THE RESURRETION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. SAINT THOMAS OF AQUINO

 

TFor reasons of time I have not said anything about the resurrection of our divine Savior at the beginning of Easter, that is to say on Sunday, and because I also want to do without the commentator on Saint Thomas and go directly to the Saint's comments. You can find these comments in Summa Theologica 3 p, q. 53 art. 1 to 4, without more we go to the topic at hand.

Now we have to deal with all that pertains to the exaltation of Christ: first of his resurrection; on which it will be seen, First of the necessity of his resurrection: Second, of the time of the same; Third of the order; Cause room. To do this we will dispense with the "ad contra" and we will go directly to the authority argument and its responses.

  ARTICLE 1. If it was necessary for Christ to rise again.

  We read in Saint Luke: "It was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead."

For five reasons it was necessary for Christ to resurrect: First, for the manifestation of divine justice, to which belongs to exalt those who HUMBLE THEMSELVES by God (Saint Paul says of Christ: “He humbled himself to the death and death of cross) according to that of Saint Luke: "He deposed the powerful from their throne and exalted the humble." For, as Christ, out of charity and obedience to God, humbled himself until death on the cross, he had to be exalted until the glorious resurrection. This is why the Psalm says, in his person: "You knew", that is, you approved my "sitting down", that is, humility and passion, "and my getting up", which is glorification.

Second, FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF OUR FAITH, because with the resurrection our faith in the divinity of Christ is confirmed, because according to Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, “although he was crucified for his weakness, but he lives by the virtue of God”. And thus he adds elsewhere: "If Christ is not raised, our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain", and in the Psalm it is said "What is the usefulness of my blood", that is, of the usefulness of my blood descending as if by a certain degree of evil, to "corruption"? As if to say: “None. If I don't instantly resurrect and my body is corrupted. I will not announce it to anyone, I will win "

Third, TO RAISE OUR HOPE, then, seeing the risen Christ, who is our head, we also hope that we will rise again, for which the Apostle says: “If it is preached that Christ rose from the dead, how do some of you say? ¿that there is no resurrection of the dead? " (Ratsinger or Benedict XVI does not believe in the resurrection of the dead, if you ask me where I got it from, I will tell you that from Rivanera Carles "the Judaization of Christianity) And Job says:" I know, that is to say with certainty of faith, "that my redeemer lives”, risen from the dead, and therefore, “on the last day I will rise from the earth. I have this hope in my bosom”.

Fourth, for information on the life of the faithful, according to the sentence of Saint Paul to the Romans: "as Christ rose from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too live a new life." And later: "Christ rose from the dead no longer dies: so you too are considered dead to sin, alive to God."

Fifth, to complement our health, then, just as he endured so many evils and humbled himself to death to free us from them, thus, what the Apostle says to the Romans, "gave himself up for our crime and rose again for our justification." As for the body of Christ in the tomb, divinity was united to the flesh of Christ with personal union, not with union of nature, as the soul joins the body as a form to constitute human nature. And for that reason, the union of the body with the soul raised it to a higher natural state, but not to a personal state.

  ARTICLE 2: If it was convenient for Christ to rise again on the third day.

  This is a somewhat controversial article due to the texts of the Holy Scriptures, but let's see the answer of Dr. Angelico.

This is what the Lord says in Saint Matthew: "They will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, scourge and crucify him and on the third day he will rise again."

As stated above, the resurrection of Christ was necessary for the instruction of our faith. Now, the object of our faith is the divinity and humanity of Christ, nor is it enough to believe one without the other. For this reason, to confirm the faith in the divinity, it was agreed that he should be resurrected soon and that the resurrection should not be defined until the end of the world; More to confirm our faith in his humanity and in his death, it was necessary that there should be an intermediate between death and resurrection, because, if after death he had risen, it might seem that death would not have been true and, therefore, neither would death. Resurrection. But to make the death of Our Lord manifest, it was enough for his resurrection to be deferred until the third day, since it does not happen that some signs of life cease to appear in an apparent dead person.

The resurrection on the third day comes to recommend the perfection of the ternary number, which is the "number of all reality", since it has a "beginning, middle and end", as it is said in the Book "of heaven".

It also contains a mystical meaning, namely, that Christ "with his bodily death," who was light through justice, destroyed our two deaths, namely, that of the body and that of the soul, which are dark because of sin. That is why he stayed a whole day and two nights, as Saint Augustine says.

This also meant that a third epoch began with the resurrection of Christ. It was the first that preceded the law; the second covers the age of law and the third of grace. The third state of the saints also begins in the resurrection of Christ. For the first responds to the figure of the law; the second, to the truth of faith, to the third the eternity of glory, which Christ inaugurated with his resurrection.

Finally, as stated above, Christ Asia resurrected at dawn, at daybreak, to signify that by his resurrection he introduced us into the light of glory; just as he died at dusk, when the day tended to darkness, to show that with his death he destroyed the darkness of guilt and punishment. However, it is said that he resuscitated on the third day, taking a day for the calendar day, that is, for twenty-four hours. And as Saint Augustine says: “The night that ends with dawn, in which the Lord's resurrection was made known, belongs to the third day. Because God "who made the light of darkness shine", so that by the grace of the New Testament and the participation in the resurrection of Christ we would hear: "You were before darkness,but now you are light in the Lord ”indicates in a way that the day takes its beginning from the night.