|
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Passion did not bring
about our salvation efficiently. For the efficient cause of our
salvation is the greatness of the Divine power, according to Is.
59:1: "Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it
cannot save." But "Christ was crucified through weakness," as it
is written (2 Cor. 13:4). Therefore, Christ's Passion did
not bring about our salvation efficiently.
Objection 2: Further, no corporeal agency acts efficiently except
by contact: hence even Christ cleansed the leper by touching him "in
order to show that His flesh had saving power," as Chrysostom
[Theophylact, Enarr. in Luc.] says. But Christ's Passion
could not touch all mankind. Therefore it could not efficiently bring
about the salvation of all men.
Objection 3: Further, it does not seem to be consistent for the
same agent to operate by way of merit and by way of efficiency, since
he who merits awaits the result from someone else. But it was by way
of merit that Christ's Passion accomplished our salvation.
Therefore it was not by way of efficiency.
On the contrary, It is written (1 Cor. 1:18) that "the word
of the cross to them that are saved . . . is the power of God."
But God's power brings about our salvation efficiently. Therefore
Christ's Passion on the cross accomplished our salvation
efficiently.
I answer that, There is a twofold efficient agency---namely, the
principal and the instrumental. Now the principal efficient cause of
man's salvation is God. But since Christ's humanity is the
"instrument of the Godhead," as stated above (Question 43,
Article 2), therefore all Christ's actions and sufferings operate
instrumentally in virtue of His Godhead for the salvation of men.
Consequently, then, Christ's Passion accomplishes man's salvation
efficiently.
Reply to Objection 1: Christ's Passion in relation to His flesh
is consistent with the infirmity which He took upon Himself, but in
relation to the Godhead it draws infinite might from It, according to
1 Cor. 1:25: "The weakness of God is stronger than men";
because Christ's weakness, inasmuch as He is God, has a might
exceeding all human power.
Reply to Objection 2: Christ's Passion, although corporeal, has
yet a spiritual effect from the Godhead united: and therefore it
secures its efficacy by spiritual contact---namely, by faith and the
sacraments of faith, as the Apostle says (Rm. 3:25): "Whom
God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His
blood."
Reply to Objection 3: Christ's Passion, according as it is
compared with His Godhead, operates in an efficient manner: but in
so far as it is compared with the will of Christ's soul it acts in a
meritorious manner: considered as being within Christ's very flesh,
it acts by way of satisfaction, inasmuch as we are liberated by it from
the debt of punishment; while inasmuch as we are freed from the
servitude of guilt, it acts by way of redemption: but in so far as we
are reconciled with God it acts by way of sacrifice, as shall be shown
farther on (Question 49).
|
|