernal
equinox.
Objection 4: Further, the world was enlightened by Christ's
presence in it, according to Jn. 9:5: "As long as I am in the
world I am the light of the world." Consequently it was fitting for
man's salvation that Christ should have lived longer in the world, so
that He should have suffered, not in young, but in old, age.
On the contrary, It is written (Jn. 13:1): "Jesus,
knowing that His hour was come for Him to pass out of this world to
the Father"; and (Jn. 2:4): "My hour is not yet come."
Upon which texts Augustine observes: "When He had done as much as
He deemed sufficient, then came His hour, not of necessity, but of
will, not of condition, but of power." Therefore Christ died at an
opportune time.
I answer that, As was observed above (Article 1), Christ's
Passion was subject to His will. But His will was ruled by the
Divine wisdom which "ordereth all things" conveniently and
"sweetly" (Wis. 8:1). Consequently it must be said that
Christ's Passion was enacted at an opportune time. Hence it is
written in De Qq. Vet. et Nov. Test., qu. lv: "The
Saviour did everything in its proper place and season."
Reply to Objection 1: Some hold that Christ did die on the
fourteenth day of the moon, when the Jews sacrificed the Pasch:
hence it is stated (Jn. 18:28) that the Jews "went not into
Pilate's hall" on the day of the Passion, "that they might not be
defiled, but that they might eat the Pasch." Upon this Chrysostom
observes (Hom. lxxxii in Joan.): "The Jews celebrated the
Pasch then; but He celebrated the Pasch on the previous day,
reserving His own slaying until the Friday, when the old Pasch was
kept." And this appears to tally with the statement (Jn.
13:1-5) that "before the festival day of the Pasch . . .
when supper was done" . . . Christ washed "the feet of the
disciples."
But Matthew's account (26:17) seems opposed to this; that
"on the first day of the Azymes the disciples came to Jesus,
saying: Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the
Pasch?" From which, as Jerome says, "since the fourteenth day of
the first month is called the day of the Azymes, when the lamb was
slain, and when it was full moon," it is quite clear that Christ
kept the supper on the fourteenth and died on the fifteenth. And this
comes out more clearly from Mk. 14:12: "On the first day of
the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Pasch," etc.; and
from Lk. 22:7: "The day of the unleavened bread came, on which
it was necessary that the Pasch should be killed."
Consequently, then, others say that Christ ate the Pasch with His
disciples on the proper day---that is, on the fourteenth day of the
moon---"showing thereby that up to the last day He was not opposed
to the law," as Chrysostom says (Hom. lxxxi in Matth.): but
that the Jews, being busied in compassing Christ's death against the
law, put off celebrating the Pasch until the following day. And on
this account it is said of them that on the day of Christ's Passion
they were unwilling to enter Pilate's hall, "that they might not be
defiled, but that they might eat the Pasch."
But even this solution does not tally with Mark, who says: "On the
first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Pasch."
Consequently Christ and the Jews celebrated the ancient Pasch at the
one time. And as Bede says on Lk. 22:7,8: "Although
Christ who is our Pasch was slain on the following day---that is,
on the fifteenth day of the moon---nevertheless, on the night when
the Lamb was sacrificed, delivering to the disciples to be
celebrated, the mysteries of His body and blood, and being held and
bound by the Jews, He hallowed the opening of His own
immolation---that is, of His Passion."
But the words (Jn. 13:1) "Before the festival day of the
Pasch" are to be understood to refer to the fourteenth day of the
moon, which then fell upon the Thursday: for the fifteenth day of the
moon was the most solemn day of the Pasch with the Jews: and so the
same day which John calls "before the festival day of the Pasch,"
on account of the natural distinction of days, Matthew calls the first
day of the unleavened bread, because, according to the rite of the
Jewish festivity, the solemnity began from the evening of the
preceding day. When it is said, then, that they were going to eat
the Pasch on the fifteenth day of the month, it is to be understood
that the Pasch there is not called the Paschal lamb, which was
sacrificed on the fourteenth day, but the Paschal food---that is,
the unleavened bread---which had to be eaten by the clean. Hence
Chrysostom in the same passage gives another explanation, that the
Pasch can be taken as meaning the whole feast of the Jews, which
lasted seven days.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says (De Consensu Evang.
iii): "'It was about the sixth hour' when the Lord was delivered
up by Pilate to be crucified," as John relates. For it "was not
quite the sixth hour, but about the sixth---that is, it was after
the fifth, and when part of the sixth had been entered upon until the
sixth hour was ended---that the darkness began, when Christ hung
upon the cross. It is understood to have been the third hour when the
Jews clamored for the Lord to be crucified: and it is most clearly
shown that they crucified Him when they clamored out. Therefore,
lest anyone might divert the thought of so great a crime from the Jews
to the soldiers, he says: 'It was the third hour, and they
crucified Him,' that they before all may be found to have crucified
Him, who at the third hour clamored for His crucifixion. Although
there are not wanting some persons who wish the Parasceve to be
understood as the third hour, which John recalls, saying: 'It was
the Parasceve, about the sixth hour.' For 'Parasceve' is
interpreted 'preparation.' But the true Pasch, which was
celebrated in the Lord's Passion, began to be prepared from the
ninth hour of the night---namely, when the chief priests said:
'He is deserving of death.'" According to John, then, "the
sixth hour of the Parasceve" lasts from that hour of the night down to
Christ's crucifixion; while, according to Mark, it is the third
hour of the day.
Still, there are some who contend that this discrepancy is due to the
error of a Greek transcriber: since the characters employed by them to
represent 3 and 6 are somewhat alike.
Reply to Objection 3: According to the author of De Qq. Vet.
et Nov. Test., qu. lv, "our Lord willed to redeem and reform
the world by His Passion, at the time of year at which He had
created it---that is, at the equinox. It is then that day grows
upon night; because by our Saviour's Passion we are brought from
darkness to light." And since the perfect enlightening will come
about at Christ's second coming, therefore the season of His second
coming is compared (Mt. 24:32,33) to the summer in these
words: "When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves come
forth, you know that summer is nigh: so you also, when you shall see
all these things, know ye that it is nigh even at the doors." And
then also shall be Christ's greatest exaltation.
Reply to Objection 4: Christ willed to suffer while yet young, for
three reasons. First of all, to commend the more His love by giving
up His life for us when He was in His most perfect state of life.
Secondly, because it was not becoming for Him to show any decay of
nature nor to be subject to disease, as stated above (Question 14,
Article 4). Thirdly, that by dying and rising at an early age
Christ might exhibit beforehand in His own person the future condition
of those who rise again. Hence it is written (Eph. 4:13):
"Until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of
the fulness of Christ."
|
|