The Unity of Operation in Christ

In Christ, the human nature acts by its own power, andso does the divine Nature. But the divine Nature makes use of the human operations as instruments to its own operation.

In man, we discern three types of vital operation: thevegetal, the sensitive or animal, and the distinctively human or rational. Now, in Christ, the perfect man, the distinctively human operations prevailed, so that no sensitive movement took place without his will; even natural bodily (vegetal) operations belonged in some sense to his will, for, as St. John Damascene says (De Fid. Orthodox iii), it was Christ’s will that his flesh should do and suffer what belonged to it. Hence, there was perfect unity in the operations of Christ.

To merit is to earn, that is, to establish title to what is not yet possessed. Now, our Lord, as man, could merit or deserve of God what he did not yet possess. Before his Passion, our Lord did not yet possess the glory of body which came with the Resurrection, or the splendor of the Ascension, or the loving veneration of the faithful of his Church. As man, Christ already possessed the beatific vision, and all the excellencesconferred on him by reason of the hypostatic union. Therefore, Christ as man could merit from God the excellent things not yet possessed, but he could not merit or earn what he already had.It is fitting that Christ could merit some things, for he is the model as well as the source of merit for his rational creatures.

Christ could merit for others. He is the Head of the Church; the meriting activity of this Head reaches all the members.St. Paul speaks of our Lord’s meriting for others when he says(Rom. 5:18): “As by the offence of one, to all men untocondemnation, so also by the justice of one [that is, Christ] unto all men to justification of life.”