MEDULLA S. THOMAE AQUITATIS PER OMNES ANNI LITURGICI DIES DISTRBUITA, SEU MEDITATIONES EX OPERIBUS S. THOMAE DEPROMPTAE
Compilation and arrangement by
FR. Z. MÉZARD O. P.
NOTE
All titles with an asterisk contain material that is no longer attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas.
27. Monday after the IV Sunday of Lent: Christ deserved, by His passion, to be exalted
Monday after the IV Sunday of Lent
"He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross; therefore God also highly exalted Him." (Phil 2:8)
Merit involves a certain equality with justice. Therefore, the Apostle says that "to the one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due" (Rom 4:4). When someone, by his unjust will, claims more for himself than what is owed, it is just that what was owed to him is also diminished, as the book of Exodus says (22): "When a man steals a sheep, he must repay." And we say that he deserved it, for this way his unjust will is punished. Likewise, when someone, by a just will, deprives himself of what he had the right to possess, he deserves to be given more, as a reward for his just will. Therefore, as the Gospel of Luke says, "whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
I. Now, Christ, in His passion, humbled Himself in four ways below His dignity:
a) First, in relation to His passion and death, of which He was not indebted.
b) Second, in relation to the place, for His body was laid in a tomb, and His soul, in the abode of the dead.
c) Third, in relation to the confusion and reproaches He endured.
d) Fourth, in relation to the fact that He was delivered into the hands of men, as He Himself said to Pilate: "You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above" (John 19:11).
II. By His passion, He deserved exaltation in four ways:
a) First, in relation to the glorious resurrection. Therefore, the psalm says (138:1): "You know my sitting down," that is, the humiliation of my passion, "and my rising up."
b) Second, in relation to the ascension to heaven. Therefore, the Letter to the Ephesians says: "He descended first to the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens" (Eph 4:9-10).
c) Third, in relation to the seat He had at the right hand of the Father and the manifestation of His divinity, as Isaiah says: "He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high; just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man" (52:13-14). And the Letter to the Philippians says (2:8-10): "He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name," that is, so that He may be acknowledged as God by all and that everyone should show reverence to Him as to a God. And it is added: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth."
d) Fourth, in relation to the judicial power, for the book of Job says: "Your cause has been judged as that of the wicked. You will receive the judgment and the cause" (Job 36:17).
III, q. XLIX, a. 6
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quoting
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26. Fourth Sunday of Lent: Christ with His Passion opened the door of heaven
IV Sunday of Lent
"Therefore, brothers, have confidence to enter the Sanctuary by the blood of Christ." (Hebrews 10:19)
The closing of a door is an obstacle that prevents people from entering. Now, men were prevented from entering the kingdom of heaven because of sin, for, as Isaiah says (25:8): "They will call it a holy way. The unclean will not pass over it."
There are two sins that prevent entry into the kingdom of heaven. One is the sin of our first father, a common sin to all of human nature that closed the entrance to the heavenly kingdom for man. Therefore, it is read in the book of Genesis that after the sin of the first man, "God placed cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." The other is the special sin of each person, committed by the personal act of each man.
By the Passion of Christ, we are liberated not only from the common sin of all human nature, in relation to guilt and in relation to the debt of the penalty, since He paid the price for us, but also from the personal sins of each one who participates in His Passion through faith, love, and the sacraments of faith. Consequently, by the Passion of Christ, the door to the heavenly kingdom was opened to us. And this is precisely what the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (9:11): "Christ, the high priest of the good things to come, entered once for all into the sanctuary by His own blood and obtained eternal redemption." This is what the book of Numbers implies when it says that the murderer "shall remain there," that is, in the city of refuge, "until the death of the anointed high priest" (Numbers 35:25); after the death of this one, he shall return to his home.
It should be said that the Patriarchs, by performing acts of righteousness, deserved to enter the heavenly kingdom through faith in the Passion of Christ, according to what is stated in the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:33): "By faith, they conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness"; through it, each of them was cleansed of sin, as it pertains to the purification of the person. However, the faith or righteousness of none of them was sufficient to remove the impediment arising from the debt of all human creatures. An impediment that was removed by the price of the blood of Christ. Therefore, before the Passion of Christ, no one could enter the heavenly kingdom, that is, attain eternal bliss, which consists in the full enjoyment of God.
Christ, through His Passion, earned for us the opening of the heavenly kingdom and removed the impediment; but through the Ascension, He somehow introduced us into the possession of the heavenly kingdom. Thus, it is said that "He has already ascended, ahead of them, the one who opens the way" (Micah 2:13).
III, q. XLIX, a. 5
#God #Deus #Isten #Gott #Jesus #Católico #Catholic #Katholik #katholisch #Katolikus #catholique #Faith #Fé #foi #信仰 #Latin #Latim #Gospel #Evangelho #Evangélium #évangile #Dieu #福音 #日本 #カトリック #Bible #Biblestr #Nostr #Grownostr
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