Death is natural to man, and is also a punishment for Original Sin.
Meditation from St. Thomas Aquinas for Ash Wednesday (2/14/2024, 3/5/2025, 2/18/2026)
30 second video based on this meditation, https://youtu.be/MmfuhfIbOpU
Lenten Meditations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPCGA67J8M2Ka7-6n0TZn6GS24WbOQZJ_
0:00 Sin is the Origin of Death
1:49 Man's Rational Soul is Immortal
2:56 We Follow the Pattern of Christ's Sufferings
Source (1): ST II-II Q164 A1
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3164.htm#article1
https://isidore.co/aquinas/summa/SS/SS164.html#SSQ164OUTP1
Source (2): ST I-II Q85 A5 ad2
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2085.htm#article5
https://isidore.co/aquinas/summa/FS/FS085.html#FSQ85A5THEP1
Full Text: https://archive.org/details/meditationsforle00aquiuoft
#Aquinas #Lent #Death
Music: Among the Clouds, by Darren Curtis
Thumbnail Image: SS. Peter and Paul's Church, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, 2012-09-07. Detail of left stained glass window of the sixth bay of the west aisle, depicting Saint Thomas Aquinas. By Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22728952
Ash Wednesday
DEATH By one man sin entered into this world, and
by sin death. 1. If for some wrongdoing a man is deprived of
some benefit once given to him, that he should lack that benefit is the punishment of his sin. Now in man's first creation he was divinely
endowed with this advantage that, so long as his mind remained subject to God, the lower
powers of his soul were subjected to the reason and the body was subjected to the soul. But because by sin man's mind moved away from
its subjectio
n to God, it followed that the lower parts of his mind ceased to be wholly
subjected to the reason. From this there followed such a rebellion
of the bodily inclination against the reason, that the body was no longer wholly subject
to the soul. Whence followed death and all the bodily defects. For life and wholeness of body are bound up
with this, that the body is wholly subject to the soul, as a thing which can be made
perfect is subject to that which makes it perfect. So it comes about that, co
nversely, there
are such things as death, sickness and every other bodily defect, for such misfortunes
are bound up with an incomplete subjection of body to soul. 2. The rational soul is of its nature immortal,
and therefore death is not natural to man in so far as man has a soul. It is natural to his body, for the body, since
it is formed of things contrary to each other in nature, is necessarily liable to corruption,
and it is in this respect that death is natural to man. But God who fashioned
man is all powerful. And hence, by an advantage conferred on the
first man, He took away that necessity of dying which was bound up with the matter of
which man was made. This advantage was however withdrawn through
the sin of our first parents. Death is then natural, if we consider the
matter of which man is made and it is a penalty, inasmuch as it happens through the loss of the privilege whereby man
was preserved from dying. 3. Sin, original sin and actual sin, is taken
away by Christ, that
is to say, by Him who is also the remover of all bodily defects. He shall quicken also your mortal bodies,
because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. But, according to the order appointed by a
wisdom that is divine, it is at the time which best suits that Christ takes away both the one and the other, i.e.,
both sin and bodily defects. Now it is only right that, before we arrive
at that glory of impassibility and immortality which began in Christ, and which was acquired
for us through Christ,
we should be shaped after the pattern of Christ's sufferings. It is then only right that Christ's liability
to suffer should remain in us too for a time, as a means of our coming to the impassibility
of glory in the way He himself came to it.
Comments