Caput LII
The Creator's Condescending Mercy
God's supreme consolation is his willing condescension to redeem and teach fallen humanity, taking on the present life to reveal the life to come, and calling us to follow him through suffering rather than worldly glory.
Among all the forms of consolation available to us, one stands above the rest: the fact that our kind Creator was compelled by his own goodness — if I may put it that way — to condescend to us in such a way that, while he granted the sinner everything needed for salvation, he likewise bore with pure compassion everything that the same man owed because of his sin. For man did not only need to be redeemed; he also needed to be taught how to live after redemption. He came, then, to his fugitive — to keep him from our sight he placed himself before us — and even if he had done nothing more, the very fact that he was seen on earth was, in this respect, a profound act of self-humbling. All who were born of Adam's line strove to seek the prosperity of the present life, to avoid hardship, to flee disgrace, and to pursue glory. He, by contrast — a new man, living a new life — fled what all men seek, and sought what all men flee. Because there are two lives — the present and the future — and we knew one but were ignorant of the other, and because the human race directed all its attention solely to the one it knew, he therefore took up this life, which was familiar to us, in order to reveal to us that other life, which was unknown. To show that this life is to be despised and that the other is to be desired, he chose neither to prosper in it nor to remain in it for long, but passed through suffering to the other life. And he says: 'If anyone serves me, let him follow me' (John 12:26).✦ 12:26). By his own example he teaches us that this life of ours is not to be loved for its own sake, but to be endured for the sake of the other.
Christ's Sufferings as Our Consolation
Because Christ endured thorns, gall, mockery, and death for our salvation, we should not find it harsh to endure God's corrective scourges, since he took upon himself what belongs to sinful humanity though he himself was sinless.
And so, because of that singular protection by which he redeemed us with his poured-out blood, let that most excellent thing be judged, by which he so powerfully strengthened us for repentance. To impress this on us, he even scorned what the unskilled think are great evils — especially since he showed himself to have such great power over things through so many miracles. So let us consider this: that in saving us from the stings of our sins, he did not refuse to place his head under thorns, and that in intoxicating us with eternal sweetness, in his thirst he took the bitterness of gall. That the one who, for our sake, worshipped the Father — though he was equal to him in divinity — stood silent under mockery after being worshipped, and that the very Life, preparing life for the dead, reached all the way to death. Why, then, is it thought so harsh that a person should endure scourges from God for wrongs done, if God endured such great wrongs from people for the sake of good, in order to call this person back to the happiness he had lost? As the prophet says: His work, to do his own work (Isa. 28:21). For his work is to save what he created; but to be scourged is the work of sinful humanity, not of the one who committed no sin.
Taking Up Another's Work
Christ assumed the scourges that belong to sinful humanity—another's work—so that he might accomplish his own work of saving his creature.
He therefore took up another's work — that is, the scourges — so that in this way he might save his own creature, which is his own work.✦12
Read the original Latin
Inter omnia vero nostrae consolationis genera, singulariter illud praecedit, quod benignum Conditorem nostrum nobis ita condescendere sua benignitate, ut ita dicam, benignitas adegit, ut cum omnia quae peccatori homini salutaria sunt, indulgeret, cuncta pariter quae eidem homini pro peccato debentur, ex sola compassione sustineret. Non enim indigebat homo solummodo redimi, sed etiam qualiter post redemptionem ei vivendum sit edoceri. Venit igitur ad fugitivum suum, ut retineret nostris visibus sese ingessit, qui si nihil amplius fecisset, et in hoc tamen, quod in terris visus est, multum se humiliaret. Nam quia omnes, qui de Adae stirpe progeniti studebant prospera vitae praesentis appetere, adversa devitare, opprobria fugere, gloriam sequi: ille contra novus homo veniens, novamque vitam tenens, fugit quod omnes appetunt, et appetiit quod omnes fugiunt. Quia vero duae vitae sunt, praesens et futura, quarum unam noveramus, alteram nesciebamus; et hic humanum genus huic soli quam noverat intendebat, hanc nobis cognitam ideo suscepit, ut illam, quae erat incognita demonstraret. Ut autem hanc contemptibilem esse, et illam appetibilem ostenderet, in ista neque prosperari neque diu stare voluit, sed ad illam patiendo migravit, et dicit: Si quis mihi ministrat, me sequatur (Joan. XII, 26). Exemplo suo nos docens quod haec vita nostra non propter se amanda sit, sed propter alteram toleranda.
Itaque propter illud singulare praesidium, quod nos fuso sanguine redemit, illud praestantissimum judicetur, quod nos tantopere ad poenitentiam roboravit. Ad quod videlicet inculcandum, et ea sprevit quae magna mala imperiti putant, praesertim cum se tot miraculis tantam rerum potestatem habere monstraret. Hoc ergo consideremus, quod et peccatorum nos punctionibus salvans spinis caput supponere non recusavit, quod aeterna nos dulcedine inebrians, in siti sua fellis amaritudinem accepit. Quod qui pro nobis Patrem, quamvis esset divinitate aequalis, adoravit, sub irrisione adoratus tacuit, quod vitam mortuis praeparans usque ad mortem ipsa vita pervenit. Cur itaque asperum creditur, ut a Deo homo toleret flagella pro malis, si tanta Deus ab hominibus pertulit mala pro bonis, ut hunc ad amissam beatitudinem revocaret? Unde propheta: Alienum opus ejus, ut faceret opus suum (Isa. XXVIII, 21). Opus enim ejus est salvare quod creavit, flagellari autem opus est hominis peccatoris, non ejus qui peccatum non fecit.
Suscepit igitur alienum opus, id est flagella, quatenus ita salvaret creaturam suam, quod est opus ejus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.12.26 — If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
- ↩Isa.28.21 — For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, as in the valley of Gibeon he will be stirred up, to do his deed — strange is his deed — and to perform his work — foreign is his work.
Notes
- 1 ↩Alienum opus ('another's work') refers to the punishment and suffering that belonged to humanity's sin, not to Christ's nature. He took upon himself what was properly ours — the scourging — in order to accomplish what was properly his: the saving of his creature.
- 2 ↩Creaturam suam rendered 'his own creature' preserves the theological sense that the creature belongs to God as Creator; it is not merely 'his creation' as an abstract noun but the creature itself as the object of his saving action.
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