Whether Christ Was at Once a Wayfarer and a Comprehensor?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ was not at once a wayfarer and
a comprehensor. For it belongs to a wayfarer to be moving toward the
end of beatitude, and to a comprehensor it belongs to be resting in
the end. Now to be moving towards the end and to be resting in the
end cannot belong to the same. Therefore Christ could not be at once
wayfarer and comprehensor.
Obj. 2: Further, to tend to beatitude, or to obtain it, does not
pertain to man's body, but to his soul; hence Augustine says (Ep. ad
Dios. cxviii) that "upon the inferior nature, which is the body,
there overflows, not indeed the beatitude which belongs to such as
enjoy and understand, the fulness of health, i.e. the vigor of
incorruption." Now although Christ had a passible body, He fully
enjoyed God in His mind. Therefore Christ was not a wayfarer but a
comprehensor.
Obj. 3: Further, the Saints, whose souls are in heaven and whose
bodies are in the tomb, enjoy beatitude in their souls, although
their bodies are subject to death, yet they are called not wayfarers,
but only comprehensors. Hence, with equal reason, would it seem that
Christ was a pure comprehensor and nowise a wayfarer, since His mind
enjoyed God although His body was mortal.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Jer. 14:8): "Why wilt Thou be as a
stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?"
_I answer that,_ A man is called a wayfarer from tending to
beatitude, and a comprehensor from having already obtained beatitude,
according to 1 Cor. 9:24: "So run that you may comprehend [Douay:
'obtain']"; and Phil. 3:12: "I follow after, if by any means I may
comprehend [Douay: 'obtain']". Now man's perfect beatitude consists
in both soul and body, as stated in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 4, A.
6). In the soul, as regards what is proper to it, inasmuch as the
mind sees and enjoys God; in the body, inasmuch as the body "will
rise spiritual in power and glory and incorruption," as is written 1
Cor. 15:42. Now before His passion Christ's mind saw God fully, and
thus He had beatitude as far as it regards what is proper to the
soul; but beatitude was wanting with regard to all else, since His
soul was passible, and His body both passible and mortal, as is clear
from the above (A. 4; Q. 14, AA. 1, 2). Hence He was at once
comprehensor, inasmuch as He had the beatitude proper to the soul,
and at the same time wayfarer, inasmuch as He was tending to
beatitude, as regards what was wanting to His beatitude.
Reply Obj. 1: It is impossible to be moving towards the end and
resting in the end, in the same respect; but there is nothing against
this under a different respect--as when a man is at once acquainted
with what he already knows, and yet is a learner with regard to what
he does not know.
Reply Obj. 2: Beatitude principally and properly belongs to the soul
with regard to the mind, yet secondarily and, so to say,
instrumentally, bodily goods are required for beatitude; thus the
Philosopher says (Ethic. i, 8), that exterior goods minister
"organically" to beatitude.
Reply Obj. 3: There is no parity between the soul of a saint and of
Christ, for two reasons: first, because the souls of saints are not
passible, as Christ's soul was; secondly, because their bodies do
nothing by which they tend to beatitude, as Christ by His bodily
sufferings tended to beatitude as regards the glory of His body.
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