Friday, November 20, 2020

Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange and Aquinas on Whether Christ's Prayer was Always Heard

  

WHETHER CHRIST’S PRAYER WAS ALWAYS HEARD

 

Reply. A distinction must be made: Christ’s prayer in the strict sense, namely, that which proceeded from His absolute will as the result of deliberate reason, was always heard, because His will was always in conformity with the divine will, so that by this prayer He willed or sought only what He knew God wills. The words that Martha addressed to our Lord are to be understood in this sense when she said: “I know that whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee” (John 11:24). Also, when our Lord says: “And I knew that Thou hearest Me always” (John 11:42). And St. Paul says of Christ: “He was heard for His reverence” (Heb. 5:7).

 

Christ’s conditional prayer expressing the desire of His sensitive nature or of His will considered as nature, was not always heard, which is evident from His prayer in the Garden.

 

Second objection. Christ prayed that the sin of those who crucified Him might be forgiven (Luke 23:34). Yet not all were pardoned this sin, since the Jews were punished on account thereof.

 

Reply to second objection. St. Thomas says: “Our Lord did not pray for all those who crucified Him, nor for all those who would believe in Him, but for those only who were predestined to obtain eternal life through Him.” (Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Christ the Savior: A Commentary on the Third Part of St. Thomas’ Theological Summa [trans. Dom Bede Rose; London: B. Herder Book Company, 1950, 1957], 491)

 

In a footnote for the above, Garrigou-Lagrange noted:

 

Certain professors of the Duacene theological faculty reviled this reply of St. Thomas as Jansenistic in their censure of August 22, 1722, which censure was condemned by Rome on Jun 18, 1726. These professors did not understand that St. Thomas in this reply to the second objection has in mind only efficacious prayer that is the result of what is simply willed; he is not speaking of conditional prayer that is in conformity with God’s conditional will to save all. (Ibid., 491 n. 14)