ARTICLE
IV
"
Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, Was
Crucified, Dead, And Buried "
Importance
of this Article
How
necessary is a knowledge of this Article, and how assiduous the pastor should
be in stirring up in the minds of the faithful the frequent recollection of our
Lord's Passion, we learn from the Apostle when he says that he knows nothing
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 The pastor, therefore, should exercise the
greatest care and pains in giving a thorough explanation of this subject, in
order that the faithful, being moved by the remembrance of so great a benefit,
may give themselves entirely to the contemplation of the goodness and love of
God towards us.
"
SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, was CRUCIFIED "
The
first part of this article (of the
second we shall treat hereafter) proposes for our belief that when Pontius
Pilate governed the province of Judea, under Tiberius Caesar, Christ the Lord
was nailed to a cross. Having been
seized, mocked, outraged and tortured in various forms, He was finally
crucified.
"
SUFFERED "
It
cannot be a matter of doubt that His soul, as to its inferior part, was
sensible of these torments; for as He really assumed human nature, it is a
necessary consequence that He really, and in His soul, experienced a most acute
sense of pain. Hence these words of the
Saviour: My soul is sorrowful even
unto death. 2
Although human nature was united to the Divine Person, He felt the bitterness of His Passion as
acutely as if no such union had existed, because in the one Person of Jesus
Christ were preserved the properties of both natures, human and divine; and
therefore what was passible and mortal remained passible and mortal; while what
was impassible and immortal, that is His Divine Nature, continued impassible
and immortal.
" Under Pontius
Pilate "
Since
we find it here so diligently recorded that Jesus Christ suffered when Pontius
Pilate was procurator of Judea, the pastor should explain the reason. By fixing the time, which we find also done
by the Apostle Paul, 3 so important and so necessary an event is rendered more easily
ascertainable by all. Furthermore those
words show that the Savior's prediction was really verified: They shall
deliver him to the Gentiles, to be mocked and scourged and crucified. 4
" WAS CRUCIFIED
"
The
fact that He suffered death precisely on the wood of the cross must also be
attributed to a particular counsel of God, which decreed that life should
return by the way whence death had arisen.
{a} The serpent who had triumphed over our
first parents by the wood (of a tree) was vanquished by Christ on the wood of
the cross.
Many
other reasons which the Fathers have discussed in detail might be adduced to show
that it was fit that our Redeemer should suffer death on the cross rather than
in any other way. But, as the pastors
will show, it is enough for the faithful to believe that this kind of death was
chosen by the Saviour because it appeared better adapted and more appropriate
to the redemption of the human race; for there certainly could be none more
ignominious and humiliating. Not only
among the Gentiles was the punishment of the cross held accursed and full of
shame and infamy, but even in the Law of Moses the man is called accursed
that hangeth on a tree. 5
Importance
Of The History Of The Passion
Furthermore,
the pastor should not omit the historical part of this Article, which has been
so carefully set forth by the holy Evangelist; so that the faithful may be
acquainted with at least the principal points of this mystery, that is to say,
such as seem more necessary to confirm the truth of our faith. For it is on this Article, as on their
foundation, that the Christian faith and religion rest; and if this truth be
firmly established, all and rest is secure.
Indeed, if one thing more than another presents difficulty to the mind
and understanding of man, assuredly it is the mystery of the cross, which,
beyond all doubt, must be considered the most difficult of all; so much so that
only with great difficulty can we grasp the fact that our salvation depends on
the cross, and on Him who for us was nailed thereon. In this, however, as the Apostle teaches, we may well admire the
wonderful Providence of God; for,
seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom new not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. 6 It is no wonder, then, that the Prophets,
before the coming of Christ, and the Apostles, after his death and
Resurrection, labored so strenuously to convince mankind that He was the
Redeemer of the world, and to bring them under the power and obedience of the
Crucified.
Figures And Prophecies
Of The Passion And Death Of The Saviour
Since,
therefore, nothing in so far above the reach of human reason as the mystery of
the cross, the Lord immediately after the fall ceased not, both by his figures
and prophecies, to signify the death by which His Son was to die.
To
mention a few of these types. First of
all, Abel, who fell a victim of the envy of his brother, 7 Isaac who was commanded to be offered in
sacrifice, 8
the lamb immolated by the Jews on their departure from Egypt, 9 and also
the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert, 10 were all figures of the Passion and death
of Christ the Lord.
As
to the Prophets, how many there were who foretold Christ's Passion and death is
too well-known to require development here.
Not to speak of David, whose Psalms embrace all the principal mysteries
of Redemption, the oracles of Isaias in particular are so clear and graphic
that he might be said rather to have recorded a past than predicted a future
event. 11 {b}
Second Part of this
Article:
"
DEAD, AND BURIED "
Christ
Really Died
The
pastor should explain that these words present for our belief that Jesus
Christ, after He was crucified, really died and was buried. It is
not without just reason that this is proposed to the faithful as a
separate object of belief, since there were some who denied His death upon the
cross. {c} The Apostles, therefore, were justly of
opinion that to such an error should be opposed the doctrine of faith contained
in this Article, the truth of which is placed beyond the possibility of doubt
by the united testimony of all the Evangelist, who recorded that Jesus yielded
up the ghost. 12
Moreover
as Christ was true and perfect man, He of course was capable of dying. Now man dies when the soul is separated from
the body. When, therefore, we say that
Jesus died, we mean that His soul was disunited from his body. We do not admit, however, that the Divinity
was separated from His body. On the
contrary, we firmly believe and profess that when His soul was dissociated from
His body, His Divinity continued always united both to his body in the
sepulchre and to His soul in limbo. It
became the Son of God to die, that, through death, he might destroy him who
had the empire of death that is the devil, and might deliver them, who through
the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude. 13
Christ
Died Freely
It
was the peculiar privilege of Christ the Lord to have died when He Himself
decreed to die, and to have died not so much by external violence as by
internal assent. Not only his death,
but also it's time and place, were ordained by Him. For thus Isaias wrote: He was offered because it was his own
will. 14 The Lord before His Passion, declared the
same of Himself: I lay down my
life, that I may take it again. No man
taketh it away from me: but I lay it
down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it again. 15 As to the time and place of His death, He
said, when Herod insidiously sought His life:
Go and tell that fox: Behold
I cast out devils, and do it cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am
consummated. Nevertheless I must walk
to-day and to-morrow, and the day following, because it cannot be that a
prophet perish, out of Jerusalem. 16 He therefore offered Himself not
involuntarily or by compulsion but of His own free will. Going to meet His enemies He said: I am he; 17 and all the punishments which injustice and
cruelty inflicted on Him He endured voluntarily.
The Thought Of
Christ's Death Should Excite Our Love And Gratitude
When
we meditate on the sufferings and all the torments of the Redeemer, nothing is
better calculated to stir our souls than the thought that He endured them thus
voluntarily. Were anyone to endure all
kinds of suffering for our sake, not because he chose them but simply because
he could not escape them, we should not consider this a very great favor; but where he to endure death freely, and for
our sake only, having had it in his power to avoid it, this indeed would be a
benefit so overwhelming as to deprive even the most grateful heart, not only of
the power of returning but even of feeling due thanks. We may hence form an idea of the
transcendent and intense love of Jesus Christ towards us, and of His divine and
boundless claims to our gratitude.
Christ
Was Really Buried
When
we confess that He was buried, we do not make this as it were, a distinct part
of the Article, as if it presented any new difficulty which is not implied in
what we have said of His death; for if we believe that Christ died, we can also
easily believe that He was buried.
The word buried was added in the Creed, first, that his death might be
rendered more certain, for the strongest argument of a person's death is the
proof that his body was buried; and, secondly, to render the miracle of His
Resurrection more authentic and illustrious.
It
is not, however, our belief that the body of Christ alone was interred. The above words propose, as the principal
objects of our belief, that God was buried; as according to the rule of Catholic
faith, we also say with the strictest truth that God died, and that God was
born of the Virgin. For as the divinity
was never separated from His body which was laid in the sepulchre, we truly
confess that God was buried.
Circumstances
of Christ's Burial
As
to the manner and place of His burial, what the holy Evangelist record on these
subjects will be sufficient for the pastor. 18 There are, however, two things which demand
particular attention; the one, that the body of Christ was in no degree
corrupted in the sepulchre, according to the prediction of the Prophet: Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see
corruption; 19
the other, and it regards the several parts of this Article, that
burial, Passion, and also death, apply to Christ Jesus not as God but as
man. To suffer and die are incidental
to human nature only; yet they are
also attributed to God, since, as it is clear, they are predicated with
propriety of that Person who is at once perfect God and perfect man. {d}
When
the faithful have once attained the knowledge of these things, the pastor should
next proceed to explain those particulars of the Passion and death of Christ
which may enable them if not to comprehend, at least to contemplate, the
immensity of so stupendous a mystery.
The Dignity of the
Sufferer
And
first we must consider who it is that suffers all these things. His dignity we cannot express in words or
even conceive in mind. Of Him St. John
says, that He is the Word which was with God. 20 And the Apostle describes Him in sublime
terms, saying that this is He whom God hath appointed heir of all things, by
whom also he made the world, who being the brightness of his glory, and the
figure of his substance, and up holding all things by the word of his power,
making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high. 21 In a word, Jesus Christ, the God-man,
suffers! The Creator suffers for His
creatures, the Master for His servant. He
suffers by whom the Angels, men, the heavens, and the elements were made; in
whom, by whom, and of whom, are all things. 22
It
cannot, therefore, be a matter of surprise that while He agonized under such an
accumulation of torments the whole frame of the universe was convulsed; for as
the Scriptures inform us, the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent, there
was darkness over all the earth; and the sun was obscured. 23 If, then, even mute and inanimate nature
sympathized with the sufferings of her Creator, let the faithful consider with
what tears they, the living stones of this edifice, 24 should manifest their sorrow.
Reasons Why Christ
Suffered
The
reasons why the Saviour suffered are also to be explained, that thus the
greatness and intensity of the divine love towards us may the more fully
appear. Should anyone inquire why the
Son of God underwent His most bitter Passion, he will find that besides the
guilt inherited from our first parents the principal causes were the vices and
crimes which have been perpetrated from the beginning of the world to the
present day and those which will be committed to the end of time. In His Passion and death the Son of God, our
Savior, intended to atone for and blot out the sins of all ages, to offer for
them to his father a full and abundant satisfaction.
Besides,
to increase the dignity of this mystery, Christ not only suffered for sinners,
but even for those who were the very authors and ministers of all the torments
He endured. Of this the Apostle reminds
us in these words addressed to the Hebrews:
Think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners
against himself ; that you be not
wearied, fainting in your minds. 25
In this guilt are involved all those who fall frequently into sin ; for, as our sins consigned Christ the Lord
to the death of the cross, most certainly those who wallow in sin and iniquity
crucify to themselves again the Son of God, as far as in them lies, and make a
mockery of Him. 26 This guilt seems more enormous in us
than in the Jews, since accordance to the testimony of the same Apostle: If they had known it, they would never
have crucified the Lord of glory; 27 while we, on the contrary, professing to
know Him, yet denying Him of by our actions, seem in some sort to lay violent
hands on him.
Christ Was Delivered Over
To Death By The Father And By Himself
But
that Christ the Lord was also delivered over to death by the Father and by
Himself, the Scriptures bear witness. For in Isaias (God the Father) says: For the wickedness of my people have I
struck him. 28
And
a little before the same Prophet filled with the Spirit of God, cried out, as
he saw the Lord covered with stripes and wounds: All we like sheep have gone
astray, everyone hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. 29
But of the Son it is written: If
he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed. 30 This the Apostle expresses in language
still stronger when, in order to show how confidently we, on our part, should
trust in the boundless mercy and goodness of God, he says: He that spared not even his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?
31
{e}
- The Bitterness Of
Christ's Passion -
The
next subject of the pastor's instruction is the bitterness of the Redeemer's
Passion. If we bear in mind that his
sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground, 32 and this, at the sole anticipation of the
torments and agony which He was about to endure, we must at once perceive that
His sorrows admitted of no increase.
For if the very idea of impending evils was overwhelming, and the sweat
of blood shows that it was, what are we to suppose their actual endurance to
have been?
That
Christ our Lord suffered the most excruciating torments of mind and body is
certain. In the first place, there was
no part of His body that did not experience the most agonizing torture. His hands and feet were fastened with nails
to the cross; His head was pierced with
thorns and smitten with a reed; His
face was be fouled with spittle and buffeted with blows; His whole body was covered with stripes.
Furthermore men of all ranks and conditions
were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 33 Gentiles and Jews were the advisers, the
authors, the ministers of His Passion:
Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, all the rest deserted Him. And while He hangs from the cross are we not
at a loss which to deplore, His agony, or His ignominy, or both? Surely no
death more shameful, none more cruel, could have been devised than this. It was the punishment usually reserved for
the most guilty and atrocious malefactors, a death whose slowness aggravated
the exquisite pain and torture!
His
agony was increased by the very constitution and frame of his body. Formed by the power of the Holy Ghost, it
was more perfect and better organized than the bodies of other men can be, and
was therefore endowed with a superior susceptibility and a keener sense of all
the torments which it endured.
And
as to His interior anguish of soul, that to was no doubt extreme; for those
among the Saints who had to endure torments and torturers were not without
consolation from above, which enabled them not only to bear their sufferings
patiently, but in many instances, to feel in the very midst of them, filled
with interior joy. I rejoice, says
the Apostle, in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are
wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the
church; 34 and in
another place: I am filled with
comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy
in all our tribulations. 35
Christ our Lord tempered with no admixture of sweetness the bitter
chalice of His passion but permitted His human nature to feel as acutely every
species of torment as if He were only man, and not also God. {f}
Fruits Of Christ's
Passion
It
only remains now that the pastor carefully explain the blessings and advantages
which flow from the Passion of Christ.
In the first place, then, the Passion of our Lord was our deliverance
from sin; for as St. John says, He hath loved us, and washed us from our
sins in his own blood. 36
He hath quickened you together with him, says the Apostle, forgiving
you all offenses, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against
us, which was contrary to us. And he
hath taken the same out of the way, fascinating it to the cross. 37
In
the next place He has rescued us from the tyranny of the devil, for our Lord
himself says: Now is the judgment
of the world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all things to myself. 38
Again
He discharged the punishment due to our sins.
And as no sacrifice more pleasing and acceptable could have been offered
to God, He reconciled us to the Father, appeased His wrath, and made Him
favorable to us.
Finally,
by taking away our sins He opened to us heaven, which was closed by the common
sin of mankind. And this the Apostle
pointed out when he said: We have confidence
and the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ. 39 Nor are we without a type and figure of
this mystery in the Old Law. For those
who were prohibited to return into their native country before the death of the
high priest - 40
typified that no one, however just and holy may have been his life,
could gain admission into the celestial Country until the eternal High priest,
Christ Jesus, had died, and by His death immediately opened heaven to those
who, purified by the Sacraments and gifted with faith, hope, and charity,
become partakers of his Passion. {g}
Christ's
Passion, - A Satisfaction, A Sacrifice, A Redemption. An Example
The
pastor should teach that all these inestimable and divine blessing flow to us
from the Passion of Christ. First,
indeed, because the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has in an admirable manner
made to God the Father for our sins is full and complete. The price which he paid for our ransom was
not only adequate and equal to our debts, but far exceeded them.
Again,
it (the Passion of Christ) was a
sacrifice most acceptable to God, for when offered by his Son on the alter of
the cross, it entirely appease the wrath and indignation of the Father. This word (sacrifice) the Apostle uses when
he says: Christ hath loved us, and
hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour
of sweetness. 41
Furthermore,
it was a redemption, of which the Prince of the Apostles says: You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your
fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and
undefiled. 42 While the Apostle teaches: Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. 43
Besides
these incomparable blessings, we have also received another of the highest
importance; namely, that in the Passion alone we have the most illustrious
example of the exercise of every virtue.
For he so displayed patients, humility, exalted charity, meekness, obedience
and unshaken firmness of soul, not only in suffering for justice' sake, but
also in meeting death, that we may truly say on the day of his Passion alone,
our Savior offered, in His own person, a living exemplification of all the
moral precepts inculcated during the entire time of His public ministry. {h}
This
exposition of the saving Passion and death of Christ the Lord we have given
briefly. Would to God that these mysteries
were always present to our minds, and that we learn to suffer, die, and be
buried together with our Lord; so that from henceforth, having cast aside all
stain of sin, and rising with Him to newness of life, we may at length, through
His grace and mercy, be found worthy to be made partakers of the celestial
kingdom and glory!
Endnotes Article
IV
1.>
1 Cor. ii. 2. 23.> Matt. xxvii. 51; Luke xxiii. 44.
2.>
Matt. xxvi. 38; Mark xiv. 34. 24.> 1 Peter ii. 5.
3.>
1 Tim. vi. 13. 25.> Heb. xii. 3.
4.>
Matt. xx. 19. 26.> Heb. vi. 6.
5.>
Deut. xxi.23. Gal. iii. 13. 27.> 1 Cor. ii. 8.
6.>
1 Cor. i. 21. 28.> Isaias liii. 8.
7.>
Gen. iv. 8. 29.> Isaias liii. 6.
8.>
Gen. xxii. 6-8. 30.> Isaias liii. 10.
9.>
Exod. xii. 5-7. 31.> Rom. viii. 32.
10.>
Num. xxi. 8,9; John iii. 14 32.> Luke xxii. 44.
11.>
St. Jerome, Epist. 53 ad Paulin. 33.> Ps. ii. 2.
12.>
Matt. xxvii. 50; Mark xv. 37;
Luke xxiii. 46; John xix. 30. 34.> Col. i. 24.
13.>
Heb. ii. 10, 14, 15. 35.> 2 Cor. vii. 4.
14.>
Isaias liii. 7. 36.> Apoc. i. 5.
15.> John x. 17, 18. 37.> Col. ii. 13, 14.
16.>
Luke xiii. 32, 33. 38.> John xii. 31, 32.
17.>
John xviii. 5. 39.> Heb. x. 19.
18.> Matt. xxvii. 58; Mark xv. 46;
Luke xxiii. 53; John xix. 38. 40.> Num. xxxv. 25.
19.>
Ps. xv. 10; Acts ii. 31. 41.> Eph. v. 2.
20.>
John i. 1. 42.> 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
21.> Heb. i. 2, 3. 43.> Gal. iii. 13.
22.>
Rom. xi. 36.
{a}
Preface of the Passion.
{b}
On the Passion of Christ see Summa Theol. 3a. xlvi-xlix.
{c}
Christ's death upon the cross was denied by the Docetae and
Theopaschites.
{d}
On the death and burial of Christ see Summa Theol. 3a. l. li.
{e}
On the cause of Christ's Passion see Summa Theol. 3a.
xlvii.
{f}
On the bitterness of Christ's Passion see Summa Theol. 3a. xlvi. 5-8.
{g}
On the fruits of Christ's passion see Summa Theol. 3a. xlvi.
{h}
On the manner in which Christ's Passion effected our salvation see Summa
Theol. 3a. xlvii.