by Matthew Gaetano
As we anticipate Holy Week, I thought that it might be of some interest to present Vincent Contenson’s (1641-1674) remarks on the Passion and Death of Christ from his Theology of the Mind and the Heart. Despite his death at the early age of 33, Contenson was a famous Dominican preacher, Thomist theologian, and teacher at Toulouse. His work of systematic theology sought to reach both the mind and the heart, something that he believed to be lacking in some of the theology of his day. He thus paired “speculations” with “reflections” when he treated a theological issue. Over the next several days, I hope to work provide selections from the Fourth Dissertation of his Tenth Book: On the God who Dwells with Us, or On the Economy of the Life, Death, and Glory of the Redeemer.
The Fourth Dissertation: On the Passion and Death of Christ
“O Love, what should I call you, I do not know! Good or evil? Sweet or bitter? Pleasant or unpleasant? For you are so full of both that you might seem to be both.” With this exclamation, Salvian decides to begin his treatment of the Passion of Christ in his First Letter. From these rays, the sweetness and rigor of love gleam forth. The immense charity of Christ was poured into us, but a harsh and almost cruel charity was poured into Him. For this is the character of sincere love–to be spent and beyond-spent for one’s friends. This sort of love harms and kills the lover, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell [Song of Songs 8:6].
God could have liberated man in innumerable ways other than through the Passion of Christ since no word shall be impossible with God [Luke 1:37]. Nonetheless, He chose something so bitter, so shameful, so calamitous in order that human beings would know how much they are loved by God. He did this so that the shedding of the blood of the Immaculate Lamb might break our hearts, however adamantine they may be. He eagerly did this to provide examples of gleaming humility, obedience, and constancy, as the Venerable Cardinal Drogo [twelfth century] said, “You, O Lord Jesus, have made of your body a mirror for my soul.” He did this so that human beings would not see themselves as worthless when they were so precious to Christ. He did this to that human beings might keep themselves immune from sin since they know themselves to have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, in accordance with 1 Cor. 6:20, “You are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.” Finally, he did this to confound the pride of the Devil, who must be crushed [Genesis 3:15] not only through the power of the Deity but also through the humility of the Passion.
For us to take up this infinite argument within certain limits and to avoid disregarding anything which the Holy Doctor [St. Thomas Aquinas] unfolded from question 46 to 53 [of the Third Part of the Summa Theologiae], questions which make manifest the history of this bloody tragedy, we will exposit point by point the excesses [excessus – departures, exodus, decease, going out, etc.], causes, and circumstances of Christ’s Passion.
Chapter 1: The Excess and Cause of the Passion and Death of Christ
The Passion of Christ is rightly called an “excess” by Luke (9:31). “They spoke”–Luke is referring to Moses and Elijah who appeared in the Transfiguration–“with Him about His excess [decease – Douay-Rheims], that he should accomplish in Jerusalem.” God has worked the rest of His works in number, weight, and measure [Wisdom 11], but in this work, the immense method (modus) of the divine love is plainly without method (sine modo). Hence, Paul calls it “exceeding charity” (nimia caritas) [Eph. 2:4] because He–the one who could have recreated us by a word, just as He had created us–bore too much and endured too much (nimia).
We’ll continue the series between now and Holy Saturday. For now, notice how Contenson pairs the divine freedom in the redemption with the reasons for the “method without method” or “mode without mode” or “way without measure” that God in fact chose. Christ’s Passion was a manifestation of God’s “excessive” love. And it was a fitting way to defeat the devil–not only by divine omnipotence but through the “humility” of the Cross.