From this it seems, 1. that a prelate is bound to die for his subjects. But against this: To suffer martyrdom is a work of supererogation; but no one is bound to works of supererogation unless he has bound himself by a vow: therefore it seems that a prelate is not bound to this.
2. Likewise it seems that all are bound to this; 1 John 3: We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I respond: It must be said that to die for the Lord's flock can be in three ways: either for promoting it from good to better, and thus it is a matter of supererogation with respect to all prelates; or for freeing it from imminent danger, and thus every prelate is bound, because he has undertaken the care of the Lord's flock, and their blood will be required from his hand ; or for one constituted in the extremity of necessity, who cannot escape damnation unless a man exposes himself to death; and thus I say that it is a matter of necessity with respect to all, just as selling one's possessions and giving to the poor when they are in extreme necessity.
And the arguments run according to these ways.
29. Question III. It is asked concerning what he says: I have other sheep which are not of this fold: because no sheep is a sheep when it is outside the Church, none is innocent.
Item, how does he say: It is necessary for me to bring them? Because Matthew fifteen: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: therefore he ought not to have brought them.
I respond: It must be said that he calls those sheep from the Gentiles, not yet called according to present justice, his own, because they were chosen according to eternal predestination. He brought them by the merit of his passion and by the word of preaching, not his own, but of the Apostles, because he himself in his own person had come specially and principally to preach to the Israelite people, to whom he had been promised and by whom he was to be killed.
And according to this, that passage of Matthew fifteen is to be understood: I was not sent, etc.
30. Question IV. There is a question about what he says: I lay down my life of myself; because thus everyone seems to do; whence Augustine: "Anyone who dies lays down his life." If you say that he does so by necessity: an objection is raised concerning the Martyr, who dies voluntarily.
I respond: It must be said that every person lays down his life in one way, the Martyr in another way, and Christ in yet another way: every person by necessity, the Martyr by will, but Christ by will together with power. For the will of the Martyr, even if it is free from dying at that time, is nevertheless not free from dying absolutely: but Christ was entirely free.
31. Question V. Likewise there is a question about what he says: I have power to lay down my life and to take it up again.
1. Either he says this according to the divine nature, or according to the body, which lays down the soul. If according to the divine: then the Divinity dismissed the soul, which is impious to say, and whoever says this is anathema.
Or he says it according to the body, and that does not have the power to take it up again.
2. Likewise it is objected: if the body laid down the soul, and as Damascene says, the soul was the medium of uniting the divine nature to the body, then the divine nature laid down the body, which is impious.
It must be said that soul here means life: whence the sense is: I have power to lay down my soul, that is, my life, namely to lay it down through death, and I have power to take it up again through resurrection.
But if soul is taken properly: then Christ is said to lay down his soul, that is, to put it away from the flesh, not because the body does this, but the Son of God himself, who has power over both, namely the soul and the body.
2. As for what is objected concerning the medium, it must be said that there is a medium of distance, of binding, and of fittingness. The soul is not a medium of distance in that union, because the Divinity is immediately united to the body; nor of binding, because it does not bind one with the other; but of fittingness, because the body, by the fact that it is capable of being animated, is able to be united to the Divinity fittingly; and therefore it does not follow that it must be dissolved.
32. Question VI. Likewise there is a question about what he says: Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life.
Therefore it seems that Christ merited the divine love through his passion.
Against this: From the instant of his conception he was worthy to be loved above all.
It must be said that he speaks according to the human nature, and therefore he states there the meritorious cause, just as in that text: For which cause God also exalted him. And merit is understood not as making what is unowed into something owed, nor as making what is owed into something more owed; but because what is owed in one way and by one mode, namely by the best interior will, becomes owed in another way, namely by exterior work.
33. The feast of the dedication took place in Jerusalem. The Lord showed himself to be the true shepherd with respect to the shepherd's entrance and affection; here, thirdly, he shows this with respect to the sign of the true shepherd, which consists in this: that the sheep recognize him and follow him. And three things are noted here: first, the demand by the Jews for a certain sign; second, the expression of a certain sign, at the text: Jesus answered them: I speak, etc.; third, from this the persecution by the Jews, at the text: The Jews took up stones.
The demand for a true sign that he was the shepherd and leader in Israel is made by the Jews who inquire, and in the description of their question are indicated the time and the place and the manner of inquiring.
(Verse 22). As to the time, he says: The feast of the dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter. It should be noted that the dedication is named from camon, which means new, whence to dedicate, that is, to make new; because at that time the feast of the renewal of the temple was celebrated, which had previously been profaned; and it is said in the plural because this solemnity lasted for eight days; 1 Maccabees 4: "And Judas and his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel decreed that the day of the dedication of the temple should be kept from year to year for eight days."
As to the place, he says: 34. (Verse 23). And Jesus walked in the portico of Solomon, that is, in the place where Solomon had previously built a portico for prayer, which nevertheless had been destroyed.