108. The Necessity of Christ's Passion and Redemption

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Structure of Christ’s Passion in Thomas’s Treatment #

• Thomas divides Christ’s life into four parts: coming into the world, preaching, passion/death/descent into hell, glorification
• The Passion itself is examined through three main considerations: the passion itself, its efficient cause, and its fruits/effects
• Twelve specific questions are posed about the Passion, beginning with the question of necessity

The Central Problem: Understanding Necessity #

• The Core Question: Was it necessary for Christ to suffer for human liberation?
• The word “necessary” (necessitas) must be understood in multiple distinct senses, not as a single concept
• Failure to distinguish these senses leads to false objections and sophistic arguments

Three Senses of Necessity #

1. Absolute Necessity (secundum se): Something cannot be otherwise by its very nature

   • Example: The number three is necessarily odd, necessarily prime, necessarily half of six
   • This sense proceeds from intrinsic causes (matter and form)
   • In this sense, it was NOT necessary for Christ to suffer

2. Necessity of Force (necessitas coactionis): External compulsion against the will

   • One who is violently detained cannot proceed of their own will
   • This applies neither to God (omnipotent) nor to Christ (who voluntarily suffered)
   • Church Fathers sometimes use “necessary” to mean precisely this sense of force

3. Necessity from the End (ex suppositione finis): When something must be so if an end is to be achieved

   • This comes from exterior causes: the mover/efficient cause, or the end
   • If the end is to be achieved, then certain means are necessary—not absolutely, but conditionally
   • Example: Food is necessary for life, but steak is not necessary for life (only for living well on one particular diet)
   • This is where the Passion’s necessity properly lies

Necessity from the End: Three Subcategories #

Thomas distinguishes three ways something can be necessary from the supposition of the end:

1. From our side (ex parte nostri): We are liberated by His Passion

   • John 3:14-15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”
   • The exaltation (euphemism for the cross) is necessary for our eternal life

2. From Christ’s side (ex parte Christi): Through the humility of His Passion, He merited glory and exaltation

   • He who humbles himself shall be exalted
   • His death merited His resurrection; His descent into hell merited His ascension
   • Luke 24: “These things are necessary for Christ to suffer, and thus enter into his glory”

3. From God’s side (ex parte Dei): God’s foreknowledge and predetermination in Scripture

   • The Passion was forenounced in scriptures and prefigured in the observance of the Old Law
   • Luke 22: “The Son of Man goes as it has been determined”
   • Luke 24: “It is necessary to fulfill all things written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms”
   • Thomas sometimes takes this as a threefold division of the Old Testament: the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms

Key Arguments #

Objection 1: God’s Omnipotence Excludes Necessity of the Passion #

• Objection: God’s omnipotence means He could liberate humanity by will alone without the Passion
• Thomas’s Response: This confuses necessity of force with necessity from the end. God is free in His power, but having determined that the Passion would be the means of liberation, it becomes necessary from that supposition

Objection 2: Voluntary Action Cannot Be Necessary #

• Objection: Christ suffered by His own will (Isaiah 53), and the necessary is opposed to the voluntary
• Thomas’s Response: This again confuses necessity of force with necessity from the end. Voluntary and necessary are not contradictory—an action can be both voluntary and necessary from the supposition of the end
• Note on the Trinity: When discussing God’s generation of the Son, we similarly say it was not contrary to the Father’s will, but we must avoid saying He generated the Son “by choice” as if it were an arbitrary decision

Objection 3: Mercy and Justice Seem to Exclude Necessity #

• Objection: Mercy could forgive without satisfaction; justice does not seem to require the Passion
• Thomas’s Response: God’s justice depends on His divine will and His definition of what is fitting. Through the Passion, Christ satisfied for human sin, effecting justice. God’s mercy provided the means of satisfaction
• This shows both mercy (providing the solution) and justice (through satisfaction by Christ)
• Romans 3: We are justified freely through grace, through the redemption in Christ Jesus
• This mode of redemption is “more abundant mercy” than mere forgiveness without satisfaction

Objection 4: Angels’ Sin Was Not Remedied; Why Should Humans Be? #

• Objection: Angelic nature is more excellent than human, yet Christ did not suffer for angels’ redemption
• Thomas’s Response: The key difference is mutability vs. immutability of nature
  • Angelic intellect is fully formed at creation; angels see everything with complete understanding
  • Angels make their choice with complete knowledge, and the whole angel goes in that direction irreversibly
  • Human nature is changeable (body and soul together, imperfect knowledge) and remains changeable in this world
  • So long as humans remain in this mutable world, they can change from bad to good
  • Therefore, humans are capable of redemption while angels are not

Important Definitions #

Necessitas (Necessity) #

A fundamental concept requiring careful distinction into multiple senses:

• Absolute/Simple Necessity (simpliciter): From intrinsic causes; cannot be otherwise by its nature
• Necessity of Force (necessitas coactionis): External compulsion against the will; involves violence and contrariety to will
• Necessity from the End (ex suppositione finis): Conditional necessity; if the end is to be achieved, these means must be so
• From Supposition (ex suppositione): Given certain suppositions (God’s foreknowledge, divine will), something becomes necessary

Passio (Passion) #

• Suffering or undergoing; the state of being acted upon
• In Christ’s case, includes the whole experience of His suffering, death, descent into hell
• Distinguished from His divine nature, which cannot suffer or die in itself

Satisfactio (Satisfaction) #

• Making amends or reparation for sin
• Christ’s Passion provides satisfaction for human sin
• More merciful than mere forgiveness because it restores the order of justice

Examples & Illustrations #

The Distinction of Four Causes #

• Berquist refers to Aristotle’s distinction in the Metaphysics (Book V) of causes: material, formal, efficient, and final
• This distinction underlies the distinction of senses of necessity
• Absolute necessity comes from intrinsic causes (matter and form)
• Other senses of necessity come from extrinsic causes (mover/efficient cause and end/final cause)

Concrete Example: Steak and Food #

• Food is necessary for life (absolutely necessary for the end of living)
• Steak is necessary only for living well according to a particular diet (conditionally necessary)
• The distinction illustrates how the same end can be achieved through different means
• This applies to the Passion: God could have achieved human liberation in other ways absolutely, but given His determination, the Passion was necessary

The Soul’s Location (Augustine’s Teaching) #

• False Imagination: Imagining the soul to be “in the body” as a point is in a place
• Correct Understanding: The soul is in the body as form in matter, not as something extended in space
• The soul is simple and indivisible, existing wholly in the whole body and wholly in each part, not in parts
• Berquist criticizes Descartes for making the same error, trying to locate the soul in the pineal gland
• Common error: imagining the soul as an air-like thing shaped like the body (Dante’s example of meeting and trying to embrace souls)

Catechism and Memorization #

• Berquist reflects on his own education with the Baltimore Catechism
• He argues that memorization, while not guaranteeing understanding, provides a foundation for later deeper understanding
• Modern lack of catechetical instruction leaves students unable even to name the seven sacraments (who mistakenly include “graduation” and “ceremony”)

Notable Quotes #

“In one way, what according to its own nature, is impossible to be otherwise” - Thomas Aquinas, defining absolute necessity

“But you shouldn’t say that he generated him by what? Will, as if by choice, right?” - Berquist, on the distinction between voluntary and necessary in God

“These things are necessary for Christ to suffer, and thus enter into his glory” - Luke 24

“As Moses held upright the serpent in the desert, so is necessary that the Son of Man be exalted, right? That everyone who believes in him would not perish, but might have what, eternal life” - John 3, cited by Thomas

“It is necessary for the Son of Man to go as it has been determined” - Luke 22, on God’s foreknowledge

“These words which I spoke to you when I was still with you… because it’s necessary… to fulfill all those things which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms” - Luke 24, on Old Testament prefiguration

“For man to be liberated by the passion of Christ was suitable both to his mercy and his justice” - Thomas Aquinas’s response to Objection 3

Questions Addressed #

Article 1: Was it necessary for Christ to suffer for human liberation? #

• Answer: Not by absolute necessity (God could have done otherwise) or by necessity of force (Christ was not compelled)
• The Real Answer: It was necessary by necessity from the end (ex suppositione finis), from three perspectives:
  1. From our side: our liberation requires the Passion
  2. From Christ’s side: His exaltation requires His humiliation through the Passion
  3. From God’s side: His foreknowledge and predetermination in Scripture require the Passion

Article 2 (Referenced): Was there another possible way of liberation? #

• Implied answer: Absolutely speaking, yes; but given God’s foreknowledge and determination, no other way was actual

Article 3 (Referenced): Was the Passion suitable? #

• Thomas will address suitability through multiple considerations

Questions About the Details of the Passion #

• Four specific questions follow: about passion, death, burial, and descent into hell
• Eight further questions address aspects like time, place, crucifixion, pain, the soul’s suffering, impediment to joy, etc.
• The final question concerns whether the Passion can be attributed to Christ’s divinity

Connections to Thomistic Method #

Faith Seeking Understanding #

• Berquist illustrates this through the famous painting by Fra Angelico of saints at the crucifixion
• While other saints show devotion through tears and penance, Thomas is depicted trying to understand
• Thomas Aquinas “wonders” at the Passion—seeks to understand its meaning given his knowledge of God
• This is the distinctively Thomistic approach: not choosing between piety and intellect, but integrating them

Systematic Interrogation #

• Thomas asks 12 things about the Passion systematically
• First two articles examine necessity and alternative possibilities
• Third examines suitability
• Fourth examines the form of death (crucifixion)
• Following articles examine details of suffering, the soul, time, place, companions (thieves), and attribution to divinity
• This systematic approach is characteristic of scholastic theology

Pedagogical Digression: Modern Errors About Christ #

• Berquist notes that modern scholars misunderstand the relationship between Christ’s humanity and divinity
• Examples: the idea that Christ didn’t know He was God until His baptism; the idea that Christ was uncertain and seeking affirmation from the apostles
• These errors arise from false imagination about the Incarnation
• Thomas’s approach avoids such errors by careful philosophical and theological analysis