Viernes Santo
Muerte de Cristo
Santo Tomás de Aquino
Meditaciones
Cuaresma
Semana Santa
Tiempo Pascual
Muerte de Cristo
Santo Tomás de Aquino
Meditaciones
Cuaresma
Semana Santa
Tiempo Pascual
Fue conveniente que Cristo muriese.
1) Para complemento de nuestra redención; porque aun cuando la Pasión de Cristo tuvo virtud infinita por la unión de la divinidad, sin embargo, no por cualquier sufrimiento se hubiera completado la redención del género humano, sino por la muerte. Por eso dice el Espíritu Santo por boca de Caifás: Os conviene que muera un hombre por el pueblo (Jn 11, 50). Por lo cual dice San Augustín: "Admiremos, congratulémonos, alegrémonos, amemos, alabemos, adoremos, porque por la muerte de nuestro Redentor hemos sido llamados de las tinieblas a la luz, de la muerte a la vida, del destierro a la patria, del llanto al gozo."
2) Para acrecentamiento de la fe, la esperanza y la caridad. Del aumento de la fe se dice en el Salmo (140,10): Solo estoy yo hasta que yo, pase adelante, del mundo al padre. Cuando yo haya pasado al Padre, entonces me multiplicaré. Si el grano de trigo que cae en la tierra no muriere, él solo queda (Mt 12, 24). Del acrecentamiento de de la esperanza dice el Apóstol: El que aun a su proprio Hijo no perdonó, sino que lo entregó por todos nosotros, cómo no nos donó también con él todas las cosas? (Rom 8, 32) No se puede negar que es menos dar todas las cosas que entregarlo a la muerte por nosotros. A este respecto dice San Bernardo: Quién no se dejará arrebatar a la esperanza de lograr perdón, si atiende a la posición del cuerpo crucificado, a saber, la cabeza inclinada para besar, los brazos extendidos para abrazar, las manos perforados para colmar de bienes, el costado abierto para amar, los pies clavados para permanecer con nosotros? Levántate, amiga mía... y ven, paloma mía, en los agujeros de la peña... (Cant 2, 13-14) En las llagas de Cristo vive y anida la Iglesia, cuando pone la esperanza de su salvación en la Pasión del Señor, y por eso confía que ha de ser protegida de las asechanzas del gavilán, es decir, del diablo.
Del aumento de la caridad se lee en el Eclesiástico: Al mediodía quema a la tierra (43,3), esto es, en el fervor de la Pasión inflama a los terrenos a amar. Y San Bernardo dice: "Sobre todas las cosas, buen Jesús, te me ha hecho amable el cáliz que has bebido. La obra de nuestra redención fácil y absolutamente conquista para sí todo nuestro amor; esto es lo que más suavemente alienta nuestra devoción, más justamente la eleva, más estrechamente la obliga, y más intensamente la afecta."
3) Para el misterio de nuestra salvación, para que muriésemos a este mundo a semejanza de su muerte: Escogió mi alma la horca, y mis huesos la muerte (Job 7, 15). Y San Gregorio comenta esto diciendo: "El alma es la intención del espíritu, los huesos la fortaleza de la carne. Lo que se suspende, es elevado de abajo. El alma, pues, se suspende hacia lo eterno, para que mueran los huesos, porque por amor de la vida eterna destruye en nosotros toda fortaleza de la vida exterior." Señal de esta muerte es ser despreciados por el mundo. Por eso añade San Gregorio: "El mar retiene en sí los cuerpos vivos; y a los muertos los arroja luego de sí."
(De Humanitate Christi, cap. 47)
ENGLISH
Good Friday
The Death of Christ
taken from Saint Thomas Aquinas Lenten and Holy Week Meditations
That Christ should die was expedient.
1. To make our redemption complete. For, although any suffering of Christ had an infinite value, because of its union with His divinity, it was not by no matter which of His sufferings that the redemption of mankind was made complete, but only by His death. So the Holy Spirit declared speaking through the mouth of Caiaphas, It is expedient for you that one man shall die for the people (John xi. 50). Whence St. Augustine says, "Let us stand in wonder, rejoice, be glad, love, praise, and adore since it is by the death of our Redeemer, that we have been called from death to life, from exile to our own land, from mourning to joy."
2. To increase our faith, our hope and our charity. With regard to faith the Psalm says (Ps. cxl. 10), I am alone until I pass from this world, that is, to the Father. When I shall have passed to the Father, then shall I be multiplied. Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die itself remaineth alone (John xii. 24).
As to the increase of hope St, Paul writes, 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? (Rom. viii. 32). God cannot deny us this, for to give us all things is less than to give His own Son to death for us. St. Bernard says, "Who is not carried away to hope and confidence in prayer, when he looks on the crucifix and sees how Our Lord hangs there, the head bent as though to kiss, the arms outstretched in an embrace, the hands pierced to give, the side opened to love, the feet nailed to remain with us."
Come, my dove, in the clefts of the rock (Cant. ii. 14). It is in the wounds of Christ the Church builds its nest and waits, for it is in the Passion of Our Lord that she places her hope of salvation, and thereby trusts to be protected from the craft of the falcon, that is, of the devil.
With regard to the increase of charity, Holy Scripture says, At noon he burneth the earth (Ecclus. xliii. 3), that is to say, in the fervour of His Passion He burns up all mankind with His love. So St. Bernard says, "The chalice thou didst drink, O good Jesus, maketh thee lovable above all things." The work of our redemption easily, brushing aside all hindrances, calls out in return the whole of our love. This it is which more gently draws out our devotion, builds it up more straightly, guards it more closely, and fires it with greater ardour.
3) For the mystery of our salvation, that we died to this world in the likeness of His death: my soul rather chooseth hanging, and my bones death (Job 7, 15). And Saint Gregory comments on this by saying: "The soul is the mind of the Spirit, bone is the strength of the flesh. What is suspended, is raised from below. The soul, then, is suspended eternally, so that the bones die, because for the sake of eternal life all the forces of the exterior life are destroyed." A sign of this death is to be despised by the world. Hence Gregory adds: "The sea retains for itself living bodies; and the dead are cast out from her." (De Humanitate Christi, cap. 47)
1. To make our redemption complete. For, although any suffering of Christ had an infinite value, because of its union with His divinity, it was not by no matter which of His sufferings that the redemption of mankind was made complete, but only by His death. So the Holy Spirit declared speaking through the mouth of Caiaphas, It is expedient for you that one man shall die for the people (John xi. 50). Whence St. Augustine says, "Let us stand in wonder, rejoice, be glad, love, praise, and adore since it is by the death of our Redeemer, that we have been called from death to life, from exile to our own land, from mourning to joy."
2. To increase our faith, our hope and our charity. With regard to faith the Psalm says (Ps. cxl. 10), I am alone until I pass from this world, that is, to the Father. When I shall have passed to the Father, then shall I be multiplied. Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die itself remaineth alone (John xii. 24).
As to the increase of hope St, Paul writes, 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? (Rom. viii. 32). God cannot deny us this, for to give us all things is less than to give His own Son to death for us. St. Bernard says, "Who is not carried away to hope and confidence in prayer, when he looks on the crucifix and sees how Our Lord hangs there, the head bent as though to kiss, the arms outstretched in an embrace, the hands pierced to give, the side opened to love, the feet nailed to remain with us."
Come, my dove, in the clefts of the rock (Cant. ii. 14). It is in the wounds of Christ the Church builds its nest and waits, for it is in the Passion of Our Lord that she places her hope of salvation, and thereby trusts to be protected from the craft of the falcon, that is, of the devil.
With regard to the increase of charity, Holy Scripture says, At noon he burneth the earth (Ecclus. xliii. 3), that is to say, in the fervour of His Passion He burns up all mankind with His love. So St. Bernard says, "The chalice thou didst drink, O good Jesus, maketh thee lovable above all things." The work of our redemption easily, brushing aside all hindrances, calls out in return the whole of our love. This it is which more gently draws out our devotion, builds it up more straightly, guards it more closely, and fires it with greater ardour.
3) For the mystery of our salvation, that we died to this world in the likeness of His death: my soul rather chooseth hanging, and my bones death (Job 7, 15). And Saint Gregory comments on this by saying: "The soul is the mind of the Spirit, bone is the strength of the flesh. What is suspended, is raised from below. The soul, then, is suspended eternally, so that the bones die, because for the sake of eternal life all the forces of the exterior life are destroyed." A sign of this death is to be despised by the world. Hence Gregory adds: "The sea retains for itself living bodies; and the dead are cast out from her." (De Humanitate Christi, cap. 47)
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