6 - St. Thomas on Christ’s Satisfaction

Summary

Reconciliatio autem nihil aliud est quam amicitiae reparatio.

St. Thomas Aquinas¹

The detour through Aquinas’ understanding of the human condition (Chapter 5) has brought to light the intrinsic intelligibility that undergirds his focus on Christ’s satisfaction as the heart of the explanatory account of the cross event. To recapitulate: If the human problem consists in the culpable loss of grace through sin, understood as a disordered act and a personal offense against God, then the solution needs to regard both the reconciliation and the reintegration of due order, thus matching the duplex problem of culpa and reatus poenae. The satisfaction of Christ is a fitting solution to this twofold problem because it reconciles human beings with God and restores the due order in a manner corresponding to the ordinary functioning of human nature. There remains a vexing question – the answer to which Aquinas does not make easy – namely, what is the relationship between the two ends of Christ’s satisfaction – the reintegration of the just order and the restoration of the human being’s personal relationship with God. In other words, where do justice and charity meet? (A pressing question that the homo secularis also faces!)