Reply Obj. 2:  Temporal and bodily goods are indeed goods of man, but they are of small account:  whereas spiritual goods are man’s chief goods.  Consequently it belongs to Divine justice to give spiritual goods to the virtuous, and to award them as much temporal goods or evils, as suffices for virtue:  for, as Dionysius says (Div.  Nom. viii), “Divine justice does not enfeeble the fortitude of the virtuous man, by material gifts.”  The very fact that others receive temporal goods, is detrimental to their spiritual good; wherefore the psalm quoted concludes (verse 6):  “Therefore pride hath held them fast.”

Reply Obj. 3:  Christ bore a satisfactory punishment, not for His, but for our sins. ________________________

EIGHTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 87, Art. 8]

Whether Anyone Is Punished for Another’s Sin?

Objection 1:  It would seem that one may be punished for another’s sin.  For it is written (Ex. 20:5):  “I am . . .  God . . . jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me”; and (Matt. 23:35):  “That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth.”

Obj. 2:  Further, human justice springs from Divine justice.  Now, according to human justice, children are sometimes punished for their parents, as in the case of high treason.  Therefore also according to Divine justice, one is punished for another’s sin.

Obj. 3:  Further, if it be replied that the son is punished, not for the father’s sin, but for his own, inasmuch as he imitates his father’s wickedness; this would not be said of the children rather than of outsiders, who are punished in like manner as those whose crimes they imitate.  It seems, therefore, that children are punished, not for their own sins, but for those of their parents.

On the contrary, It is written (Ezech. 18:20):  “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.”

I answer that, If we speak of that satisfactory punishment, which one takes upon oneself voluntarily, one may bear another’s punishment, in so far as they are, in some way, one, as stated above (A. 7).  If, however, we speak of punishment inflicted on account of sin, inasmuch as it is penal, then each one is punished for his own sin only, because the sinful act is something personal.  But if we speak of a punishment that is medicinal, in this way it does happen that one is punished for another’s sin.  For it has been stated (A. 7) that ills sustained in bodily goods or even in the body itself, are medicinal punishments intended for the health of the soul.  Wherefore there is no reason why one should not have such like punishments inflicted on one for another’s sin, either by God or by man; e.g. on children for their parents, or on servants for their masters, inasmuch as they are their property so to speak; in such a way, however, that, if the children or the