Jesus said, “By their fruits, you will know them” (Mt 7:19). Given time, our choices have
an effect on our lives. Some of the choices we make look reasonable but with time, their
consequences show that we were mistaken. What do we do then?
St. Thomas Aquinas states, “The sinner often seeks for something which he does not
find, but to the just man it is given to find what he seeks.” We repeat the pattern found in
the Old Testament, where people tried to be like God, but then, “rather they were unlike
God and by their sin they withdrew from God.” 1
St. Thomas remarks that people sin because they look for “pleasure but they do not find
pleasure but sorrow … They look in vain … and are disappointed in their sins.”
Today’s Gospel demonstrates another way, as described in Elizabeth’s words to Mary:
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42).
In the time of Thomas Aquinas, the prayer consisted only of the words of the Angel
Gabriel to Mary joined with the words of Elizabeth to Mary. Eventually, in the sixteenth
century, the second half of the prayer was added.
In his sermon on “The Angelic Salutation,” Thomas writes of Mary’s role in reversing the
withdrawal from God:
The Blessed Virgin, however, and all Christians found in the Fruit of her womb
Him whereby we are all united to God and are made like Him: ‘When he shall
appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is’ (1 Jn 3::2). 2
Notice that the devil promised that he could make people like God but, as
Thomas reminds us “He lied because he is a liar and the father of lies.” Jesus makes us
like Himself:
We must seek in the Fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary whatsoever we desire.
This is He who is the Fruit blessed by God, who has filled Him with every grace,
which in turn is poured out upon us who adore Him: ‘Blessed be God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritual blessings in
Christ’ (Eph 1:3) … The Blessed Virgin is indeed blessed, but far more blessed is
the Fruit of her womb. 3
Elizabeth praises Mary for having believed. When the Angel Gabriel brought the
invitation from the Father for Mary to be the mother of His Son, she responded, “Behold
the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me, as you have said” (Lk 1:28).
1 Thomas Aquinas, Explanation of the Hail Mary, the Angelic Salutation, in The Catechetical
Instructions of St Thomas Aquinas, trans. Joseph B. Collins, S.S. (Manila: Sinag-Tala Publishers), 210.
2 Ibid., 210.
3 Ibid., 211.

Mary’s faith leads her to charity: she hastens to the hill country to care for her
elderly relative. St. Thomas holds that faith must be joined to charity: “Charity is the
form of faith in so far as the act of faith is perfected and formed by charity” (2a2ae. 4, 3).
For Thomas, faith without charity is lifeless: “The distinction of living from lifeless faith is
in respect of something pertaining to the will, i.e. charity…” (2a2ae, 4, 4).
The second reading (The Letter to the Hebrews 10:5-10) seems to be misplaced.
Its attention to Christ’s offering of Himself seems more appropriate to Passion Week
than the days before Christmas. Actually, this passage makes clear that Christ’s offering
of Himself began with the Incarnation.
Another explanation is needed. The Gospel of John is at variance with this
passage of Hebrews because John declares that Jesus was always “in” the world: “He
was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not …”
(Jn 1:10).
How can He be in the world and then “come” to the world? Thomas explains:
“He was in the world, as ruling the whole world, inasmuch as He is said to be in
all things by His essence, presence and power; but he is outside the world,
because he is not comprehended by the world, but has a goodness separated
from the entire world, by which the goodness of the universe is caused. Yet,
because he assumed a human nature for us, he is said to enter into the world”
(Commentary on the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews, 485). 4
The Letter to the Hebrews uses the words of Psalm 40:7-9 to describe the Son’s
purpose in taking our nature: “Behold I have come to do Your will, O God”(Heb 10:7, 9).
The letter to the Hebrews compares Jesus’ doing the will of the Father to the Old
Testament sacrifices, as reflected in Psalm 40: “Sacrifice and offering You do not
desire” (Ps 40:6). God rebukes the sacrifices as well: “What to Me is the multitude of
your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat
of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats” (Is
1:11).
What is the problem with the sacrifices? Hebrews, and surely the Psalmist as well,
recognize that the “offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings are offered according
to the law” (Heb 10:8).

4 Actually, Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, has been in relationship with the world from its
beginning. The Letter to the Colossians states: “For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been
created through Him and for Him” (Col 1:16). The First Letter to the Corinthians also asserts: “… the Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6). The Letter to the
Hebrews itself affirms: “In our time, the final days, He has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom
He appointed as heir of all things and through whom He made the ages” (Heb 1:2)

Thomas raises the question: “If God did not want them, why did He command them to
be offered?” (Commentary on Hebrews, 486)? According to Thomas, God no longer
wanted such sacrifices once the Son entered the world: “The truth coming, the shadow
should cease” (Commentary on Hebrews, 488).
During the time of the Old Testament, religious people offered sacrifices that served as
representations of themselves. Jesus offered His own self. Thomas explains that the
sacrifices of the Old Testament were a preparation for Christ’s offering of Himself: “They
are said to be accepted … because they were a figure of Christ whose Passion was
accepted by God, for He was not pleased with the killing of animals but in faith in His
Passion” (Commentary on Hebrews, 488).
The Old Testament sacrifices are often interpreted to be the immolation of animals, as
substitutions for the punishment that the humans deserve. The Dominican biblical
scholar, Roland DeVaux, explains that this is not the meaning of such sacrifices: “On
the contrary, it was a victim pleasing to God, and He, in consideration of this offering,
took away the sin” (Ancient Israel, vol. 2, 419). The animals were not victims on whom
punishment was inflicted but gifts offered to God.
The Old Testament contains prescriptions which detailed what was required for such a
gift that could restore friendship with God. According to Exodus, the paschal lamb had
to be “without blemish” (Ex 12:5).
Thomas Aquinas proposes the situation where a person has offended another and
seeks to offer a gift to please the offended person: “He properly atones for an offense
who offers something which the offended one loves equally, or even more than he
detested the offense” (3a. 48, 2).
Thomas emphasizes that Jesus’ “love and obedience” are the basis of Jesus’ self-gift:
“But by suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required
to compensate for the offense of the whole human race. First of all, because of the
exceeding charity, from which he suffered; secondly, on account of the dignity of His life
which He laid down in atonement for man; thirdly, on account of the extent of the
Passion, and the greatness of the grief endured. And therefore Christ’s Passion was not
only a sufficient but a superabundant atonement for the sins of the human race;
according to 1 John 2:2, ‘He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but
also for those of the whole world’” (3a. 48, 2).
Not only Jesus’ suffering and death but also Jesus’ Incarnation itself reflects Jesus’
desire to do “will of God.”
The Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that Jesus’ very entrance into the world was
God’s will: “Behold I have come to do Your will, O God” (Heb 10:7).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of
redemption. Redemption comes to us above all, through the blood of His cross, but this
mystery is at work throughout Christ’s entire life: already in His Incarnation through
which by becoming poor He enriches us with His poverty” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 517).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.
References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the
Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an
objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,”
meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection.