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The Right Of Seigniory In Theocratic Society

Chapter 12

The dominion of Christ

611. The greatest, sublimest of these ministers is Christ.

612. But Christ is not only God's minister. It is necessary, therefore, to examine the other properties and attributes of Christ relative to divine seigniory.

613. They are six: he is 1. supreme Lord (God); 2. servant of God; 3. the human being who is Lord over other human beings; 4. God's minister for the salvation of the world; 5. judge of the world; and 6. head of the Church. We shall say a few words about each of these properties.

614. Christ is God as well as man. As God, he has divine, inalienable dominion.

615. One of the divine prerogatives is to be light, a ray of which makes human beings naturally intelligent.

Because this light enables moral good and evil to be discerned, it is also law. All Christians do in fact conceive of Christ as light and law; for them, such undoubted teaching is understood as the foundation of their faith. An obvious proof that Christians conceive of Christ as objective reason itself (which enabled Christ to say, `I AM THE WAY') can be seen in their attitude towards morality. All Christians acknowledge that Christ reproves and condemns whatever is immoral; they also recognise every moral virtue as conforming to Christ. Christians do not look in the Gospel for any express, particular condemnation of wickedness, or praise of virtue. Their judgement is as it were a priori, and is deduced immediately from the concept they have of Christ which tacitly supposes the belief that `to oppose moral reason' is the same as opposing Christ in whom this reason subsists.

For St. Paul, this explains the great difference between the Hebrew law and the Gospel. The former contained particular moral formulae, expressed in words, but the light itself, moral reason, remained hidden. The Gospel, however, gives us the light in its supernatural fullness, because it gives us Christ. `And even if our Gospel is veiled,(59) it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the LIKENESS OF GOD. For what we preach is not ourselves, but JESUS Christ as Lord,(60) with ourselves as your servants for JESUS' sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness", who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in THE FACE OF JESUS'.(61) This is not the bodily face of Christ, but the concept, the perception, we have of him. In this concept and perception we find `the knowledge of the glory of God', perfect moral teaching, the doctrine of holiness, which reaches its fullness in the knowledge of God.

616. Plato, and many others, thought it a prerogative of the divinity to be `reason itself'; wise men in the East had come to the same conclusion long before. This explains why they affirmed regal dignity to be a power delegated by God; they intended to subject it to moral reason. A modern author has this to say in explaining the teaching of Chinese philosophers, `Chinese political and moral authors recognised that extreme absolute power in the heads of government was never more than a power delegated by Heaven, that is, by SUPREME ABSOLUTE REASON . . . This absolute power is subject to moral limits that cannot be gainsaid. If the mandate is abused by infraction of these moral laws, the people are freed from all respect and obedience towards such power (according to Tchou-hi, a celebrated Chinese philosopher of the 12th century, in his Commentary on the first of the four classical books of China, which was used in all the schools and colleges of the Empire)'. Another legitimate power takes the place of that which has been so completely overthrown.(62)

617. As man, Christ is servant of God.

618. Christ as man is not only a servant of God, like all other creatures; he is the most sublime of God's servants. In Scripture we read that God formed this perfect servant from his mother's womb.(63)

619. Christ is not only the sublimest servant. He is the only faithful servant; all other humans have fallen away.(64) All alike are disqualified for the service of God, the great end of creation.

620. Only in Christ has God obtained full servitude from a creature, the end for which he created the universe.

621. He attained servitude superabundantly in Christ because Christ, as man, gave God all the service of which elevated human nature is capable. But this was not the only reason. Christ is also God; his activity is theandric, and what he does has infinite value; his activities constitute infinitely worthwhile servitude because he is God, serving God.

622. Christ as man is the unique, faithful servant of God amongst human beings. In him, reverence and servitude towards the supreme Being are complete.

623. We have seen that faithful servitude towards God benefits only the one giving it, whose being is perfected and ennobled. Unfaithfulness in divine service has the opposite effect: it harms the unfaithful and wicked servant, whose being suffers harm and degeneration.

624. The unfaithful servant falls; the faithful servant is raised up. The whole human race, except Christ, failed in faithfulness. He is thus raised above all mankind.

625. Consequently, God gave seigniory over the whole, unfaithful human family to Christ as man (upon whom the divine spirit had rested with all his gifts) because of his holiness. According to right, Christ could place mankind as a footstool under his feet, judge it, and strictly condemn it.(65)

626. But the Christ of God did not use his dominion to condemn the human family which he had at his disposition, although it had merited condemnation. The use of the dominion he had received was directed by two noble affections: 1. to use this dominion to give God once more the greatest possible service, by fulfilling perfectly his will; 2. to turn the dominion to redeeming from punishment human beings whom he loved as brethren in the equality of human nature he shared with them. He would achieve this by communicating something of his own holiness and divinity to them.

627. These two sublime affections were in perfect harmony. It was natural for Christ as man to show affection for his brethren, and it was the will of God that he should second this longing to benefit them. It was also the will of God that the dominion over mankind given to his faithful servant should result in the greatest satisfaction of that servant, as Isaiah says, `THE WILL OF THE LORD SHALL PROSPER IN HIS HAND.'(66) On Christ's part, the work of redemption was therefore voluntary.

628. But it was also the fulfilment of a command received from God who wanted Christ to redeem mankind, his brethren, because this was required by Christ's natural love. Moreover, because God himself loved human beings as his creatures, and because the end of the universe had been obtained through the perfect servitude of his Christ, he wished it to be obtained in other human beings, Christ's brethren by nature, through the work of Christ.(67) On his side, Christ loved the will of God, which he knew perfectly, even more than he loved his brethren. It was his pleasure to carry out the design established by God from the constitution of the world. The work of redemption, therefore, was the accomplishment of the will of God.

629. Through his pre-eminent holiness Christ had obtained absolute dominion over guilty humanity, and authority to judge it. Through his suffering for human beings, which satisfied justice, and through the ransom of his blood, they became his property under the new title of redemption, so that he was able to communicate to them gifts and degrees of holiness as he pleased.(68) In this, too, he wanted to conform to the eternal design of God which was in fact ordered to the greatest glory and exaltation of Christ, the Redeemer whose now glorious natural will found itself perfectly attuned to such a design. From every point of view, as Isaiah had predicted so profoundly, `the will of God would prosper in the hands of his Christ'.(69)

630. The human beings for whom Christ suffered remain divided between those who come to receive the benefit of his redemption, and those who do not. Relative to the second group, Christ's power is shown principally in the judgement which he will pronounce over them at the end; relative to those to whom the merit of his suffering is communicated, his power is manifested in the task he carries out as their head. With them he forms a tightly knit society, called Church, and it is of this society that we have to speak in expounding the governmental and communal right of theocratic society.

631. Only with the damned, therefore, does Christ exercise the right of mere dominion. With the members of his Church he exercises, as man, the rights of governor, fellow-member and benefactor.

Notes

(59) The Hebrews covered the book of the law with a veil in a ceremony recalling Moses' veiling of his face, which shone as he spoke to the people. St. Paul refers to this symbol as an indication that the Hebrews were not given light, the truth itself, but only signs foreshadowing it.

(60) The phrase `to preach Christ' had not been used about a human being or human teacher before Christ came into the world. One does not preach man, but doctrine, truth. But the phrase is very appropriate when applied to the master who is truth.

(61) 2 Cor 4: 3-6.

(62) G. Pauthier, Les Livres Sacrés de l'Orient, Paris, 1840, Introduction.

(63) Is 49: 5.

(64) Ps 13: 3.

(65) In Isaiah, God says of his Christ as man: `Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations' (42: 1).

(66) Is 53: 10.

(67) Isaiah notes that the servitude to be given to God by his Christ was to consist in the work of salvation applied to Hebrews and Gentiles. Christ says through the lips of the prophet: `And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength.' He says: `It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth' (Is 49: 5-6).

(68) Therefore it is said, `When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men' (Eph 4: 8).

(69) `Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he has prolonged his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand' (Is 53: 10).

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