Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/191



THE Apostle teaches us in these words that we should give thanks to God the Father for three great benefits which He has granted to us through Jesus Christ. The first benefit was our justification: “Partakers of the inheritance.” The second benefit is our liberation from the power o£ the Devil: “ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.” The third benefit is translation into the eternal kingdom: “And hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”

I. On the first head it is to be noted, that it is a three-fold inheritance which God distributes to His saints. (1) Eternal predestination: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the council of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ,” Eph. i. 11, 12. (2) Justification: “Unto him shall be given the chosen gift of faith, and an inheritance in the temple of the Lord,” Wisd. iii. 14. (3) Eternal glorification: “Now is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints,” Wisd. v. 5.

II. On the second head it is to be noted, that God in a three-fold manner delivers us from the power of the Devil. (1) By liberating us from the service of the Devil: “That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,” Heb. ii. 14. The Devil is the prince of darkness: “ We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,” Eph. vi. 12. (2) By illuminating the darkness of our ignorance by the light of His doctrine: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light,” Isa. ix. 12. “Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in