Contingency, modern medicine, and God’s providence

 

There is no apparent limit to medicine’s ambition to control the circumstances of human life and death by bringing them under human control. Billions of dollars are invested each year in research that has as its ultimate aim the elimination of contingency from the biological circumstances of human existence, and few people seem interested in asking whether or to what extent such an aim is appropriate for creatures of a providential God.

Joel Shuman and Brian Volck, M.D., Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine (p. 35)  

Once we locate an object of our fear, we feel empowered

 

Just as we long for a diagnosis when we are sick, so we long for a way to name and locate our chaotic fears. Once we have a diagnosis, we know how to respond to our illness. We feel that we can do something. Likewise, once we locate an object of our fear, we feel empowered. We can now take tangible steps to make ourselves more safe. Insecurity is no longer the sad reality of a fallen and vulnerable world; it is the result of “those” people who pose a tangible and definable threat to “us” and our way of life. Indeed, we exist as “us” precisely because we oppose what “they” are and what “they” do. The cozy feeling of community coexists with an anxious pugnacity that arises, in most communities, as an inevitable byproduct of a shared identity.

Scott Bader-Saye, Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear (p. 105)

Atheistic Naturalism: The Root of Scientific Totalitarianism

 

What kind of a case can we make for human rights, if human beings, like other animals, are the accidental products of blind material process? I do not see how a widespread belief in inalienable rights can be long maintained in such a perspective… After all, ancient societies, which had no conception of God-given rights, rewarded the elite and enslaved the rest. The logical thing to do, in an overpopulated world with scarce resources, is to “cull the herd.”

Terence L. Nichols, The Sacred Cosmos: Christian Faith and the Challenge of Naturalism (p. 16)  

What is going on in the world? Fireside chat with Nick Hudson

Join Dan Astin-Gregory on the Pandemic Podcast with his guest Nick Hudson, the founder of Panda, for a fireside discussion about what's going on in the world!

Rodney Dietert on Microbiome-First Medicine

The origin of asthma, autism, Alzheimer’s, allergies, cancer, heart disease, obesity, and even some kinds of depression is now clear. Award-winning researcher on the microbiome, professor Rodney Dietert presents a new paradigm in human biology that has emerged in the midst of the ongoing global epidemic of noncommunicable diseases.

 The Human Superorganism makes a sweeping, paradigm-shifting argument. It demolishes two fundamental beliefs that have blinkered all medical thinking until very recently:

1) Humans are better off as pure organisms free of foreign microbes.

2) the human genome is the key to future medical advances.

The microorganisms that we have sought to eliminate have been there for centuries supporting our ancestors. They comprise as much as 90 percent of the cells in and on our bodies—a staggering percentage! More than a thousand species of them live inside us, on our skin, and on our very eyelashes. Yet we have now significantly reduced their power and in doing so have sparked an epidemic of noncommunicable diseases—which now account for 63 percent of all human deaths. 

Ultimately, this book is not just about microbes; it is about a different way to view humans. The story that Dietert tells of where the new biology comes from, how it works, and the ways in which it affects your life is fascinating, authoritative, and revolutionary. Dietert identifies foods that best serve you, the superorganism; not new fad foods but ancient foods that have made sense for millennia. He explains protective measures against unsafe chemicals and drugs. He offers an empowering self-care guide and the blueprint for a revolution in public health. We are not what we have been taught. Each of us is a superorganism. The best path to a healthy life is through recognizing that profound truth.

Source: The Human Superorganism: How the Microbiome Is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/531468/the-human-superorganism-by-rodney-dietert-phd/

Audio Interview: Rodney Dietert on Microbiome-First Medicine https://youtu.be/nCshOFnRVZU

"The transhumanist agenda is already visible as the distant destination-point..."

 

"Belgian psychologist Dr. Mattias Desmet may be the most articulate voice on the most clear and present danger facing us: the mob-baiting now being pursued by formerly democratic governments..."

 

Covid Totalitarianism: The Deification of Error https://johnwaters.substack.com/p/covid-totalitarianism-the-deification

 

WHY DO SO MANY STILL BUY INTO THE NARRATIVE? https://youtu.be/uLDpZ8daIVM via @YouTube

2021 Yamaha XT250

 

I got a new phone with a camera. It's still a dumb phone. This is a photo of my bike (a 2021 Yamaha XT250 that I've been riding since April) at the Dark Hollow vista on Stillhouse Hollow Road in Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania. It was a bit damp and cold today.

America, Build with the Bible!

 

So for us today, in Scripture our Heavenly Father Himself speaks to us directly, personally, infallibly. His Word pulls down all pride and pretense to show that no matter how good you may think you are, how outwardly respectable your life may appear, without Jesus, you are lost in your sin.

In the Scriptures we find the most magnificent love the world will ever witness is that marvel of mercy whereby Jesus became the Savior and Substitute for sinful mankind. There on Calvary, and the cross of curse and shame, He paid the penalty for our sins, suffering punishment for our iniquities. There He shed His blood to cleanse us and then He died to give us life. Three days later He rose again to assure us of our own future resurrection, ascending to the Father to guarantee us the glories of heaven.

In and through the risen Redeemer, God's precious Volume gives you peace for your soul. In God's saving, comforting Word, by the Holy Spirit's power, you can find strength to conquer evil habits, reform your life, and return to your Heavenly Father. Between the covers of Scripture you'll discover God's truth, the divine lamp unto your feet, His guidance for every problem, and the Holy Spirit's regenerating force to make you a new creature in Christ.

May every one of you take time to pause and hear the Savior's special appeal to you: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28). May the Holy Spirit fill your hearts with the love of Jesus, who first loved you. With your whole being may you revere and lift up God's sacred Word, taking it wholly and wholeheartedly, and receive Christ Jesus as your Lord.

From “America, Build with the Bible!” a sermon excerpt from Rev. Dr. Walter A. Maier, the first Speaker of The Lutheran Hour

Saint Francis of Assisi's warning to rulers

Image: Frater Franciscus, anonymous fresco, before 1228

We have from Francis one other letter written in 1220, an appeal to the very rulers to whom his friars were to preach repentance and devotion to the Eucharist. Addressed “to the podestas, consuls, and other rulers” of cities, the letter is short and stern, a reminder of death and judgement:

Reflect and see that the day of death is approaching. With all possible respect, therefore, I beg you not to forget the Lord because of the world’s cares and preoccupations and not to turn away from his commandments, for those who leave him in oblivion and turn away from his commandments are cursed and will be left in oblivion by him. When the day of death does come, everything they have will be taken from them. The wiser and more powerful they were in the world, the greater will be the punishment they will endure in Hell.

He then turned to his favorite topic in this period, the Eucharist, writing that “therefore” they should receive communion with fervor and foster honor to the Lord among those they rule. “If you do not do this, know that, on the day of judgement, you must render an account before the Lord your God, Jesus Christ.”

Augustine Thompson, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (pp. 84-5)

God’s goodness and the permission of evil

God’s permission of evil in the things governed by Him is not inconsistent with the divine goodness. For, in the first place, the function of providence is not to destroy but to save the nature of the beings governed. The perfection of the universe requires the existence of some beings that are not subject to evil, and of other beings that can suffer the defect of evil in keeping with their nature. If evil were completely eliminated from things, they would not be governed by divine providence in accord with their nature; and this would be a greater defect than the particular defects eradicated.

Secondly, the good of one cannot be realized without the suffering of evil by another. For instance, we find that the generation of one being does not take place without the corruption of another being, and that the nourishment of a lion is impossible without the destruction of some other animal, and that the patient endurance of the just involves persecution by the unjust. If evil were completely excluded from things, much good would be rendered impossible. Consequently it is the concern of divine providence, not to safeguard all beings from evil, but to see to it that the evil which arises is ordained to some good.

Thirdly, good is rendered more estimable when compared with particular evils. For example, the brilliance of white is brought out more clearly when set off by the dinginess of black. And so, by permitting the existence of evil in the world, the divine goodness is more emphatically asserted in the good, just as is the divine wisdom when it forces evil to promote good.

Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology (Chapter 142)

The spiritual effects of tearing down Christian culture

Image: Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania converted into brewery

 

So long as Christ does not reign over nations, His influence even over individuals remains superficial and exposed to overthrow. If it is true that the work of the apostolate consists in the conversion of individuals and that nations do not go to heaven, but souls, one by one, we must not forget, nevertheless, that the individual member of society lives under the never-ceasing influence of his environment, in which; if we may not say that he is submerged, he is, at least, deeply plunged. If the environment is non-Catholic, it prevents him from embracing the faith, or, if he has the faith, it tends to root out of his heart every vestige of belief. If we suppose Catholic social institutions, with our Lord no longer living in the hearts of the individual members of society, then religion is merely a signboard which will soon disappear. But, on the other hand, try to convert individuals without Catholicizing the social institutions and your work is without stability. The structure you erect in the morning others will tear down in the evening. Is not the strategy of the enemies of God there to teach us a lesson? They want to destroy the faith in the hearts of individuals, it is true, but they direct still more vigorous efforts to the extirpation of religion from social institutions. Even one defeat of God in this domain means the weakening, if not the ruin, of the faith in the souls of many.* 

Rev. Denis Fahey, The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World (pp. 164-5)

* Paqe« choisies du Cardinal Pie, quoted in La RoyauU Sociale de N.S. JtBU8- Christ, p. 59, by Pere de Saint-Just., a.M.C.

Man’s triumphs are being placed more and more at the service of demoniacal hate

For St. Thomas, as we have seen in a previous chapter, contemplation is the end of civil government, not that civil government is meant to aim at it as its proportionate end, but because it can prepare for it as for a higher end, superior to political ends and preferable to them. Thus, when a tiller of the soil makes ready the ground for planting, he is preparing for the flowers and fruits that will spring from the cultivated soil. Civilization, as we have already said, has directly in view the development of human nature here below, but mediately it is ordained to the Kingdom of God, that is, to the order of eternal and supernatural life begun here below, and it is from the Kingdom of God that it must receive the supreme rule and measure. Civilization is the development of the truly human life of the State. It belongs of itself to the natural order: metaphysics, art, science, politics, civic virtues. But it cannot attain its full development except under the supernatural sky of the Church. Christian civilization is the overflow of the Kingdom of heaven. It is the impress of the Mystical Body of Christ on man's natural social organization.

Accordingly, as man's contemplation of God in the actual world is meant to be not merely natural but supernatural, that civilization is simply and absolutely (simpliciter) the most perfect in which the well-being and moral rectitude of society is sought in a manner calculated to pave the way for supernatural contemplation. Such a civilization may be surpassed by others in a certain department or departments (secundum quid), but these latter will lack the harmony and power of recuperation of the former. For the true progress of a people, the rulers must ever keep these principles in view. True progress will always respect the line of formal development of man. It will give rise to qualitative civilizations such as was the civilization of Greece in the fourth century before the birth of our Lord and, in a higher degree, the civilization of Western Europe in the thirteenth century. If a people's attention is diverted from things spiritual and turned to material conquests, to the cultivation of the useful, that is of whatever serves as a means of furthering human intercourse and ministers to man's bodily needs and comforts, the whole direction of life gradually changes. The means become the end. The civilization is quantitative instead of qualitative. As mind tends invincibly to universality, it will then seek it in the realms of matter. The reign of quantity, of mass production and of standardized parts will be inaugurated. In such a civilization, metaphysicians will be of little social account compared with financiers. Arts in which matter is excessively prominent, such as the noble art of self defence and certain games, will occupy a place altogether out of proportion to their importance. The winning of material comfort which appeals to the animality in man (animality is so universal that it belongs also to beings other than man) will become all-absorbing. By all this we do not mean to convey that those technical triumphs are devoid of intelligence and idealism. Far from it. We simply want to emphasize the fact that, in our quantitative civilization, intelligence and idealism are placed at the service of the animality in us and turned downwards to the manipulation of matter rather than upwards to contemplation and suprasensible reality. With the rejection of the great truth of our membership of the Mystical Body of Christ Crucified, these very material conquests are leading to a state of awful disorder. Man can now overcome the obstacles of time and space with what may be termed, of course with exaggeration, angelic swiftness, but his triumphs are being placed more and more at the service of demoniacal hate. Matter is the principle of division.

Rev. Denis Fahey, The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World (pp. 145-7)

Justly? or unjustly? at 1 Peter 2:23

1 Peter 2:23 in the Complutensian Polyglot

I came across this odd reading in the Vulgate recently. I would think they would have changed this, since the Greek of the 1514 Complutensian Polyglot has the better reading, but it's still found in the 1592 Clementine Vulgate New Testament I'm currently reading through. There's a big difference, after all, between unjustly and justly. 

I must say that when I read this passage as "unjustly" I immediately thought of Jesus before Pontius Pilate, given the context of the passage, and, apparently, some of the church Fathers had the same impression.

“Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not, but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly” (1 Peter 2:23 Douay-Rheims).

qui cum malediceretur non maledicebat cum pateretur non comminabatur tradebat autem iudicanti se iniuste” (1 Peter 2:23 Latin Vulgate).

“Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23 King James).

ὃς λοιδορούμενος οὐκ ἀντελοιδόρει πάσχων οὐκ ἠπείλει παρεδίδου δὲ τῷ κρίνοντι δικαίως (1 Peter 2:23 (Stephanus 1550).

The Latin Vulgate reads injuste (unjustly) at 1 Peter 2:23 instead of δικαίως (justly) as is found in the Greek text.

The Greek text of the Completensian Polyglot at 1 Peter 2:23 reads δικαίως and the Latin text reads injuste

(See: https://biblehub.com/1_peter/2-23.htm)

“There is a curious various reading which is adopted by the Vulgate, though without any solid authority, and evidently a mere blunder, the interpretation of which we may leave to those who are committed to it: ‘He gave Himself over to him (or, to one) who judgeth unrighteously.’ St. Cyprian seems to have understood it of our Lord's voluntary self-surrender to Pilate” (Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers).

“There is a curious reading, entirely without the authority of existing Greek manuscripts, represented by the Vulgate, Tradebat judicanti se injuste, as if the words were understood of the Lord's submitting himself ‘to one who judged unrighteously,’ that is, to Pilate” (Pulpit Commentary).

“The strange rendering in the Vulgate, ‘tradebat judicanti se injuste’ as though the words referred not to God, but to Pilate, for which there is no Greek MS. authority, must be regarded as an arbitrary alteration made on the assumption that this was the crowning act of submissive patience” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges).

“The Vulg. strangely translates: tradebat judicanti se injuste; according to which Lorinus interprets: tradidit se Christus sponte propriaque voluntate tum Judaeis, tum Pilato ad mortem oblatus. Cyprian (de bono patientiae) and Paulinus (Ephesians 2) quote the passage as it stands in the Vulg. Augustin (Tract. in John xxi.) and Fulgentius (ad Trasimarch. lib. I.), on the other hand, have juste” (Meyer’s NT Commentary).

“Judicanti se injuste. In the present Greek we read Greek: dikaios, juste, as also some Latin Fathers read. St. Augustine, (tract. 21. in Joan.) Commendabat autem judicanti juste; and so the sense is, that he commanded and committed his cause to God, the just judge of all” (Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary).

See commentaries: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_peter/2-23.htm

 

The day of eternity (2 Peter 3:18)

2 Peter 3:18 (last verse) Complutensian Polyglot)

 

I came across an odd reading at 2 Peter 3:18 where the word “day” (Greek: ἡμέραν, Latin: diem) is missing from the King James Version.

The ESV, NASB, CSB, HCSB, have “day” whereas the NIV and the NLT do not, and read like the KJV (see: https://biblehub.com/2_peter/3-18.htm}.

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen” (King James Version)

αὐξάνετε δὲ ἐν χάριτι καὶ γνώσει τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος ἀμήν (Stephanus 1550).

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen (Douay-Rheims).

crescite vero in gratia, et in cognitione Domini nostri, et Salvatoris Jesu Christi. Ipsi gloria et nunc, et in diem aeternitatis. Amen (Clementine Vulgate).

“The Greek phrase for “for ever” (literally, for the day of the æon, or eternity) is a peculiar one, and expresses the thought that ‘the day’ of which the Apostle had spoken in 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12 would be one which should last through the new æon that would then open, and to which no time-limits could be assigned” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges).

“ἡμέραν αἰῶνος, the day of eternity) This title agrees with that sense, in which the apostle employed it, through the whole of this chapter. Eternity is a day, without night, unmixed and perpetual” (Bengel’s Gnomen).

“‘For ever is, literally, ‘for the day of the age or of eternity (εἰς ἡμερὰν αἰῶνος).’ This remarkable expression is found only here, and is variously interpreted. Bengel explains it as, ‘dies sine nocte, morus et perpetuus;’ Huther as, ‘the day on which eternity begins as contrasted with time, but which day is likewise all eternity itself.’ Fronmuller quotes St. Augustine: ‘It is only one day, but an everlasting day, without yesterday to precede it, and without tomorrow to follow it; not brought forth by the natural sun, which shall exist no more, but by Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.” (Pulpit Commentary).

Link to commentaries above: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_peter/3-18.htm

Christ: the sign of contradiction

Among the truths that Jesus gave His Apostles before sending them out into the world to preach His gospel are the following: “Do not think I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace… He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. He who seeks his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake, will find it.” When He was presented in the temple as a baby, Simeon prophesied: “This child is set for the rise and fall of many and as a sign of contradiction.” Yet Jesus’ message is one of love and good will. He proclaims the Father’s love and the coming of His kingdom. He invites people to the peace found in life in obedience to His Father’s will.

The more faithful a Christian becomes the deeper the chasm between him and those who refuse to accept Christ. When it comes to a choice between family harmony and Jesus, members must value Jesus the divine source of their being and goal of their eternal happiness, infinitely higher than the most intimately loved parents, relatives, and friends. This often calls for cutting the bonds at the core of the deepest relationships. This is extremely hard to accomplish. Temptations of a psychological nature drive persons to preserve their dearest ties. But Jesus warns everyone: If you cling tenaciously to your natural life, abandoning Me for it, you shall lose your own eternal life. If you let your natural life go for My sake, you will find yourself enjoying divine, inexhaustible life.

Rev. Vincent Miceli, Rendezvous with God (pp. 159-60)

The greater the grace, the more abiding it is

The very fact of falling away from the love of God by sin, does not work unto the good of all those who love God, which is evident in the case of those who fall and never rise again, or who rise and fall yet again; but only to the good of “such as according to His purpose are called to be saints,” viz. the predestined, who, however often they may fall, yet rise again finally. Consequently good comes of their falling, not that they always rise again to greater grace, but that they rise to more abiding grace, not indeed on the part of grace itself, because the greater the grace, the more abiding it is, but on the part of man, who, the more careful and humble he is, abides the more steadfastly in grace. Hence the same gloss adds that “their fall conduces to their good, because they rise more humble and more enlightened.”

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Part III, Question 89, Article 2, Reply to Objection 1)

Whether dispensing of this sacrament belongs to a priest alone?

 

It is written (De Consecr., dist. 12): “It has come to our knowledge that some priests deliver the Lord's body to a layman or to a woman to carry it to the sick: The synod therefore forbids such presumption to continue; and let the priest himself communicate the sick.”

The dispensing of Christ's body belongs to the priest for three reasons. First, because, as was said above (Article 1), he consecrates as in the person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His body at the supper, so also He gave it to others to be partaken of by them. Accordingly, as the consecration of Christ's body belongs to the priest, so likewise does the dispensing belong to him. Secondly, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and the people; hence as it belongs to him to offer the people's gifts to God, so it belongs to him to deliver consecrated gifts to the people. Thirdly, because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this sacrament. Hence it is not lawful for anyone else to touch it except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground, or else in some other case of urgency.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Part III, Question 82, Article 3)

Whether a sacrament is always something sensible?

 

Augustine says (Tract. lxxx super Joan.): “The word is added to the element and this becomes a sacrament”; and he is speaking there of water which is a sensible element. Therefore sensible things are required for the sacraments.

I answer that, Divine wisdom provides for each thing according to its mode; hence it is written (Wisdom 8:1) that “she . . . ordereth all things sweetly”: wherefore also we are told (Matthew 25:15) that she “gave to everyone according to his proper ability.” Now it is part of man's nature to acquire knowledge of the intelligible from the sensible. But a sign is that by means of which one attains to the knowledge of something else.

Consequently, since the sacred things which are signified by the sacraments, are the spiritual and intelligible goods by means of which man is sanctified, it follows that the sacramental signs consist in sensible things: just as in the Divine Scriptures spiritual things are set before us under the guise of things sensible. And hence it is that sensible things are required for the sacraments; as Dionysius also proves in his book on the heavenly hierarchy (Coel. Hier. i).

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Part III, Question 60, Article 4)

Whether it was necessary for Christ to suffer for the deliverance of the human race?

 

It is written (John 3:14): “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.”

I answer that, As the Philosopher teaches (Metaph. v), there are several acceptations of the word “necessary.” In one way it means anything which of its nature cannot be otherwise; and in this way it is evident that it was not necessary either on the part of God or on the part of man for Christ to suffer. In another sense a thing may be necessary from some cause quite apart from itself; and should this be either an efficient or a moving cause then it brings about the necessity of compulsion; as, for instance, when a man cannot get away owing to the violence of someone else holding him. But if the external factor which induces necessity be an end, then it will be said to be necessary from presupposing such end—namely, when some particular end cannot exist at all, or not conveniently, except such end be presupposed. It was not necessary, then, for Christ to suffer from necessity of compulsion, either on God's part, who ruled that Christ should suffer, or on Christ's own part, who suffered voluntarily. Yet it was necessary from necessity of the end proposed; and this can be accepted in three ways. First of all, on our part, who have been delivered by His Passion, according to John (3:14): “The Son of man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” Secondly, on Christ's part, who merited the glory of being exalted, through the lowliness of His Passion: and to this must be referred Luke 24:26: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?” Thirdly, on God's part, whose determination regarding the Passion of Christ, foretold in the Scriptures and prefigured in the observances of the Old Testament, had to be fulfilled. And this is what St. Luke says (22:22): “The Son of man indeed goeth, according to that which is determined”; and (Luke 24:44-46): “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Me: for it is thus written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead.”

That man should be delivered by Christ's Passion was in keeping with both His mercy and His justice. With His justice, because by His Passion Christ made satisfaction for the sin of the human race; and so man was set free by Christ's justice: and with His mercy, for since man of himself could not satisfy for the sin of all human nature, as was said above (III:1:2), God gave him His Son to satisfy for him, according to Romans 3:24-25: “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood." And this came of more copious mercy than if He had forgiven sins without satisfaction. Hence it is said (Ephesians 2:4): "God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ.”
 

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Part III, Question 46)