Folia Theologica 20. (2009)
Barbour Hugh: The Cosmology of Catholic Worship: Pre-Socratic Sacraments? A Consideration by a disciple of St. Thomas Qauinas
16 BARBOUR, Hugh souls undergoing purification were not necessarily liberated at Christ's first descent among the dead since it is clear that "quod non habuit tunc maiorem efficaciam passio Christi quam habeat nunc" That means, in the present dispensation whereby actual individual sins are taken away by actual individual acts, chief among these being the sacraments, as he says "mediante aliquo sacramento circa personam exhibito." (Here is a real theology of the Descent of Christ into Hell, far more convincing than the neo-Nestorian theories of some.) For St. Thomas, the Passion of Christ has an eternal efficacy which extends throughout time, but it is not an efficacy which acts as some underlying generic cause after the manner of some universal force. It requires application by distinct acts. So deep is this conviction that St. Thomas not only repeats over and over that the effects of the Passion are derived to the human race through the sacraments, but he even insists that the justification of Adam and Even before the Fall depended on their marriage whereby by being one flesh they effectively signified and professed faith in the Incarnation of the Word of which marriage is a sign, even though they did not know that the motive of His coming would be their future Fall. We read in the Secunda Secundae, question 2 article 7 in the body of the article: "Et ideo mysterium incarnationis Christi aliqualiter oportuit omni tempore esse creditum apud omnes, diversimode tamen secundum diversitatem temporum et personarum. Nam ante statum peccati homo habuit explicitam fidem de Christi incarnatione secundum quod ordinabatur ad consummationem gloriae, non autem secundum quod ordinabatur ad liberationem a peccato per passionem et resurrectionem, quia homo non fuit praescius peccati futuri. Videtur autem incarnationis Christi praescius fuisse per hoc quod dixit, propter hoc relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae, ut habetur Gen. II; et hoc apostolus, ad Ephes. V, dicit sacramentum magnum esse in Christo et Ecclesia; quod quidem sacramentum non est credibile primum hominem ignorasse." Here there is a real universal primacy of Christ, but no idealistic generalizing of His action which is applied to all men individually and sacramentally, to use the words of the Council of Trent quoting St. Thomas, "sicut hominum natura exigit."8 8 Concilium Tridentinum session 22a.
