Questo articolo è disponibile anche in:
Italian 
English 
Spanish
Dear Father Angelo,
I’ve finally resolved to write to you because a lecture on the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the mystery of the Cross, led me to have many doubts.
Following a brief introduction on the doctrine of satisfaction in St. Anselm of Aosta, the young priest who taught the class stated that this doctrine leaves a lot to be desired because it seems to imply that God is an executioner or an accountant who keeps score and requires restitution for disobedience when we know it isn’t so.
St. Thomas’ thought was then presented very succinctly: the priest stated that he’s the only one who puts forward the category of charity as a fundamental pillar of God’s plan for salvation, arguing that, in the end, there’s no expiation of sin in the sense of purification and repayment of debt, because divine mercy has already covered the injustice committed.
Therefore, the Cross does not save in the sense that it washes away our sin, but in the sense that it draws us toward that love and leads us to rejoin the communion with God we lost because of original sin.
The saving power of the Cross is therefore this: that it draws me to communion with God.
I listened to the lecture, finding it partly truthful; however, in my heart, I get the feeling that it related just a small part of the truth: it seems to me that this interpretation tends to reduce Christ to a mere man, with nothing divine or supernatural to Him.
If the Cross is just this, is it really necessary for salvation?
I get the impression that this view empties of meaning the reality of the Cross because it seems to only rid me of sin ex post, since it draws me to conversion, and not because God loves me so much that He pays for my sins once, ex ante, and gives me the Holy Spirit, source of Grace, which allows me to reside in Him and to convert by conforming to Him.
Speaking openly, this seems to me like a way of thinking that tends to forget about Christ’s divinity and the justice of God, which is similar to what many priests do when they discredit as medieval and erroneous the theology that comes out of the experience of the mystics.
I ask you, then, if you can help me shed light on the redemptive and salvific power of the Christ’s Cross and if you can help me understand in this light the categories of expiation, satisfaction, redemption, merit, sacrifice, the mediation of Christ and wrath of God/mercy of God.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the service you provide and for your dedication to it.
I will remember you in my prayers tonight during Vespers.
Luca
Priest’s answer
- Dear Luca,
First of all, we should make it clear that, according to Sacred Scripture, Jesus set out to pay a ransom.
He said it Himself: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45).
Ransom: lytron in the Greek. Well, lytron means price, cost. - Both Saint Paul and Saint Peter highlight the incredibly high value of the blood of Christ. The first one says: “Do you not know that your body is a temple* of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
Saint Peter: “conduct yourselves […] realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” (1 Pet 1:18-19).
Saint Paul also reminds us: “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” (Rom. 8:32). - Saint John points out again the great love that God has manifested toward us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (Jhn 3:16-17).
Saint John also seems to explain to us in which way human redemption is carried out by reminding us of Jesus’ words: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” (Jhn 3:14-15). And: “”And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.” (Jhn 12:32-33). And also: “He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) and “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). - The Jerusalem Bible points out the significance of the ransom: “The sin of mankind results in a debt toward divine justice, the penalty of death imposed by the law. In order to free them from the slavery of sin and death, Jesus will pay the ransom and erase the debt by spilling his precious blood, dying, therefore, in place of the guilty, just as it was announced to the servant of Yaweh (Isa 53)”.
Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas state that, because of the voluntary separation from God caused by sin, mankind should have fallen back into nothingness. It would have annihilated itself, simil to a ray of light that wants to separate from its lightsource and therefore condemns itself to extinction. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ* (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph 2:4-5).
Christ wanted to pay for us.
This is where the concept of vicarious satisfaction accomplished by Jesus Christ comes from. - This is the data offered by Sacred Scripture, aside from Saint Anselm’s (possibly debatable) explanation.
One cannot, then, make light of the blood shed by Christ in ransom for many by referring to God as an executioner or as bloodthirsty, like some say. These statements are blasphemous.
Christ paid the ransom, He merited our survival and glorious immortality.
Saint Thomas says: “That man should be delivered by Christ’s Passion was in keeping with both His mercy and His justice. With His justice, because by His Passion Christ made satisfaction for the sin of the human race; and so man was set free by Christ’s justice: and with His mercy, for since man of himself could not satisfy for the sin of all human nature, as was said above (III:1:2), God gave him His Son to satisfy for him, according to Romans 3:24-25: “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood.” And this came of more copious mercy than if He had forgiven sins without satisfaction.” (Summa Theologiae, III, 1, ad 3). - The Liturgy of the Church clearly refers to vicarious satisfaction as well: “O wonder of your humble care for us! / O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! / O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! / O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!” (Exultet during Easter Vigil).
- The Passion of Christ was needed for another reason as well.
Saint Thomas says: “But in this that man was delivered by Christ’s Passion, many other things besides deliverance from sin concurred for man’s salvation. In the first place, man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love Him in return, and herein lies the perfection of human salvation; hence the Apostle says (Romans 5:8): “God commendeth His charity towards us; for when as yet we were sinners… Christ died for us.” Secondly, because thereby He set us an example of obedience, humility, constancy, justice, and the other virtues displayed in the Passion, which are requisite for man’s salvation. Hence it is written (1 Peter 2:21): “Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.” Thirdly, because Christ by His Passion not only delivered man from sin, but also merited justifying grace for him and the glory of bliss, as shall be shown later (III:48:1; III:49:1 and III:49:5). Fourthly, because by this man is all the more bound to refrain from sin, according to 1 Corinthians 6:20: “You are bought with a great price: glorify and bear God in your body.” Fifthly, because it redounded to man’s greater dignity, that as man was overcome and deceived by the devil, so also it should be a man that should overthrow the devil; and as man deserved death, so a man by dying should vanquish death. Hence it is written (1 Corinthians 15:57): “Thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Summa Theologiae, III, 46,3). - Sacred Scripture, in the Old Testament in particular, uses the verb to placate.
God is placated by the fact that David builds an altar and offers holocausts and offerings of communion to God (2 Sam 24:25).
To placate God is synonymous with begging God to be merciful toward us.
We also read in Psalms: “I entreat you with all my heart: have mercy on me in accord with your promise.” (Psalm 119:58). To placate is to be interpreted in light of the phrasing used in the Vulgate: “I prayed to your face with all my heart“ (Deprecatus sum facies tuam).
In Isaiah as well we read: “On that day, you will say: I give you thanks, o Lord; though you have been angry with me, your anger has abated, and you have consoled me.” (Isa 12:1).
Here, using anthropomorphic language, God presents Himself as one angered and threatening revenge.
But it actually means: “I give you thanks, o Lord, because I was in serious trouble, but you used mercy towards me and consoled me”.
The Liturgy of the Church also has several orations which contain, in the Latin text, the verb to placate. But it always means to show mercy. - Christ’s sacrifice, then, not only covered, but expiated the sins of the world and, at the same time, merited grace, which is the security deposit for eternal life.
As Saint Thomas says: “From the beginning of His conception Christ merited our eternal salvation; but on our side there were some obstacles, whereby we were hindered from securing the effect of His preceding merits: consequently, in order to remove such hindrances, “it was necessary for Christ to suffer” (Summa Theologiae, III, 48, 1, ad 2).
The obstacles are sin, the stain on our soul, the slavery of the devil, the slavery of sin and bad inclinations. - We should remember that Jesus’ expiation was accomplished through love.
Again Saint Thomas: “He properly atones for an offense who offers something which the offended one loves equally, or even more than he detested the offense. But by suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race. (Ibid., III, 48, 2).
In fact, because of Charity, “The head and members are as one mystic person; and therefore Christ’s satisfaction belongs to all the faithful as being His members. Also, in so far as any two men are one in charity, the one can atone for the other” (Ibid., ad 1).
And: “Christ’s love was greater than His slayers’ malice: and therefore the value of His Passion in atoning surpassed the murderous guilt of those who crucified Him: so much so that Christ’s suffering was sufficient and superabundant atonement for His murderer’s crime.” (Ibid., ad 2).
Hoping that we can all maximally take advantage of the expiation obtained by Jesus Christ in our place and that we can be fully sanctified, I bless you and remember you in prayer.
Father Angelo