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St. Thomas and the Encyclical Mystici Corporis

1959; Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tho.1959.0000

2473-3725

Martin Hopkins,

Catholicism and Religious Studies

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORS: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS OF THE PROVINCE OF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington 17, D. C. VoL. XXII JANUARY, 1959 ST. THOMAS AND THE ENCYCLICAL MYSTIC/ CORPORIS No.1 CATHOLIC scholars are universally grateful to his Holiness, Pope Pius XII, for the many clear and penetrating statements which he issued on both dogmatic and moral problems. It would be difficult to point to any one document as the most valuable and timely contribution to come from his pen; however, it is certain that the Encyclical Letter, Mystici Corporis, is among the most significant pronouncements made by his Holiness. Besides having given us a profound and scholarly treatise on a controversial topic, the Holy Father has succeeded in establishing a beautiful and delicate balance between the internal and external bonds which unite men to Christ in His Mystical Body. Therein lies the principal merit of this great Encyclical. In developing his treatise, the Pope is very generous in his praise of St. Thomas: 1 MARTIN HOPKINS You are aware, Venerable Brothers, of the brilliant language by the masters of Scholastic Theology, and chiefly by the Angelic and Common Doctor, when treating this question; and you know that the reasons advanced by Aquinas are a faithful reflexion of the mind and writings of the Holy Fathers, who after all merely repeated and commented on the inspired word of Sacred Scripture.1 In the light of this eulogy, it would be incongruous that we should find any irreconcilable discrepancies between Mystici Corporis and the doctrine of St. Thomas. We should have no anxiety, then, in submitting the works of the " Common Doctor "-in particular, his tract on the capital grace of Christ in the Third Part of the Summa-to a critical comparison with the papal Encyclical. It is the aim of this paper to institute such a comparison in order to offer solutions to certain real difficulties which have arisen especially with regard to St. 'J'homas's notion of membership in the Mystical Body in the wake of Jfystici Corporis. The following four points which His Holiness makes in the Encyclical will provide the basis for this companson: 1. The Roman Catholic Church and the Mystical Body of Christ are one and the same thing; i. e., they are coextensive. In fact, His Holiness offers the term " Mystical Body " as an ideal definition of the Church of Christ.2 If Mystici Corporis has left any doubt as to the identity of these two terms, the Encyclical, Humani Generis, has emphatically cleared it up: Some say they are not bound by the doctrine, explained in our Encyclical letter of a few years ago and based on the sources of Revelation, which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing.... These and like errors, it is clear, have crept in among certain of our sons who are deceived by imprudent zeal for souls or by false science.3 2. The soul of the Mystical Body is the Holy Ghost.4 We 1 AAS. XXXV (1948), pp. 198-248. English u·~slation by National Catholic Welfare Conference. (Washington, D. C., 1948), n. 85. This translation is used throughout. • Ibid., n. 18. • AAS. XXXXII (1950), p. 571. English translation by Paulist Press. (New York, 1950) nn. 42, 44. 'Myatici Corporis, n. 56. ST. THOMAS AND THE ENCYCLICAL "MYSTIC! CORPORIS" 8 cannot admit that the body and soul of the Church represent two different societies with diverse memberships. As His Holiness says: For this reason We deplore and condemn the pernicious error of those who conjure up from their fancies an imaginary Church, a kind of Society that finds its origin and growth in charity, to which they somewhat contemptuously oppose another, which they call juridical. But this distinction, which they introduce, is baseless.... There can, then, be no real opposition or conflict between the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit and the juridical commission of Ruler and Teacher received from Christ. Like body and soul in us, they complement and perfect each other, and have their source in our one Redeemer....G 8...