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THE GOOD TREE





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THE GOOD TREE

Meditations on the Passion

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by John Fearon, O.P.

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THE GOOD TREE

Meditations on the Passion of

Our Lord Jesus Christ

by

John Fearon, O.P.

Price Twenty-five Cents

A GRAIL PUBLICATION

St. Meinrad Indiana



NIHIL OBSTAT:

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August 15, 1949

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M. Byrne

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^ John J. Mitty

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August 22, 1949

Copyright 1954 by

St. Meinrad Archabbey, Inc.

A GRAIL PUBLICATION



THE GOOD TREE

* * *

INTRODUCTION

E saints of God are unanimous in the opinion

,hat meditation on the Passion and Death of

Jesus is essential for achieving the true Christian

spirit and indispensable as a means for progressing in

charity, and the Church of God has in all times and in

all places given this phase of the life of Christ a po-

sition of pre-eminence both in preaching and in art.

In fact, the cross has been singled out of the Gospels

as the very symbol of Christianity. Accordingly, if

one is to achieve the true Christian spirit in actuality,

make progress in charity, be an apt student in the

school which is the Church, and understand the

symbol which led Crusaders in battle, the symbol

which has been pressed to the lips of countless mil-

lions of dying Christians, the symbol which surmounts

every altar, every church, every school, every monas-

tery and so many homes in the Christian world—^then
an intellectual appreciation of the Passion and Death

of Christ is of the greatest importance.

The Passion and Death are in themselves so vivid

in color, so alive with poignant details, so charged

with gruesome cruelty and heroic love, that the eyes

and heart of man are fixed with fascination. How-



2 The Good Tree

ever, though it is true that vision must precede knowl-

edge and that the emotions of the heart should stir

the mind to deeper search, yet it can happen that

bright colors, tear-filled eyes and a choking heart can

dim the vision and impede knowledge and under-

standing. The swishing, thudding sound of a flog-

ging, the gush of red blood upon the earth, the om-

inous circling of vultures can fill the heart and eye

and smother the question; why? And not only the

wealth but also the breadth of material detail can

impede the understanding of the intellect. The more

parts there are to a clock, the more difficult it is to

assemble the clock; and just as one can be acquainted

with all the parts of the clock individually and still

not know the clock as a whole and the principle by

which it operates, so, too, one can be familiar with

the material details of the Passion and Death and still

fail to perceive the totality involved as a unit, can

fail to see the unifying principles upon which it is

built.

Fra Angelico painted a picture of the crucifixion,

placing St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas on the

scene. St. Dominic is collapsed in sorrow at the foot

of the cross, tears streaming down his face. St.

Thomas stands beside the cross, his quiet gaze upon

the Master, wrapt attention written on his face. That

picture rather accurately summarizes St. Thomas’ ap-



Introduction 3

proach to the Passion and Death of Jesus in his Sum-

ma Theologica—logical and quiet. The Angelic Doc-
tor considers the Passion and Death with a minimum

of pictorial detail and complete absence of emotion.

And in view of the importance of the Passion and

Death, his consideration is surprisingly brief, though

indeed logically unified and coherent. This supres-

sion of vivid color, this substitution of logic for feel-

ing, this tendency to view generalities rather than

particular details, to enumerate causes and effects ra-

ther than to count wounds, is not because of a disdain

for feelings on the part of the great Doctor, nor be-

cause of a revulsion from awful reality as is the case

with those who strip the corpus from the cross. No.

St. Thomas’ consideration is aimed at imparting an

understanding of the Passion and Death, an intellec-

tual appreciation of that climactic moment in the

history of the world.

St. Thomas did not disdain the tears of Dominic.

But he was writing a theological work for men, for

beginners like ourselves. His aim was understanding.

He knew full well that if we could understand with

him we would be more likely to weep with Dominic.



CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND

CERTAIN amount of antecedent knowledge is

necessary for an understanding of the Passion

and Death that aspires to be more than superficial.

Meditation is not like writing on a slate—first you
write one lesson, then erase it and write the second.

It is more like painting a picture in oils—first you
rough out the figures, then paint in this figure and

that, part by part. It is an accumulative process, and

painting the last buttons on the coat makes sense only

in view of what has gone before and is still actually

present on the canvas. So too with the mind that

would understand the Passion—it must approach the
study of the Passion filled with many previous ideas.

The first prerequisite for understanding the Pas-

sion and Death of Jesus is a knowledge of the theolo-

gy of the Incarnation, an intellectual sketch of the

basic dimensions of the central figure in this picture.

The briefest possible description of Christ says that

He is the Incarnate Word, but in these two terms there

is a wealth of mystery. For Christ is both God and

man, and yet He is but one Person, the Word, the

Second Person of the Trinity. His Godliness and His

manliness are distinct and separate things, yet He



Background 5

Himself is one thing, one Person. This real duality of

natures, of what Christ is, and this equally real unity

of person, i.e., who Christ is, is the heart of the

mystery of the Incarnation. To indicate that this mys-

tery is a two-in-one combination that differs from any

other two-in-one combination in the whole world,

theologians have given this union of two natures in

one divine Person the special name of hypostatic

union. For example, it is much more real a union

than two eggs in one basket, for such a union is only

one of place. Again, one person may unite within

himself the abilities of a plumber and a musician, but

being a plumber and being a musician are not sep-

arate different things but only separate different abili-

ties. The Incarnation is not a question of the Word

having two sets of abilities, but of being two really

different things. Nor is the hypostatic union a ques-

tion of the Word having two different natures the

way Peter, one person, has a body and a soul. In

the first place Peter’s body and soul, though different

and separable, are by themselves imperfect things,

whereas Christ’s human and divine natures are by

themselves perfect things. In the second place Peter’s

body and soul are knit together to form one thing,

they dove-tail and complete each other and form one

thing, Peter. In Christ, the divine and human na-

tures are not knit together, blended together or in-



6 The Good Tree

termixed, but remain distinct and separate perfect en-

tities, united in the sense that they are united to the

same divine Person, that they belong to the Person

of the Word. This is the mystery of the Incarnation,

the mystery of what Christ is.

This ineffable mystery of two natures being in one

person has as its counterpart a special kind of unity

in operation. Now, the divine nature has an intellect

and a will, the very mind and heart of God Himself.

And the human nature of Christ is likewise equipped

with an intellect and will, for it is a human nature.

Furthermore, each of these intellects and wills has its

own proper actions, each thinks its own thoughts and

loves its own loves. However, there is not the com-

plete duality and separateness of action in Christ that

we in our imagination attribute to Siamese twins or

split personalities. Christ’s actions have their own

special kind of unity. In the first place, unlike the

twins, the divine and human love and knowledge of

Christ are the operations of one person. In the second

place, unlike the split personality, the human element

is consciously and organically united to the divine

and acts as an instrument of the divine, somewhat the

way the hand is the instrument of the will in feeding

the body. Though in a way this was perhaps obvious

when Jesus put His hand upon the leper and cured

him, it is equally true in the sufferings of Jesus and



Background 1

must be kept in mind even if it is not quite as ob-

vious.

Everything that is true of the divine mind and di-

vine heart of God is true of the divine mind and di-

vine heart as it existed in Christ. When the Word

assumed human nature He lost none of His divinity,

He merely added the humanity. Inasmuch as the

humanity of Christ was so intimately associated to the

divinity in its very being and in its operations, the

human mind and heart of Christ were filled with

perfections that far surpass the perfections of any

other man. As a man, as a way-farer, Christ had not

only the Beatific Vision of the Triune God, but also

the fulness of knowledge about absolutely everything

else that did or will happen in the world of men,

all history past and present, all the secret thoughts

and desires of all men through the ages until the end

of the world. As regards the will of Christ, He was

perfect in grace. All the grace that has existed or

will exist in the world pre-existed in His will as in

a cause, somewhat the way the oak tree pre-exists in

the acorn. As a matter of fact the fullness of grace

in Christ, which theologians call capital grace, enabled

Him to merit not only for Himself but for all men

past and present. Finally, Christ’s human will was

perfectly conformed to the will of God in all that He

deliberately and freely willed. This was not just a



8 The Good Tree

general sort of conformity as when we say we will

what God wills, not knowing what God wills in

detail. This conformity of human and divine will in

Christ was a point by point conformity, for Christ as

a man had the fullest knowledge of what God willed.

Just as the perfections of the manhood of Christ

flow from and are determined by its proximity to the

divinity, so too the imperfections and weaknesses in

His human nature are determined by His role in the

world as a suffering Savior. On the one hand, unless

He were exceptionally holy. His life would have had

no special merit. His actions would have had no spe-

cial virtue. But on the other hand, unless He had

some weaknesses of an inculpable nature, some vul-

nerability, He would have been incapable of pain and

suffering. Inasmuch as Jesus had the Beatific Vision

His human nature in all its totality should have par-

ticipated in glory, and enjoyed as a result the com-

pletest type of invulnerability. Whatever there was of

defect and vulnerability in Jesus was voluntarily as-

sumed and freely embraced, not a necessary side of

being human, as with us. None the less His body was

just as capable of pain and suffering, of hunger and

thirst as any human body. His soul was just as capable

of sorrow and love and desire and bravery and hurt

as any human soul. Whatever there is in human na-

ture that contributes to vulnerability whether of body



Background 9

or of soul, whatever there is in our make-up that

makes suffering possible, was His. The boundaries

for this aspect of His nature were laid down, on one

side, by His divine dignity, for no defects were pres-

ent that derogated from that dignity, and, on the oth-

er, by the work for which He was predestinated, that

He save the world by suffering and death.

This factor of predestination was almost constantly

on Christ’s lips. Time and again He speaks of the

will of the Father, of the purpose for which He came

into the world. For Jesus as a man was predestined

by God. All the details of His life were planned by

God from all eternity: that Simon of Cyrene should

happen by the road to Calvary, that Peter should be

tempted to deny Him, that there should be a sponge

on the wine jug at Calvary. There is a temptation to

consider many of the little facts in Christ’s life as

chance, mere accident. Yet all the details of His life,

as of ours, were part of a divine eternal plan, and this

plan was fully appreciated by Jesus as a man, and

totally embraced by Him at every moment of His life.

The second prerequisite for an understanding of

the Passion and Death of Jesus is the admission of

the existence of sin, and the relation that suffering

bears ,to it. If the Passion is going to be in any way

intelligible, some appreciation of the relationship be-

tween suffering and sin is necessary, some knowledge



10 The Good Tree

of the relationship between the suffering of Christ and

revelation on the one hand, and between sin and the

deception of the devil on the other.

Original sin is a fact. Adam was constituted by

God as the physical and moral head of the race.

And original justice and all the supernatural and

preternatural gifts were given to Adam somewhat

after the manner of characteristic features or proper-

ties. Thus justice and charity and immortality were

to be passed on to Adam’s children in the same way

that human nature and intellectuality and spirituality

were to be passed on. However, these gifts were

given to Adam in such a way that their future exist-

ence depended upon his will, upon his faithfulness to

God. Adam’s defection is a revealed fact. Hence

Adam’s personal sin not only made him an enemy of

God,' but also infected the whole human race. As a

result of Adam’s sin every man (Mary excepted)

comes into being not as accepted but as rejected by

God, devoid of any supernatural goodness.

Personal sin is likewise a fact. It is a fact not only

of faith but of personal experience in every man’s

life. Now, personal sin consists in a free and per-

sonal pursuit, contrary to the will of God, of some ap-

parent but not real good or pleasure. In us, as in

Adam, sin is faithlessness to the divine good. All men

without grace were doomed to such a life, a life which



Background 1

1

would have been a permanent state. Because of the

subsequent mercy of God the permanence of sin as a

state is generally forgotten. However, except for

the mercy of God, sinning would be like falling into

a well. Men could fall in of their own power but

would be unable of themselves to rise again.

Except for the mercy of God! The misery of sin-

ful man called down the mercy of God and the result

was the suffering Christ.

While Jesus hung upon the cross darkness covered

the earth, though it was actually mid-day. No star

shone upon Him as at Bethlehem, no bright cloud

overshadowed Him as at His Baptism, Transfigura-

tion and Ascension. Yet at no moment in His life

did the Son of God shed more light upon the world.

This moment contrasts vividly with that moment in

the Garden of Eden when all was clean and bright,

when the sun was clear in the heavens, when man’s

eyes were alive with honesty—and Satan deceived our
first parents. With the temptation of giving them a

knowledge of good and evil, of opening their minds

to the light, the angel who was the prince of dark-

ness cast darkness upon the earth, upon the mind of

man. It is indeed a strange paradox that revelation

was at its brightest when darkness covered the land,

and deception at its darkest when light covered the

face of the Garden.



12 The Good Tree

However, not only does the brilliant light shed by

the suffering Christ contrast with the engulfing dark-

ness of the mendacious devil, but sacrificial suffering

itself is the very antithesis of sin. For sin is the

pursuit of one’s own will contrary to the will of God.

Sin is the pursuit of a false good, a false pleasure,

not because it is false but because darkness and de-

ception have made the false good appear as true. Sac-

rificial suffering, on the other hand, is the pursuit of

God’s will when it hurts and pains one’s own will,

when everything that appears to sense and feeling is

apparently evil. True, this is only one aspect of sin

and sacrificial suffering, but under this one aspect they

are contraries like hot and cold, like fire and ice, and

it takes one to drive out the other. At any rate this

one aspect casts some light and logic on the unfathom-

able wisdom of God who chose the suffering Christ

to drive sin out of infected human nature.

Note, however, that what actually breaks the cold

clutch of sin upon the human soul is the fire of grace.

Grace works invisibly, for it is the work of God.

But God treats men as men, as intelligent and free

beings. Accordingly, when in His mercy He de-

stroyed sin. He did it in a visible way, with a bril-

liant revelation, so that we could see and believe, and

freely and deliberately respond to that merciful act

of God.



Background 13

Without this admission of the fact of sin, without

some knowledge of this contrariety between sin and

sacrificial suffering, our loving, happy, joyful God ev-

er appears as a cruel and heartless God who rejoices

in pain; and the Christian spirit appears as a twisted

contradiction of human nature that revels in self-

torture. Without some understanding of this rela-

tionship .Christianity appears as a contradiction, an

unintelligible paradox, and the cross is indeed a

stumbling block and a scandal.

Hence it is important that we keep in mind that

the only reason given in Scripture for the Incarnation

is the liberation of man from sin. We only know

God’s mind from revelation. And it is futile to

speculate on what God might have done if He had

planned a totally different order of things for this

world in which there would have been no sin. It is

futile to speculate on what might have been when a

lifetime of meditation will never exhaust the truth of

what really is. Scripture tells us that Christ came to

take away the sins of the world, and in no other con-

tact would the mercy of God have appeared more bril-

liantly. This motive must especially be applied to the

Passion and Death, the moment when Christ indeed

convinced the world of sin.

As a final bit of background to an exposition of St.

Thomas’ doctrine on the passion and death of Jesus,



14 The Good Tree

it might be useful to consider the utterly simple out-

line he follows in his treatise: the Passion itself, the

causes of the Passion, and the effects of the Passion.

After all, the Passion and Death were human actions,

deliberate human actions of a man who was God.

And if any human action is to be understood it must

be looked at from these three points of view. For

example, we read in the paper or hear on the radio

that two famous politicians dined together the day

before. However, if one is to comprehend the fact

it would be important to know just what was dis-

cussed at that meal. Likewise, to understand the event

it might be well to know the causes. Did an emer-

gency demand that they pool their forces, or did

they just happen to be guests of the same host? Fur-

thermore, the full significance of the event would

have to be considered from the view point of effect.

Would their conversation lead to party unity or to

strife? No special illumination is needed, then, to

see the commonsense necessity involved in St. Tho-

mas* division of his consideration into the Passion

itself, the causes of the Passion and its effects.

Jb



CHAPTER TWO

WHY THE CROSS?

F
irst of all it is obvious that the Passion was not

absolutely necessary. You cannot answer the

question ‘‘why’* by saying that it just had to be. God

could have freed man from sin by a simple act of His

will, by just willing He could have wiped the slate

clean. Nor was it necessary in the sense that Christ

was forced to suffer. You cannot answer the ques-

tion “why” by saying the Roman soldiers forced Him

to suffer. For Jesus, Who had escaped from them

so often, could easily have escaped from them now

and could, as He said, have called legions of angels

to His defence. No, He suffered freely and voluntari-

ly. The only way it can be said that Christ necessarily

had to suffer is in the sense that it was the best con-

ceivable way to get the task accomplished, the best

way that divine wisdom could invent to save man

from sin. St. Thomas brings forth the following rea-

sons to prove this point.

From Christ’s point of view it was fitting that by

the humiliation of His passion He merit the exaltation

of His glory. And as a matter of fact this is the

reason Jesus gave the two disciples after the resur-

rection as He walked with them to Emmaus. “O fool-



16 The Good Tree

ish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the

prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to

suffer these things before entering into His glory?”

(Lc. 24, 25-27) However, this reason seems to be

reduced to the third reason which will soon be men-

tioned, i.e., to show us the pattern for entering into

glory.

As far as God is concerned. He had arranged

prophecies of the suffering of Christ and in the Old

Testament had prefigured it in the liturgical observ-

ances of the Old Law. Thus Jesus said” These are the

words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you,

that all things must be fulfilled that are written in the

Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concern-

ing me. . . . Thus it is written, and thus the Christ

should suffer and should rise again from the dead

on the third day; and that repentance and remission

of sins should be preached in his name to all nations

beginning from Jerusalem.” (Lc. 24, 44-46). This

reason too seems to be reduced to the one following,

for after all it was prophesied because it was going

to happen.

Actually the end or goal of the Passion must be

considered from the part of man. It was to free man

from sin and to promote him on the paths of good-

ness. God extinguished the tiny flame of sin with a

Niagara when a drop of His blood would have been



Why The Cross? 17

sufficient^ because God in His wisdom knew that no

other type of salvation would so effectively save us,

no other kind of redemption would so beautifully and

sweetly win us. God knew that the biggest battle in

our life was not for wealth or health or fame, but a

contest with evil, a struggle to be good. God knew

that it would be immeasurably easier for us to be good

and unspeakably harder for us to be evil if we were

saved by the Passion and Death of Himself become

man. This can be seen at least dimly in the following

arguments.

Consider the things that lead us into sin. First and

foremost there is the desire for false liberty, the un-

willingness to have the goodness and badness of our

actions determined by another, the unwillingness to

depend on outside help in carving out our happiness.

But with the vision before us of Jesus obedient to

His Father even to death, who can be deceived by the

desire for false liberty which tempted Adam? The

pleasures of sex and the pleasures of food and drink,

the lure of romance made so rosy in our motion pic-

tures and magazines, are they not robbed of their

persuasive powers to lead us into sin by sympathy and

compassion for the excruciating pains that Christ suf-

fered for these very sins ? The fear of poverty which

makes men steal, the fear of a loss of reputation which

makes men lie, the fear of death which makes men



18 2^be Good Tree

traitors, the fear of motherhood which makes women

afraid to be women—what power has fear for us who
now behold the courage of Christ dying, for by His

death He has taken away even the sting of death it-

self ?

And just as the suffering Christ has stripped false

desire of its evil power over us, so too has He stripped

ignorance of its deceit. Who can be in doubt about

the right road to heaven, who can be confused about

what sort of life God wants us to live, who can weep

in hell for all eternity because he did not know mor-

tal sins were serious in the sight of God, now that

we have the suffering, dying Christ for our example,

now that we can see at a glance how offensive sin is

•in God’s sight?

Evil has been stripped of its allure by the Passion

of Christ, and much of the difficulty in pursuing good

has been taken away. God wants us to believe in Him,

hope in Him and love Him. These are the dimensions

of human goodness in the sight of God. He wants

us to have faith in Christ, in the truths that Christ

preached: that He is God, that He is man, that He

is the way to salvation. Now all these things are

unseen, we cannot prove them. They are mysterious.

It is difficult to bring the mind to assent to them.

Yet Jesus died to prove them, he suffered to prove the

truth of what He preached. Thus from our feeble hu-



Why The Cross? 19

man point of view it is made immeasurably easier to

give whole-hearted assent to one so obviously sincere

as that.

Again, God wants us to love Him with our whole

heart. He is a jealous God. That very totality of love

can be a stumbling block for the heart of man. But

it is made much easier now that we can see how good

God is, how lovable beyond our most extravagant

dreams, how much He loves us. Blind is the man who

can now complain that God is a jealous God when

he demands the total heart of man, that He is un-

worthy of all our love. Can man be slow to love this

God ? Dingy clots of clay that we are, unable to find

anyone so much in love with us as to lay down his life

for us—yet our God has done just that. Perhaps the
heart of man can be slow to love, but can it be slow

to return such love as this?

Finally, God wants us to hope in Him, to trust in

His power and willingness to raise us up to His level,

in the sincerity of His desire to share with us His

eternal, overwhelming joy. But we who become so

quickly accustomed to the little earthly life of man,

and so quickly deluded about anyone’s willingness to

do us good, would find it difficult to hope like this in

God if we did not have His Son for our crucified

Savior. For if God is able to descend this low. He is

certainly able to raise us up. If God is willing to



20 The Good Tree

suffer for our redemption from sin, He is certainly

willing to crown us with glory. Why did Christ suffer,

how does His suffering fit into the divine plan ? Be-

cause God knew that nothing would save us so effec-

tively, nothing would redeem us so beautifully as His

suffering Son.

Just as Jesus suffered freely and voluntarily, so too

He died freely and voluntarily. His death was not

mere physical collapse. No power on earth could have

separated His body and soul had He not permitted it.

He voluntarily embraced death as part of God’s plan.

Nor can the question * why” be answered with ”it

just had to be so.” Nothing just has to be so in

God’s plans, for God always has His reasons. From

Scripture and theology we can glean five of these

reasons.

Christ came to free man from his sins, and part of

that freeing process consisted in satisfying for sin,

in paying the debt that man incurred by sinning.

According to Genesis 2, 17, that debt consisted in

death. ”But of the tree of knowledge of good and

evil thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou

shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.” And though

it is true that a debt can be satisfied by paying an

equivalent price, e.g., satisfying for the theft of a

cow by paying back in money the price of the cow,

still the most suitable and perfect way to make satis-



Why The Cross? 21

faction for self or for another is to pay the very thing

that is owed. Hence it is that Christ wished to satis-

fy for sin by dying. According to Peter, ’'because

Christ also died once for sins, the just for the unjust,

that He might offer us to God” (I Peter 3, 18). This

argument has a sound foundation in Scripture.

In the second place, from our point of view, death

is perhaps the most convincing sign of human life.

If Jesus had come among us as a man and then just

mysteriously disappeared there would have been some

foundation for suspecting that He was not truly a

man. Thus by dying He has left us an irrefutable

proof of the truth and reality of His human nature.

Since Adam lost the gift of immortality for the

human race, death has stalked every man’s footsteps

and clouded every man’s days with fear. By dying

Jesus freed us from this fear of death. He has taken

the sting out of it. Thus St. Paul says: "therefore

because children have blood and flesh in common, so

He in like manner has shared in these; that through

death He might destroy him who had the empire of

death, that is, the devil, and might deliver them who

throughout their life were kept in servitude by the

fear of death.” (Hebrews 2, 14).

By dying corporeally for sin, for death is the penal-

ty that results from sin, Jesus also gave us an example

which we should follow in dying spiritually to sin.



22 The Good Tree

Sin was a spiritual death which had as part of its

punishment corporeal death. Thus by corporeal death

Jesus taught us that we in turn should die to sin

spiritually, i.e., kill it in our souls. Hence St. Paul

wrote to the Romans: ’Tor the death He died, He

died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives he

lives unto God. Thus do you consider yourselves as

dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ.” (Ro-

mans 6, 10).

And unless Jesus had died He would not have been

able to rise from the dead and show us the power

which overcomes death, and give us the hope of ris-

ing from the dead ourselves. The motive of hope is

power. We hope in one who is able to help us, who
has the power of doing what we cannot do. By rising

from the dead Jesus shows that He has this power,

thus providing us with a motive for our hope in our

own resurrection. Yet if He had not died this res-

urrection would not have been possible. Thus St.

Paul could write: "now if Christ is preached as

risen from the dead, how do some among you say

that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if

there is no resurrection of the dead neither has Christ

risen and if Christ has not risen then our preaching is

vain and vain too is your faith.” (I Cor. 15, 12-14)

Granting all these reasons in Divine Wisdom why

Jesus suffered and died, the mind of man can still



Why The Cross? 23

wonder why this had to take place on a cross. Why

crucifixion instead of beheading as with John the

Baptist ? As a matter of fact, crucifixion was not the

customary method of execution prescribed by Roman

law, but rather a type usually inflicted on slaves and

the perpetrators of peculiarly heinous crimes. It was

used by the Romans only on non-Romans. The cus-

tomary method of Jewish execution was stoning. In

clamoring for crucifixion the Jews might well have

had in mind an element of special indignity, but Di-

vine Wisdom had many others.

Inasmuch as this type of death, at least in those

days, was the most execrable type of death, it was pe-

culiarly suitable to the needs of Divine Wisdom, i.e.,

to give men an example of virtue. Virtue consists

in right and reasonable living, in not fearing those

things which are not to be feared. Though perhaps

many men might not fear death itself, yet all men

have a fear of certain types of death, e.g., some say

they would not mind dying but they do not want to

drown or be burned to death. Thus by dying the

worst kind of death Jesus taught us that no particular

type of death need be feared, and in fact should not

be feared.

Again, the death of Jesus was to satisfy for the sin

of Adam. This sin consisted in being disobedient to

God by eating the fruit of a forbidden tree. Jesus,



24 The Good Tree

by dying to satisfy for this sin, died out of obedience

on the tree of the cross, thereby restoring the fruit

which Adam had stolen.

Furthermore, by His death Jesus was to save the

whole world, to lead all men back to God. By dying

crucified on a cross the very position of His body

teaches this: His arms outstretched to embrace all

men. His feet pointed to the earth where men live.

His head toward heaven whither He would lead the

world.

Finally, this manner of death, in a way, fulfilled

most of the types of salvation prefigured in the Old

Law. Noah was saved from the flood by an ark made

of wood. Moses parted the sea and led the chosen

people from bondage with a rod. The Old Law was

kept in an ark of wood. Thus, step by step, these

figures indicated the wood of the cross through which

salvation from sin would come.



CHAPTER THREE

IS THERE ANY SORROW LIKE TO MY
SORROW?

I

N trying to comprehend just 'Vhat happened” in

the Passion and Death of Christ it is important to

try and see ”how” such an event fitted into God's

plans, a point too frequently neglected in meditation

upon the Passion. The details of that suffering, the

extent and degree of that suffering are much more

familiar. Yet in trying to comprehend what hap-

pened, a certain amount of logical order is essential if

one is going to have a balanced, complete and uni-

fied picture, a feature which is likewise too frequently

neglected in meditations on the Passion. In general

the problem of delineating the extent of Jesus’ Pas-

sion falls into two parts: whether He suffered all

suffering, and whether His suffering was the greatest

possible instance of painful experience. Thus, for

example, one might inquire about the extent of a

man’s knowledge from two points of view, did he

know everything, and was he the most intelligent man

in the world.

Basically, Jesus suffered all types of pain. Obviously

He could not suffer every single individual type of

pain for some of them are contradictory, e.g.. He



26 The Good Tree

could not burn to death and freeze to death simul-

taneously; and some of them are impossible to the

Incarnate Word, e.g., toothache and the like. Yet He

suffered every general type of pain, for freezing and

burning both afflict the sense of touch but so does

flogging. This generic completeness can be considered

from several points of view: the various groups of

men who inflicted it; the various possessions stripped

from Him by it; and the various parts of His body

which suffered it.

In the first place Jesus suffered at the hands of all

classes of men. Unlike other sufferers He was buffeted

by men but consoled by women, persecuted by au-

thority but acclaimed by the crowd, a traitor in one

nation and a hero in another. He suffered at the hands

of Jews and Gentiles alike. Raucous male voices were

raised against Him, but also the insinuations of the

serving maid who accused Peter. Pilate, the authority

of Rome; Herod, the king of the Jews; the high

priest himself—all persecuted Christ; and the mob
with a loud roar demanded His death. His enemies

triumphed over Him and His friends abandoned

Him—Judas by betrayal, Peter by denial, and the
other ten by desertion. And in the fullness of knowl-

edge which Jesus had, as He prayed in the Garden,

as He hung upon the cross. He saw the sinners of all

ages from Adam to the last man who shall be born,



Is there any Sorrow like to My Sorrow? 27

those billions and billions of souls (all save one)

lending a hand to His passion by their sins. In the

fullness of this knowledge He suffered not only at

the hands of the sinners who would learn from the

cross and repent, but also at the hands of the sinners

who would choose an eternal hell rather than receive

of His mercy.

In the second place, suffering can be considered

from the viewpoint of the possessions and goods

stripped from Him. Consider these goods in which a

man can feel hurt: friends, reputation and earthly

possessions.

In a lifetime a man makes few real friends, he

chooses but few to share the secrets of his heart and

mind. Yet these few are dearer to him than all else.

They relieve his loneliness, they console him in an-

guish, they are a constant source of confidence in

facing future troubles. Christ chose but twelve men

to be His closest friends. He poured out to them the

secrets of His heart. He kept them close to Him in

all His works, and looked to them with confidence,

trusting that they would carry on His work when He

was gone. Yet one of them betrayed Him with a

kiss. Who shall ever fathom the hurt He felt in

speaking those final words to Judas, '‘friend, a kiss for

what thou hast come to do”.^

The second dearest possession a man can hold is a



28 The Good Tree

good reputation. Most of us put our best thought into

building up a worthy reputation and are willing to

spend and willing to sacrifice to preserve it. And

Christ was the Son of God: He was entitled to a

worthy reputation, to fame and glory. Yet this was

stolen from Him by blasphemies: ''Thou who de-

stroyest the temple and in three days buildest it up

again, save thyself! If thou art the Son of God

come down from the cross!” Instead of honor, in-

stead of respect, instead of adoration. He suffered

mockery. He suffered derision and scorn. He heard

men make His kingdom a ridicule. "Let the Christ,

the King of Israel come down now from the cross

that we may see and believe.” "He trusted in God;

let him deliver him now if he wants him for he

said I am the Son of God.” .

Admittedly, earthly possessions rate rather low on

the scale of values. None the less, the loss of wealth

is never joyful. Admittedly, Jesus was a poor man;

He had not whereon to lay His head. None the less.

He suffered the loss of all He had, the clothes He

wore. They stripped His garments from Him and

cast lots for His cloak. What more painful kind of

poverty is there than this, to hang upon a cross naked

before the eyes of all.^

Most of us are so crude in feelings, so unfamiliar

with living in the presence of God, so prone to take



Is there any Sorrow like to My Sorrow? 29

it for granted that God cares for us, that we shall

never be able to understand the sorrow of Christ’s

soul upon the cross when He said ''My God, my God,

why hast thou forsaken me.” We shall never be able

to understand His dereliction; how utterly strange,

how unspeakably wretched, how intolerably alone He

felt. However, perhaps some of us might be able to

see at least dimly a small portion of the sadness that

flooded His soul when looking down from the cross

He saw the sorrow He was causing in the heart of His

own Mother, Mary.

Certainly we know weariness and tedium and ex-

haustion. Yet we have never actually carried a cross,

we have never fallen beneath a cross, we have never

hung for three long hours upon a cross with the full

knowledge that much of what we suffered was to be

in vain. Our experiences can give us a glimpse but

never an understanding of the weariness of soul

Christ suffered on that Friday.

Perhaps we know fear better, fear of the surgeon’s

knife, fear of death in battle, fear of sickness. Yet

in our fears there is an element of hope that death

might not come soon, that death when it comes will

come quickly, that perhaps we will escape. In our

fear, too, there is an element of uncertainty and ig-

norance, for we do not know how bad the future will

actually be, we have no previous experience of death.



30 The Good Tree

But Christ in the Garden knew perfectly what lay

ahead of Him and when it would come. Hanging

upon the cross He was most certain of the anguish

which would put an end to those three hours. He had

a human heart like ours, a heart that could freeze

with fear, that could suffer in anticipation, that could

shrink and recoil while yet He strode forward. In His

soul he suffered sorrow, weariness and fear on a scale

that makes the sorrow, weariness and fear of our sad

world sound like a whisper after a clap of thunder.

And Christ suffered not only in soul but also in all

the members and senses of His body. His head was

bound and pierced by the crown of thorns. His wrists

and feet were run through with nails. His face was

struck by the soldiers and spit upon by the Jews. His

whole body was torn and bleeding and criss-crossed

with swollen blue welts from the flogging. His sense

of touch was outraged with the pain in His hands and

feet, and in all His body from the flagellum. His

sense of taste was nauseated with the gall and cheap

wine. His tongue and lips seared with thirst. His

sense of smell was oppressed by the odor rising from

the throng of living unkempt men, rising from the

mouldering bones of the dead in that place of execu-

tion. His ears were pierced by the raucous blasphemies

hurled at Him and the ironic derision upon the lips

of smug enemies. His quiet eyes which had rejoiced



Is there any Sorrow like to My Sorrow? 31

at the sight of little children then beheld His mother

and His beloved disciple torn with compassion at

His feet.

The question of deciding whether Christ’s suffering

was the greatest experience of pain possible in man

is not merely a matter of counting the strokes of the

scourge and investigating whether any other man ever

suffered more strokes from a lash than He. Suffering

and pain, in general, involve an excessive change from

normality in the sense receptors. Thus in normal cir-

cumstances we feel neither heat nor cold, and sense

both heat and cold as such only within certain limits.

Once the sensation exceeds normal limits some sort

of deterioration occurs in the receptors and the sen-

sation becomes what we call painful. Furthermore,

suffering and pain involve some consciousness of this

deterioration. After all when a man is asleep he feels

no pain regardless of the deterioration. Physical or

bodily pain consists in a bodily injury which is actually

sensed. Spiritual pain or sorrow comes from the

awareness or knowledge of a present evil, the loss of

some good. Thus, for example, the loss of a purse

does not immediately hurt any one of the five senses,

but the knowledge of that loss can cause sorrow in

the soul, and usually does. Accordingly, in determin-

ing whether Christ’s sufferings were greater than the

sufferings of any other human being, it is not so



32 The Good Tree

much the quantity of the blood spilt, the number of

lashes administered, the period of time involved that

counts, as the perceptibility of the one suffering, the

purity of that suffering, whether it was in any way

relieved by other considerations that might cause

pleasure and joy. These things are more important,

more significant in a measurement of suffering than

the others. And from four points of view St. Thomas

says that the sufferings of Jesus were the greatest.

First, from the viewpoint of cause, the sufferings

of the passion were the greatest both as regards sensi-

ble pain and interior sorrow. As regards the intensity

of the physical pain, it was the greatest both because

Jesus suffered so totally, [in this line,} in all His

senses and in all His members, and because He

suffered a type of execution in itself most painful, for

crucifixion afflicts the most sensitive parts of the body,

the nails are driven through the hands and feet, the

weight of the whole body upon the hands and feet

aggravates the pain; and this acuteness of pain is

protracted through several hours. It is not a quick

death like beheading. The causes of interior sorrow

were the greatest possible, first, because He suffered

from and for the sins of all men; secondly, because

He suffered from the Jews, His own chosen people,

(He came unto His own and His own received Him

not), and from His disciples whom He had loved



33Is there any Sorrow like to My Sorrow?

above all others and who were scandalized by His

Passion; and thirdly, because the prospect of losing

life is in itself, and naturally, the most horrible evil

to foresee and anticipate.

And the magnitude of the sufferings of Jesus both

in body and soul depended on the perceptibility of the

one suffering. Since He was the most perfect man

that ever lived or will live. His sense of touch, of

hearing, of smell and taste were the most acute, and,

hence, the most capable of experiencing pain; and

His powers of intellectual perception were the most

capable of the awareness of evil. In other words, He

was more conscious of personal suffering than any

other man could be. Furthermore, painful sensations

as we experience them become progressively weaker

in consciousness with the passage of time. The physi-

cal equipment of sensation breaks down under the

strain. This did not occur in Christ, since He had

absolute dominion over the behavior of His body and

voluntarily impeded any natural alleviation of pain.

Then too, there is normally a limitation of attention

in the experience of a plurality of sensations. A

second pain lessens the amount of attention we can

give to the first pain, and a pleasant sensation can

even completely distract our attention from the exist-

ence of simple discomfort. For this reason a crying

child with a pain in the foot is given an ice cream



34 The Good Tree

cone. However, this limitation of attention did not

occur in Christ. He was the complete master of His

psychological and physical reaction. Accordingly He

was more capable of pain and suffering than any other

man could possibly be.

Finally, the magnitude of the suffering of Christ

can be considered from the viewpoint of the very

purity of pain and sorrow, the complete lack of a mix-

ture of joy or consolation. It is possible that a man

suffer pain from the surgeon’s knife, for example,

but at the same time be “"consoled by the knowledge

that his appendix will bother him no more. ''A moth-

er giving birth to a son is in physical pain but rejoices

that a man child is born into the world.” Jesus had

complete domination over His feelings and willed

that no such consolations relieve His suffering, that

no such joy overflow into the awareness of His sor-

row. No other man can so control his feelings and,

hence, no other man can suffer such unmitigated pain

and sorrow.

It must be remembered that Christ’s sufferings were

undertaken deliberately. Because of the complete

domination He had over His human nature, not only

the fact that He suffered but the very quality of His

sufferings depended on His will—a circumstance that
exists in no other man’s sufferings. And Jesus willed

freely to undergo pain that was proportionate in



Is there any Sorrow like to My Sorrow? 35

quantity to the punishment that all the sins of all the

world should merit. We are accustomed to think of

pain and death and of the agony in hell for all eter-

nity in terms of our selves and in terms of one mortal

sin. But Jesus embraced the punishment that was due

in divine justice to all the sins of all the billions of

souls who should ever live.

However, in considering the extent of Christ’s

sufferings, it is important to keep in mind at the same

time that there were some limits to that suffering. In

the first place He enjoyed the Beatific Vision con-

tinuously through His whole life, and all through the

passion and death. Yet He did not permit that joy

to flood the lower reaches of His soul and flow over in

the sphere of bodily feeling. And in the second place,

He suffered as a just and holy man. Actually, the pun-

ishment for mortal sin is eternal damnation and the

full awareness that the pain of loss of the vision of

God shall be unending. Inasmuch as He was a just

and holy man, inasmuch as He was the Word Incar-

nate, Jesus was incapable of such an experience. Only

the damned can actually experience eternal damnation

which is the punishment of mortal sin. Yet Jesus

experienced all the painfulness of that state in the

derelection on the cross. It was the same pain but

from different causes. All the souls in hell for all eter-

nity shall never know such anguish.



CHAPTER FOUR

ON WHOM LIES THE GUILT?

I

F the Passion and Death of Jesus are a distinctly

voluntary part of the life of the Incarnate Word

to such an extent that they would not have occurred if

He had not so willed, then in some sense this act of

Christ’s will was the cause of His Passion and Death.

And we protest loudly in our-prayers that it was in-

deed our sins and not the soldiers of Rome which

put Christ to death. Hence, in some sense our sins

are the cause of His Passion and Death. Finally, it is

undeniable that in some sense the soldiers and the

Jewish leaders did cause the Passion and Death of

Jesus and it would not have occurred without their

contribution. We employ the word cause in each of

these three cases. Now, our simple crude concept of

causality involves such factors as the fire causing heat

in the coffee that is on the stove. If we seek no deeper

into the idea of causality than the hand which swung

the lash, we have not begun to understand the Passion.

And if we protest loudly that it was indeed our sins

and not the soldiers of Rome which caused Christ’s

death, and still understand causality in terms of fire

causing heat, our concepts labor under an inherent

contradiction that must make meditation fruitless, for



On Whom lies the Guilt? 37

thought which is not true cannot really convince. Ob-

viously our simple crude concept of causality must be

refined and distinguished if we are going to under-

stand completely and adequately the causality in-

volved in the Passion and Death of Jesus.

A person can cause an effect in two ways: first, by

directly bringing about the effect: second, indirectly

by not impeding the effect. Thus, for example, a man

can burn down his neighbor’s house by knowingly and

willingly starting a fire in the beasement for that

very purpose, or he can burn down his neighbor’s

house by not putting out a fire which he discovers al-

ready blazing within his neighbor’s room.

Directly, the persecutors of Christ caused His Pas-

sion and Death because they provided sufficient cause

for His Death with the intention that death should

follow. Indirectly, however, Christ was the cause of

His own Passion and Death for He was able to im-

pede the efforts of His persecutors either by repri-

manding them and escaping from them as He so

did previously, or by exercising a power that was

fully under His control He could have prevented the

suffering and death regardless of whatever efforts were

made by His persecutors for that purpose. Being

joined to the Divine Nature in the Word, Jesus had

full control over the conjunction of His body and

soul, a conjunction which could not be severed with-



38 The Good Tree

out His willing it. As a matter of fact, to prove this,

He spoke in a loud, clear, distinct voice just the

moment before He died, manifesting that life was

not ebbing from Him as from a man on the brink of

death, but that He was still fully alive and deliberate-

ly allowing Himself to suffer death.

Delving deeper into the causality of the passion,

we might well ask what motive^determined Jesus vol-

untarily to accept death rather than impede the work

of His persecutors. Surprising as it may seem, the

Scriptures assign obedience as this motive. **He was

obedient to the Father even to death’* says St. Paul

(Phillip 2.8). St. Thomas gives several reasons why

it was fitting that Jesus should have suffered death

from this motive.

Death out of obedience was most fittingly suited

to the work of justification. As St. Paul says, (Ro-

mans 5, 18), ''therefore as from the offence of one

man the result was unto condemnation to all men, so

from the justice of one the result is unto the justifica-

tion of life to all men. For just as by the disobedience

of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so

also by the obedience of the one the many will be

constituted as just.”

Then, too, it was most fitting that man be recon-

ciled to God by the obedience of Christ. According

to St. Paul, (Romans 5, 10) "we are reconciled to



On Whom lies the Guilt? 39

God through the death of His Son,” for the very death

of Christ was a sacrifice most pleasing to God
—

"as

Christ . . . delivered himself up for us an offering and

a sacrifice to God to ascend in fragrant odor.” (Ephe-

sians 5, 2). Reconciliation was brought about by

something pleasing to God, and we learn in the

Scriptures (I Kings 15, 22) that "obedience is better

than sacrifice.”

Obedience, of course, presupposes that a command

or precept has been given. And Jesus certainly spoke

as if such a command had been given Him by the

Father. Thus in St. John’s Gospel He says, "I have

the power to lay it (His life) down, and I have the

power to take it up again. Such is the command I

have received from my Father.” (John 10.18). How-

ever, this motive of obedience in no way excludes

charity or love as a motive for His Passion. A work

of obedience can be done from love, and love can in

turn be a command of God. And, as a matter of

fact, as Jesus rose from the meal in the upper room

to go out to the place of the Passion, He said, "that

the world may know that I love the Father, and that

I do as the Father has commanded me, arise, let us

go from here.” (John 14, 31). And St. Paul says,

”He has loved me and given himself up for me.”

(Gal. 2, 20). Loving the Father meant loving and

willing everything the Father loved and willed, and



40 The Good Tree

the Father indeed loved us and willed that we be

saved from our sins by the Passion and Death of the

Son.

If a subject does a stupid thing out of obedience we

do not hesitate to put the blame on the superior.

Hence, in following back the line of causality in the

Passion and Death, we must finally arrive at the Fa-

ther who gave the command to Jesus to lay down His

life for us. In the plans of Divine Providence the

Father in His eternal will pre-ordained that we whom

He permitted to fall into sin should be saved by His

directly willing that His only-begotten Son become

man and die for us. He further inspired Christ in

His human will with the desire to die for us out of

charity, and in His eternal plan arranged to abstain

from protecting His only Son in that dire hour when

the forces of evil raged against Him.

The role of the Father is indeed a most merciful

gesture of love, the role of the Son one of infinite

merit. Yet the role of the persecutors who directly

brought about Christ’s death, and our role—^we the
sinners who in our misery called forth the mercy of

God—is one of guilt. It is true that Jesus prayed upon
the cross ''Father forgive them; they know not what

they do.” In praying thus He prayed especially for

the leaders of the Jewish people who indeed needed

forgiveness. And the pharse "they know not what



071 Whom lies the Guilt? 41

they do” was not meant as an excuse for them (for

ignorance in some instances excuses from guilt), but

rather as the thing for which they primarily needed

forgiveness. They knew not what they did because

they had refused to believe, blinded by their pride and

self-love. Since their ignorance was itself culpable and

directly willed by them their crime was the greater.

The people who followed them had less guilt for they

were merely following their leaders whom they had

been accustomed to follow as the voice of God for

centuries. And the Roman soldiers were merely carry-

ing out the orders of their superiors. It is most likely

that they had not even heard the preaching of this

Man and, hence, had no opportunity to believe.



CHAPTER FIVE

THE GOOD TREE BRINGS FORTH GOOD
FRUIT

T
urning now from the causes of the Passion and

Death to the effects of that climactic event, it

might be well to probe more deeply into the concept

of effect, since for some strange reason, the simple

ideas of cause and effect have become very confused

in the ordinary mind. Thus, for example, a soap

manufacturer assumes to himself and his product the

full credit for turning out white wash when, as a

matter of fact, it was the hard labor of the housewife

that made the wash white, and one soap would have

done about as good a job as another. In general, it

is sufficient to know that an effect is something that

depends on another thing either for its being or for

its coming into being. For example, a statue depends

upon the wood out of which it is carved for its being.

But here we are most interested in efficient causes,

causes upon which effects depend for their coming

into being—somewhat the way a boiled egg depends
upon heat for its coming into that state, but remains

a boiled egg even after the fire is turned off. This

dependency upon another in the matter of coming

into being can be divided into two types: direct and



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 43

indirect. But in this chapter these terms are going to

have a different meaning than in the last chapter.

Take, for example, the mother who suggests that her

daughter clean a window. The fact that the window

becomes clean depends upon both the mother and

the daughter. But it depends upon the daughter di-

rectly, she is the one who climbed the ladder and ap-

plied the soap and water to the window. It depends

on the mother indirectly, she is the one who moved

the will of the daughter to engage in such an occupa-

tion. In speaking of the effects of the Passion and

Death of Christ these effects are going to depend upon

the suffering Christ in both ways, directly and indi-

rectly.

The idea of direct causality can also be ambiguous,

for we say that the fire which heats the water is the

direct cause of the hot water, and the hand which

pulls the trigger on the gun is the direct cause of the

killing. But, in the first case, the heat in the water

comes only and completely from the fire. In the

second case the killing comes from the bullet which

was propelled by the explosion of the power which

was set off by the finger on the trigger. The size of

the finger has nothing to do with the killing, while

the size of the fire has considerable to do with the

heat in the fire. Here we are speaking of direct

causality in the first sense. And in this sense, only



44 The Good Tree

God can bring about the effect of the Passion, i.e.,

grace. God, and only God, causes grace the way a

fire causes heat. Yet the human nature of Jesus is an

instrument in the hands of God and also has a role

to play in this direct causality. Thus, for example, the

hand which moves the eraser, directly cleans the

blackboard, but the eraser in the hand has a certain

instrumentality in that operation. Thus, too, the hu-

man .nature of Jesus, the voluntary suffering of Jesus,

is an instrument in the hands of the divine nature,

causing grace and abolishing sin. Yet it is to be noted

that the eraser is a dead, inanimate instrument, where

the human nature of Christ is a living, free, deliberate

instrument. In this sense, only the human nature of

Jesus is the instrument of the divine nature in the

causing of grace, and all grace comes through that

suffering human nature as from an instrument. No

other instrument, either sacrament or priest, is united

to the divine nature in the Word.

Meritorious causality is one of the many types of

causality that might be classified under what we have

here called indirect causality. Basically, merit means

having a right to a reward because of some good

work done for the benefit of another. The founda-

tion for that right may be either justice or friend-

ship. Thus, a laboring man by dint of his day’s labor

acquires a right in justice to the wages he is to receive.



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 45

He does not beg for his wages but demands them. He

does not say to the paymaster, “Be a good friend

and give me five dollars.” He says, “Give me my

wages.” The favorite niece of a rich uncle feels en-

titled to the price of an ice cream cone, however, not

on a basis of justice but of friendship. If she is re-

fused she does not say that uncle is a very unjust

man, but that uncle does not love her any more.

Now, the basis of merit, the thing that makes it

possible for a man to merit in God’s sight, is grace.

An action which proceeds from grace gives, a man a

right to an increase in grace and to glory. Yet it is

to be noted that the effect, i.e., the increase of grace

or glory, does not flow directly from man’s action, as

heat from fire, but from God. Thus, for example,

sweeping a floor out of charity directly gets the floor

clean, but indirectly and meritoriously causes an

increase in charity, which increase comes directly from

God. Christ had what theologians call “capital grace”

which enabled Him to merit in justice not only for

Himself but for all mankind. And it was by His Pas-

sion and Death that He merited all the grace that ex-

ists in the world, or will exist. Note, however, that

as a meritorious cause He was acting as an individual

complete man and not precisely as an instrument of

the divinity.

Saying that grace is the effect of the Passion and



46 The Good Tree

Death and saying that the suffering Jesus was the in-

strumental and meritorious cause of that grace, says

everything. Yet our feeble minds have to have the

matter broken down into still smaller pieces in order

to understand what is meant by saying that. One of

the ways to break down that statement is to distin-

guish various modes of effecting grace. Thus, for ex-

ample, we might say that the manager of a restaurant

is the indirect cause of dinner, inasmuch as he orders

the dinner, and the cook the direct cause, inasmuch as

the cook actually prepares the dinner. That would

account for the types of causality involved. But this

concept could be broken down into smaller pieces by

distinguishing the various modes in which this causali-

ty operated, e.g., in cleaning the vegetables, in mixing

the soup, in heating the various dishes and in serving

the meal. So, too, the causes at work in the Passion

operated in a variety of ways : by way of satisfaction,

by way of sacrifice, and by way of redemption.

Basically, satisfaction involves a process of ex-

hibiting to the offended one something he likes

equally as well, or more than he detests, the offensive

thing done for him. Thus you might tread on a man’s

foot on the street car and to satisfy him for that of-

fense treat him to a milkshake, since that particular

man happens to have an equally intense fondness for

milk shakes and distaste for damaged feet. Now,



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 47

Christ suffering and dying out of charity and obedi-

ence exhibited to God something more pleasing to

Him than sin had been displeasing. Christ’s passion

was so pleasing first because of the magnitude and

intensity of His love, and secondly because of the

value of the thing He offered, i.e.. His own human

life, and thirdly because of the extent and totality of

His sufferings.

Recall that Jesus died out of obedience, that his

death was commanded by the Father. Hence ulti-

mately Christ’s death was a sacrifice of will, of obedi-

ence. However, in the context of cult it was also a

sacrifice, an external demonstration of the interior de-

sire to honor God. In this sense sacrifice involves,

first of all* a will that desires to honor God, to wor-

ship God as the supreme source of all being and

goodness, to annihilate self inasmuch as possible be-

fore the Infinite Majesty, to be a willing subject of

the one, true Lord. In the second place, it involves

an externalization of that spirit, a physical visible

sign of that attitude of soul, somewhat the way a

smile is the sign of a happy soul. Since the actual

annihilation of self by death is not licit for us and,

as a matter of fact, would not make us living subjects

but dead and useless non-entities, death is not an ap-

propriate way for us to demonstrate the spirit of

sacrifice. Ordinarily we take food which supports life



48 The Good Tree

and destroy it, e.g., pour out wine, burn a lamb, etc.,

to show what we mean. Christ however, was a priest

(one who stands between God and man), because of

the Incarnation, and was a most perfect victim be-

cause He had a human life which could be destroyed

but not permanently annihilated. Hence, Christ as

the head of the human race could sacrifice Himself

for the whole human race, could honor God in a way

that made up for all the dishonor that the sins of man

exhibit to Him.

Basically, redemption involves a process of freeing

oneself from obligations. A man obliges himself to

return money that was loaned to him by writing an

lOU, and redeems it by paying the money and thus

frees himself from that obligation. By sin man was

under a twofold necessity: to serve the devil, which

is one of the punishments of sin; and to bear the

pains of hell, which is the other punishment of sin.

By suffering and dying on the cross Christ freed us

from both of these obligations. He Himself was the

price, a life which was more valuable in God’s sight

than all the souls of men. And He actually paid the

price. For though man was the slave of the devil, the

price of redemption was paid to God. He laid down

that life for us.

Now, in general, the effect of Christ’s passion and

death was grace, somewhat the same way that a day’s



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 49

work results in pay. But just as a man’s pay enables

him to get out of debt and make new purchases, so

too grace has various particular effects which are, in-

deed, the direct fruit of the Passion. All of those

fruits spring from the Passion by the two types of

causality already mentioned, i.e., instrumental and

meritorious.

The first and most frequently mentioned of these

fruits was freedom from sin. The Passion of Christ is

properly a cause of the remission of sin in three ways.

First, it excites our charity and moves us to love God,

as St. Paul says, ''but God commends his charity to-

wards us because when as yet we were sinners Christ

died for us.” (Romans 5, 8). And, as a matter of

fact, it is by love that sins are taken away according

to Jesus, ''many sins are forgiven her because she has

loved much.” (Luke 4, 7). Second, the Passion freed

us from sin by way of redemption. As the head of the

Mystical Body He paid by His passion the debt for

sin which the members of that Body owed. Third,

the human nature of Christ in the Passion was an

efficient cause, the instrument of the divinity which

expelled sin from the human race.

Speaking in the temple shortly before His Passion

began, Jesus said, ''now the prince of this world is

cast out, and I, if I be lifted up will draw all men

unto myself.” (John 12, 31). By sinning man sue-



50 The Good Tree

cumbs to the temptation of the devil and thus merits

to come in some sense, under the control of the devil.

And God, who is offended by sin, quite justly re-

linquishes man to the power of the devil as a suitable

punishment, a sort of ‘'poetic justice.’* The devil him-

self in his supreme and malevolent arrogance strives

with all his (diabolic) power to snatch wayfarers

from the path that leads to heaven. For this reason

just before His Passion Jesus announced that now

the prince of this world is cast out, for in taking away

sin the Passion destroyed the very basis upon which

man subjected himself to diabolic government and for

which God justly punished him by allowing him to

have what he chose. In the Passion too the devil’s ef-

forts to wreck souls suffered such a disappointment

that he will never hold quite the same sway as be-

fore.

The Passion not only took away sin, the very guilti-

ness that it brings to the human soul, but it also took

away the punishment that was coming to sinners as

the just deserts of their crime. Thus Isaias (53, 4)

prophecied, “surely he hath born our infirmities and

carried our sorrows.” By suffering and dying Jesus

exhibited to the Father a work which more than sat-

isfied for all the offences of men. This abundant sat-

isfaction lifted from the shoulders of men the weight

of eternal punishment which otherwise would have



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 51

burdened every sinner at the hour of death. Further-

more, inasmuch as the passion took away the guilt of

sin, it took away the basis for punishment. And

thus men instead of being children of wrath became

"sons, and if sons heirs, heirs indeed of God, coheirs

with Christ.” (Romans 8, 17).

St. Paul says, furthermore, "we are reconciled to

God through the death of His Son.” (Romans 5, 10).

Because of the passion and death men are no longer

looked upon by God as enemies, but as friends and

as children. This was accomplished first by taking

away sin, which made men enemies in God’s sight

and children of wrath. In the second place, the Pas-

sion and Death constituted the perfect sacrifice, and

the proper effect of sacrifice is to honor God, to pla-

cate His wrath. And God finding such an exquisite

gift among the children of men took the whole race

back into His good graces.

In olden times cities were surrounded by walls and

roads led into the city through gates. Thus heaven

too was pictured, as a city surrounded by walls and

entered through gates. Closing the gates meant put-

ting an obstacle in the way to entrance to the city.

Thus both original and personal sin closed the gates

of heaven. But Christ by his Passion and Death took

away original sin and personal sin and thus opened the

gates again to mankind, opened to man the celestial



52 The Good Tree

city wherein God dwells. Shus St. Paul says, ”we

have confidence then, brethren, to enter the Holies

(heavenly courts) in virtue of the blood of Christ

. . .
.” (Hebrews 10, 19). We are pilgrims and way-

farers upon this earth, but we now walk with con-

fidence that the gates of the city will be open for us

when we arrive.

Finally, the Passion and death merited for Christ

His own exaltation. As St. Paul says, "and appearing

in the form of a man he humbled himself, becoming

obedient to death, even to the death on a cross. There-

fore God also has exalted him. ...” (Philippians 2,

8). When out of injustice a man deprives another of

some possession, he merits some sort of pain in his

own will, that the scales of justice may be balanced.

So, too, when out of justice a man deprives himself

of some possession or pleasure, he merits for himself

still greater goods or pleasures that the scales of

justice may be balanced. This latter standard of di-

vine justice was frequently upon the lips of Jesus,

e.g., (Luke 14, 11) "he who humbles himself shall

be exalted.” And in His Passion Jesus humbled Him-

self from four points of view. First, he suffered pain

and death, afflictions which He was in no way bound

to suffer. Secondly, He was humiliated or made lowly

by having His priceless body consigned to a tomb, and

His human soul to the infernal regions. Thirdly, He



The Good Tree brings forth Good Fruit 53

suffered the humiliation of public opprobrium and

the sense of being abandoned by God. Fourthly,

being the Son of God he voluntarily made Himself

lowly by allowing Himself to be handed over to earth-

ly powers, both Jewish and Roman. By this He mer-

ited a fourfold exaltation: the glorious resurrection,

the ascension into heaven, the seat at the right hand

of the Father, and the power to judge the whole

world. i



CHAPTER SIX

THE PROBLEM OP EVIL

Men of all ages have pondered with anguish whatis usually called the problem of evil. In the
face of war, in the face of death, in the face of fam-

ine and flood they ponder it. Confronted by pain,

confronted by sin and crime they question *'why"?

When the innocent starve, when children die, and

when just men are persecuted the cry goes up 'why

must these things be”? The atheist shrugs his

shoulders and says that is just the way life is, so grin

and bear it. Really, that is no answer at all, but then

the atheist really has no problem. The problem

emerges only when the existence of evil is placed

beside the existence of an all-powerful and all-loving

God. Is God powerful enough to create this world

but too weak to exclude imperfections from it? Does

the all-good God who made this universe out of His

abundant love have a cruel side to His character?

As a matter of fact this was one of the two objections

St. Thomas thought worthy to oppose to his proofs

for the existence of God. And with St. Augustine he

answers that evil does not argue to the non-existence

of God or to any imperfection in Him, but rather to

imminent power and goodness since God brings good



The Problem of Evil 55

out of evil. He permits evil that good might abound.

In less sublime terms, the argument would be that

any cook can start out with a fresh roast and raw

potatoes and produce a fair meal, but it takes a most

excellent cook to walk into the kitchen after the

potatoes have burned and the roast is tough and still

turn out a good meal.

This answer to the problem of evil is a real answer;

it has logic and sound thought in its favor. But the

problem of evil is not only a speculative problem

which can be solved by a speculative answer. The

problem of evil is a real, vital, personal problem de-

manding a concretely convincing answer. The gen-

eral speculative answer leaves so much of mystery, it

moves the mind but not the heart. So God has given

us a concrete vivid example and case-history of this

axiom of divine wisdom in the Passion and Death of

Jesus. For the theme running through the whole

of the theology of the Passion and Death is just this

—

God permits evil that good might abound. If there

had been no sin there could have been no Savior.

In no other way could the goodness and mercy of God

have been manifested so gloriously. And with this

supreme convincing example of the wisdom behind

the axiom that God permits evil that good might

abound, men can face the problem of evil in all its

particular, personal, anguishing and mysterious details



56 The Good Tree

with more conviction, more faith, more energy, more

confidence and love.

This answer to the problem of evil not only answers

all objections to the existence and goodness of God

but puts a depth of meaning into evil and a wealth

of value into suffering. It not only destroys the

charge of cruelty leveled by the atheist against our

Happy God but also the cry of twisted self-torture

hurled at joyful Christian suffering by a hedonistic

age.

The practical consequences of this truth, that God

permits evil that good might come, are endless. Since

the passion and death of the Son of God has become

an historic fact, human life should be different.

In the first place, though we cannot fully under-

stand the workings of divine providence in permitting

war, premature death, starvation and suffering as

pictured so graphically in the daily papers, we can

be sure that God has permitted them that some good

might come, that more souls will be saved this way

than without these would-be tragedies. However, it

is not sufficient to sit back in smug Christian confi-

dence. That good be brought from these evils in-

volves the contribution of the human will, the con-

tribution of our Christian hearts. Suffering is meant

to bring good not only to the heart of the sufferer

but to the heart which in mercy yearns to relieve that



The Problem of Evil 57

suffering. The mistakes of history are meant to be a

lesson in prudence for future generations.

In the second place, suffering, death and sin are

permitted to exist in our own personal individual lives

that good might come forth from them. By suffering

in union with Christ, be it heart-ache, head-ache or

cancer, we can purify our charity, do penance for our

own sins, and expiate the sins of the world. And

death is not meant to be just a biological necessity.

Our last breath should be decidedly different in

nature from any other during life. For us death is

an opportunity to pay God the price of our sins. For

us too, death can and should be a sacrifice of obedi-

ence to the command of God. When death comes

life should be surrendered with gratitude that we

have something to offer to God, that we have the op-

portunity to make recompense. And sin exists in our

own souls, that good might abound there. Thus hav-

ing been forgiven by God in confession, we have yet

one more real and personal taste of the mercy of God,

and one more concrete motive for loving God with

greater love than ever before. As a matter of fact, St.

Thomas says that a soul returning to the state of grace

need not return to a lower degree of charity than be-

fore, but can return to a much higher degree, if it

only wills to. And, having fallen in the past, we

have yet one more reason for distrusting our own



58 The Good Tree

powers, one more reason for learning to be truly hum-

ble, one more reason for putting more trust in God

and less trust in self. And having made a mistake

in the past we have before us unmistakable lessons in

prudence. We should rise wiser, more filled with

knowledge of self, more experienced with the dangers

of the occasions of sin. These are the reasons God

permits sin to exist in our hearts. It is up to us to see

that good comes forth from them. Else good shall,

and infallibly, come, but a good no man desires; that

he himself manifest the glorious wrath of God’s just-

ice for all eternity from the pit of hell.

Finally, life is now more valuable, more worth

living. We have been purchased at such a price.

We are no longer wayfarers traveling to a city whose

gates are shut. We need no longer wander far from

God, enemies in His sight.

What a depth of wisdom there is upon the cross!

Well might we meditate upon it day after day. There

is no greater tragedy than not to see this wisdom, than

to die without one’s lips pressed against the mangled

body upon a wooden cross.



APPENDIX

The following quotations from the Summa Theolo-

gica of St. Thomas are included here for several reasons.

First, they have the value of footnotes verifying the

fact that the text is a more or less faithful reproduction

of St. Thomas’ doctrine. Second, inasmuch as they are

the words of St. Thomas himself they bear the weight

of his authority as a Doctor of the Church, unencum-

bered by less authoritative interpretation. Third, in

conjunction with the above text they might serve as a

stimulus to a more complete study of St. Thomas him-

self. All of the quotations are taken from the third part

of the Summa.

Notes for Chapter 1

Whether Christ’s Passion Is To Be Attributed To His

Godhead? (Q. 46, Art. 12)

As stated above, the union of the human nature with

the Divine was effected in the person, in the hypostasis,

in the suppositum, yet observing the distinction of na-

tures; so that it is the same Person and hypostasis of the

Divine and human natures, while each nature retains

that which is proper to it. And therefore, as stated

above, the Passion is to be attributed to the suppositum

of the Divine Nature, not because of the Divine Nature,

which is impassible, but by reason of the human nature.

Hence, in a Syndal Epistle of Cyril (Act. Cone. Ephes. P.

i.. Cap. 26) we read: "If any man does not confess that

the Word of God suffered in the flesh and was Crucified

in the flesh, let him be anathema.” Therefore Christ’s



60 The Good Tree

Passion belongs to the suppositum of the Divine Nature

by reason of the passible nature assumed, but not on

account of the impassible Divine Nature.

Notes for Chapter 2

Whether There Was Any More Suitable Way of De-

livering The Human Race Than By Christ’s Passion?

(Q.46, Art. 3)

Among means to an end that one is the more suitable

whereby the various concurring means employed are

themselves helpful to such an end. But in this that man

was delivered by Christ’s passion, many other things

besides deliverance from sin concurred for man’s sal-

vation. In the first place, man knows thereby how much

God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love Him in

return, and herein lies the perfection of human salva-

tion; hence the Apostle says (Rom. v. 8): "God com-

mendeth His charity towards us; for when as yet we

were sinners Christ died for us.” Secondly, because

thereby He set us an example of obedience, humility,

constancy, justice, and other virtues displayed in the

Passion, which are requisite for man’s salvation. Hence

it is written (I Pet. ii. 21) : "Christ also suffered for us,

leaving you an example that you should follow in His

steps.” Thirdly, because Christ by His Passion not only

delivered man from sm, but also merited justifying

grace for him and the glory of bliss, as shall be shown

later. Fourthly, because by this man is all the more

bound to refrain from sin, according to I Cor. vi. 20;

"You are bought with a great price: glorify and bear

God in your body.” Fifthly, because it redounded to

man’s greater dignity, that as man was overcome and



Appendix 61

deceived by the devil, so also it should be a man that

should overthrow the devil; and as man deserved

death, so a man by dying should vanquish death. Hence

it is written (I Cor. xv. 57): ''Thanks be to God who

hath given us the victory through Our Lord Jesus

Christ.” It was accordingly more fitting that we should

be delivered by Christ’s Passion than simply by God’s

good-will.

Whether Christ Ought To Have Suffered on The

Cross? (Q.46, Art. 4)

It was most fitting that Christ should suffer the death

of the Cross. First of all, as an example of virtue. For

Augustine thus writes (QQ. Ixxxiii., qu. 25): "God’s

Wisdom became man to give us an example in right-

eousness of living. But it is part of righteous living not

to stand in fear of things which ought not to be feared.

Now there are some men who, although they do not
fear death itself, are yet troubled over the manner of

their death. In order, then, that no kind of death should

trouble an upright man, the cross of this Man had to

be set before him, because, among all kinds of death,

none was more execrable, more fear-inspiring than

this.”

Secondly, because this kind of death was especially

suitable in order to atone for the sin of our first parent,

which was the plucking of the apple from the forbidden

tree against God’s command. And so, to atone for that

sin, it was fitting that Christ should suffer by being

fastened to a tree, as if restoring what Adam had pur-

loined; according to Psalm Ixviii. 5: "Then did I pay

that which I took not away.” Hence Augustine says in

a sermon on the Passion (Cf. Serm. ci. De Tempore):



62 The Good Tree

"Adam despised the command, plucking the apple from

the tree: but all that Adam lost, Christ found upon the

cross."

The third reason is because, as Chrysostom says in a

sermon on the Passion (De Cruce et Latrone 1., ii):

"He suffered upon a high rood and not under a roof,

in order that the nature of the air might be purified:

and the earth felt a like benefit, for it was cleansed by

the flowing of the blood from His side.” And on John

hi. 14: "The Son of man must be lifted up, Theophylact

says: When you hear that He was lifted up, understand

His hanging on high, that He might sanctify the air

who had sanctified the earth by walking upon it.”

The fourth reason is, because, by dying on it. He pre-

pares for us an ascent into heaven, as Chrysostom says

(Athanasius, vide A. III., ad 2). Hence it is that He

says (John xii. 32)

:

"If I be lifted up from the earth, I

will draw all things to Myself.”

The fifth reason is because it is befitting the universal

salvation of the entire world. Hence Gregory of Nyssa

observes (In Christ. Resurr., Orat. 1) that "the shape of

the cross extending out into four extremes from their

central point of contact denotes the power and the

providence diffused everywhere of Him Who hung upon

it.” Chrysostom also says (Athanasius, ioio) that upon

the cross "He dies with out-stretched hands in order

to draw with one hand the people of old, and with the

other those who spring from the Gentiles.”

The sixth reason is because of the various virtues

denoted by this class of death. Hence Augustine in his

book on the grace of the Old and New Testament (Ep.

cxl.) says: "Not without purpose did He choose this



Appendix 63

class of death, that He might be a teacher of that

breadth, and height, and length, and depth, of which

the Apostle speaks (Eph. iii. 18 ) : "For breadth is in the

beam, which is fixed transversely above; this apper-

tains to good works, since the hands are stretched out

upon it. Length is the tree’s extent from the beam to

the ground; and there it is planted—that is, it stands
and abides—which is the note of longanimity. Height is
in that portion of the tree which remains over from the

transverse beam upwards to the top, and this is at the

head of the Crucified, because He is the supreme de-

sire of souls of good hope. But that part of the tree

which is hidden from view to hold it fixed, and from

which the entire rood springs, denotes the depth of gra-

tuitous grace.” And, as Augustine says (Tract, cxix. in

Joan.) : "The tree upon which were fixed the members

of Him dying was even the chair of the Master teach-

ing.”

The seventh reason is because this kind of death re-

sponds to very many figures. For, as Augustine says in

a sermon on the Passion (loc. cit.), an ark of wood

preserved the human race from the waters of the deluge;

at the exodus of God’s people from Egypt, Moses with

a rod divided the sea, overthrew Pharaoh, and saved the

people of God; the same Moses dipped his rod into the

water, changing it from bitter to sweet; at the touch of

a wooden rod a salutary spring gushed forth from a

spiritual rock; likewise in order to overcome Amalec,

Moses stretched forth his arms with rod in hand;

lastly, God’s law is entrusted to the wooden Ark of the

Covenant; all of which are like steps by which we

mount to the wood of the cross.



64 The Good Tree

Whether It Was Fitting That Christ Should Die? (Q.50,

Art 1)

It was fitting for Christ to die. First of all to satisfy

for the whole human race, which was sentenced to die

on account of sin, according to Gen. 11, 17: "In what

day soever ye shall (Vulg., thou shalt) eat of it, ye shall

(Vulg., thou shalt) die the death.” Now it is a fitting
way to satisfy for another by submitting oneself to the

penalty deserved by that other. And so Christ resolved

to die, that by dying He might atone for us, according

to Peter I, in. 18: "Christ also died once for our sins.”

Secondly, in order to show the reality of the flesh as-

sumed. For, as Eusebius says (Orat. de Laud. Constant.

XV.), "if, after dwelling among men Christ were sud-

denly to disappear from men’s sight, as though shun-

ning death, then by all men He would be likened to a

phanton.” Thirdly, that by dying He might deliver us

from fearing death: hence it is written (Heb. ii. 14, 15)

that He communicated "to flesh and blood, that through

death He might destroy him who had the empire of

death and might deliver them who, through the fear of

death, were all their lifetime subject to servitude.”

Fourthly, that by dying in the body to the likeness of

sin—that is, to its penalty—He might set us the example
of dying to sin spiritually. Hence it is written (Rom. vi.

10) : "For in that He died to sin. He died once, but in

that He liveth. He liveth unto God: so do you also

reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God.”

Fifthly, that by rising from the dead, and manifesting

His power whereby He overthrew death. He might

instill into us the hope of rising from the dead. Hence

the Apostle says: "If Christ be preached that He rose



Appendix 65

again from the dead, how do some among you say,

that there is no resurrection from the dead? (I Cor.

XV. 12).

Notes for Chapter 3

Whether Christ Endured All Sufferings? (Q. 46, Art. 5)

Human sufferings may be considered under two as-

pects. First of all, specifically, and in this way it was

not necessary for Christ to endure them all, since many

are mutually exclusive, as burning and drowning; for

we are now dealing with sufferings inflicted from with-

out, since it was not beseeming for Him to endure those

arising from within, such as bodily ailments, as already

stated. But, speaking generically. He did endure every

human suffering. This admits of a threefold acceptance.

First of all, on the part of men: for He endured some-

thing from Gentiles and from Jews; from men and

from women, as is clear from the women servants who

accused Peter. He suffered from the rulers, from their

servants, and from the mob, according to Ps. ii 1, 2

:

"Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised

vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the

princes met together, against the Lord and against His

Christ.” He suffered from friends and acquaintances, as

if manifest from Judas betraying and Peter denying

Him.

Secondly, the same is evident on the part of the

sufferings which a man can endure. For Christ suffered

from friends abandoning Him; in His reputation; from

the blasphemies hurled at Him; in His honor and

glory, from the mockeries and the insults healped upon

Him; in things, for He was despoiled of His garments;



66 The Good Tree

in His soul, from sadness, weariness, and fear; in His

body from wounds and scourgings.

Thirdly, it may be considered with regard to His

bodily members. In His head He suffered from the

crown of piercing thorns; in His hands and feet from

the fastening of the nails; on His face from the blows

and spittle; and from the lashes over His entire body.

Moreover, He suffered in all His bodily sense: in touch,

by being scourged and nailed; in taste, by being given

vinegar and gall to drink; in smell, by being fastened

to the gibbet in a place reeking with the stench of

corpses, "which is called Calvary”; in hearing, by being

tormented with the cries of blasphemers and scorners;

in sight by beholding the tears of His mother and the

disciple whom He loved.

Whether The Fain of Christ’s Passion was Greater Than

All Other Fains? (Q.46, Art. 6)

As we have stated, when treating of the defects as-

sumed by Christ, there was true and sensible pain in the

suffering Christ, which is caused by something hurtful

to the body: also, there was internal pain, which is

caused by the apprehension of something hurtful, and

this is termed "sadness.” And in Christ each of these

was the greatest in this present life. This arose from

four causes. First of all, from the sources of His pain.

For the cause of the sensitive pain was the wounding of

His body; and this wounding had its bitterness, both

from the extent of the suffering already mentioned and

from the kind of suffering, since the death of the cru-

cified is most bitter, because they are pierced in nervous

and highly sensitive parts—to wit, the hands and feet;
moreover, the weight of the suspended body intensifies



Appendix 61

the agony; and, besides this, there is the duration of

the suffering, because they do not die at once like those

slain by the sword. The cause of the interior pain was,

first of all, all the sins of the human race, for which

He made satisfaction by suffering; hence He ascribes

them, so to speak, to Himself, saying (Ps. xxi. 2):

"The words of my sins." Secondly, especially the fall

of the Jews and of the others who sinned in His death,

chiefly the Apostles, who were scandalized at His Pas-

sion. Thirdly, the loss of His bodily life, which is

naturally horrible to human nature.

The magnitude of His sufferings may be considered,

secondly, from the susceptibility of the sufferer as to

both soul and body. For His body was endowed with

a most perfect constitution, since it was fashioned mir-

aculously by the operation of the Holy Ghost; just as

some other things made by miracles are better than oth-

ers, as Chrysostom says (Horn. xxii. in Joan.) respecting

the wine into which Christ changed the water at the

wedding-feast. And, consequently, Christ’s sense of

touch, the sensitiveness of which is the reason for our

feeling pain, was most acute. His soul likewise, from

its interior powers, apprehended most vehemently all

the causes of sadness.

Thirdly, the magnitude of Christ’s suffering can be

estimated from the singleness of His pain and sadness.

In other sufferers the interior sadness is mitigated, and

even the exterior suffering, from some consideration

of reason, by some derivation or redundance from the

higher powers into the lower, but it was not so with

the suffering Christ, because "He permitted each one



68 The Good Tree

of His powers to exercise its proper function,” as Dama-

scene says (De Fide Orthod. iii).

Fourthly, the magnitude of the pain of Christ’s

suffering can be reckoned by this, that the pain and

sorrow were accepted voluntarily to the end of men’s

deliverance from sin; and consequently He embraced the

amount of pain proportionate to the magnitude of the

fruit which resulted therefrom. From all these causes

weighed together, it follows that Christ’s pain was the

very greatest.

Notes for Chapter 4

Whether Christ Was Slain By Another Or By Himself?

(Q.47, Art. 1)

A thing may cause an effect in two ways: in the first
instance by acting directly so as to produce the effect;

and in this manner Christ’s persecutors slew Him

because they inflicted on Him what was a sufficient

cause of death, and with the intention of slaying Him,

and the effect followed, since death resulted from that

cause. In another way someone causes an effect indirect-

ly—that is, by not preventing it when he can do so;
just as one person is said to drench another by not clos-

ing the window through which the shower is entering:

and in this way Christ was the cause of His own Passion

and Death. For He could have prevented His Passion

and Death. Firstly, by holding His enemies in check,

so that they would not have been eager to slay Him, or

would have been powerless to do so. Secondly, because

His spirit had the power of preserving His fleshy nature

from the infliction of any injury; and Christ’s soul had

this power, because it was united in unity of person



Appendix 69

with the Divine Word, as Augustine says (De Trin.

iv.). Therefore, since Christ’s soul did not repel the

injury inflicted on His body, but willed His corporeal

nature to succumb to such injury. He is said to have

laid down His life, or to have died voluntarily.

Whether Christ Died Out Of Obedience? (Q. 47, Art.

2
)

It was fitting that Christ should suffer out of obedi-

ence. First of all, because it was in keeping with human

justification, that as "by the disobedience of one man,

many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of

one, many shall be made just,” as is written in Rom. v.

19. Secondly, it was suitable for reconciling man with

God: hence it is written (Rom. v. 10) : ”We are

reconciled to God by the death of His Son,” insofar as

Christ’s death was a most acceptable sacrifice to God,

according to Eph. v. 2 : ”He delivered Himself an obla-

tion for us and a sacrifice to God for an odour oF

sweetness.” Now obedience is preferred to all sacri-
fices; according to Kings I xv. 22: ‘'Obedience is better

than sacrifices.” Therefore it was fitting that the

sacrifice of Christ’s Passion and Death should proceed

from obedience. Thirdly, it was in keeping with His

Victory whereby He triumphed over death and its

author; because a soldier cannot conquer unless he obey

his captain. And so the man-Christ secured the victory

through His being obedient to God, according to Prov.

xxi. 28: "An obedient man shall speak of victory.”

Whether God the father Delivered Up Christ To The

Passion? (Q.47, Art. 3)

As observed above, Christ suffered voluntarily out of



70 The Good Tree

obedience to the Father. Hence in three respects God the

Father did deliver up Christ to the Passion. In the first

way, because by His eternal will He preordained Christ’s

Passion for the deliverance of the human race, accord-

ing to the words of Isaias (liii. 6): "The Lord hath

laid on Him the iniquities of us all:” and again (verse

10:) "The Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmi-

ty.” Secondly, inasmuch as, by the infusion of charity.

He inspired Him with the will to suffer for us; hence

we read in the same passage: "He was offered because

it was His own will’ (verse seven). Thirdly, by not

shielding Him from the Passion, but abandoning Him to

His persecutors: thus we read (Matth. xxvii 46) that

Christ, while hanging upon the cross, cried out "My

God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” because,

to wit. He left Him to the power of His persecutors,

as Augustine says (Ep. cxl).

Whether Christ’s Persecutors Knew Who He Was?

(Q. 47, Art. 5)

Among the Jews some were elders, and others of les-

ser degree. Now, according to the author of De Qp.

Nov. et Vet. Test. qu. Ixvi., the elders, who were called

rulers, knew, as did also the devils, "that He was the

Christ promised in the Law: for they saw all the

signs in Him which the prophets said would come to

pass: but they did not know the mystery of His God-

head.” Consequently the Apostle says: "If they had

known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of

glory.” It must, however, be understood that their ig-

norance did not excuse them from crime, because it was,

as it were, affected ignorance. For they saw manifest

signs of His Godhead; yet they perverted them out of



Appendix 71

envy and hatred of Christ; neither would they believe

His words whereby He avowed that He was the Son of

God. Hence He Himself says of them (Jo. xv. 22);

“If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not

have sinned; but now they have no excuse for their

sin.” And afterwards He adds (24): “If I had not

done among them the works that no other man hath

done, they would not have sinned.” And so the expres-

sion used by Job (xxi. 14) can be accepted on their

behalf: “(Who) said to God: depart from us, we de-

sire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”

But those of lesser degree—namely, the common folk
—who had not grasped the mysteries of the Scriptures,
did not fully comprehend that He was the Christ or the

Son of God. For although some of them believed in

Him, yet the multitude did not; and if they doubted

sometimes whether He was the Christ, on account of

the manifold signs and force of His teaching, as is

stated Jo. vii. 31, 41, nevertheless they were afterwards

deceived by their rulers, so that they did not believe Him

to be the Son of God or the Christ. Hence Peter said to

them: “I know that you did it through ignorance, as

did also your rulers—namely, because they were seduced
by the rulers.”

Notes for Chapter 3

Whether Christ's Passion Brought About Our Salvation

By Way of Merit? (Q. 48, Art. 1)

As stated above, grace was bestowed upon Christ, not

only as an individual, but inasmuch as He is the Head

of the Church, so that it might overflow into His mem-

bers; and therefore Christ’s works are referred to Him-



72 The Good Tree

self and to His members in the same way as the works

of any other man in a state of grace are referred to him-

self. But it is evident that whosoever suffers for justice’

sake, provided that he be in a state of grace, merits his

salvation thereby, according to Matth. v. 10: “Blessed

are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake.” Con-

sequently Christ by His Passion merited salvation, not

only for Himself, but likewise for all His members.

Whether Chrisfs Passion Brought About Our Salvation

Efficiently? (Q. 48, Art 6)

There is a twofold efficient agency—namely, the prin-
cipal and the instrumental. Now the principal efficient
cause of man’s salvation is God. But since Christ’s hu-

manity is the instrument of the Godhead, as stated

above, therefore all Christ’s actions and sufferings oper-

ate instrumentally in virtue of His Godhead for the sal-

vation of men. Consequently, then, Christ’s Passion ac-

complishes man’s salvation efficiently.



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