This "generated form" effects formally (not efficiently) the grace which enables the recipient to live up to the ideals and obligations of such a state of perfection. In the case of baptism, the character makes a man a member of the Faith, joined to all the other members.57 Once constituted a member of the Faith, the Christian needs many special graces to actually live the new life he has entered upon, much in the same way a man is actually a pilot only when he is flying his plane. The baptismal character causes the graces that a person requires to be a real and vital Christian. And such a person is an actual Christian only when, with the presence of these graces, he is acting in the Christian manner.

In order to understand more clearly St. Thomas's mind on the baptismal character, the symbolical reality, one can consider the parallel which St. Thomas draws in the Summa between the res et sacramentum, the symbolical reality of the Eucharist and of penance, and that of baptism. In the Eucharist St. Thomas states, the res et sacramentum, the symbolical reality which is Christ Himself is the immediate cause of grace in the recipient.58 And with regard to the sacrament of penance, St. Thomas makes the following observation:

... even in penance there is something which is the sacrament alone, namely, the outward acts. . . . Now the symbolical reality is the interior sorrow of the penitent. That which is the reality alone, however, and not the sacrament is the remission of sins. Of these, the first, if they are all taken together, is the cause of the second, and the first and the second are the cause of the third.59

According to the thought of St. Thomas, then, the symbolical reality of itself, even in the Eucharist and penance, independent of the fact whether it is a character or not, is a cause of the graces of the sacrament. And if the symbolical reality happens to be a character, it is also a cause, and an instrumental dispositive cause at that. Since baptism, in the mind of St. Thomas, is the sacrament

57 Cf. Sum Theol., q. 66, a. 1 c; q. 68, a. 1.

58 Cf. Sum. Theol., q. 73, a. 1 ad 3m.

59 Sum. Theol., q. 64, a. 1 ad 3m.

"... etiam in poenitentia est aliquid quod est sacramentum tantum, scilicet actus exercitus. . . . Res autem et sacramentum est poenitentia interior peccatoris. Res autem tantum et non sacramentum est remissio peccati. Quorum primum totum simul sumptum est causa secundi; primum autem et secundum sunt causa tertii."

of faith par excellence, the baptismal character, the symbolical reality, will have a relationship to the intellect that is different from that of the other two characters of confirmation and orders. As has already been noted, St. Thomas holds that all the sacramental characters are in the intellect because they are testimonies (protestatio) in a man to the Faith. And since baptism is the sacrament by which a man becomes a member of the Church to profess his Faith in God and thus to worship God, the baptismal character has a very special particular relation to the virtue of faith.

The baptismal character is a reality which God effects in the intellect so that it not only gives the Christian the power to worship God and to profess belief in God as a member of His Church, but its very presence is a witness and testimony to the fact that the Christian is dedicated to God. It is a power which denotes that God has initiated a person as a privileged member of His Church, as a member of the Faith, and that He will bestow upon this person the abundant graces for Christians which such a rank of dignity requires.

The culmination of St. Thomas's treatment concerning the baptismal character comes when he relates its very essence as a sacramental character to the Priesthood of Christ. It has already been pointed out that the concept of the sacramental character as a participation in Christ's Priesthood was the contribution which St. Thomas made to sacramental theology. St. Thomas was well aware of the scriptural basis for the priesthood of all Christians. He was also conversant with the teaching of the Fathers on the nature of baptism. According to such Fathers as St. Cyril of Jerusalem,61 St. Gregory of Nazianzus,62 St. John Chrysostom,63 St. Jerome,64 St. Augustine,65 and St. Leo the Great,66 baptism was the sacrament which elevated the Christian to a priesthood with Christ. As priests with Christ, Christians made offerings to God. Mindful of such a biblical and patristic tradition concerning baptism, St. Thomas brings his doctrine in the Summa to a climax by presenting

60 Cf. Sum. Theol., q. 66, a. 1, ad 1m.

61 Catechesis, XXI, 3, 6 (PG, XXXIII, 1093).

62 In sanctum baptisma (PG, XXXVI, 361 and 363).

63 Third homily on II Cor., 7 (PG, LXI, 417).

64 Dialogus contra Luciferanos, 4 (PL, XXII, 166).

65 Quaestionum evangeliorum, 2, 40 (PL, XXXV, 1355). 66 Sermo 4 (PL, LIV, 148).

the baptismal character of the Christian as a sharing in the Priesthood of Christ.

St. Thomas's very original concept of the character in general, and consequently, of the baptismal character, as a participation in Christ's Priesthood is, as it were, a break-through in theology which offers a prospect of the whole range of the supernatural order in terms of a vital relation between the Christian, the instrument of Christ, and Christ, the principal agent. This theory of the baptismal character presents man under the dominion of Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the Mystical Body. Through this instrumental power which marks and designates a person for privileged membership in the Church, God directs the blessings that the new member needs. Because of this mark of honor and rank, the baptized person is entitled to receive all the myriad graces of the supernatural order. In order to understand better this vital relationship between the Christian with the baptismal character and Christ the High Priest, a few remarks should be made with regard to the nature of a principal cause and an instrumental cause, and the relation between them according to the philosophy of St. Thomas.67

A principal cause, in the mind of St. Thomas, is one which acts. and effects in virtue of its own power, and produces an effect proportionate to that power. An instrumental cause, on the other hand, is a means used by the principal cause to produce an effect which it intends.68 An instrumental cause, by performing its own proper activity under the direction of the principal cause, produces an effect which surpasses its own capacity.69 A paint brush, for example, in the hands of Leonardo da Vinci can paint a Mona Lisa. Such an effect transcends anything which the essential capability of an instrument could ever attempt to achieve on its own. With regard to an instrumental cause, then, there are three principles which St. Thomas indicates. First, the instrument has its own activity thus, an axe can cut; spoken words can cause knowledge

67 Concerning instrumental causality and the sacraments, cf. In IV Sent., d. 1, q. 1, a. 4; d. 5, q. 1, a. 2; d. 5, q. 1, a. 3, sol. 1; De Ver., q. 27, aa. 4 and 7; De Pot., q. 3, a. 4; Sum. Theol., III, q. 62, aa. 1-6.

68 De Pot., q. 3, a. 7; Sum Theol. I, q. 105, a. 5c and ad 3; ibid., III, q. 64, a. 8 ad 1.

69 De Malo, q. 5, a. 5; Sum. Theol., III, q. 62, a. 1 ad 2; cf. also C. Gent., II, 21.

in another person. Secondly, the instrument does not act as an instrument unless it performs its own proper activity: an axe cuts a piece of wood; spoken words cause knowledge in another person. Thirdly, in the effect there must be something attributable to the instrument: thus, the wood is cut by an axe; and the knowledge is caused by words. 70 However, for the actual operation of the instrument, St. Thomas adds, the instrument must have the principal agent apply it to its action. Instrumentality, therefore, looks to final causality, and application by the principal agent looks to efficient causality. Thus, the principal agent has an intention which informs and blueprints the activity of the instrument so that the instrument can attain the intended end which surpasses its own unguided capabilities. And in so far as the principal agent guides and directs the instrument to its operation, it is said to apply the instrument to act. Finally, the principal agent attains the end of both the instrument and itself, and together in one actuality they both achieve the mutual possession of their finality which is union and peace, the perfective good for both of them.71

In these terms, the baptismal character is the instrumental cause and Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest is the principal cause who applies the person with such a character to certain activities. The activity, or perfective good of the baptized Christian, is virtuous activity here on earth, and ultimately "the future glory which comes about through grace.'

9972

The proper activity of the baptismal character is to dispose the soul for the graces that a newly initiated member of the Church stands in need of. By itself alone the character cannot cause this grace at all. But with the infinite power of Christ the High Priest employing it as an instrument it can. The precise activity to which Christ applies the baptized person is the introductory and initial par

70 Cf. the texts enumerated in n. 67 above. The examples are St. Thomas's, and are found in the following places: 1) axe: In IV Sent., d. 1, q. 1, a. 4, qc. 5, sol. 1; Sum. Theol., q. 62, a. 1 ad 2; 2) word: In IV Sent., d. 1, q. 1, a. 4, qc. 5, sol. 2 and 4; Sum. Theol., III, q. 62, a. 4 ad 1.

71 For St. Thomas's mind on mutual possession of, or communio in, a good, cf. In III Sent., d. 5, q. 1, a. 1, sol. 1 and 3; In IV Sent., d. 27, q. 1, a. 1, sol. 1 ad 2 and 3; ibid., a. 2, sol. 1 ad 2. For the notion of union and peace, cf. Sum. Theol., q. 29, aa. 204; and also Expositio in Dionysium De divinis nominibus, lect. 1-3.

72 Sum. Theol., III, q. 63, a. 3 ad 1m.

ticipation in His Priesthood. The Christian is empowered to live a meaningful life by offering it, as Christ did his own, to God. By his baptism the Christian can hallow his life by continually praying with Christ who has eternally hallowed all human endeavors, in short, all of human life. The baptismal character looks to activity different from that of the character of confirmation or of orders. The baptismal character gives its bearer the power to perform actions which pertain to his own salvation, not exclusively, but primarily. Consequently, it can be said that through the baptismal character Christ directs a person with a providence that treats him as an individual person with an eternal destiny. The end, or perfective good, which is intentionally present in the activity of the baptismal character under the power of Christ the principal agent is the constant union in a life of love-filled acts on earth. And ultimately, the consummation towards which Christ is guiding the Christian through his baptismal character is the bliss of unending union and peace in the face-to-face vision of God in heaven.74

Here the indelibility of the baptismal character takes on its full significance. True, it is an enduring, perpetual mark because the intellect in which it resides is immortal, but even more can it be considered to be perpetual because the Person Who impressed it is eternal. The character is perpetual because Christ the Eternal Priest has marked the baptized person for an eternal membership in His Church to share in the powers of His Priesthood.

Here also the character's relation to faith becomes clear. The baptismal character pertains to faith, not just because a person through his intellect endowed with this character can make many and successive acts of faith, but far more fundamentally and essentially because it marks, designates, and makes such a person a member of the Faith, the Church. The baptismal character makes the bearer, together with all other baptized persons, what might be called objective professions of the Faith concretized in the visible society which is the Church.

And here, finally, it can be seen how the baptismal character is a principle of unity in the Mystical Body. To the apparently idle academic question concerning the baptism of infants sanctified in the womb, St. Thomas gives the following response which presents

73 Cf. Sum. Theol., III, q. 72, a. 5 c.

74 Cf. Sum. Theol., III, q. 63, a. 3 ad 1m.