Folia Theologica 20. (2009)
Barbour Hugh: The Cosmology of Catholic Worship: Pre-Socratic Sacraments? A Consideration by a disciple of St. Thomas Qauinas
THE COSMOLOGY OF CATHOLIC WORSHIP 17 So far so good. It appears that our thesis is intact and that St. Thomas does require a genuine, individually applied, hylomorphic act in order for human salvation to be accomplished, that is, for the effects of the Passion of Christ as universal cause to be accomplished in particular persons, and this is so true that it obtains even in the case of the Descent of the Savior among the dead and in the case of our first parents even before their Fall. But it is well known that St. Thomas accepts the possibility of the reception of the effects of the sacraments in voto. He explicitly says so in the cases of the Sacraments of Christian Intitiation, of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion. Here we seem truly to have left the order of the sacraments and the application of form to matter altogether. Yet even here, we will see that such is not the case. Votum in St Thomas is in the first place an act of the virtue of religion, a vow. The word is often translated in the case of the sacraments as "desire", but St. Thomas uses "vow." Now the sacraments as acts of worship pertain to the virtue of religion, precisely to those acts of the virtue of religion which require and external act, in the broadest sense to the act of sacrifice, that is, of offering some external thing for the honor of God. A vow is also one of the acts of religion which requires external solemnity, it is not simply a desire or a purpose of the will. It may not be expressed in audible words, but it is an external act in the sense that it must be an explicit promise made to God. Here is what St. Thomas says in the Secunda Secundae question 88 article 1 in the body of the article: Sed promissio quae ab homine fit homini, non potest fieri nisi per verba vel quaecumque exteriora signa. Deo autem potest fieri promissio per solam interiorem cogitationem, quia ut dicitur I Reg. XVI, homines vident ea quae parent, sed Deus intuetur cor. It is this very same text from First Samuel that St. Thomas uses when he justifies baptism in voto in the third part of the Summa, question 68, article 2 in the response to the first objection: Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, sicut dicitur I Reg. XVI, homines vident ea quae parent, dominus autem intuetur cor. Ille autem qui desiderat per Baptismum regenerari ex aqua et spiritu sancto, corde quidem regeneratus est, licet non corpore, sicut et apostolus dicit, Rom. II, quod circumcisio cordis est in spiritu, non in littera; cuius laus non ex hominibus, sed ex Deo est. The use of the word votum with the same auctoritas cited is significant, since it shows that St. Thomas is understanding the meaning of
