The Book of the Holy Rosary: Part II, Chapter X. Jesus Dies on the Cross
Of what kind, therefore, was the gift to be which He was to give in satisfaction for the sin of man? Something proper to Himself it must be, for anything merely external or inferior to Him would be clearly insufficient. Were we then to say that He should give Himself up to obey God, and to persevere in a life of submission to His will in the fulfilment of all justice, it is obvious this would not be to give to God that which is not already His due, for every intelligent and rational creature already owes this obedience to God. There must, therefore, be some other mode in which He is to give, either Himself, or something proper to Himself, to God. Let us see if this be not to give or to lay down His life, or to deliver himself up to death for the * It is St Anselm’s doctrine, following St Augustine, that God created man lower than the angels, intending to promote a lower creation to the places of honour left vacant by the fall of the rebel angels. honour of God. For this God will not exact from Him as His due, inasmuch as, from never having sinned, He has not incurred the debt of death. Let us consider whether this is not highly agreeable to reason.
“Disciple. Speak, and I will willingly listen.
“Anselm. If man sinned in the way of luxury, is it not most fitting that he should make his satisfaction for sin in the way of hardship? And if he was drawn to dishonour God, in his disobedience at the persuasion of the devil, with such an extreme ease and facility that it is impossible to see how he could have been more easily persuaded, is it not altogether just that man, in satisfying for his sin, should overcome the devil to the honour of God, in a manner so difficult that it is impossible to conceive any manner of obedience more difficult? And is it not most agreeable to reason that he who by his sin removed himself from God, in such a way that he could not remove himself more, should give himself up to God so unreservedly, that he should be unable to do this more unreservedly?
“Disciple. Nothing, as you say, can be more agreeable to reason.
“Anselm. But there is nothing harder and more difficult, which it is in the power of a man to suffer, for the honour of God, of his own free-will, and not in the way of a debt, than death; and there is no degree in which a man can more unreservedly give himself up to God than when he delivers himself up to death for the honour of God.
“Disciple. This is quite true.
“Anselm. He, therefore, who undertakes to satisfy for the sin of man, must consequently be one who has the power to die, if such be his will?
“Disciple. I see clearly that the man whom we are seeking for must be one who is not under the necessity of death by reason of His omnipotence, and who is not under the debt of death by reason of His immunity from sin, and who is notwithstanding a person able to die of His own free will, because His death is needed.
“Thinkest thou then,” continues St Anselm, “that the gift of that which is so inestimably precious as His life is not able to satisfy for all that is due for the sins of the whole world?
“Disciple. Undoubtedly, it is infinitely more than able.
“Anselm. Then you see how this life, if it be given for them, more than counter-balances all the sins of the world?
“Disciple. I see it clearly.
“Anselm. If, therefore, to give away life be the same thing as to accept death, in the same manner as the gift of His life outweighs all the sins of men, so also does this acceptance of death.
3. That by the death of Jesus Christ the way to salvation has been truly purchased for all men.
This proposition, which forms the appropriate transition to the glorious Mysteries that are to follow, may be suitably continued in the words of St Anselm, which fortunately here do not require the same degree of abbreviation as the foregoing, and may be simply quoted directly from the text.
“Anselm. Let us now endeavour to see in how extremely reasonable a manner human salvation follows upon His death.
“Disciple. This is what my heart longs for. And though I seem as if I understood it, still I wish to hear the reasons at length from you.
“Anselm. There is no further need to explain the greatness of that which God the Son has given of His own free will.
“Disciple. This is quite clear enough.
“Anselm. But you will not judge it to be by any means fitting that He who gives so great a gift should go without reward?
“Disciple. I quite see the propriety of this, that the Father should give a reward to the Son, otherwise He must appear to be unjust if He be unwilling, or else impotent if He be unable to give it, both of which are repugnant to the nature of God.
Anselm. He who rewards a second person, either gives that which the second person does not possess, or remits to him something which might with justice be exacted from him. But before the Son accomplished His great work, all that belonged to His Father was His, and He was never in debt for anything that could be remitted to Him. What, therefore, can be given to Him who is in need of nothing, and who is One to whom nothing can be either given or remitted?
“Disciple. On the one hand I see the necessity of a reward being given, and on the other its impossibility. For it is necessary that God should pay what He owes, and yet there is no one to whom to pay it.
“Anselm. If so great and so justly due a reward is not given, either to Him, or to some one else, the Son will appear to have accomplished His great work in vain.
“Disciple. This is inconceivable.
“Anselm. The reward, then, must be given to some one else, since it cannot be given to Him.
“Disciple. The consequence is inevitable.
“Anselm. If the Son were to will to give His reward to another, could the Father justly prohibit Him, or deny it to the third person to whom the Son should desire to give it?
“Disciple. Certainly, I understand it to be just and fitting that the reward should be given by the Father to the persons to whom the Son should desire to give it, inasmuch as it is lawful for the Son to give that which is His own, and the Father cannot give that which He owes except to some third party.
“Anselm. To whom shall the Son more fittingly make over the fruit and the reward of His death, than to those for whose salvation (as the scheme of truth teaches us) He made Himself man, and to whom by His death He gave an example of dying for justice’ sake? For it will be entirely in vain that men imitate His example if they are not to be partakers in His merits. Or whom shall He make with greater justice the heirs of that which is due to Him, and which He does not want by reason of the abundance of His own fulness, than His parents and His brethren, whom He sees pining away in want and in the depth of misery, weighed down with heavy and innumerable debts, so that what they owe on account of their sins may be remitted to them, and that of which they are deprived on account of their sins may be given to them?
“Disciple. There is nothing that the world can hear, which is more agreeable to reason, more delightful, and more to be desired. I, for my part, conceive such courage from this, that I cannot tell with what joy my heart exults. For it seems to me that God will reject no man whatever who comes to Him in the name of this Man.
“Anselm. It is indeed so, if he come as he should come. As to the manner in which we should present ourselves to be partakers of such great grace, and in what manner we ought to live under it, the Sacred Scriptures everywhere teach. And further, the mercy of God, which seemed to you to perish when we were considering the justice of God and the sin of man, we have found to be so great and so entirely in harmony with His justice, that we cannot conceive how it could be more in harmony. For what can be understood as more merciful than when God the Father says to the sinner, who is condemned to eternal torments, and who has nothing wherewith to redeem himself, ‘Take My only-begotten Son, and give Him for thyself;’ while the Son says, ‘Take Me, and redeem thyself?’ For this is, as it were, what they say when they call and draw us to the Christian faith. For what can be more just than that he to whom a thing is given of greater price than the debt which is owed, should, provided it be given with due dispositions, remit the entire debt?”
The following touching words, with which St Anselm concludes his “Meditation on the Sufferings of Jesus Christ,” may serve as our appropriate passage to the glory and triumph of the glorious Mysteries:—“I beseech Thee, therefore, most merciful Father, as in the beginning Thou didst create me, and afterwards restoredst me to life by the Passion of Thy only-begotten Son, so Thou wouldst make me to think of and to love everything that appertains to Thy praise. But for the reason that I am weak, and cannot perform what I desire, grant to me, by the diligent confession of my faults, ever to study to obtain the grace of Thy redemption and salvation. And whatsoever work I may undertake out of, by, and in Thy grace, cause it to turn entirely to Thy praise; and preserve me from sins for the time to come, and teach me to be more vigorous in good works, that as long as I may live in this body, I may be always doing some service for Thee. And grant that after the departure of my soul from the body, I may obtain the pardon of my sins and the gift of eternal life, through Him who liveth and reigneth with Thee world without end” (St Anselm, Meditation ix.)