Aquinas at 800, Part 10: The Cross as an Epiphany of God

Episode Topic: The Cross as an Epiphany of God

How can the Crucifixion, an event of profound suffering, be the ultimate revelation of God’s glory? Father Thomas Joseph White, O.P., the Rector Magnificus at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, unveils St. Thomas Aquinas’s vision of the Cross as an epiphany of divine love, wisdom, and the hidden splendor of God’s redemptive work.

Featured Speakers:
- Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum)

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This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Aquinas at 800.

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Transcript

Welcome and Introduction

Speaker 10 0:06

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Therese Corey, I'm the director of the Maritime Center here and one of the conference co-organizers. and it is my very great pleasure to welcome you to our fourth and final keynote of our program. We've had an amazing set of discussions over the last few days, and it has truly been a pleasure to be here with everyone, uh, celebrating Aquinas's 800th birthday. So as our final keynote address, before this afternoon's concluding sessions, we have Father Thomas Joseph White, who is the rector magnificent of the Angelica and professor of systematic. Theology. He's written numerous books, many of which we've all used in our classes. Students have read them, um, and profited from them, including the Incarnate Lord. A study into Mystic, Christology, the Trinity on the nature and mystery of the One God, and most recently principles of Catholic Theology Book three, God, Trinity, creation and Christ. And I'm a little puzzled about the, the topic because I'm wondering what's left for the other books. If Book three is covering God, Trinity creation and Christ, but. Father Thomas Joseph White is a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and he's also a master of sacred theology in the Dominican Order. And last but not least, he's the founder of the Hillbilly Thomas, and many of us last night have had the pleasure of hearing him play live. Turns out that he is a man of many talents, um, one of which includes banjo picking. He is not going to play the banjo for us right now, however, but he's going to present to us on the topic of, sorry, the cross as epiphany of God Aquinas on the Atonement. Please help me welcome Father Thomas Joseph White.

Christ's Human and Divine Natures

The Glory of the Cross

Speaker 12 2:16

I'd like to thank the organizers for so kindly inviting me here and say how, uh, happy I am, how overjoyed, uh, regarding this event. And also, uh, just deeply honored to be presenting, but we impart a secret in hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. At the heart of the Catholic religion is the striking claim that God became human. And likewise the affirmation that God was crucified in his human nature on behalf of all of mankind to affect the reconciliation of God and humanity. Indeed, the incarnation and the atonement formed two of the central tenets of the ene creed for us men and for our salvation. He came down from heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. How ought we to understand the atonement and what does it tell us about the human nature of Christ who has the perfection of human nature and about the Lordship of Christ who is consubstantial with the Father? One in being in essence, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Thomas Aquinas provides a very intricate and profound analysis of the atonement and of the identity of Christ as true God and true man manifest at the cross. And so here I would like to present his ideas under three headings, the act of atonement to natures the divine and human and divine and human glory, so as to show relationships that emerge in his thought between these or across these three notions. What I hope to make clear is that the atoning act of the cross is first and foremost, an act of reconciliation, animated by charity and wisdom. As such, it entails a manifestation of the human nature of Christ. In its perfection and of his divine nature in its perfection. By this same me measure, it is also a manifestation even before the, uh, the sp, even before the splendor of the resurrection of the human glory and of the divine glory of Christ crucified Part one atonement. The word atonement is of early modern English derivation at onement, and is not therefore a term found in aquinas's corpus as such, nevertheless, if we take the word to indicate the reconciliation of God and humanity effectuated by the meritorious life, suffering, and death of Christ, then we can speak rightly of a complex and multi-sided notion of atonement. Or if you prefer reconciliation in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. It is helpful to begin here by referring to the thematic reflection in St. Thomas's writing regarding the motives of the incarnation. Why did God become human? What is the ever present divine motive of fittingness? Standing in the background of this new ontological event of the harmonization of God the Son, subsisting in an individual human nature? When he writes on the topic in Sumia Pars, question one, article two, Aquinas proposes a twofold answer to the question based on the promotion toward the good of human beings on the one hand, and the emotion from evil on the other. The first of these reasons has to do with the general aims of creation and of the human race in particular, which have to do with the eternal happiness and divinization of the human race. Who participate in the grace of the Trinity, God has created human, God has created humanity in order to communicate to man by grace, a participation in divine life, the life of the blessed Trinity. So the incarnation is a supreme means of conjoining God and human nature in Jesus Christ, in view of the universal offer of communication of grace and beatitude to all persons. Meanwhile, human beings are hindered from union with God by the various effects of original and personal sin, resulting in weakness, moral, evil, and death. Therefore, God has become human in order to reconcile humanity to himself, not least through the satisfactory reparation, effectuated by and in the human obedience and charity of Christ through his meritorious life, suffering and death. To quote Aquinas from this section of the Summa, now a mere man could not have. Atoned for, or satisfied for the whole human race, and God was not bound to satisfy in his human nature. Hence, it behooved Jesus Christ to be both God and man. In addition, Aquinas notes in the first part of the article that God in his human form of life provides human beings with an example of human perfection. Here he cites a sermon attributed to Augustine on the nativity of the Lord. Man, who might be seen was not to be followed or imitated, but God was to be followed who could not be seen and therefore God was made human. That he who might be seen and whom human beings might imitate, might be shown to Man. If we rightly understand this argument, which stands at the origin of Aquinas's, systematic thinking regarding the incarnation, the life of Christ, and his analysis of the passion and resurrection, then we can, uh, state three related notions of atonement. Atonement entails a means of divinization of humanity through the incarnation that achieves its effects in the Paschal mystery of Christ's death and resurrection Atonement entails what Christ calls axio for human sin. This stems from the meritorious human love and obedience of Christ. Crucified and atonement entails a perfecting of human nature in Christ crucified. This moral perfection is not for Christ alone. It transpires in such a way that his perfection as human is communicable in virtue of the grace of the cross and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, who provides us with a share in Christ's capital, grace, and divine life. So my three notes there were, you know, the final end is the divinization of the human race. The means being the, the atoning charity of Christ and the kind of intermediary, formal effect, the perfecting of the human race through the life of grace. At the core of this notion of atonement is aquinas's analysis of the Latin notion of axio derived, especially from Anselm's 11th century reflection on the work Omo, pertaining to the question, why did God become human? Anselm famously had argued that God becomes human so that God can redeem humanity not only by a gratuitous initiative of mercy, but also through the medium of a most perfect justice God, who is just cannot work without fulfilling all justice. And according. And according to Saint Alm. This would entail that only a man who is of infinite dignity can save us as we have collectively and individually transgressed the law of God and incurred an infinite debt in regard to God's holiness, goodness, honor and sovereignty, but no created human being is capable of providing a love for God that is infinite in worth. And God himself is not human and cannot therefore provide satisfaction for sin on our behalf. It follows that we can be redeemed as human beings just because, and only if God himself becomes human, so that his perfect actions of obedience accomplished in solidarity with us as one of us are of infinite value in virtue of the, of the dignity of the subject who accomplishes them. The reconciliation of God in humanity is accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth then only because he is true God and true man. Every influe, every influential 13th century Western Catholic theologian undertook his own reception and critical interpretation of Saint Anselm's argument, and Aquinas was no exception to this. Scholars debate the differences of the two and tried to find the nuances or perhaps even oppositions of their respective approaches. I myself take it that the main one, which colors all the rest, has to do with aquinas's understanding of supposition necessity in regarding to, uh, the atonement of Christ closely allied with his nuanced understanding of theological fittingness or wisdom enunciated through fitting motives of activity of the divine wisdom, both Anselm and Aquinas affirm that there is a qualified necessity to the event of the atonement. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer as Jesus himself says in Luke 24 26? However, while Anselm claimed that God did not have to redeem the world at all, he did specify that if God did undertake such a redemption of human beings, it would need to pass through the incarnation and the free activity of the atonement of the God man as a necessary condition for the just reconciliation of God and humanity. If God is to save us, he must become human and redeem us by the just actions of Christ. Aquinas alters this claim so as to maintain only that it is most fitting, that God should become human in order to effectuate our, our redemption in a way that is supremely merciful, as well as just we may speak here of a qualified necessity, albeit of a different kind than that enunciated by, uh, Anselm Aquinas. Notes that God's transcendent, sovereignty and goodness are such that he could inaugurate the universal forgiveness of sins and communication of grace to all humanity without effectuating the redemption through incarnation, but that this would in fact be less merciful and therefore less fitting the divine initiative to reconcile human beings to God through the perfect righteousness of Christ as human by way of his life and example. His meritorious death and the communication of his justice or justification to us by way of the grace of baptism is itself a more perfect instantiation of divine mercy. The primacy of God's mercy to his justice in all manner, in all matters pertaining to creation and providence is manifest precisely in the perfect expression of divine justice. Uh, the gift of, uh, justification by the grace of Christ is you might say, an evermore profound, uh, expression of the universal mercy of God in its most intensive realization. So you might say the gift of justice in Christ, in his human righteousness is, uh, embedded within and most expressive of a more, an anate and more intensive mercy when it comes to Christ's human act of atonement. As such, the meritorious action whereby he reconciles humanity to God. Through his human suffering and death, Aquinas posits three dimensions to the act. First, formally speaking, the act of atonement pertains to Christ's human obedience, which is sinless and is undertaken out of a wellspring of charity and grace. Aquinas points us here to Christ's saying in the gospel of John, greater love has no man than this, that then a man lay down his life for his friends. Indeed, Aquinas considers charity to be a kind of friendship with God, one inaugurated by Christ on our behalf, so that we might be illumined and enlivened by a life of friendship with God. On this view, the free decision of Jesus of Nazareth to suffer innocently in witness to the truth about God and the truth about his own status as Savior and Messiah is expressive of his love for God, the father, and for all of humanity. Secondly. However, this human act of voluntary suffering out of love is also one of infinite intrinsic dignity because the one who loves humanly and obeys meritoriously is also one who is Lord true God from true God, the eternal son of the Father. Thus, there is something mysteriously holy and transcendent in regard to the suffering and death of Christ crucified. Or perhaps you could say something transcendent in dignity and mystery, present imminently within the very depth of the person who suffers crucifixion, as this is in fact the suffering and death of God in human flesh. Something of infinite profundity and dignity and moral value. Third, there is something morally reparative in this event, according to St. Thomas, precisely insofar as Christ who is innocent takes upon himself an effect of punishment common to our fallen human nature in suffering and human mortality in order to express more profoundly the intensive and perfect love of charity that God has for the human race in taking on the suffering that has befall the human race in virtue of our own disorientation. Christ as man merits our salvation more perfectly and also effectually manifest the love and charity and mercy of God more intensively. Aquinas does not posit an exchange of places such as that which we find later in John Calvin's institutes, in which Jesus stands in the place of the fallen human race as one deemed guilty, where he bears a substitutionary punishment for the human race. On our behalf as if he were the bearer of our guilt. This view of an innocent suffering somehow justly on behalf of the human sins of others is rejected by both Anselm anti Aquinas. But St. Thomas does believe that God took upon himself, uh, the punishment of, for our transgressions or effects of the, of the guilt of the human race in his innocent human experience of death so as to reconcile us with himself and reverse the very effects of sin in the human race, overcoming death in the resurrection. We should note that this is punishment without guilt, or we might think of it as an act of solidarity. In truth, Christ freely enters our condition of suffering, affected by our guilt, so as to redeem it from within, even illuminating it and even transforming it now into a means of union with God. That is to say, through suffering and death, we can be more deeply united in Christ. With God in charity and in holiness, it is significant to note that on Aquinas's account the human will of Christ motivated by the grace of Karitas and this action of Christ as man is reflective of and resembles the transcendent love of God present in Christ in virtue of his deity and which stems from his living unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. You might say the divine love in Christ is uncreated fire burning in the atonement, but reflected in similitude, in the creative fire, created fire of the human heart of Jesus. It is the trinity that first loves and that redeems the world, fittingly acting in and through the incarnation of the sun in our human nature by means of his human life, free actions. Atoning death and glorious resurrection. Aquinas notes in this regard that Christ in his human mind and heart is inspired by the Holy Spirit to embrace the passion so as to accomplish the will of the Father, that his meritorious death might redeem the human race. And this idea brings us to our second topic, that of nature, both human and divine. In Summa Theolog, prima pars. Question 27, article two, on the eternal processions of the Trinity Aquinas examines the procession of the son from the Father as an immaterial generation of the word or ver boom in which the son receives from the Father, the very nature or essence of God, so as to be equally and identically God. All that the Father has, he communicates eternally to the son there. Aquinas defines generation in living being. As signifying quote, the origin of a living being from a conjoined living principle, unquote. And this is more properly said when the generation in question communicates, quote, a similitude in the same specific nature as a man, proceeds from a man and a horse from a horse. So here nature is understood as both a principle and a term of generation as living things beget, living things who receive the plenitude of the nature of the thing from which they are begotten. Likewise, Aquinas posits in question 29, article one response for that nature is a principle of generation one that signifies the imp, the intrinsic principle of any kind of movement. This is citing Aristotle and also the specific difference giving. Its its form to each thing, the specific difference, giving its form to each thing. And this is from Boethius and I've given you the citations. Of course, Aquinas maintains that Christ possesses a complete and perfect human nature, affirming him to have a human soul against the error of a poller and a genuine human body subject to vulnerability, suffering, and mortality against gnostic heresy. It is significant to note for our purposes that the atonement for St. Thomas represents an effectuation of a reversal of the consequences of original sin for our human nature. What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ. This is conducted first in Christ, the individual man, but subsequently communicated by him to our human nature universally in virtue of his headship or capital grace, and the offer to each one of us of participation in his grace, which can both heal our fallen human nature and elevated into supernatural friendship with God. Now the consequences of original sin are threefold for Aquinas and they are found universally in fallen human humanity. First, the spiritual powers of the soul are not submitted to God in genuine knowledge and love, but instead, human beings are ly nescient or ignorant, morally disoriented and spiritually alienated from God. Second, the lower powers of the soul, namely the passions and imagination, as well as the external senses, are not subject harmoniously to reason, but instead are reason is often subject in excessive and unbalanced ways to the primacy of the life, of the senses and the passions. Third, our bodies are not by nature, permanently subject to our subsistence, immaterial souls, and so we die and are inevitably subject to substantial corruption, separation of body and soul. The first two of these consequences of original sin are remedied by Christ. Even from the beginning of the incarnation. God becomes human in such a way that the human soul of Christ is inundated with sanctifying grace. Christ's human soul is subject inwardly to his divine wisdom and will and his lower powers of the internal and external senses develop only ever in harmony with his human spiritual powers. This inward equilibrium in the service of divine wisdom and love is a feature of his, of his human life that makes him spiritually beautiful, especially due to his moral virtue. Christ is the most beautiful human being due to this inner equilibrium and harmony of the powers of the soul. However, even though this perfection exists through the course of the human existence of the word made flesh. It is also the case that the perfection of his humanity is events and manifest more splendidly in his public ministry of teaching and miracle working, culminating most especially in his public passion, crucifixion and death. There he exerts the virtues of the soul in the most manifest and extraordinary way, giving witness publicly to the perfection of grace and virtue that is habitually residual in him. Even from the beginning of the incarnation, something new happens at the cross that is expressive actually of the latent perfection, always already present habitually in God, made man. Now coming to its final fruition or actuation, Aquinas notes that at the cross, the spiritual powers of the soul of Christ are radiant, subject to the higher mystery of the divine wisdom and will of God. Notably in his obedience and charity of satisfaction by which he atone for our sins. Christ, the Eternal Son, is also expressing the ontological reality of our regeneration of nature. He who is the eternal Son, is also the new Adam, who is the principle of spiritual life. Life begets life. The cross is a living tree radiating grace that will restore perfection to the human race. The atonement, as Aquinas Notes, is not only meritorious in the sense elaborated above, it's also effective. Christ crucified is an instrumental agent of the regeneration of our human nature because he not only merits grace and forgiveness for others, but is also able to communicate to us effectively in the power of the Holy Spirit, a regenerative grace that makes us ontologically like unto what he is. Ontologically, a human being most fully alive by the power of God. Indeed, Aquinas does not hesitate to say that we can learn every virtue of the Christian life from an examination of Christ crucified as his perfect human wisdom and love. Illumina understanding of the fullness of our own life, of faith, hope and love, and his supernatural, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance in the mystery of the cross itself, enlighten most acutely our understanding of the full range of human virtues, both in their essential definitions and all their potential parts. So far in this consideration of nature and crucifixion, I've given consideration only to the human nature of Christ. Of course, the divine nature is not absent. Aquinas notes that in virtue of the hypostatic union, the human nature of Jesus is inseparable from his divine nature. Not only in his suffering, but even in his death as both the soul and the cadaver of the dead Christ separated from one another, continue to be the soul and cadaver of the eternal word in virtue of the hypostatic union. So Christ crucified is God crucified. It is the eternal Son who was crucified, died, and was buried God from God, light from light, true God from true God as the creed teaches. Furthermore, Aquinas notes that the unity of the Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit is immeasurably greater than the unity of the two natures of the Son in the person of the word. Just as Jesus never ceases being the son of God in life or in death. So the son of God never ceases being one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in virtue of their eternal unity of essence and life as holy Trinity. Thus, when one of the Trinity is crucified in virtue of his human nature, so the Father and the Spirit are present with him, and in him in virtue of his divine nature, Aquinas tends to see this presence of the most holy trinity in the cross event manifest, even in Christ crucified in terms of divine wisdom and power. And here he is following St. Paul in one Corinthians one 18. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There's also references to wisdom in that same area of the text. Aquinas comments on this passage in Turia Pars. Question 25, article four response one. You have this. If in Christ's cross we consider the point of view and intention of those who did not believe in him, it will appear as his shame. But if we consider its effect, which is our salvation, it will appear as in endowed with divine power by which it triumphed over the enemy. It is in his consideration of the cross as an efficient cause of salvation. He thus cites this verse from Paul again in question 48, article six of the same part of the summa. He says this, there is a twofold efficient agency, namely the principle and the instrumental. Now the principle efficient cause of man's salvation is God, but since Christ's humanity is the instrument of the Godhead, 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 God's accomplishes man's salvation efficiently. We can conclude from these observations that the most holy Trinity is active in and through the cross, so as to communicate divine life to the human race. The fun, the fundamental principle of atonement is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, God himself. The final end of the action of the atonement is the recreation of the human race in union with God by way of supernatural elevation to divine life. Divinization. The cross then is an epiphany of God's identity as Trinity and of God's providential design of salvation. God's aim to communicate our participation in his own life to the world through the cross and resurrection of Christ. Part three, glory. Evidently, I have not yet mentioned the remediation of the third effect of original sin, the consignment of human beings to the inevitability of human death. That is to say the corruption of the body and the substantial rupture of body and spiritual soul that it ensues. On this point, then it is helpful to consider the glory of God revealed in Christ. Now, glory is a major theme in Aquinas's thought and is a notion repeatedly found throughout his works. But on my understanding, it has not yet been a subject of adequate scholarly investigation. It is helpful to begin by noting that although Aquinas frequently uses the word glory, Gloria, in relation to God and to Christ, he often offers definition, uh, sorry. And he often offers definitions for it. Still, it's not easy to readily identify thematically all that he means by the term in its encompassing signification. Very often he employs a pithy def definition attributed to St. Ambrose, Gloria es Clara Noia, which is perhaps best translated as glorious splendor that is known and praised. It might be best to amend this definition for purposes of clarity. However, and restate it as Glory is splendor of nature that is known and praised for, defined in this way as a form of interpretation of Aquinas. One can easily make sense of many analog registers in which he employs the term glory in a primitive sense. Then glory pertains to the eternal splendor of the divine nature that is common to the father and the son, which they hold in common. Aquinas notes in his commentary on the gospel of St. John 1724 that the father quote gave Jesus divine glory from all eternity because the son is from the father from all eternity, like radiance, from light, unquote. And he correlates this idea of eternal glory with the famous passage from Hebrews one, three, which speaks of the Son as the eternal radiance of the Father. In a second sense, glory pertains to the human nature of Jesus in its splendor, especially after the glorification of his body and soul. In the resurrection, Aquinas clearly identifies a similitude between the eternal glory of the Holy Trinity and the glory of the resurrected humanity of Christ. In his commentary on John 17, five, where, where the Lord says in John's gospel, father, glorify thou me in thy own presence. With the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. Aquinas comments as follows, the glory of human beings will be in a certain way similar to the glory of God, although unequal now Christ as God had glory with the Father from all eternity, a divine glory and uh, equal to that of the Father. Accordingly, what he is asking for here is that he be glorified in his human nature. That is to say in what was flesh in time and changed by corruption, that it should receive the glory of that brightness, which is outside of time. He is not asking for an equal glory, but for one which is similar, which is to say that just as the son is immortal and sitting at the right hand of the father. From all eternity, so he now becomes immortal in his human nature and exalted to the right hand of God. It seems to be clear that glory here maps on somewhat to human and divine nature, and clearly there is a similitude and not an identity of human glory and divine glory. Just as there's a similitude and not identity of human nature and divine nature. Based on these passages, we can say that glory derives from the perfection of the nature of a thing and has to do with the splendor of that nature. In its perfection, Christ possesses the eternal glory as Lord because he receives from the Father the eternal perfection of the Godhead in all its splendor. Christ in his resurrection possesses glory as man because he receives in the resurrection the fullness of natural perfection in both body and soul. And has in virtue of this perfection, a unique splendor proper to his higher human state. In a third sense, then glory also pertains to the human race and to creation. As transformed by Christ and by his grace, his passion and his resurrection are an initial inauguration of our redemption and natural restoration and supernatural elevation of human beings into eternal life with God. The church then bears within herself the marks of the glory of God, and looks upon the glory of the risen Christ. In view of her eventual complete transformation to a life of eternal glory. We are called to look upon God the uncreated glory of the most Holy Trinity. And in doing so to achieve a conformity to Christ, the head of the church in his already existent glory in the resurrected life as man, so reconsider my initial definition. Glory is splendor of nature that is made manifest or perceived. This nature is splendid in virtue of its perfection. We can say then that God's natural splendor as God, the glory of the Lord is made manifest to us, especially in Christ the incarnate Word. And this glory redo downs by similitude upon his human nature transformed in the resurrection. We in turn are made like unto God by seeing God in the beatific vision and by becoming like unto Christ in his human nature, by the grace of Christ, our beatification in the vision of God and in bodily resurrection. Also, thus entails our own perfection in nature and thus our glorification. Therefore, the Church of Heaven is especially participant in glory and the earthly church of this life already participates by Adam Brasen in the Glory of Heaven. She does so not least in virtue of the real presence among us, of the glorified body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, and by the accompanying presence of the glorified humanity of the mother of God, in the mystery of her assumption. What can we say then of the glory of the cross, as such as a mystery that transpires prior to the resurrection? In what sense is the atonement of Christ a mystery of glory, and how does it reveal the hidden glory of the man Jesus, as well as the uncreated glory of the most holy Trinity? Aquinas actually offers a lengthy and clear analysis of this subject. In his commentary on the Gospel of St. John, chapter 13 in Alexio six. The verse that Aquinas comments at length is John 1331, which is located just after Judas leaves the last Supper, and Christ announces the inauguration of his passion. Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified. Aquinas. Notes that we can speak of four kinds of glory that are signified by this, by this passage. First, the glory of the cross. Second, the glory of Christ's judicial power. Third, the glory of his resurrection. And fourth, the glory of his being known by the faith of the people, which is something I've just alluded to regarding the church. The first two of these forms of glory, the glory of the cross, the glory of the judicial power are present in the event of the passion, as indeed Christ already has judiciary power from God, even as he is crucified. The third and fourth sense of glory are present in seed or in promise. As the Christ who is crucified is he who will be raised up in glory and recognized by all the nations. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess. What then is the first sense of glory, which is that pertaining to the cross as such? Here again, Aquinas makes distinctions, noting four senses in which the cross itself is glorious. He remarks on the glory itself, the fruit of this glory, the author of the glory and the time of the glory, the first of these, the glory itself of the passion is located in the atoning work of Christ. The being and action of his personal charity by which he redeems the world. You might call it a kind of glory of love or a glory of, yeah, a glory of, of charity and redemptive charity and virtue. The splendor, power and effectiveness of this activity is manifest even on the cross because there Christ does effectively conquer the power of evil definitively, and the def and the influence of the devil. He reigns as messiah and king of humanity, even from the cross. He works miracles even as he is crucified. Secondly, then the fruit of this glory is that God is glorified. The cross glorifies God because all of humanity can come to know by the cross the wisdom and power of God, the uncreated glory present in an active through the human self offering of Jesus. This is the splendor of the divine goodness realized in and effectuated through Christ, Christ crucified in His, uh, through his passion. We can be in touch, you might say, with the uncreated glory of the Trinity redeeming the world actively in Christ crucified. Third, then there is the topic of the author of this glory, who is God himself. In fact, Aquinas notes that the Father is the principle of divine glory, so that the cross is an epiphany of the father's glory that he shares eternally with the Son and that the Father and the Son wish to convey to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus says of the spirit of truth in John 1614, he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. So Aquinas notes that the Holy Spirit will glorify the Son by giving the apostles a clear knowledge of the son. He says this, now we see the reason why the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ. It is because the Son is the principle of the Holy Spirit for everything which is from another manifests. That from which it is. Thus, the Son manifests the Father because he's from the Father. And so because the the Holy Spirit is from the sun, it is appropriate, appropriate that the Holy Spirit glorify the Son. We might say the glory of the Father, is in the sun, crucified manifest in the sun, and the glory of the sun crucified is communicated to us in the Holy Spirit sent upon the world. Finally, there is the time of glory in his crucifixion. Christ is at what time? He's at the time of going to the Father. It is his hour. Here he is entering into glory through the doorway of the cross. We may speak then of a glorious inauguration from the cross, and through his atoning death, Jesus is preparing for the future of humanity. This notion of glory gives clear indication of the fact that for Aquinas, the crucifixion of Jesus is unintelligible theologically apart from the resurrection, just as the inverse is true as well. Both together form parts of an integral whole, which is the work of redemption accomplished through the Passover of Christ. We can conclude this reflection on glory, divine and human, by noting that there is a kind of aloia glory in aquinas's thinking about the passion or a similitude of divine and human glory unveiled in the suffering and death of Christ as a work of atonement. This work is a work of the divine nature of Christ and of his human nature. It is work of divine wisdom and love, even it is as it is also accomplished through the inspired human wisdom and platitude of charity present in the soul of Christ and present even in the contemplative mind and spiritual heart of Christ crucified. The glory of the cross is a work of the Holy Trinity and an epiphany of the inner life of God. What we may, what may we say briefly, in conclusion, Thomas Aquinas has also glorified God for he has perceived the splendor of the cross and given testimony to it. He is a witness to the divinity of Christ as God from God, light from light, true God from true God, and to the perfection of his humanity as the Son of God, full of grace and radiant in the Resurrection Catholic theology in the 21st century, 800 years after the birth of Aquinas. Must seek first and last to study. Divine revelation manifested in Christ and elaborated fundamentally by the principles of the creed, which St. Thomas posits helpfully are the first principles of the speculative science of theology. So today, if we wish to make clear what Christianity is and is not by way of profound intellectual engagement, we must seek among other things to make clear what inner content the creed contains and what mystery it indicates. Who is God and how is God revealed in Christ? How are we to be understood in light of God? This is the study of a supernatural mystery one we designate by conceptual shorthand as the Holy Trinity. And of course, it includes a study of human nature of the church and of related topics. I would say that today is as relevant as ever to read St. Thomas so as to understand who both God is and who we as human beings are in the light of Christ, as one who is both perfect in divine nature and in human nature. And it is as relevant today as ever to understand this mystery as one of importance universally for all human beings today as it was 2000 years ago at the time of the incarnation, eternal Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, our lady, Notre Dame. To answer these questions then we must continue to ponder those living resources of the tradition of the Catholic Church, which most manifest what John Henry Newman called chronic vigor. Among these stands, the witness to the mystery of the faith. Given by Thomas Aquinas, Dr. Muni, alive, vigorous, and robust at 800 years a date joyfully marking both the birth of Thomas Aquinas and the Renaissance of Tomism. Thank you very much.

Q&A Session

Speaker 13 45:42

Thank you for other, uh, Thomas Joseph. I approach you in great shame, for not being here to introduce you. Um, I owe so much to him for the, uh, shape that my scholarship has taken over the last 15 years that it really is shameful that I was not here. Not as excuse, but as a reason for forgiveness. I would just offer that I am Irish. Um, and I got talking to people after my talk, so I apologize and I sent you my remarks and you'll be surprised to know there are no jokes in the remarks. They're completely earnest. So thank you personally and again, uh, for this wonderful talk. So, I as penance, we will give you another five minutes or so beyond the deadline to, uh, answer questions penance for on my part. So we have microphones, uh, here and, uh, father Thomas, I think will, um, field the questions.

Speaker 12 46:43

Okay. I'll, I'm gonna go from left to right and then I'll go back and forth. Yes, please.

Speaker 14 46:47

Yeah. Thank you Father Thomas Josepha for that. Uh, very enlightening talk. I was delighted to hear a reference to Christ's Capital Grace. that's been an area of my own research and it seems to me still. Not really widely appreciated for the importance that it has to aquinas's Christology and for sort of getting his atonement off the ground. Um, so I was wondering if you could just elaborate a little bit, the role that you see for Christ Capital grace in connection with this, uh, account of the atonement that you've presented today.

Speaker 12 47:13

Well, I'll only say something so brief. Aquinas allies a notion of the instrumentality of the sacred humanity of Jesus that he has received, I think principally from John of Damascus and thus from the Byzantine legacy of, uh, Eastern Christianity, although I think there are others who are receiving it in the West at the time with the, uh, strong, uh, Augustinian influence of the notion of the capital, grace and headship of Christ. And he places these together in ways some of his contemporaries didn't. So that all that is lived in the life of the whole life of Christ is Acta at paa. All he does and all he suffers then has an instrumental, you might say exemplary as well as efficient causality. That are closely related to be communicated to the whole, uh, mystical body of the church. And this is thematic for his understanding of grace as received antecedent to Christ being initially Christ conforming by way of inertia, or you might say tangential orientation towards the mystery of Christ to come and afterwards as being Christ conforming in the sense of drawing us into the life of the sacraments and being more intensively effectuated in the life of the sacraments. But lest anyone think this is unimportant, if you read Lumen gen paragraphs 14 through 16, when they're talking about how the extension of Christ grace is universal, they cite question eight of the turia pars as a theological locus of interpretation. So I think that needs to be more explored still. But I mean, Aquinas's doctrine of the headship of Christ is capital. Grace is at the heart of the modern interpretation of the universality of the grace of Christ in the modern magisterium. Yes, sir.

Speaker 15 48:53

Thank you Father Thomas Joseph. That was exceptionally, lucid and comprehensive. I have a question about penal substitution. Yeah. so at one point you described, uh, Calvin's view, that Christ, stands in our place, is declared guilty and, uh, suffers, uh, our punishment in our place. Um, but as you, as you distinguished his view from that of, uh, Anzo and Aquinas, I, I have to say it sounded a little bit like a distinction without a difference because you, you did explain that on Aquinas's account, Christ suffers our punishment, which is to say he's punished for us, which is to say he's punished in our place. And then as you went to elaborate, it sounded like the real linchpin was guilt because you said he's he's not declared guilty. Yeah. But I don't, I don't know that that's gonna do the work because Calvin nor any other Christian thinker I'm aware of, would actually want to say. Christ is guilty, but merely that he is punished as if he were guilty. And so I'm still left wondering what if you, if you could help me understand the

Speaker 12 49:54

description. Yeah. Well, so I think there's more to do on this and there are, you know, there are analytic philosophers who get into like many subdivisions of how to understand penal substitutionary theory. And it's very interesting. There are ways to draw the two thinkers into approach Schal because obviously Calvin believes that Christ is innocent. But as I understand him, Calvin does have a very interesting, I mean, fascinating. Uh, he's a, by the way, you know, he's a theologian. I read a lot. But, with respect, I mean, just say I'm not trying to use him as an, as an easy target. I, I understand him in justification and in Christ's atonement to, to be creating a mirror, uh, wherein we are actually radically depraved and unregenerate in in justification. He's even sterner about this in a way than than Luther. We are declared righteous for Christ's sake. We are ourselves radically corrupt. There is not a transformative event in justification, though he has a stronger doctrine of work sanctification after that. So we are deputed, righteous extrinsically for the sake of Christ. Christ is deputed guilty extrinsically. For our sake, though he is innocent and that does not seem to me a difference, uh, of mirror words, but I a real, a real ontological and theological vision where God can impute guilt to Christ for our sake, even though he's innocent and impute righteousness to us. For Christ's sake, though we are not transformed inwardly in will or in love and charity in the act of justification. I mean, traditionally Protestants have held that these are really different views. I think Aquinas so I wasn't very clear in my, you know, English use of, of Latin terms, pene, and we do not inherit Christ does not take on our guilt. He's not a guilt bearer, and that I think does make a different. Formulated difference with the Calvin. He does take on Payne. Payne can be also pains or sufferings. They can be punishments in there. Let's just say this. There are people who bear the Payne of others and there are those who bear the pain of their own sins. So one can do something sinful. That is then, you know, makes you have to bear the burden or the sufferings of your own guilt. But they can also affect other people who are not guilty, who suffer innocently because of our action. And Christ is one of these latter who takes on the sufferings, the pene, the punishments that we have concocted and enters into that, uh, situation of really the better word might be suffering for pain. A uh, but they are sufferings incurred because of guilt, not his, but ours. And then he makes use of them, you might say, creatively, to steward us back to God. This is a really important point though for Reformed Roman dialogue. And I, I do wanna explore it further and I'm really happy to be challenged on it and I'd love to see more concurs worked out or more convergence worked out if that can be done and I might be wrong about it. Yes, sir.

Speaker 16 52:38

Well, I actually had, my first part of my question was the same question that was just asked, and my, uh, second part is in speaking about this third dimension of Christ's act of atonement, you talked about how it manifests God's love. And from some of the treatments I've seen, manifesting God's love is a, is a key thing that motivates some of reformed theology in taking this view of penal substitution. And frankly, I've run into a lot of younger Catholics who believe that and find this to be a beautiful expression of God's love. So I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on how you think. The Catholic view manifests God's love. And also, if you think this opens any doors for ecumenical dialogue, this is

Speaker 12 53:20

not, I'm not expressing an Aquinas position, the Catholic view, I'm expressing a Mistic school of thought. Catholics are free to believe a variety of theories. And there are plenty of Catholics in history, very noteworthy ones who have expressed some version of penal substitutionary theory. You know, so I don't consider it a church dividing issue. Okay. So you know that then the question would be, is like the Christ becoming a bearer of the wrath of a father, uh, a way to show, indicate a Christ in a way, substituting himself as a guilt bearer and being a wrath bearer. Even expressing, experiencing something like dereliction in hell. Which obviously that is a big difference between Calvin Aquinas, which is non-negotiable. I mean, there, there can't, there's no faith in Christ for Aquinas. Calvin's very strict about this idea that, you know, Christ lives in faith and experiences the pains of hell in the crucifixion, precisely'cause he's deemed a guilt. I think there's a lot of dangers and problems with that view. I'm ready to go toe to toe with people who think that's beautiful and loving and good, and I will be a, a good theological adversary. But we both have a right of place in the Catholic church, and those Catholics who wanna defend it are great potential allies with the, the reformed tradition. I think it's a mistake on the reformed tradition to say that this is the only model of atonement available. That this is the only way to read scripture. And I would wanna argue it that just reading it by scripture alone, there's not a strong foundation for it. So I'm happy to have that argument. I'm, you know, I'm animated by that. I'm going to this guy over here. Thank you.

Speaker 7 54:49

Thank you, father Thomas. Joseph. Um, my question concerns how it is that the cross, uh, manifests, the goodness of God and, um, potential obstacles to seeing that goodness, uh, you know, the, the stumbling block and the obstacle. and so. What do you think is, what do you, what obstacles do you see today in, I don't know, maybe more common philosophical schools or just kind of more, I just popular pop, you know, philosophy way we approach questions of mercy and justice that might make it difficult for people to today to see, this as, as Thomas says, is the more merciful route of saving us actually for Christ to suffer and die for us, as opposed to just pardoning us as, uh, as he says, potentially, possibly could have been develop. It's like

Speaker 12 55:38

36 things you could say are difficult for people. In terms of the atonement, I mean, the biggest thing is that it's like intel unintelligible without grace. And so I think, you know, evangelization is an art, not a science. So you have to, you have to figure out where the person is and what will lead them, what is most likely to be a, a portal of access to the gospel. and it is true sometimes the, well, CS Lewis has actually proven. That talking to people about the universal sense of the need for forgiveness is a way into talking about the atonement. The fact that we do all experience deep moral vulnerabilities. Now, of course, that can be controversial'cause you have to now say there's like objective truths about moral acts. But mature people can usually understand that there's some kind of convolutions of the conscience around human ventures undertaken imp prudently, and that there's, you know, some need for reconciliation forgiveness. And it's actually a very, in, in a way, merciless world. We live in. I mean, the canceling of people happens fast, arbitrarily, and it's a moving volatile. the systems of honor of our society are unstable and, and tumultuous. And it, it destabilizes a lot of people who want on ordinary, ordinary corridors to achieve honor and stability. But that's often evaporating what with God's forgiveness, you always have a corridor. So I think that that's one strategic art. Artistry by which we could present the cross, kind of riffing off CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, which is a book when I was young, spoke nothing, it said nothing to me. I was much more interested in ultimate explanations, but now I do actually appreciate that, you know, that I'm on the other side trying to figure out how to talk to people.

Speaker 13 57:19

One more, one

Speaker 12 57:21

part. Oh, this is difficult. There's like two formidable theologians waiting here at the, at three maybe. Anyway, so, go ahead. Please

Speaker 13 57:29

make it very quick.

Speaker 8 57:31

okay. So I had a question about the glory of time. yeah. As a like glorious inauguration. what is the relationship in the sense of time between the eternal word and like the incarnate, you know, gods man? specifically relating to like Christoph in the Old Testament.

Speaker 12 57:51

Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's a great question. Um, so I mean, let me say this in two parts. First, when I was looking at that, I was really interested to see what is the coins gonna say about the hour of Jesus? And like, what is the hour of the passion and how's this related to,'cause that's obviously a time image and how's it related to I am going to the father. And you know, what I discovered, I think, is that going to the father is, uh, really the perfecting of his humanity. It doesn't denote some change in the eternal life of the Trinity, but it, it's a change in the human nature entering into a greater pude of glory. Now, if you look back at the epiphanies of glory of the Old Testament that are anticipatory, they are, often described in terms overtly of the language of glory. Uh, of course the most famous language of glory is the. Uh, the glory of God, of the Lord that descends upon the tabernacle, which is often thought to be a pre figuration directly. In fact, Luke makes it a pre figuration of the dissent of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary and his use of the Greek in Luke. the way I understand it with Aquinas, he tends to think that the high prophets of the Old Testament did receive explicit understanding of the incarnation. He's thinking about people like Moses and David and Isaiah, that they placed in an, they understand it enigmatically, but they had some numinous awareness of the incarnation to come, which they expressed in these, symbolic forms of discourse to manifest uncreated glory coming into the world that would be achieved in the incarnation in the final way. And these are therefore read by Aquinas typically as Christoph's. That we're seeing the initial enunciations in the prophetic consciousness of ancient Israel, even in the metaphorical, in fleshed mode of signification, of anticipations, of God's manifestation in the flesh. Uh, so Israel's the kind of preparation for the incarnation. Uh, I find it coherent and interesting to think about. And of course, that text affects directly the senses of scripture, the literal sense, and then the typological senses. Thank,

Speaker 13 1:00:13

thank you Father Thomas. Joseph. I think you can all now see, uh, the truth of those remarks I made about him that I did not deliver, and, uh, his influence on many people, uh, for his wisdom. two words. One is a word about our title. Aquinas at 800. all of the celebrations of Aquinas going on throughout the rest of the world in the last couple of years have typically been something like either the 750th anniversary of its death or the 700 anniversary of his canonization. But we here at Notre Dame, celebrate Aquinas was born, not that he died.