THE CHARITY OF CHRIST

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The charity of Christ is the key to understanding not only how he delivered himself to suffering and death, but also why his suffering and death effect our salvation. Its importance, therefore, both in the execution of the divine plan and for understanding that plan cannot be overestimated. St. Thomas provides an account of Christ’s charity that is unsurpassably clear, marvelously complete, speculatively satisfying, and practically moving. This may sound strange, since he devotes not even one question to it in the great Summa. If he has remarkably little to say at any length and ex professo about Christ’s charity, however, he has lots and lots to say about charity just as such. So, we read what he says about the passion of Christ looking back to the Secunda secundae. We read what he has to say about charity in the Secunda secundae forward to what he says about the life of Christ in the Tertia. Of course, there are also things to consult in the commentaries on Scripture and in the commentary on The Divine Names of Denys the Areopagite. The monographs of Dominic Legge and Joel Matthe w Wallace (in part) will help us out.