In recent posts, we have spoken about the Son of God, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This divine person is right at the center of our faith as Catholic Christians. The Father sent His Son to as a gift to fallen humanity, out of love. The Son redeemed us by his death, and by his Resurrection, he has opened the door to new life for us. (We have spoken about his death, we will speak of the Resurrection in a future post.)
It is important to point out that the title the "Son of God" does not mean that Jesus is something different from God. He is God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all fully God, even though they are three distinct Persons. This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is the only reality that you could put ahead of the person of Jesus Christ in terms of centrality and importance in our Faith.
So, Jesus is God. But if he is God, then surely he could not be man, too, some early thinkers thought. The earliest heresies the Church had to address were called Gnostic Docetism which denied his humanity. However, as the Gospel of John puts it, the Word was "made flesh". This means he took on a human body. The Word did not stop being God when he was made flesh; he simply took on flesh. In doing so, however, he remained the Second Person of the Trinity.
However, after those very early days, the heresies dealt more with denying Our Lord's divinity rather than his humanity. The council of Antioch dealt with a prominent bishop, Paul of Samosata, who taught that Jesus was born man, and was merely adopted by God as his Son. The Church reinforced that Jesus was Son of God by nature, not by adoption. The council of Nicea dealt with another prominent bishop, Arius, who said that the Son of God came from something else, was not of the same substance as the Father, and that there was a time when he (the Son) was not. Against that, the Church proclaimed that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, which means he always existed, and that He is consubstantial with the Father, meaning of the same substance as the Father. Later, another heresy came on the scene which claimed that Jesus Christ was a human person joined to the person of the Son of God. Against this, the Council of Ephesus taught that Christ is a divine person; in this one person, the Word united himself to a flesh. Later, a group known as the Monophysites said that the human nature of Christ ceased to exist when the person of the Son of God assumed it. In response, the Council of Chalcedon confessed that in the one person of the Son of God, there are two natures, one human and one divine. They come together in one person, but each remain intact. A later council (Constantinople) had to affirm that this human nature is not its own subject, but is subject to the divine person, which means it is subject to the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the sufferings we spoke of in the last post, were of God. We can say God suffered. We can say the Second Person of God suffered and experienced death. Later heresies arose, and the Church wound up confessing the following as a result: the Son of God has a human, rational soul, true human knowledge, a human will, and a true body. However, the human knowledge was united with the Word, and could know all as a result. Also, his human will always submits to his divine one.
So what does all this mean for us?
As a man, Christ, in every way, can understand and feel what we go through. He is a full man in every sense of the word, in fact he is a perfect man. He loves fully, He lives fully, understanding all the highs and lows of life, and everything in between. We can relate to him.
He is also God. He knows and understands all; past, present, and future. He knows what heaven is like, and what we need to get there, and he provides it. He has the supernatural resources we need to be victorious in our struggle against sin and death.
It is not important that we become Christology experts. However, in reviewing ever so briefly the history of the Christological debates, we see how much time was spent in centuries, and this means that this Jesus was one special and unique man. Since he is so special and unique, would it not be good for humanity to sit down at his feet and listen to Him? He can tell and show us how to be better humans. And that is not all. In addition to showing us how to be better people, He reveals who God is. What more could the human race need or want at this time?
Joseph probably didn't know, or couldn't say verbally, that his son was the Second Person of the Trinity. However, he definitely saw and knew that Jesus was a human with flesh, and that He was not of this world, so he knew also that despite him being human, he originated from the divine. Joseph knew Jesus was human and divine. May we follow in Joseph's footsteps, and have the humility to come to know Our Lord as He truly is, fully God and fully man.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment