Whether Christ's Entire Soul Enjoyed Blessed Fruition During the
Passion?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's entire soul did not enjoy
blessed fruition during the Passion. For it is not possible to be sad
and glad at the one time, since sadness and gladness are contraries.
But Christ's whole soul suffered grief during the Passion, as was
stated above (A. 7). Therefore His whole soul could not enjoy
fruition.
Obj. 2: Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. vii) that, if sadness
be vehement, it not only checks the contrary delight, but every
delight; and conversely. But the grief of Christ's Passion was the
greatest, as shown above (A. 6); and likewise the enjoyment of
fruition is also the greatest, as was laid down in the first volume
of the Second Part (I-II, Q. 34, A. 3). Consequently, it was not
possible for Christ's whole soul to be suffering and rejoicing at the
one time.
Obj. 3: Further, beatific "fruition" comes of the knowledge and love
of Divine things, as Augustine says (Doctr. Christ. i). But all the
soul's powers do not extend to the knowledge and love of God.
Therefore Christ's whole soul did not enjoy fruition.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii): Christ's
Godhead "permitted His flesh to do and to suffer what was proper to
it." In like fashion, since it belonged to Christ's soul, inasmuch as
it was blessed, to enjoy fruition, His Passion did not impede
fruition.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 7), the whole soul can be
understood both according to its essence and according to all its
faculties. If it be understood according to its essence, then His
whole soul did enjoy fruition, inasmuch as it is the subject of the
higher part of the soul, to which it belongs, to enjoy the Godhead:
so that as passion, by reason of the essence, is attributed to the
higher part of the soul, so, on the other hand, by reason of the
superior part of the soul, fruition is attributed to the essence. But
if we take the whole soul as comprising all its faculties, thus His
entire soul did not enjoy fruition: not directly, indeed, because
fruition is not the act of any one part of the soul; nor by any
overflow of glory, because, since Christ was still upon earth, there
was no overflowing of glory from the higher part into the lower, nor
from the soul into the body. But since, on the contrary, the soul's
higher part was not hindered in its proper acts by the lower, it
follows that the higher part of His soul enjoyed fruition perfectly
while Christ was suffering.
Reply Obj. 1: The joy of fruition is not opposed directly to the
grief of the Passion, because they have not the same object. Now
nothing prevents contraries from being in the same subject, but not
according to the same. And so the joy of fruition can appertain to
the higher part of reason by its proper act; but grief of the Passion
according to the subject. Grief of the Passion belongs to the essence
of the soul by reason of the body, whose form the soul is; whereas
the joy of fruition (belongs to the soul) by reason of the faculty in
which it is subjected.
Reply Obj. 2: The Philosopher's contention is true because of the
overflow which takes place naturally of one faculty of the soul into
another; but it was not so with Christ, as was said above.
Reply Obj. 3: Such argument holds good of the totality of the soul
with regard to its faculties.
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