Whether the Soul Was Assumed Before the Flesh by the Son of God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the soul of Christ was assumed before
the flesh by the Word. For the Son of God assumed flesh through the
medium of the soul, as was said above (A. 1). Now the medium is
reached before the end. Therefore the Son of God assumed the soul
before the body.
Obj. 2: Further, the soul of Christ is nobler than the angels,
according to Ps. 96:8: "Adore Him, all you His angels." But the
angels were created in the beginning, as was said above (I, Q. 46, A.
3). Therefore the soul of Christ also (was created in the beginning).
But it was not created before it was assumed, for Damascene says (De
Fide Orth. iii, 2, 3, 9), that "neither the soul nor the body of
Christ ever had any hypostasis save the hypostasis of the Word."
Therefore it would seem that the soul was assumed before the flesh,
which was conceived in the womb of the Virgin.
Obj. 3: Further, it is written (John 1:14): "We saw Him [Vulg.: 'His
glory'] full of grace and truth," and it is added afterwards that "of
His fulness we have all received" (John 1:16), i.e. all the faithful
of all time, as Chrysostom expounds it (Hom. xiii in Joan.). Now this
could not have been unless the soul of Christ had all fulness of
grace and truth before all the saints, who were from the beginning of
the world, for the cause is not subsequent to the effect. Hence since
the fulness of grace and truth was in the soul of Christ from union
with the Word, according to what is written in the same place: "We
saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth," it would seem in consequence that
from the beginning of the world the soul of Christ was assumed by the
Word of God.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iv, 6): "The
intellect was not, as some untruthfully say, united to the true God,
and henceforth called Christ, before the Incarnation which was of the
Virgin."
_I answer that,_ Origen (Peri Archon i, 7, 8; ii, 8) maintained that
all souls, amongst which he placed Christ's soul, were created in the
beginning. But this is not fitting, if we suppose that it was first
of all created, but not at once joined to the Word, since it would
follow that this soul once had its proper subsistence without the
Word; and thus, since it was assumed by the Word, either the union
did not take place in the subsistence, or the pre-existing
subsistence of the soul was corrupted. So likewise it is not fitting
to suppose that this soul was united to the Word from the beginning,
and that it afterwards became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin;
for thus His soul would not seem to be of the same nature as ours,
which are created at the same time that they are infused into bodies.
Hence Pope Leo says (Ep. ad Julian. xxxv) that "Christ's flesh was
not of a different nature to ours, nor was a different soul infused
into it in the beginning than into other men."
Reply Obj. 1: As was said above (A. 1), the soul of Christ is said to
be the medium in the union of the flesh with the Word, in the order
of nature; but it does not follow from this that it was the medium in
the order of time.
Reply Obj. 2: As Pope Leo says in the same Epistle, Christ's soul
excels our soul "not by diversity of genus, but by sublimity of
power"; for it is of the same genus as our souls, yet excels even the
angels in "fulness of grace and truth." But the mode of creation is
in harmony with the generic property of the soul; and since it is the
form of the body, it is consequently created at the same time that it
is infused into and united with the body; which does not happen to
angels, since they are substances entirely free from matter.
Reply Obj. 3: Of the fulness of Christ all men receive according to
the faith they have in Him; for it is written (Rom. 3:22) that "the
justice of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them
that believe in Him." Now just as we believe in Him as already born;
so the ancients believed in Him as about to be born, since "having
the same spirit of faith . . . we also believe," as it is written (2
Cor. 4:13). But the faith which is in Christ has the power of
justifying by reason of the purpose of the grace of God, according to
Rom. 4:5: "But to him that worketh not, yet believeth in Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice according to
the purpose of the grace of God." Hence because this purpose is
eternal, there is nothing to hinder some from being justified by the
faith of Jesus Christ, even before His soul was full of grace and
truth.
_______________________