Christ Brings Freedom from Sin and Death: The Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas on Romans 5:12–21

The Thomist 73 (2009): 381-98 CHRIST BRINGS FREEDOM FROM SIN AND DEATH: THE COMMENTARY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON ROMANS 5:12-21 J. A. DI NOIA, 0.P. Secretary, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Vatican City ONE NIGHT EARLY IN 1274, a Dominican friar in Naples had a dream about St. Thomas. In the friar's dream, Aquinas is lecturing on the letters of St. Paul when suddenly there enters into the hall none other than the Apostle himself. After acknowledging him with a slight bow, St. Thomas inquires whether his exposition of the text accords with the meaning that St. Paul intended. The Apostle Paul replies approvingly that Aquinas is indeed teaching "what could be understood from his epistles in this life," but that there would come a time "when he would understand them according to their whole truth."1 With that, the Apostle takes hold of Aquinas's cappa and draws him from the lecture hall. Jean-Pierre Torrell sees in this dream not just a touching premonition of the passing of Thomas Aquinas into eternal life-for, as it happens, the news of the death of Aquinas reached Naples three days later-but also confirmation of his view that the final version of the commentary on Romans dates to a course of lectures given by Aquinas at Naples during 1272 and 1273. I do not intend to enter here into the controversy concerning the dating ofAquinas's Pauline commentaries, except to note that, for the purposes of this article, it is reasonable to assume that the 1 Jean-Pierre Torrell, St. Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1, The Person and His Work, trans. Robert Royal (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 253. 381 382 J. A. DI NOIA, O.P. section of the Romans commentary under consideration here represents the mature teaching of Aquinas. I take St. Paul's words of approval in this remarkable dream as an occasion to comment on the achievement of the Pauline commentaries of Aquinas, their scope, importance and influence. Indeed, as Otto Hermann Pesch commented years ago, "the thinking of the Apostle is omnipresent" in the theology of Aquinas.2 In a real sense, St. Thomas regarded the Apostle as a fellow master of theology, "the professor among the Apostles."3 He saw in the letters of Paul a systematic vision of the faith, and commented on them with meticulous attention and profound insight. Saint Thomas considered the Pauline corpus to constitute a complete treatise, in three parts, on the grace of Christ: (1) nine of the letters concerning this grace as it exists in the mystical body (Romans, 1and2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1and2 Thessalonians); (2) four letters concerning the grace of Christ as it exists in the chief members of the Church, namely, the prelates (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon), and (3) one letter-Hebrews-concerning the grace of Christ as it exists in the head of the body, Christ himself.4 It is worthy of note that, in the friar's dream, the Apostle qualifies his approval of Aquinas's exposition of his letters by saying "what could be understood ... in this life" is as yet partial in comparison to the fullness of truth that he would possess in the life to come. I shall keep this cautionary note in mind as I take up the difficult topic of original sin-a mystery of faith in the strictest sense-bedeviled in our time no less than in Aquinas's by many errors, confusions, and misunderstandings. 2 Otto Hermann Pesch, "Paul as Professor of Theology: The Image of the Apostle in St. Thomas' Theology," The Thomist 38 (1974): 589 3 Ibid., 585. 4 Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistolas S. Pauli Lectura, ed. Raphael Cai (Rome: Marietti, 1953), pro!. (11). Parenthetical numbers in references to this work refer to paragraph numbers in the Marietti edition. AQillNAS ON ROMANS 5:12-21 383 I. SAINT THOMAS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 5: 12-21 In his commentaries on the letters of St. Paul, as in his other exegetical and theological works, Aquinas used the edition of the Vulgate edited at the University...