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Objection 1: It seems that Christ was not the cause of His own
Resurrection. For whoever is raised up by another is not the cause of
his own rising. But Christ was raised up by another, according to
Acts 2:24: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows
of hell": and Rm. 8:11: "He that raised up Jesus Christ
from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies." Therefore
Christ is not the cause of His own Resurrection.
Objection 2: Further, no one is said to merit, or ask from
another, that of which he is himself the cause. But Christ by His
Passion merited the Resurrection, as Augustine says (Tract. civ
in Joan.): "The lowliness of the Passion is the meritorious cause
of the glory of the Resurrection." Moreover He asked the Father
that He might be raised up again, according to Ps. 40:11:
"But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again."
Therefore He was not the cause of His rising again.
Objection 3: Further, as Damascene proves (De Fide Orth.
iv), it is not the soul that rises again, but the body, which is
stricken by death. But the body could not unite the soul with itself,
since the soul is nobler. Therefore what rose in Christ could not be
the cause of His Resurrection.
On the contrary, Our Lord says (Jn. 10:18): "No one
taketh My soul from Me, but I lay it down, and I take it up
again." But to rise is nothing else than to take the soul up again.
Consequently, it appears that Christ rose again of His own power.
I answer that, As stated above (Question 50, Articles 2,3)
in consequence of death Christ's Godhead was not separated from His
soul, nor from His flesh. Consequently, both the soul and the flesh
of the dead Christ can be considered in two respects: first, in
respect of His Godhead; secondly, in respect of His created
nature. Therefore, according to the virtue of the Godhead united to
it, the body took back again the soul which it had laid aside, and the
soul took back again the body which it had abandoned: and thus Christ
rose by His own power. And this is precisely what is written (2
Cor. 13:4): "For although He was crucified through" our
"weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." But if we consider
the body and soul of the dead Christ according to the power of created
nature, they could not thus be reunited, but it was necessary for
Christ to be raised up by God.
Reply to Objection 1: The Divine power is the same thing as the
operation of the Father and the Son; accordingly these two things are
mutually consequent, that Christ was raised up by the Divine power of
the Father, and by His own power.
Reply to Objection 2: Christ by praying besought and merited His
Resurrection, as man and not as God.
Reply to Objection 3: According to its created nature Christ's
body is not more powerful than His soul; yet according to its Divine
power it is more powerful. Again the soul by reason of the Godhead
united to it is more powerful than the body in respect of its created
nature. Consequently, it was by the Divine power that the body and
soul mutually resumed each other, but not by the power of their created
nature.
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