On the Charity of God in the Passion of Christ

Taken from Medulla S. Thomae Aquinatis which arranges various short texts from St. Thomas Aquinas' corpus based on the liturgical year. I will be posting the day's meditation each day and will be bringing it into print once I'm through it.

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Saturday after the First Sunday of Lent

On the Charity of God in the Passion of Christ

But God commends his charity towards us: because when as yet we were sinners according to the time, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

1. Christ dies for the ungodly. This is marvelous, if we consider who died and also consider for whom he died. For scarce for a just man will one die, (Rom. 5:7) that is, scarcely anyone will die for the sake of liberating a righteous man. Rather, as it is written: the just man perishes and no one else lays it to heart (Isa 57:1); and for this reason scarce will one die. For perhaps someone, that is, someone rare in his zeal for virtue, dares to die for a good man. It is rare, because it is so great; for no man has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Yet what Christ did is never done, namely, to die for the ungodly and the unjust. That is why there is reason to wonder why Christ did this.

2. If it is