Summary
Highlights
The Resurrection glorifies Christ's humanity in both body and soul. His soul's beatitude extends to all his sensate and vegetative powers, radiating through his body. His body is preserved but elevated to a spiritualized state, becoming impassable, incorruptible, subtle, agile, perfectly subject to his soul, and capable of appearing to others with splendor and clarity.
St. Thomas Aquinas's discussion of Christ's life culminates in the Paschal Mystery: Christ's Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and reign in glory. While all of Christ's actions are saving, these final events offer salvation in its most potent form.
Aquinas identifies two types of mediation in Christ's Passion and Resurrection. Ascending mediation is Christ, as man, interceding before the Father on our behalf, exemplified by his prayer for forgiveness from the cross. Descending mediation is Christ, as the God-man, bestowing divine graces through his human nature, such as his promise to the good thief.
Christ's suffering was not strictly necessary for salvation, but it was fitting. It serves to instruct us by revealing the gravity of human sin and the intensity of divine love. God chose this path to demonstrate the seriousness of evil and the profound depths of his love.
Christ's sufferings were exceptionally severe, involving torture, public ridicule, physical agony, abandonment by friends, rejection by his people, and condemnation. He experienced this deeply in both body and soul, confronting human sin with immense charity and sorrow, yet also being consoled by his knowledge of the Father and the coming victory.
Christ willingly underwent the Passion, not endorsing the evil, but demonstrating his love for the world. His meritorious activity stems from his charity; he accepts the cross out of obedience to the Father and love for humanity. His self-offering is of infinite worth due to his divine nature, allowing him to atone for humanity's sins.
Due to Christ's merits, humanity is freed from sin, the power of evil, and the debt of punishment, reconciled with God, and offered eternal life. These benefits require our cooperation with Christ's grace, which he, in his glory, communicates effectively as both God and man.
Through the Resurrection, Christ's human nature is exalted eternally, establishing him as the reigning principle of a new creation. For more resources like this, visit Aquinas101.com.
Aquinas outlines several reasons for the Resurrection: to commend divine justice, confirming his love and vindicating his innocence; to instruct us in faith, manifesting his Godhead; to encourage hope, being the first fruits of our own resurrection; and to order our lives toward new life and beatitude.