Christ and Spirituality in

St. Thomas Aquinas

 T h o m i st i c R e s s o u r ce m e n t S e r i e s
Volume 2

Series Editors

Matthew Levering, University of Dayton

Thomas Joseph White, O.P., Dominican House of Studies

Editorial Board

Serge-Thomas Bonino, O.P., Institut Catholique de Toulouse

Lawrence Dewan, O.P., Dominican College of Ottawa

Gilles Emery, O.P., University of Fribourg

Reinhard Hütter, Duke University

Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University

Emanuel Perrier, O.P., Dominican Studium, Toulouse

Richard Schenk, O.P., Dominican School of

Philosophy and Theology

Kevin White, The Catholic University of America

Christ and Spirituality in
St. Thomas Aquinas

Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P.

Translated by Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P.

The Catholic University of America Press

Washington, D.C.
 Copyright © 2011
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum

requirements of American National Standards for Information
Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Torrell, Jean-Pierre.
[Selections. English. 2011]
Christ and spirituality in St. Thomas Aquinas / Jean-Pierre
Torrell ; translation by Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P.
p. cm. — (Thomistic ressourcement series ; v. 2)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-8132-1878-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Thomas, Aquinas,
Saint, 1225?–1274.  2. Spirituality—Catholic Church.
3. Theology, Doctrinal—History—Middle Ages, 600–1500.
4. Philosophy, Medieval.  5. Catholic Church—Doctrines—
History.  I. Title.
BX4700.T6T5913 2011
230'.2092—dc23
2011022488
 Contents

French Sources of Book Chapters vii

Abbreviations ix
Preface xi

1. St. Thomas Aquinas: Theologian and Mystic 1

2. Theology and Sanctity 21
3. Charity as Friendship in St. Thomas Aquinas 45
4. The Interpreter of Desire: Prayer According
to St. Thomas Aquinas 65
5. Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 74
6. Imitating God as His Beloved Children:
Conformity to God and to Christ in the
Works of St. Thomas Aquinas 110
7. The Priesthood of Christ in the
Summa Theologiae 126
8. The Sower Went Out to Sow: The Image of
Christ the Preacher in Friar Thomas Aquinas 159
9. St. Thomas, Spiritual Master 174
Bibliography 195
Index of Subjects 207
Index of Names 211
 5

Christ in the “Spirituality”

of St. Thomas

The simple title of this chapter assumes one can speak of a spiritu-
ality in St. Thomas. I do not mean by this, of course, that Thomas
wrote various spiritual works, but I would assert that one can find
an incontrovertible spiritual aspect to his theology. I have in fact
already treated in detail the principal points of such a claim in my
article in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité,1 and am in the process now
of completing a book that treats of this topic, albeit in significantly
expanded form.2 So rather than reexamine what I have already dis-
cussed extensively, I shall take it as accepted fact and simply attempt
to focus on the place of Christ in Thomas’s vision of faith and the
Christian life.
In my mind, four principal themes stand out as attesting to the
absolutely primary role that Christ plays in the spiritual theology of
Thomas Aquinas. The first two enter into the makeup of his theol-
ogy and belong to the very structure of his thought; a failure to rec-

1. Torrell, “Thomas d’Aquin (Saint),” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. 15 (Paris:

Beauchesne, 1991), col. 718–73; cf. especially 749–73.
2. Editor’s note: this book has since been published as Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas,
vol. 2, Spiritual Master. This book complements the author’s biographical Saint Thomas
Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person and His Work.

74
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 75
ognize them would thus only end up disfiguring his doctrine. The
other two arise from his moral theology as such—that is, from the
way in which he views and explains human actions striving to attain
Christian beatitude. While these last two themes usher us into the
practical finality of theology, they remain in perfect continuity with
the structural options established by the first two themes.

The Way That Leads to God

We gain an immediate sense of Christ’s place in Thomas’s theology
simply by recalling the structural design of the Summa Theologiae.
Although I do not wish here to enter into a consideration of the nu-
merous theories formulated by various scholars on this subject,3 we
need to recall that Thomas, in proposing a clear and densely packed
teaching, offers unmistakable clues as to the importance he ascribes
to Christ in the strategic places of this work: “According to His hu-
manity, Christ is the way that leads us to God.”4 Succinct yet potent,
this affirmation of the general Prologue is considerably developed
at the beginning of the Third Part:
Since our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, “in saving His people from their
sins” (Mt 1:21) . . . showed us in His own Person the way of truth, whereby
we may attain the beatitude of eternal life by rising again, it is necessary
that, in order to complete the work of theology, after considering both
the final end of human life and the virtues as well as the vices, there
should follow our consideration of the Savior of all and of the benefits
bestowed by Him on the human race.

In this one sentence Thomas alludes not only to the principal

characteristics of the journey already traveled, but also and espe-
cially to the remainder of the journey yet to be accomplished, and

3. See the brief overview of this topic in my Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person
and His Work, 148–56.
4. ST Ia, q. 2, Prologue; emphasis mine (all italicized citations of St. Thomas and
scripture appearing hereafter are mine). Biblical citations are from the Revised Standard
Version (RSV).
76 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
he does it with the very words of Jesus himself in the Fourth Gospel
( Jn 14:6): “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Here as elsewhere,
it is striking to notice how the Dominican master places himself at
the humble service of scripture and how he inserts the biblical pas-
sage into his own phraseology by accomplishing in one sentence
the not-so-easy feat of bringing together the “negative” aspect of
Christ’s work, deliverance from sin, with the “positive” aspect of his
work, the return to the Father, which is the way that Christ incar-
nates in his person: “no one comes to the Father, but by me.” This
allows us better to understand why St. Thomas chooses to speak of
the completion of the work of theology: the whole Summa is orient-
ed to Christ.
This singular role of Christ at the grand finale of the Summa has
been the subject of considerable theological inquiry. And such in-
quiry will continue so long as one does not see the profound rea-
sons that St. Thomas decided upon this. As most of us know, the
reasons are both theological and pedagogical, and it is in consider-
ing these reasons that we gain our best glimpse into how Thomas
links together moral theology and Christology within the total
picture of the Summa.5 While my immediate purposes prevent me
from delving into the pedagogical reasons,6 it is of capital impor-
tance that we treat his theological aims.

5. For further insight into this matter, see Louis B. Gillon, Christ and Moral Theol-
ogy, trans. Cornelius Williams (Staten Island: Alba House, 1967), which is a reworking
of his earlier article “L’imitation du Christ et la morale de saint Thomas,” Angelicum 36
(1959): 263–86.
6. They are of course not without importance. St. Thomas could not have offered
at the beginning of his treatise on morality a reference to the exemplary role of Christ,
since he first had to elucidate the essential elements of human actions. But because
these elements are fairly universal, they can easily be ascribed to the humanity of Christ,
since this humanity remains unchanged in its innate constitution despite its being as-
sumed by the Word. All one need do is read with a bit of attentiveness what the Tertia
Pars says about Christ’s human actions (freedom, merit, passions, virtues) to see how
Thomas constantly refers back to what he had previously stated in the Prima Secun-
dae. Undoubtedly, although this totally unique humanity demands certain precisions
that show what is characteristic of Christ’s humanity alone, still the majority of things
said with regard to human actions in general can be identified in him who took on our
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 77
At the moment when he considered penning his own synthe-
sis of theological knowledge, Aquinas discovered in the Sentences
of Peter Lombard two great approaches to questions of morality.
The first can be found in the second book (distinctions 24–44): af-
ter considering the creation and sin of the first man, the Lombard
advances various considerations of grace and free will, original sin
and its transmission, good and evil in human actions. The second
approach to morality comes in the third book (distinctions 23–40)
after the material on Christology; the master of the Sentences choos-
es at this point to treat the theological and moral virtues, the gifts
of the Holy Spirit, the states of life, and the commandments. Those
familiar with the Summa should readily recognize that these two ap-
proaches mark the two poles around which St. Thomas structures
the Prima Secundae and the Secunda Secundae. Although Thomas’s
treatment of morality would in the end undergo considerable de-
velopment and reorganization in accordance with a framework no

condition in all things “except sin.” And even though these things are certainly valid for
Christ, Aquinas would not have been able to first speak about Christ without having to
make countless subsequent repetitions when treating human actions. Even though such
a choice is quite technical in nature, it is nonetheless not arbitrary and is dictated by the
subject matter of the work.
However, this in no way suggests that the structure of morality in general (Prima
Secundae) was developed without any reference to Christ and his grace. Despite all of
Thomas’s dependence upon the ancient philosophers, the treatise on the virtues is ev-
erywhere covered by the traces left by a strictly Christian heritage. This treatise is then
followed by an analysis of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a commentary on the Sermon
on the Mount (ST Ia-IIae, qq. 68–70), which is sufficient to show how Christ exerts his
influence even before he is explicitly mentioned. The same holds not only for the trea-
tise on the Old Law, in which St. Thomas lays heavy emphasis on the prefigurative role
of the mystery of Christ (ST Ia-IIae, qq. 98–105), but for the treatise on the New Law
as well, in which the essential element is nothing other than the grace of the Holy Spirit
obtained through faith in Christ (ST Ia-IIae, qq. 106–8). This whole process is then
crowned by the study on grace as such (ST Ia-IIae, qq. 109–14), which brings together
and completes all that has been said up until that point about human acts and virtues.
All this demands that we not miss Thomas’s principal point: situating Christ in
the Third Part of the Summa does not stem from a haphazard desire to stick him some-
where parenthetically amidst reflections on the Christian life, but comes rather from a
deliberately willed choice to highlight the importance of Christ’s role in the movement
of the creature’s return to God and in the climactic turning point of salvation history.
78 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
longer dependent upon the Lombard, it is undeniable that the Sen-
tences offered our Dominican master a sort of first rough draft.
In consequence, two options were left open to Aquinas. The first
consisted in assigning all the material on moral theology to its place
after the section on Christology (the second pole of the Sentences).
This would have yielded the advantage of putting his whole treat-
ment of morality in direct relation to Christ, thus allowing Thomas to
place the figure of Christ at the forefront of moral theology, just as he
is for the whole of the Christian life. Indeed, Thomas himself asserts
that Christ, because he is the Son of God, represents “the primordial
exemplar which all creatures imitate, for he is the true and perfect im-
age of the Father.”7 Yet this first option also had the disadvantage of
forcing an awkward integration of morality into Thomas’s overall vi-
sion of sacra doctrina. In effect, the absolute theocentric vision of the
Summa results from the fact that God is the only principle sufficiently
proportioned to being placed at the cornerstone of all theological
knowledge. If it is true that a theological synthesis aims at discover-
ing the order and coherence of the divine plan without attempting
to impose upon this plan a logic that remains quite foreign to it, then
the Trinity must come first in such an enterprise just as the Trinity
comes first in all of reality. And if this holds for the work of creation,
then it holds all the more for our recreation: the theologian must not
only never lose sight of the significance of the mediating role of the
humanity of Christ, he must also strive to return by this humanity to
the sole principal source of grace and salvation: God himself.
Thomas accordingly opted for the second choice, which consists
in placing the study on moral theology after the treatment of cre-
ation and of divine government (the Lombard’s first pole). Rather
than centering his moral theology on Christ, then, he relates it to the
Trinity, and this by virtue of the scriptural doctrine that the human
being is the image of God. Indeed, it is through the man Jesus Christ
7. In I Corinthios, ch. 11, lect. 1, no. 583: “Primordiale exemplar quod omnes crea-
turae imitantur tanquam ueram et perfectam imaginem Patris”; we shall soon see the
full import of this statement.
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 79
that Thomas wishes to describe the return (reditus) to the Creator
after having described the human being’s coming forth from God
(exitus). But such a tactical decision did not compel Aquinas to
abandon the advantages of the first alternative, as he found a way to
integrate rather seamlessly the positive aspects of the first option
into this approach. To speak of the human being as the image of God
necessarily calls to mind the exemplar after which the human race is
made and which it should resemble, which is precisely what the Pro-
logue to the Second Part maintains: “after having treated of the exem-
plar, namely, God . . . it remains for us to consider His image, that is,
the human being.” However, this ultimate end can only be attained
by Christ, for the image finds its likeness “through the conformity of
grace,”8 and grace can be obtained strictly by his mediation, since he
is “as the author of grace.”9 Christ will therefore be structurally pres-
ent wherever grace is mentioned, and so, too, the Holy Spirit: “joined
together by union in the Holy Spirit . . . we have access to the Father
through Christ, since Christ operates by the Holy Spirit. . . . And be-
cause of this, whatever is accomplished by the Holy Spirit is also ac-
complished by Christ.”10
If it is true, therefore, that the person of Christ does not act
alone in playing the leading role in the structural design of the Sum-
ma, nor in the arrangement of this work’s moral doctrine, it is not
by failure to appreciate the importance of Christ, but by Trinitar-
ian preference. It is important to underscore—and we would hardly
do justice to Thomas if we did not—that this choice stands in com-
plete conformity to the biblical witness. Not only does the Genesis
account of God creating the human being in his image dictate it, so
does the Sermon on the Mount—“You, therefore, must be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48)—as well as St. Paul—
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1).

8. ST Ia, q. 93, a. 4.
9. In Ioannem, ch. 1, lect. 10, no. 201: “quasi auctori gratiae.”
10. Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Ephesios lectura (hereafter In Eph-
esios), in Super Epistolas S. Pauli Lectura, vol. 2, ch. 2, lect. 5, no. 121.
80 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
So when Thomas comes to speaking of Christ, he has already,
in the Prima Pars, treated the presence of God in the world and the
new way by which this presence comes about through grace and the
divine missions. In situating Christ at the summit of the universe
inhabited by the Trinity, Aquinas introduces into such a vision
the whole dynamism of an evangelically rectified reditus. The redi-
tus is accomplished not simply by the Word, but by the incarnate
Word, who continues to send us his Spirit. As the unique mediator
through whom we gain access to the grace received from the Trin-
ity, the incarnate Word also plays the role of supreme guide, who
takes the lead in returning us to God: “For it was fitting that he, for
whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory,
should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering”
(Heb 2:10).
These insights into the organizational arrangement of the Sum-
ma should help us better to understand the structural role that
Christ holds for St. Thomas. Christ is not simply here or there, as
in some section of his theology. Even when Christ is not the explicit
object of consideration, his presence remains pervasive as the one
who makes the return to God possible. Only Thomas’s penetration
of such a truth through what he learned from revelation could ac-
count for why he orders the Summa in this fashion. And we shall
best grasp the full import that this truth held for him by turning to
his treatment of one of his most celebrated questions: the reasons
for the Incarnation. To this question, then, we now turn for our sec-
ond principal consideration.

A New Way
Scotists and Thomists have forever disputed over the reasons for the
Incarnation, but this dispute has veiled one of St. Thomas’s most
important answers to the question of Cur Deus homo? As every-
one knows, Aquinas refuses to entertain the notion of an absolute
necessity for the Incarnation, given that we cannot put limitations
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 81
on the omnipotence of God and that he could have saved us in any
number of ways.11 Rather, he looks to reasons of fittingness as those
that might help us grasp something of the incomprehensible love
that pushed God to such an extreme. Following in the footsteps of
St. Augustine, St. Anselm, and several others12 who took their cue
from scripture, St. Thomas appeals to the three predominantly pop-
ular reasons that would seem to account for the Incarnation, rea-
sons that continue to prompt serious new studies: the healing of the
wound caused by sin (remedium peccati); the restoration (reparatio)
of humanity to friendship with God; and satisfaction for sin. Thus
the theme of satisfaction, so readily present in the Sentences Com-
mentary and so excellently formulated in the Compendium theolo-
giae, persists on into the Summa Theologiae.13
Despite its pertinence and persistence, the theme of reparation
of the harmony lost by sin is always in danger of favoring an anthro-
11. ST IIIa, q. 1, a. 2.
12. Cf. Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo? trans. Sidney Norton Deane (1903;
Fort Worth, Tex.: RDMc Publishing, 2005); for a comparison, see J. Bracken, “Thomas
Aquinas and Anselm’s Satisfaction Theory,” Angelicum 62 (1985): 501–30, who nonethe-
less ends up opposing too systematically Aquinas with Anselm.
13. ST IIIa, q. 1, a. 2: “[The Incarnation took place] in order to free the human be-
ing from slavery to sin. Indeed, as Augustine says, ‘[this liberation] ought to have been
done in such a way that the devil be overcome by the justice of the man Jesus Christ,’
which was achieved by Christ satisfying for us. However, a mere man could not have sat-
isfied for the whole human race, nor was God obliged to satisfy; it was therefore neces-
sary that Jesus Christ be both God and man (Homo autem purus satisfacere non poterat;
Deus autem satisfacere non debebat). [Such a balancing of formulas provides sufficient
evidence for establishing its true origin, with Anselm only playing an intermediary role.
Far from concealing it, Thomas overtly displays it and, after having given the citation
from Augustine, continues with the following quotation from Leo the Great:] ‘Weak-
ness is assumed by strength, humiliation by greatness; in order that our remedy be fit-
ting, it was necessary that one and the same Mediator of God and men [1 Tim 2:5] die in
the one and rise in the other. For unless He were true God, He would not have brought
about a remedy; unless He were true man, He would not have offered an example’;”
cf. Sent. III, d. 1, q. 1, a. 2; Compendium theol. I, c. 200, 158. For recent works on the sub-
ject, see Romanus Cessario, The Godly Image: Christ and Salvation in Catholic Thought
from St. Anselm to Aquinas (Petersham, Mass.: St. Bede’s Publications, 1990), and Albert
Patfoort, “Le vrai visage de la satisfaction du Christ selon St. Thomas: Une étude de
la Somme théologique,” in Ordo sapientiae et amoris, edited by C.-J. Pinto de Oliveira,
247–65 (Fribourg: Éditions universitaires, 1993); one could disagree with the central
importance that these authors ascribe to the notion of satisfaction.
82 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
pocentric view of things: sin appears to impose on God an unfore-
seen finality. By freeing himself somewhat from the overly constrict-
ing shackles of his authoritative sources, which in nowise compelled
him to relinquish the traditional heritage, Thomas found a new way
of formulating the matter by the time he came to writing the Summa
contra Gentiles. The argument seems, at least in this form, to be fairly
unedited in its context: it was fitting that God should become man in
order to give the human being the possibility of seeing God. Turning to a
passage that offers the argument, we read:
In the first place we must note that the Incarnation of God was the most
efficacious assistance to the human being in his striving for beatitude (ad
beatitudinem tendenti). For we have proved [cf. SCG, III ch. 48ff] that the
human being’s perfect beatitude consists in the immediate vision of God.
Now, on account of the immeasurable distance between human nature
and God’s nature, a human being might deem it impossible for him to
reach such a state, wherein the human intellect is immediately united to
the divine essence, as the intellect is united to the intelligible. Held back
by despair, the human being would thus lose heart in his search for be-
atitude. But the fact that God willed to unite Himself personally with
human nature clearly proves to the human being that it is possible to be
united to God by his intellect, so as to see Him immediately. Therefore it
was most fitting for God to assume human nature, in order to raise in the hu-
man being the hope for beatitude.14

In order to understand straight off the thrust of St. Thomas’s ar-

gument, one must recall the structural role that beatitude plays in
his moral theology. Aquinas could offer no stronger argument for
the necessity of the Incarnation than by maintaining that Christ is
not only the one who teaches the human race that beatitude is pos-
sible, but also the one who offers the human family the means of at-
taining such happiness. In continuing to argue in this vein, he read-
ies the stage for his conclusion: “it was thus necessary for the human

14. SCG IV, ch. 54, no. 3923; this text can be found quoted more fully in the ap-
pendix. Translator’s note: when citing the SCG, I follow in general the translation of the
English Dominicans (London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1934), with modifica-
tions when necessary.
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 83
being striving for perfect beatitude that God should become man.”15 The
Christmas liturgy extends an invaluable confirmation to this insight,
since it sees in the Incarnation proof of the divine pedagogy that
accustoms the human being to recognizing God: “in knowing God
made visible to us, we are drawn to the love of things invisible (Dum
uisibiliter Deum cognoscimus, in inuisibilium amorem rapiamur).”16
St. Thomas already has recourse to the preface of the Mass of the
Nativity of Our Lord in the Sentences Commentary.17 While he does
not do this in the Summa Theologiae, this theme reappears there in a
more succinct form, just like everything else in the Summa:
The fifth reason [for how the Incarnation helps our furtherance in the
good] concerns the full participation of the Divinity, which is the human
being’s true beatitude and the end of human life. And this is bestowed upon
us by Christ’s humanity, for, as Augustine says: “God was made man,
so that man might become God” (Factus est Deus homo, ut homo fieret
Deus).18

15. SCG IV, ch. 54, no. 3926.

16. SCG IV, ch. 54, no. 3927.
17. Sent. III, d. 1, q. 1, a. 2; one can find this theme of progressively getting accus-
tomed to divine realities from properly human experiences elsewhere in Thomas’s writ-
ings, in particular in a whole chapter that is dedicated to the reasons for the Incarnation
in Thomas Aquinas, De rationibus fidei ad cantorem Antiochenum, Leonine Edition, vol.
40B (Rome: Leonine Commission, 1969), ch. 5:62: “Now since the human being has
an intellect and an affectivity grounded in the body, he cannot easily raise himself to
higher realities. And even though it may be easy for one human being to know and love
another human being, still it is not given to everyone to ponder divine realities or to
render unto God great outbursts of affectionate love; only those who, with the help of
God and with great diligence and effort, raise themselves above bodily goods in order
to attain spiritual realities procure such things. It was therefore in order to open unto all
human beings a way that allows easy access to God that God so desired to become man,
so that even the small can know and love God as if He were like them; in such a way, since
they are able to understand, they gradually advance toward what is perfect.”
18. ST IIIa, q. 1, a. 2; in point of fact, the authenticity of this citation from Augustine
is quite dubious (cf. Augustine, Sermon 128, in Sermones Supposititii (PL 39: 1997). The
four preceding reasons in this series of arguments from fittingness, which again treats of
our “furtherance in the good,” envisage in a number of successive steps the profit that
is gained for what concerns our faith, hope, charity, and our practice of virtue; beatitude
thus appears to come at the end of a long road that one proceeds along through the
practice of all the virtues of the Christian life.
84 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
The end of this passage marks a common patristic affirmation,
but his mentioning of beatitude in this context betrays a theme that
is characteristic of Thomas. In response to the overly anthropo-
centric view that the Incarnation was necessary for the reparation
of sin, Aquinas turns to the human desire to see God, a desire that
marks a void left by the Creator. Rather than limiting itself to a strict
restoration in justice of what had been destroyed by sin, the love
that God bestows upon the human race instead goes to the furthest
extremities in securing the great victory of salvation. In this way, the
Incarnation is looked upon as a manuductio:19 God takes the human
person by the hand, as it were, in order to guide him along the way.
This is precisely what typifies the “new and living way” opened by
Christ’s flesh that is spoken of by the Letter to the Hebrews (10:20):
(The Apostle) shows how we may have confidence in entering, since
Christ dedicated (initiauit), that is, began (inchoauit), a new and living
way for us. . . . This, then, is the way of entering heaven. And it is new, since
before Christ no one found it, since “no man hath ascended into heaven,
but he that descended from heaven” ( Jn 3:13). And so, he who wants to
ascend must adhere to the Head as one of his members. . . . It is living,
that is, it always perseveres, since in it the power (uirtus) of the Godhead,
which is always living, becomes visible. And (the Apostle) shows what
this way is by adding, “through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.” For just
as the high priest enters through the veil into the Holy of Holies, so if
we want to enter the holies of glory we must enter through the flesh of
Christ, which was the veil of his deity. “Truly, Thou art a hidden God” (Is
45:15). For faith does not suffice regarding the Godhead if it is not present
regarding the Incarnation.20

This passage exhibits a triple theme that surfaces in several of

Aquinas’s works: that of the way, which has received too little atten-
tion; that of the desire for beatitude, which in one way or another
spans every work of Thomas; and that of the circular movement,

19. ST IIa-IIae, q. 82, a. 3, ad 2: the humanity of Christ is a teaching instrument su-

premely adapted to leading us to his divinity.
20. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, trans. Chrysostom
Baer (South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 2006), ch. 20, lect. 2, no. 502, 210.
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 85
the fruitfulness of which we already know. This last theme leads us
to our next passage, which highlights the chief element of Thomas’s
insight:
[T]he Incarnation holds up to the human being an ideal of that blessed
union whereby the created intellect is joined, in an act of understanding,
to the uncreated Spirit. It is no longer unbelievable that a creature’s intellect
should be capable of union with God by beholding the divine essence, since the
time when God became united to man by taking a human nature to himself. In
this way, the Incarnation puts the finishing touch to the whole vast work
envisaged by God. For the human being, who was the last to be created,
returns by a sort of circulatory movement to his first beginning, being
united by the work of the Incarnation to the very principle of all things.21

We could add a considerable number of texts from St. Thomas

to the few cited above. More importantly for our purposes, howev-
er, they provide sufficient evidence for what was suggested earlier
about the place of Christ in the structural design of the Summa. Fri-
ar Thomas’s theocentric aims refuse to marginalize Christ by push-
ing him off onto the periphery. Christ’s assigned place is located
exactly where it should be: in the very center of our history and at
the meeting point between God and the human being. And rather
than conceiving such a place as occupying a sort of static middle
ground, one must regard it as the way that leads us to our heavenly
homeland, since, as the One “who leads us in our faith and brings it
to perfection” (Heb 12:2), Christ pulls us along after him with the
compelling force that drives his own humanity on to the Father.22
21. Aquinas, Compendium of Theology, trans. Cyril Vollert, ch. 201. Scholars are in-
creasingly willing to admit the importance of the circular movement in the thought of
St. Thomas; cf. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person and His Work, 150–56;
Jan Aertsen, “The Circulation-Motive and Man in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas,” in
L’homme et son univers au moyen âge, edited by C. Wenin, vol. 1, 432–39 (Louvain-la-
Neuve: Éditions de l’Institut supérieur de philosophie, 1986); Aertsen, Nature and Crea-
ture: Thomas Aquinas’s Way of Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1988).
22. In his commentary on John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws him,” St. Thomas explains that “those who come to Christ . . . are
drawn by the Father” without coercion, since he answers their desires: Thomas Aqui-
nas, Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 6–12, trans. Fabian Larcher and James
A. Weisheipl (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), ch. 6,
86 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas

The Exemplarity of Christ

By way of introduction to the third theme of this chapter, I would
like to turn to Thomas’s commentary on the First Epistle to the Cor-
inthians. The following passage proves to be crucial, since it shows
that the appeal to the example of Christ does not merely stem from
a moral exhortation. The passage fits profoundly into the very struc-
ture of Friar Thomas’s theology, and it explains why Christ is the
exemplary realization of all the virtues, for he is the incarnate Word,
who from all eternity governs over all of creation:
The first principle of the procession of all things is the Son of God, ac-
cording to that which is said in Jn 1:3: “through him all things were made.”
This also explains why he is the primordial exemplar that all creatures
imitate, insofar as he is the true and perfect image of the Father. This is
what Col 1:15 means when it says: “He is the image of the invisible God,
the First-born of all creation; for in Him all things were created.” In a
special way too he is the exemplar of all the spiritual graces that illumi-
nate spiritual creatures, according to what is said about the Son in Psalm
109:3: “from the womb before the dawn I begot you in the splendor of
the saints.” Since he was begotten before all creatures through illuminat-
ing grace, he possesses in himself in an exemplary way (exemplariter) the
splendor of all the saints. Nevertheless, this divine exemplar was remotely
distant from us. . . . This is why he willed to become man, so as to grant the
human race a human exemplar.23

The commentary continues with various examples of practical

application, but we shall leave them to the side. It is more important
for our purposes to show how this passage opens up two avenues of
reflection.

lect. 5, no. 935ff; see as well the excellent study by R. Lafontaine, “La personne du Père
dans la pensée de saint Thomas,” in R. Lafontaine et al., L’Écriture âme de la théologie,
81–108 (Brussels: Institut d’études théologiques, 1990).
23. In I Corinthios, ch. 11, lect. 1, no. 583; the same type of argument can be found in
Aquinas, De rationibus fidei, ch. 5: since all things were created through the Word, it was
fitting that they all likewise be redeemed through him; see as well the commentary on
John 13:15 below.
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 87

Moral Exemplarity
The most immediately obvious point to be drawn from Thomas’s
remarks concerns moral exemplarity, which places the focus both on
Christ as the living Incarnation of the evangelical virtues and on the
human effort to collaborate with God through the grace received
from him. Rather homiletic, this theme is present all throughout
St. Thomas’s scriptural commentaries, yet it is far from absent in his
other works.24 I shall offer one representative passage, in which, as
a true spiritual master, Thomas is not afraid to insist on what can be
gained practically:
(Christ Jesus) said “the reason I have done this was to give you an ex-
ample; so you also ought to wash one another’s feet, because this was what
I intended by this action.” For when we are dealing with human conduct,
example is always stronger than words (plus mouent exempla quam uer-
ba). The human being chooses and does what seems good to him, and
so what he chooses is a better indication of what is good than what one
teaches should be chosen. This is why when someone says one thing and
does another, what he does has more influence on others than what he
has taught. Thus it is especially necessary that one live as much by good
example as by good word.
Now the example of a mere human being would not be adequate for
the entire human race to imitate, both because human reason cannot take
everything into account [whether about life or about everything good],
and because human reason errs in what it does take into account. And so
there was given to us the example of the Son of God, which cannot be in
error and is adequate for all situations. Thus St. Augustine says: “Pride is
not healed if it is not healed by the divine humility”; and the same is true
of avarice and the other vices.
Note that the Son of God is a fitting and sufficient example for us. For
he is the art of the Father, and just as he was the model or pattern for every
thing created, so he was the model for our justification: “Christ suffered for
you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:21).25
24. For the reasons for the Incarnation, see, for example, SCG IV, ch. 54, no. 3928,
and ST IIIa, q. 1, a. 2; the theme reappears more allusively in the Compendium theol. I,
ch. 201. Of utmost importance as well is ST Ia-IIae, q. 61, a. 5, which gives the Trinitar-
ian foundation of Christological exemplarity; cf. as well chapter 6 of the present book.
25. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 13–21, trans.
88 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
Thomas has a penchant for the expression plus mouent exempla
quam uerba. One can already find it among the reasons for the In-
carnation given in the Summa contra Gentiles,26 and it is taken up
verbatim in the Summa Theologiae, with a meaningful appeal to
common experience.27 Without a doubt common human wisdom
accounts in part for the truth of this expression, but it would not
be going too far to suggest that St. Thomas’s Dominican legacy also
helps explain his insistence upon it, since he followed closely the
example of St. Dominic, who preached as much by example as by
word (uerbo et exemplo).28
The exemplarity of Christ and of his conduct for the whole of the
Christian life can be found in many of Aquinas’s works, most notably
in the opuscules written in defense of the religious life. One could
also point to a whole series of texts in the second part of the Summa
that clearly show how Thomas never loses sight of this theme. How-
ever, since the subject of Christ’s exemplarity has already been treat-
ed,29 we shall limit ourselves to tracing its development in the third
Fabian Larcher and James A. Weisheipl (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2010), ch. 13, lect. 3, no. 1781; cf. In Ioannem, ch. 13, lect. 1, no. 1743; ch. 13,
lect. 7, no. 1838; ch. 14, lect. 2, nos. 1870–71; ch. 15, lect. 2, nos. 2002–3).
26. SCG IV, ch. 55, nos. 3950–51: “In the same way, too, there is no awkwardness in
saying that Christ willed the death on the Cross as a demonstration of humility [this
virtue, of course, only concerns the humanity that the Word was able to assume and
not the Divine nature, since humility is not becoming of God]. . . . One grants also that
human beings instructed by the divine lessons were able to be informed about humil-
ity . . . , yet for all that, deeds are more provocative of action than words (ad agendum
magis prouocant facta quam uerba), and deeds move the more effectively, the more cer-
tain is the opinion of the goodness of him who performs such deeds. Hence, although
many examples of humility of other human beings are discoverable, it was most expedi-
tious to arouse human beings to humility by the example of the God-man. He clearly
could not make a mistake, and his humility is the more wondrous as his majesty is the
more sublime”; Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles, Book Four: Salvation, trans.
Charles J. O’Neil (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975), 242–43.
See the notes of P. Marc (Marietti edition) on SCG, which point out the previous classi-
cal and patristic passages arguing in the same vein.
27. ST Ia-IIae, q. 34, a. 1: “in human actions and passions, wherein experience is of
great weight, magis mouent exempla quam uerba.”
28. Cf. M.-H. Vicaire, Histoire de saint Dominique, vol. 1 (Paris: Cerf, 1982), 279.
29. Cf. A. Valsecchi, “L’imitazione di Cristo in san Tommaso d’Aquino,” in Miscel-
lanea Carlo Figini, edited by G. Colombo, A. Rimoldi, and A. Valsecchi, 175–203 (Milan:
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 89
part of the Summa, if only to see that what stands out are the repeat-
ed references to the virtues that Christ exhibits and that are enjoined
upon his disciples. And so it is that, when continuing to offer reasons
for the Incarnation, Thomas explains that it was fitting for Christ to
take on a body subject to human infirmities and defects, “in order
to show us an example of patience by bravely enduring passions and
human defects.”30 Conversely, Christ did not wish to assume sin, for
in this case he could have given us neither a proper human exam-
ple—as sin does not belong to the essence of human nature—nor an
example of virtue, which is contrary to sin.31 On the other hand, if he
wished to pray, it was in order to invite us to confident and unceasing
prayer;32 if he allowed himself to be made subject to circumcision
and to various other precepts of the Law, it was in order to give us
a living example of humility and obedience;33 likewise, his baptism
prompts us in our turn to receive baptism.34
Each event in Jesus’s life (fasting, undergoing temptations, liv-
ing amidst the crowds) allows for similar remarks, which brings
St.  Thomas to the following summarization: “By his way of life
(conuersatio) the Lord gave an example of perfection in every essential
thing pertaining to salvation.”35 Better yet, he offers this striking ex-
pression: “Christ’s action is our instruction (Christi actio fuit nostra
instructio).”36 Depending on the context, this axiom, which Thomas

Venegono Inferiore, 1964). With reason, Valsecchi marvels that the erroneous view that
St. Thomas knew nothing of the theme of the imitation of Christ could have gained
a hearing. Moreover, Valsecchi accomplishes the task of correctly situating St.  Thom-
as’s teaching within the broader context of the scriptural and patristic traditions. See
“Gesù Cristo nostra legge,” La Scuola Cattolica 88 (1960): 81–110; 161–90. In this article
he shows that many of Aquinas’s ideas, which belong for the most part to the common
Christian patrimony, can also be found in other authors, particularly in St. Bonaventure.
30. ST IIIa, q. 14, a. 1: “propter exemplum patientiae quod nobis exhibet passiones et
defectus humanos fortiter tolerando.”
31. ST IIIa, q. 15, a. 1. 32. ST IIIa, q. 21, a. 3.
33. ST IIIa, q. 37, a. 4.
34. ST IIIa, q. 39, a. 2 ad 1; cf. a. 1 and a. 3, ad 3: “Christus proponebatur hominibus in
exemplum omnium.”
35. ST IIIa, q. 40, a. 2, ad 1.
36. ST IIIa, q. 40, a. 1, ad 3.
90 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
borrowed from Cassiodorus via Peter Lombard, reappears in one
form or another seventeen times throughout all his works.37 Even if
he is careful to stress that certain things always distinguish Christ’s
case from ours and that only the light of faith can make the truth of
this assertion understandable, he never questions its fundamental
veracity. Its frequent recurrence among his works evinces his deter-
mination to address, with the utmost seriousness, the concrete ex-
ample of Christ’s actions, just as much as he treats Christ’s teaching.
The exemplary value of Christ’s actions obviously reaches its
culmination in the final days of his earthly life. In responding to the
question of whether there was any more suitable way of delivering
the human race than by the Passion, St. Thomas offers his usual list-
ing of various reasons of fittingness. In the first place, the Passion
shows the human person “how much God loves him, which in turn
incites the human being to love him in return, in which consists the
perfection of salvation.” Secondly, by his Passion Christ gives us
“an example of obedience, humility, perseverance, justice, and the
other virtues displayed in it, which are necessary for the salvation of
the human race. Hence it is said in 1 Pet 2:21: Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”38 Making
our Dominican friar’s love for the cross transparent, these pages
from the Summa have not slipped by undetected from all of Thom-
as’s readers, such as Louis Chardon, who knew how to exploit them
well.39
37. For an accurate and thought-provoking study on this subject, see Richard
Schenk, “Omnis Christi actio nostra est instructio: The Deeds and Sayings of Jesus as Rev-
elation in the View of Thomas Aquinas,” in La doctrine de la révélation divine, edited by
Leo Elders, 103–31 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1990). Although this ex-
pression occurs more frequently in the Sentences Commentary of Aquinas than in the
Summa (where the only occurrence is in the passage given above), still it can be located
in various other places; cf. Schenk, Omnis Christi, 111, note 51. An equivalent expression
also exists in the Aquinas sermon Sermo Puer Iesus, in Opera omnia, vol. 6, edited by
R. Busa, 33a (Stuttgart: 1980): “Cuncta quae Dominus fecit uel in carne passus est, doc-
umenta et exempla sunt salutaria.”
38. ST IIIa, q. 46, a. 3; for other analogous expressions, see IIIa, q. 46, a. 4; q. 50 a.
1; q. 51 a. 1.
39. Cf. Louis Chardon, La croix de Jésus, xcvi–cv; see also D. Bouthillier, “Le Christ
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 91
Thomas refuses to stop there in his consideration of the mystery
of Christ. After the Passion and the Cross come of course the Res-
urrection, Ascension, and Exaltation of Christ at the right hand of
the Father. As we shall soon see, even though Aquinas approaches
these mysteries in a different manner, the fact remains that he ig-
nores nothing when analyzing the Easter event of Christ. In this he
remains faithful to the design he has strictly followed in his work:
to take into account all that Christ did and suffered for us (acta et
passa Christi in carne).40

Ontological Exemplarity
Moral exemplarity represents the most apparent aspect of Christ’s
spiritual role. For when it comes to the Christian life, the imitation
of Christ certainly marks the way of salvation. But St. Thomas does
not merely leave it at that, as he explains how the imitation of Christ
is made possible only by the grace that he gives us, a grace that has
already conformed us to him. To illustrate, take the example of the
beautiful representation found on the north portal of the Cathedral
of Chartres, in which God, while creating the first man, has his eyes
fixed on the new Adam, in whose image he fashions man. Here the
accent lies not so much on human effort as on the work of God in
the human being. This is precisely what is at issue in what I propose
to call ontological exemplarity.
The distinctive Pauline teaching that we are interiorly modeled
or “re-formed” in the image of the beloved Son by the grace medi-
ated through him represents the immediate scriptural foundation
for this theme: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the
First-born among many brethren.”41 Technically speaking, theolo-
en son mystère dans les collationes du super Isaiam de saint Thomas d’Aquin,” in Ordo
sapientiae et amoris, edited by C.-J. Pinto de Oliveira, 37–64.
40. Cf. ST IIIa Prologue; q. 27, Prologue; q. 48, a. 6: “omnes actiones et passiones
Christi instrumentaliter operantur in uirtute diuinitatis ad salutem humanam.”
41. Romans 8:29; here I follow the RSV translation, which remains closer to the
original Greek than the Latin text that St. Thomas had at his disposal.
92 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
gians refer to this grace as a “Christo-conforming” reality. The term
is fairly self-explanatory and doctrinally is as simple as it is estima-
ble. It brings into play two important fundamental givens: that God
alone is the source of grace, and that this grace comes to us through
the mediation of Christ, thus bearing his imprint.
The underlying principle at work is that only God can give grace.
This too is self-explanatory, since divinization characterizes the work
of God alone.42 But Thomas goes on to clarify the point that this
divinization is produced by the mediation of Christ, for, to use the
technical term typically employed by Aquinas, he is its “instrumen-
tal” cause.43 And in following Thomas’s persistent teaching, we can
say that the instrument “modifies” the action of the principal cause.44

42. ST Ia-IIae, q. 112, a. 1: “Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of cre-
ated nature, since it is nothing other than a certain participation in the divine nature
(2 Pet 1:4), which surpasses every other nature. And thus it is impossible for any crea-
ture to cause grace. It is therefore necessary that God alone deify (deificet) by communicat-
ing a fellowship (consortium) with the divine nature through a certain participated like-
ness”; this is the same unmistakably firm conclusion arrived at by Thomas’s argument in
the De veritate, q. 27, a. 3, no matter if that text does not use the term deifico. For further
considerations on this question, see the collection of texts assembled by H.-T. Conus,
“Divinisation: Thomas d’Aquin,” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. 3 (1957), col. 1426–32.
43. ST Ia-IIae, q. 112, a. 1, ad 1: “Christ’s humanity is ‘as a certain instrument of His
divinity,’ as John Damascene says. Yet an instrument does not accomplish the action of
the principal agent by its own power but in virtue of the principal agent. Hence Christ’s
humanity does not cause grace by its own power but by virtue of the Godhead joined
to it, whereby the actions of Christ’s humanity are salvific”; cf. John Damascene, De fide
orthodoxa, edited by E. Buytaert (New York: St. Bonaventure, 1955), III, chs. 59 and 63.
St. Thomas did not immediately come upon this doctrine; in following St. Augustine,
he speaks in Sent. (III, d. 13, q. 2, a. 1) only of a dispositive or ministerial causality of
Christ’s humanity: God produces grace at the time of Christ’s action. The transition to a
true instrumental causality only occurs between questions 27 and 29 of the De veritate:
from this point on, not only does the humanity of Christ truly work toward the pro-
duction of grace, thus leaving its mark on this grace, but grace is also no longer simply
divine but properly “Christian” as well. For an excellent study on the evolution of this
notion in Aquinas, see J. R. Geiselmann, “Christus und die Kirche nach Thomas von
Aquin,” Theologische Quartalschrift 107 (1926): 198–222; 107 (1927): 233–55.
44. ST IIIa, q. 62, a. 1, ad 2: “An instrument has a twofold action: one is instrumen-
tal, according to which it operates not by its own power but by the power of the princi-
pal agent; the other is its proper action, which belongs to it according to its proper form.
Thus it belongs to an ax to cut asunder by reason of its sharpness, but to make a couch
in so far as it is the instrument of a craftsman. But it does not accomplish the instrumental
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 93
We can refuse to make use of an instrument, but once we do make
use of it, it leaves its mark on the produced effect. True enough,
an instrument does nothing on its own, yet it does do something,
since the final result bears its stamp. This general teaching can be ap-
plied in an eminent way to the humanity of Christ and to its actions:
since each of Christ’s two natures has its own operation, explains St.
Thomas, the actions of his human nature are not voided out by its
union with the divine nature in the Person of the Word.
Nevertheless, the divine nature makes use of the operation of the human
nature, as in the operation of its instrument. . . . The action of the instru-
ment insofar as instrument is not distinct from the action of the principal
agent; yet it is able to have another operation inasmuch as it is a certain
thing. Hence the operation of Christ’s human nature, inasmuch as it is
the instrument of the Godhead, is not distinct from the operation of the
Godhead; for the salvation by which Christ’s humanity saves is not dis-
tinct from the salvation by which His Godhead saves. Nevertheless, the
human nature in Christ, inasmuch as it is a certain nature, has its own
operation along with that of the Godhead.45

Without losing its divine quality, grace bears a Christic charac-

ter. Thomas exploits the full value of this doctrine in the Tertia Pars,
particularly in the section consecrated to the mysteries of the life of
Christ.46 In thirty-three questions and in accordance with a circular
arrangement quite familiar to him,47 Thomas examines all the sig-

action except by exercising its proper action, for it is by cutting that it makes a couch.” The
same teaching can be found in ST Ia, q. 45, a. 5, and even more explicitly in SCG IV,
ch. 41, nos. 3798–800.
45. ST IIIa, q. 19, a. 1 and ad 2; although the text of this question runs too long to be
cited in full, it marks the decisive passage on the subject. Thomas did not always arrive
at such a crystallized notion of the efficient causality of Christ’s humanity (cf. note 43
above); in Sent. III, d. 18, a. 6, qla. 1, qla. 1, he continues to speak of the role of Christ’s
humanity under the heading of meritorious causality; with the exception of one solitary
passage (ST IIIa, q. 1, a. 2, ad 2), which in fact happens to be connected with the Ansel-
mian notion of satisfaction, this type of language is distinctly not that of the Summa.
46. For various supplementary details on this subject, see Torrell, Saint Thomas
Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person and His Work, 261–66. See also the author’s subsequent two-
volume work on this subject, Torrell, Le Christ en ses mystères.
47. This circular design is developed in the first three parts of this section: the
94 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
nificant acts that marked Christ’s existence and what they mean for
our salvation. Far from limiting the salvific work of Christ to the tri-
als of his final days and to his death on the Cross, St. Thomas main-
tains that nothing that the incarnate Word experienced is without
meaning for salvation; on the contrary, every aspect of it finds its
repercussions in the lives of Christians today.
Although this part of the Summa has for a long time been ne-
glected, it is now beginning to garner the attention it justifiably de-
serves,48 as it is a model of Aquinas’s theological method. Since here
he resolutely implements his doctrine of the instrumentality of the
humanity of Christ, it also undeniably marks the spot where one
can best see the repercussions of a decisive theological choice in the
spiritual domain. For Thomas, each and every act that Christ per-
formed in his humanity was and continues to be a bearer of salvific
efficacy:

entrance (ingressus) of the Son of God into the world, which coincides with the mystery
of the Incarnation (qq. 27–39); the development (progressus) of his earthly life with its
central events (qq. 40–45); and the departure (exitus) from this world, namely, his Pas-
sion and death (qq. 46–52); in the fourth part (qq. 53–59), although it does not enter
directly into the movement itself, the heavenly life of the glorified (exaltatio) Jesus is
nonetheless described as the term and the unfolding in all its fullness of this circular
movement. It is precisely this final consideration that shows the inappropriateness of
the expression “The Life of Jesus.”
48. For patristic antecedents, cf. A. Grillmeier, “Généralités historiques sur les mys-
tères de Jésus,” in Mysterium salutis, vol. 11 (Paris: Cerf, 1975), 333–57. For Thomas, see the
important study of L. Scheffzyck, “Die Stellung des Thomas von Aquin in der Entwick-
lung der Lehre von den Mysteria Vitae Christi,” in Renovatio et Reformatio: Wider das
Bild vom “finsteren” Mittelalter, Festschrift für Ludwig Hödl zum 60. Geburtstag, edited by
M. Gerwing and G. Ruppert, 44–70 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1985). Also to be pointed
out are the works of R. Lafontaine, La résurrection et l’exaltation du Christ chez Thomas
d’Aquin: Analyse comparative de S. Th. IIIa q. 53 à 59 (Rome: Pontificas Universitas Gre-
goriana, 1983) (see the original dissertation, which bears the same title but is more com-
plete than the published excerpt); and Scheffzyck, “Die Bedeutung der Mysterien des
Lebens Jesu für Glauben und Leben des Christen,” in Die Mysterien des Lebens Jesu und
die christliche Exitenz, edited by L. Scheffzyck (Aschaffenburg: Pattloch, 1984), 17–34.
Inos Biffi, I Misteri di Cristo in Tommaso d’Aquino, vol. 1, Biblioteca di cultura medievale
339 (Milan: Jaca Book, 1994), began the task of compiling a series of studies that shows
the pervasive presence of the theme and the fruit it bears in all the works of Thomas;
for a Rahnerian perspective, see as well G. Lohaus, Die Geheimnisse des Lebens Jesu in der
Summa Theologiae des heiligen Thomas von Aquin (Freiburg: Herder, 1985).
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 95
(According to Aristotle) “Whatever is first in any order is the cause of all
that come after it.”49 But Christ’s Resurrection was the first in the order
of our Resurrection. Hence it is necessary that Christ’s Resurrection be
the . . . efficient and exemplary cause of our Resurrection. It is the efficient
cause inasmuch as Christ’s humanity, according to which he rose again, is in
a certain measure the instrument of his Godhead and operates by the power
of the Godhead, as was stated above [cf. ST IIIa, q. 13, a. 2; q. 19, a. 1; q. 43,
a. 2]. And therefore, just as all the other things that Christ accomplished or
underwent in his humanity are salvific for us through the “power” of his God-
head, as already stated [cf. ST IIIa, q. 48, a. 6], so also is Christ’s Resurrec-
tion the efficient cause of our Resurrection by virtue of the divine “power,” to
whom it belongs to give life to the dead. This “power” reaches all places and
times by its presence and such “virtual” contact suffices to account for this ef-
ficiency. And since, as was stated above [cf. ST IIIa, q. 56, a. 1, ad 2], the pri-
mary cause of human resurrection is the divine justice, by which Christ
has “the power to pass judgment inasmuch as he is the Son of man” (cf.
Jn 5:27), the effective “power” of his Resurrection extends not only to the
good but also to the wicked, who are subject to his judgment.50

The multiplicity of cross-references by which Aquinas assures

the reader that he has already treated one or another aspect of this
doctrine indicates that we now find ourselves strategically situated
amidst his reflection. And while this passage is the most explicit
one on the subject, which explains why scholars frequently turn to
it, it is far from the only one, for St. Thomas goes on from there to
49. Here St. Thomas makes use of the principle of maxime tale in both a free and
personal manner (for he inverts the original meaning of Aristotle’s usage of it): what-
ever is first in any order is the principle and cause with regard to the other elements of
the same order. For a more in-depth look into this issue, see the decisive works of V. de
Couesnongle, “La causalité du maximum: L’utilisation par saint Thomas d’un passage
d’Aristote,” and “La causalité du maximum: Pourquoi saint Thomas a-t-il mal cité Aris-
tote?” Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 38 (1954): 433–44, 658–80. These
studies were completed by Luc-Thomas Somme, Fils adoptifs de Dieu par Jésus Christ:
La filiation divine par adoption dans la théologie de saint Thomas d’Aquin (Paris: J. Vrin,
1997), 336–40.
50. ST IIIa, q. 56, a. 1, resp. and ad 3; in a preceding passage (IIIa, q. 53, a. 1) Thomas
explains that Christ’s Resurrection was a work of divine justice because it was fitting to
exalt him who humbled himself; this is what is called the logic of the Magnificat that is
found in Luke 1:52, which St. Thomas quotes here: “He has cast down the mighty from
their thrones, and exalted the lowly”; for the work that here pertains to the Son of Man,
see In Ioannem, ch. 5, lect. 4, no. 761.
96 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
speak of the Passion in a similar way: “(The Passion acts) by way of
efficiency, inasmuch as Christ’s flesh, wherein he endured the Pas-
sion, is the instrument of the Godhead.”51 The same is said about
the death and even the dead body of Christ, “for this body was the
instrument of the Godhead united to him, operating by virtue of
the Godhead even though it was dead.”52 Perhaps surprising to
some, Thomas makes it clear that in the state of death, even though
the body of Christ could obviously no longer act as an instrument
of merit, it could still quite easily act as an instrument of efficiency,
since the Godhead remained united to it (thus concurring with one
of the most secure dogmatic tenets: the Person of the Word did not
abandon his body during the triduum mortis). The same holds with
respect to the Ascension: “Christ’s Ascension is the cause of our sal-
vation not by way of merit but by way of efficiency, as was stated
above regarding his Resurrection.”53
By extending this teaching to all that Christ did and suffered,
Thomas proves that not just the major events of the paschal mystery
find themselves in this situation: “all of Christ’s actions and sufferings
operate instrumentally in virtue of his Godhead for the salvation of the
human race.”54 Indeed, Thomas held to this belief in the salvific ef-
ficacy of all of Christ’s actions since the time of his earliest writings,
as evidenced by his scriptural commentaries. The affirmation is thus
as constant as it is clear, which exempts us from having to enter into
the modern Thomistic debate over the precise way of explaining it.55
51. ST IIIa, q. 49, a. 1; cf. IIIa, q. 48, a. 6, ad 2; “Christ’s Passion, although corporeal,
has yet a spiritual power from being joined to the Godhead. And therefore it obtains its
efficacy through spiritual contact, namely, through faith and the sacraments of faith.”
52. ST IIIa, q. 50, a. 6 and ad 3; this citation best confirms the fact that Thomas does
not only consider the strictly voluntary actions of Christ’s humanity.
53. ST IIIa, q. 57, a. 6, ad 1.
54. ST IIIa, q. 48, a. 6: “omnes actiones et passiones Christi instrumentaliter ope-
rantur in uirtute diuinitatis ad salutem humanam.”
55. The debate centers on whether these passages are to be understood as speaking
about the Resurrection or various “mysteries” in their reality as already achieved (in facto
esse, to use the terminology employed by the specialists) or about their reality as in the
process of becoming (in fieri). In simpler terms, is it the resurrected Christ or Christ in the
act of resurrecting that saves us today? cf. J. Gaillard, “Chronique de liturgie: La théologie
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 97
Thomas’s view is unwaveringly clear on the matter: without a doubt
it is Christ in the act of resurrecting who saves us. In fact, all one needs
to do is turn to the Sentences Commentary to find his position already
established: “As God and man in the act of resurrecting (homo resur-
gens), he is the proximate and as it were univocal cause of our resur-
rection.”56 Thomas will offer this teaching again in his commentar-
ies on the Letter to the Romans and on the Book of Job, where he
always speaks of the resurrection as in the process of becoming (in
fieri),57 and then, of course, in the Summa.58 As a past act, the Resur-
rection ceases to exist, yet its instrumental influx as moved by the
Godhead remains efficacious. The continuing efficiency of the past
mysteries of Christ’s life comes from the divine power that reaches
all times and places; and such “virtual” contact, that is, according to
the virtus, suffices to account for this efficiency.59
While we are constrained from delving deeper into this issue, if
we stop for a moment to consider what these mysteries produce in
us by virtue of their instrumental efficacy, we cannot help but put on
center stage one of Aquinas’s familiar arguments, in which he takes
a principle from Aristotle and boldly transposes it to serve a reality
that the Greek philosopher could not have even imagined. The argu-
ment centers on the established law according to which the efficient
des mystères,” Revue Thomiste 57 (1957): 510–51. Gaillard gives an overview of the princi-
pal positions: for the so-called “traditional” opinion, see 538; for St. Thomas’s true posi-
tion, see 539–40, along with the developments Gaillard makes in response to the appeal
of certain authors to the beatific vision enjoyed by Christ as taught by Thomas: 540–42.
56. Sent. IV, d. 43, q. 1, a. 2, sol. 1; cf. ad 3: mediante Christo homine resurgente.
57. Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Romanos lectura (hereafter In Ro-
manos), in Super Epistolas S. Pauli Lectura, vol. 1, edited by Raphaelis Cai (Turin: Ma-
rietti, 1953), ch. 6, lect. 2, no. 490: “uita quam Christus resurgens acquisiuit”; (no. 491):
“ut (fidelis) conformetur uitae Christi resurgentis”; Thomas Aquinas, Expositio Super Iob
ad Litteram, Leonine Edition, vol. 26 (Rome: Ad Sanctae Sabinae, 1965), ch. 19, 116, lines
268–70): “Vita Christi resurgentis ad omnes homines diffundetur in resurrectione com-
muni”; for Thomas’ commentary on this verse, see D. Chardonnens, “L’espérance de la
résurrection selon Thomas d’Aquin, commentateur du Livre de Job,” in Ordo sapientiae
et amoris, edited by C.-J. Pinto de Oliveira, 65–83.
58. ST IIIa, q. 56, a. 2, ad 2.
59. ST IIIa, q. 56, a. 1 and ad 3: “Virtus diuina praesentialiter attingit omnia loca et
tempora. Et talis contactus uirtualis sufficit ad rationem efficientiae.”
98 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
agent can only produce what is similar to it; in this way, there ex-
ists in all actions a certain likeness of the effect to its cause. Applied
to the issue at hand, this law means that the mysteries of Christ’s
life produce in us a likeness first to Jesus and then, through him, to
God himself. Put more precisely, God the Father, acting in us by the
grace that he grants us through the mediation of Christ, conforms
us through this very act to the image of his first-born Son. Our grace
is thus not only a grace of adoptive sonship but also one of suffer-
ing, death, resurrection, and ascension through him, with him and in
him. Such an understanding strikes at the very heart of ontological
exemplarity and the mystery of Christo-conforming grace.
The concrete importance that this theme takes on is exempli-
fied by sheer force of numbers. The term conformitas reappears time
and again with impressive constancy, such that a total of 435 places
can be recorded in which conformitas and related words occur.60 A
little more than half of these (236) refer to the creature’s conformity
to God or to his will. After all that has been said, one can now see
that St. Thomas never loses sight of the theme of image and of its
ultimate model. The remaining 199 entries refer to Christ, of which
102 address conformity to Christ in general, while the rest pertain to
conformity to various mysteries: in particular, his death,61 burial,62
and, with stronger reason, his Resurrection.63 The treatise on the
sacraments is especially rich in this kind of instruction, for if “by
baptism the human being is incorporated into Christ and is made

60. To be added here would be the word configuratio, which provides analogous
cases; one can count fifty-seven entries: ten for configuration to God, fifteen for Christ
in general, twelve for his Passion, ten for his death and burial, six for his Resurrection,
and four for other aspects of his mystery (priesthood or holiness).
61. In Romanos, ch. 6, lect. 1, no. 473.
62. In Romanos, ch. 6, lect. 1, no. 474: “By baptism human beings are buried with
Christ (sepeliuntur Christo), that is to say, conformed to his burial.” The passage then goes
on to stress that the triple immersion of baptism is not only on account of the Trinity,
“sed ad repraesentandum triduum sepulturae Christi.”
63. In Romanos, ch. 6, lect. 1, no. 477: “Christ was resurrected after he died; it is
therefore ‘fitting’ that those who were conformed to Christ unto death in baptism should
likewise be conformed to his Resurrection through the innocence of their lives.”
 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas 99
his member . . . it is fitting that what takes place in the Head should also
take place in the incorporated member.”64 The concrete attention by
which St. Thomas develops this idea can hardly be missed, such as
when it comes to speaking about the sacrament of reconciliation.65
While it is impossible here to cite all the pertinent passages, a
few of them can be found in the appendix at the end of this chapter.
Furthermore, if one has not yet taken notice of the profound Pau-
line inspiration largely responsible for such teaching, this would be
the point at which to emphasize it. Thomas the theologian reveals
his humble regard for scripture nowhere more than when treating
Christ, and the attentive reader cannot help but be impressed by
the ease with which the most rigorous type of reflective method is
placed at the service of a profound life of faith. St. Thomas’s way
of presenting the incarnate Word, both as exemplar, after which we
have been created and recreated, and as exemplum, which we should
imitate by our conduct, allows him not only to stress vigorously the
place of Christ in our Christian life, but also and at the same time to
adhere to a fully Trinitarian spiritual life.66
The theme of Christ as model thus undeniably stands out as one
of Aquinas’s great spiritual themes. Moreover, the theme of image,
which is ultimately responsible for such a development of thought,
64. ST IIIa, q. 69, a. 3; cf. a. 7, ad 1: “Baptism opens the gates of the kingdom of
heaven to the baptized in so far as it incorporates them into the Passion of Christ, by apply-
ing its ‘power’ to the human being”; q. 73, a. 3 ad 3: “Baptism is the sacrament of Christ’s
death and Passion, according as the human being is regenerated in Christ in virtue of his
Passion; but the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ’s Passion according as the human
being is made perfect by union with Christ who suffered.”
65. Sent. III d. 19, q. 1, a. 3, qla. 2: “In order for anyone to be freed efficaciously from
the debt of [temporal] punishment, it is necessary to participate in Christ’s sufferings,
which happens in a two-fold manner. First, by the sacrament of the Passion, namely, bap-
tism, by which one is buried with Christ into death, as Rom 6:4 states, and in which the
divine power, which knows no inefficacy, works salvation; for this reason, all such debts
of punishment are taken away in baptism. Second, anyone is made to participate in Christ
through a real conformity to him, namely, to the extent that we suffer with the suffering Christ,
which is accomplished through repentance. And this type of conformity is achieved
through our own operations, which is why it can be both imperfect and perfect.”
66. Cf. Germano Re, Il cristocentrismo della vita cristiana (Brescia: Morcelliana,
1968).
100 Christ in the “Spirituality” of St. Thomas
leads us uninterruptedly back to the final exemplar: “since the Son
is like the Father by an equality in essence, it follows necessarily that
if the human being was made in the likeness of the Son, then he was also
made in the likeness of the Father.”67
To conclude, even though space no longer permits us to take
up another subject, it must be mentioned, at least for the sake of
completeness, that the Holy Spirit is not absent from this pro-
cess of conformity to Christ and to God, since he is the agent of it
all.68 We are thus entirely conformed to the image of the whole
Trinity.69

Appendix
Selected Texts of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Incarnation of the Word gives to humanity the
possibility of seeing God
“If one earnestly and devoutly weighs the mysteries of the In-
carnation, he will find so great a depth of wisdom that it exceeds
human knowledge. In the Apostle’s words: ‘The foolishness of God
is wiser than men’ (1 Cor 1:25). Hence it happens that to him who
devoutly considers it, more and more wondrous aspects of this
mystery are made manifest.

67. ST Ia, q. 93, a. 5, ad 4; cf. É. Bailleux, “A l’image du Fils premier-né,” Revue Tho-
miste 76 (1976): 181–207, especially 192–203.
68. Thomas Aquinas, On the Power of God, trans. English Dominican Fathers (Lon-
don: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1932–34), q. 10, a. 4 (translation modified): “Now,
we have it from Scripture that by the Holy Spirit we are configured to the Son, as accord-
ing to Rom 8:15: ‘You have received the Spirit of adoptive sonship’; and Gal 4:6: ‘Be-
cause you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.’ But nothing is
conformed to a thing except in its proper characteristics. And in created natures that
which conforms one thing to another proceeds from it; thus human seed, which pro-
ceeds from a man, produces the like not of a horse but of a man. Now the Holy Spirit is
from the Son as his proper character, wherefore it is said of Christ: ‘He has sealed and
anointed us and given us the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts’ (2 Cor 1:22).”
69. For more on this notion, see D. J. Merriell, To the Image of the Trinity: A Study in
the Development of Aquinas’ Teaching (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies,
1990).