The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 1: Article 4
ARTICLE IV.
"SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED."
"SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED"] How Necessity necessary the 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 Christ, and him crucified. [1] In illustrating this subject, therefore, the greatest care and pains should be taken by the pastor, that the faithful, excited by the remembrance of so great a benefit, may be entirely devoted to the contemplation of the goodness and love of God towards us.
The first part of this Article (of the second we shall treat hereafter,) proposes to 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 as a malefactor, mocked, outraged, and tortured, in various forms, he was finally crucified. Nor can it be matter of doubt that his soul, as to its inferior part, was not insensible to 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 remain ed passible and mortal; and again, what was impassible and immortal, that is his divine nature, continued impassible and immortal.
But, if we find it here recorded with such historical minuteness, that Jesus Christ suffered when Pilate was procurator of Judea, [3] the pastor will explain the reason it is, that by fixing the time, as the apostle does, in the sixth chapter of his first Epistle to Timothy, so important and so necessary an event may be ascertained by all with greater certainty; and to show that the event verified the prediction of the Saviour; "They shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified." [4]
That he suffered the particular death of the cross is also to be traced to the economy of the divine councils, " that whence death came, thence life might arise." The serpent, which overcame our first parents by the fruit of the tree, was himself overcome by Christ on the wood of the cross. Many reasons, which the Holy Fathers have evolved in detail, may be adduced to show a the congruity of the Saviour's having suffered the death of the cross, rather than any other; but enough that the faithful be in formed by the pastor, that that species of death, because confessedly the most ignominious and humiliating, was chosen by the Saviour, as most consonant, and best suited to the plan of redemption; for not only amongst the Gentiles was the death of the cross deemed execrable and loaded with disgrace and infamy, but also amongst the Jews; for in the law of Moses, the man is pronounced " accursed, who hangeth on a tree." [5]
But the historical part of this Article, which has been narrated by the Holy Evangelists with the most minute exactness, is not to be omitted by the pastor; in order that the faithful may be familiarly acquainted with, at least, the principle heads of this mystery, which are of more immediate necessity to confirm the truth of our faith. For on this Article, as on a sort of foundation, rest the religion and faith of Christians, and on this foundation, when once laid, the superstructure rises with perfect security. If any other truth of Christianity presents difficulties to the mind of man, the mystery of the cross must, assuredly, be considered to present still greater difficulties. We can scarcely be brought to think that our salvation depends on the cross, and on him, who for us, was fastened to its wood. But in this, as the apostle says, we may admire the supreme wisdom of divine providence; "for seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God: it pleaseth God by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe." [6] We are not, therefore, to be surprised, that the Prophets, before the coming of Christ, and the apostles after his death and resurrection, laboured so industriously to convince mankind that lie was the Redeemer of the world, and to bring them under the power and obedience of him who was crucified.
Knowing, therefore, that nothing is so far above the reach of human reason as the mystery of the cross, Almighty God, immediately from the fall of Adam, ceased not, both by figures and by the oracles of the Prophets, to signify the death by which his Son was to die. Not to dwell on these figures, Abel who fell a victim to 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. That this event was foretold by many Prophets, is a fact too well known to require developement here. Not to speak of David, whose Psalms embrace the principal mysteries of redemption, [11] the oracles of Isaias are so clear and graphic, [12] that he may be said rather to have recorded a past, than predicted a future event. [13]
"DEAD AND BURIED"] When explaining these words, the pastor will propose to the belief of the faithful, that Jesus Christ, after his crucifixion, was really dead and buried. It is not with out just reason that this is proposed as a separate and distinct object of belief; there were some who denied his death upon the cross. The apostles, therefore, were justly of opinion, that to such an error should be opposed the doctrine of faith contained in this Article of the Creed, the truth of which is placed beyond the possibilty of doubt, by the concurring testimony of all the Evangelists, who record that Jesus "yielded up the ghost." [14] Moreover, as Christ was true and perfect man, he of course, was, also, capable of dying, and death takes place by a sepation of the soul from the body. When, therefore, we say that Jesus died, Ave mean that his soul was disunited from his body; not that his divinity was so separated. 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 to say, the devil; and might deliver them, who through fear of death, were all their life time subject to servitude." [15]
It was the peculiar privilege of the Redeemer 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 its time and place were ordained by him, as we learn from these words of Isaias: " He was offered, because it was his own will." [16] The Redeemer, before his passion, declared the same of himself: "I lay down my life," says he, "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." [17] As to time and place, when Herod insidiously sought the life of the Saviour, he said: " Go, and tell that fox: behold I cast out devils, and perform cures this day and to-morrow, and the third day I am consummate. But yet I must walk this day, and to-morrow, and the day fol lowing, because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." [18] He, therefore, offered himself not involuntarily or by external coaction; but of his own free will. Going to meet his enemies, he said, " I am he; [19] and all the punishments which in justice and cruelty inflicted on him he endured voluntarily.
When we meditate on the sufferings and torments of the Redeemer, nothing is better calculated to excite in our souls, sentiments of lively gratitude and love, than to reflect that he endured them voluntarily. Were any one to endure, by compulsion, every species of suffering, for our sake, we should deem his claims to our gratitude very doubtful; but were he to endure death freely, and for our sake only, having had it in his power to avoid it; this indeed is a favour so overwhelming, as to deprive even the most grateful heart, not only of the power of re turning due thanks, but even of adequately feeling the extent of the obligation. We may hence form an idea of the transcendant and intense love of Jesus Christ towards us, and of his divine and boundless claims to our gratitude.
But if, when we confess that he was buried, we make this, as it were, a distinct part of the Article, it is not because it presents any difficulty which is not implied in what we have said of his death; for believing, as we do, that Christ died, we can also article. easily believe that he was buried. The word " buried" was added in the creed, first, that his death may be rendered more certain, for the strongest proof of a person's death is the interment of his body; and, secondly, to render the miracle of his resurrection more authentic and illustrious. It is not, however, our belief, that the body of Christ was alone interred: these words propose, as the principal object of our belief, that God was buried; as, according to the rule of Catholic faith, we also say with the strictest truth, that God was born of a virgin, that God died; for, as the divinity was never separated from his body which was laid in the sepulchre, we truly confess that God was buried.
As to the place and manner of his burial, what the Evangelists record on these subjects will be found sufficient for all the purposes of the pastor's instructions. [20] 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; [21] the other, and it regards the several parts of this Article, that burial, passion, and also death, apply to Jesus Christ, not as God, but as man: to suffer and die are incidental to human nature only, although they are also attributed to God, because predicated with propriety of that person who is, at once, perfect God and perfect man.
When the faithful have once attained the knowledge of these things, the pastor will 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 infinitude of so stupendous a mystery. And, first, we are to consider who it is who suffers. To declare, or even to conceive in thought, his dignity, is not given to man. Of him, St. John says, that he is "the Word which was with God;" [22] and the apostle describes him in these sublime terms: " 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 Us substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high." [23] In a word, Jesus Christ, the man-God, suffers! The Creator suffers for the creature The Master for the servant He suffers, by whom the elements, the heavens, men and angels were created, "of whom, by whom, and in whom, are all things." [24]
It cannot, therefore, be matter of surprise that, whilst he agonized under such an accumulation of torments, the whole frame of the universe was convulsed, and, as the Scriptures inform us, "the earth trembled, and the rocks were rent, and the sun was darkened, and there was darkness all over the earth." [25] If, then, even mute and inanimate nature sympathized with the sufferings of her dying Lord, let the faithful conceive, if they can, with what torrents of tears they, " the living stones of the edifice," [26] should evince their sorrow.
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 it then be asked why the Son of God underwent the torments of his most bitter passion, we shall find the principal causes in the hereditary contagion of primeval guilt; in the vices and crimes which have been perpetrated from the beginning of the world to the present day; and in those which shall be perpetrated to the consummation of time. In his death and passion the Son of God contemplated the atonement of all the sins of all ages, with a view to efface them for ever, by offering for them to his Eternal Father, a superabundant satisfaction; and thus the principal cause of his passion will be found in his love of us.
Besides, to increase the dignity of this mystery, Christ not only suffered for sinners; but the very authors and ministers of all the torments he endured were sinners. Of this the apostle reminds us in these words addressed to the Hebrews: " Think, diligently, on him who endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds." [27] In this guilt are involved all those who fall frequently into sin; for, as our sins consigned Christ our Lord to the death of the cross, most certainly, those who wallow in sin and iniquity, as far as depends on them, " crucify to themselves again the Son of God, and make a mockery of him." [28] This our guilt takes a deeper die of enormity when contrasted with that of the Jews: according to the testimony of the apostle, "if they had known it, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory:" [29] whilst we, on the contrary, professing to know him, yet denying him by our actions, seem, in some sort, to lay violent hands on him. [30]
But that Christ the Lord was also delivered over to death by the Father and by himself, we learn from these words of Isaias: "For the wickedness of my people have I struck him;" [31] and a little before, when, filled with the Spirit of God, he sees the Lord covered with stripes and wounds, the same prophet says " We all, like sheep, have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." [32] But of the Saviour it is written, " if he will lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed." [33] This the apostle expresses in language still stronger when, on the other hand, he wishes to show us how confidently we should trust in the boundless mercy and goodness of God: " He that spared not even his own Son," says the apostle, "but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?" [34]
The next subject of the pastor's instruction is the bitterness of the Redeemer's passion. If, however, we bear in mind that "his sweat became as drops of blood, trinkling down upon the ground;" [35] and this, at the sole anticipation of the torments and agony which he was soon after to endure, we must, at once, perceive that his sorrows admitted of no increase; for if, and this sweat of blood proclaims it, the very idea of the impending evils was so overwhelming, what are we to suppose their actual endurance to have been?
That our Lord suffered the most excruciating torments of mind and body is but too well ascertained. In the first place, there was no part of his body that did not experience the most agonising 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 befouled with spittle and buffeted with blows his whole body was covered with stripes Men of all ranks and conditions were also gathered together " against the Lord and against his Christ." [36] Jews and Gentiles were the advisers, the authors, the ministers of his passion Judas betrayed him [37] Peter denied him [38] all the rest deserted him [39] and, whilst he hangs from the instrument of his execution, 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 that which was the ordinary punishment of guilty and atrocious malefactors only a death the tediousness of which aggravated the protraction of its exquisite pain and excruciating 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 organised than the bodies of other men can be, and was, therefore, endowed with a superior susceptibility of pain, and a keener sense of the torments which it endured: and as to his interior anguish of mind, that, too, was no doubt extreme; for those amongst the saints who had to endure torments and tortures, were not without consolation from above, which enabled them not only to bear their violence patiently, but, in many instances, to feel, in the very midst of them, elate 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 ,"* and in another place, " I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation." [40] 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.
The blessings and advantages which flow to the human race, from the passion of Christ, alone remain to be explained. 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;" [41] " He hath quickened you together with him;" says the Apostle, " forgiving you all offences, blotting out the hand writing of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he hath taken away the same, fastening it to the cross." [42] He has rescued us from the tyranny If 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." [43] He discharged the punishment due to our sins; and, as no sacrifice more grateful and acceptable could have been offered to God, he reconciled us to the Father, [44] appeased his wrath, and propitiated his justice. Finally, by atoning for our sins, he opened to us heaven, which was closed by the common sin of mankind, according to these words of the Apostle; " We have, therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the blood of Christ." [45]
Nor are we without a type and figure of this mystery in the old law; those who were prohibited to return into their native country, before the death of the high-priest, [46] typified, that, until the supreme and eternal High-Priest, Christ Jesus, had died, and by dying opened heaven to those who, purified by the sacraments, and gifted with faith, hope, and charity, become partakers of his passion; no one, however just may have been his life, could gain admission into his celestial country.
The pastor will teach that all these inestimable and divine blessings flow to us from the passion of Christ; first, because the satisfaction which Jesus Christ has, in an admirable manner, made to his Eternal Father for our sins, is full and complete; and the price which he paid for our ransom not only equals but far exceeds the debts contracted by us. Again, the sacrifice was most acceptable to God, for when offered by his Son on the altar of the cross, it entirely appeased his wrath and indignation. This the Apostle teaches, when he says: " Christ loved us, and delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. "[47] Of the redemption which he purchased the prince of the Apostles says: " You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold and silver, from you. vain conversations of the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled."[48] Besides these inestimable blessings, we have also received another of the highest importance. In the passion alone, we have the most illustrious example of the exercise of every virtue, Patience, and humility, and exalted charity, and meekness, and obedience, and unshaken firmness of soul, riot only in suffering 1 for justice-sake, but also in meeting death, are so conspicuous in the suffering Saviour, that we may truly say, that, on the day of his passion alone, he offered, in his own person, a living exemplification of all the moral precepts, which he inculcated during the entire time of his public ministry. This exposition of the saving passion of Christ the Lord, we have given briefly Would to God! that these mysteries were always present to our minds, and that we learned to suffer, to die, and to be buried with Christ; that, cleansed from the stains 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 glory of his celestial kingdom.
- ↑ 1 Cor. ii. 2.
- ↑ Mat. xxvi. 38. Mark xiv. 34.
- ↑ 1 Tim. vi. 13.
- ↑ Mat. xx. 19.
- ↑ Deut. xxi. 23. Gal. iii. 13.
- ↑ 1 Cor. i. 21.
- ↑ Gen. iv. 8.
- ↑ Gen. xxii. 6 - 8.
- ↑ Exod. xi. 5 7.
- ↑ Num. xxi. 8, 9. John iii. 14.
- ↑ Psalms ii. xxi. lxvi. cix.
- ↑ Isai. liii.
- ↑ Hier. Episl. ad Faulin. ante finem.
- ↑ Mat. xxvii. 50. Mark xv. 37. Luke xxiii. 46. John xix. 30.
- ↑ Heb. ii. 10. 14, 15.
- ↑ Isaias liii. 7.
- ↑ John x. 17, 18.
- ↑ Luke xiii. 32, 33.
- ↑ John xviii. 5.
- ↑ Mat. xxvii. 60. Mark xv. 46. Luke xxiii. 53. John xix. 38.
- ↑ Psalm xv. 10. Acts ii. 31.
- ↑ John i. 1, 2.
- ↑ Heb. i. 2, 3.
- ↑ Rom. xi. 36.
- ↑ Mat. xxvii. 51. Luke xxiii. 44, 45.
- ↑ 1 Peter ii. 5.
- ↑ Heb. xii. 3.
- ↑ Heb. vi. 6.
- ↑ 1 Cor. ii. 8.
- ↑ Tit. i. 16.
- ↑ Isaias liii. 8.
- ↑ Isaias liii. 6.
- ↑ Isaias liii. 10.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 32.
- ↑ Luke xxii. 44
- ↑ Psalm ii. 2.
- ↑ Matt. xxvi. 47.
- ↑ Mark xiv. 68. 70, 71.
- ↑ Matt xxvi. 56
- ↑ 2 Cor. vii. 4.
- ↑ Rev. i. 5.
- ↑ Col.ii. 13, 1 1.
- ↑ John xii. 31, 32.
- ↑ 2 Cor.v. 19.
- ↑ Heb. x. 19.
- ↑ Num. xxxv. 25.
- ↑ Eph. v. 2
- ↑ 1 Pet. i. 18. 19.