Theological Tidbits

If Christ were not God and man, we would not be able to experience God—our prototype—in human form, we would not be able to see who God is, to see how He acts or to see the One we should love. Consequently, we would not know our identity, our proper activity or the fact that we are to love God through a mutual bodily exchange of love and that we are to love others by using things for their benefit. Further, only the divine Son could definitively love us, His Father and the Holy Spirit. Thus, if Christ is not God and man, then original sin and its effects remain—and the friendship between God and man, broken by original sin, is not restored. With the same breath that we proclaim Christ’s divinity, we must proclaim His humanity.

God the Son became man to love us, His Father and the Holy Spirit. Obviously, in Christ we see an act of God’s love. God the Son also became man to reveal Himself—i.e., the Wisdom of God. God’s wisdom is revealed in every act of Christ. However, the divine wisdom is most especially manifested in Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. Further, Christ’s life is not only an act of divine love and the most complete manifestation of God’s wisdom, it is also an act of divine power. The power of God can be seen in the union of the two natures in the one divine Person. The power of God is also obviously present in the miracles of Christ. In the incarnation and the redemption, the Trinity—Power, Wisdom and Love—act as one principle.

God did not have to become man. But He freely chose to become man at the same moment that He freely chose to create man. God’s choice to create man was simultaneously a choice to become man—so great was His love for us.

God’s act of creating man and woman in His image and likeness was completed in and through the incarnation. The God-man brought God’s act of creation to completion by revealing man’s identity—man’s proper activity—which was to love God through a mutual, bodily exchange of love and to love others by using things for their benefit: “Creation is thus completed by the incarnation” (Pope St. John Paul II). God willed the incarnation at the same time that He willed creation.

The incarnation revealed human beings to themselves by showing human beings their proper identity; by showing human beings their proper activity; by showing human beings how to love God in and through a human body and how to love others by using things for their benefit.

Christ revealed who we are as human images of God. Even without original sin, all men and women, as images of God, need to know the God-man to know fully their identity, proper activity and to know that they should love God through a mutual bodily exchange of love and love others by using things for the sake of people. As images of God, we do not know ourselves unless we know God. Further, since we are made like God, we are called to act like Him. However, we cannot act like Him unless we know how He acts. In addition, since human persons are enfleshed spirits, they love in their unified totality, body and soul: “Love includes the human body, and the body is made a sharer in spiritual love” (Pope St. John Paul II). It seemed even at the dawn of creation that human beings were called to love God in and through their bodies. However, only in Christ was man’s suspicion about himself definitively confirmed. Finally, Christ confirms that we are to love others by exercising a dominion over things for the sake of people (Gen 1:26).

Although the angels are images of God, God did not need to become an angel for them to know their identity and proper activity. The angels are pure spirits as God is pure spirit. Thus, the angels are able to relate to God solely on the spiritual level. By relating to God as spirits to spirit, they experience their prototype according to their own nature and thus they can know themselves as spirits. Human beings, however, are both spirit and body. In order for them to experience God and thus come to know themselves, they must see God as spirit and body. In other words, they need to see Him enfleshed. Knowing this, and loving humanity with an everlasting love, God gave Himself to us in a bodily form to allow us to know ourselves and our proper activity and to reveal that we are to love God through a mutual bodily exchange of love.

By returning God’s love for man through the cross, Christ filled the spiritual space between God and man with love. In Christ’s suffering, “sins are canceled out precisely because He alone as the only-begotten Son could take them upon Himself, accept them with that love for the Father which overcomes the evil of every sin; in a certain sense He annihilates this evil in the spiritual space of the relationship between God and humanity, and fills this space with good” (Pope St. John Paul II). The love of God offered to us is the divine life—i.e., grace. This life overcomes original sin’s most damaging effects to the human person. Further, the grace of God allows us to live the very life of God here on earth and most gloriously in heaven. Thus, through Christ’s cross, original sin and some of its effects were overcome. Therefore, on the cross, Christ loved us mercifully by eliminating original sin and its most serious effects, and by drawing us close to God—i.e., reviving the friendship between man and God. Through the God-man, the ancient model of God’s mercy, established in the Old Testament, is renewed but infinitely surpassed. Through Christ, God’s merciful love for us is extended even to original sin and its effects.

Further, through His passion and death, Christ not only loved us but He even loved His Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ undid the rejection of God’s love by Adam and Eve. In other words, He eliminated the effects of sin. Further, Christ, as God-perfect man, made a perfect response to God’s love and thus drew us closer to God. Thus, He drew from the evil of sin a greater good, a perfect human response to God’s love. By eliminating the effects of sin and drawing us close to God, Christ even loved the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the Old Testament, God gradually prepared His people for Christ. God eliminated some of the effects of His people’s sins, and the gratitude of the people to God drew them closer to Him. In other words, God drew good from evil. He loved the people of the Old Testament mercifully. However, God’s promise of mercy was completely fulfilled only in the God-man, Jesus Christ. In and through Jesus Christ, God’s merciful love drew good from the evil of original sin and its effects. Original sin and its most damaging effects—i.e., darkening of the mind, weakening of the will, lack of integration in the body—were overcome only in Christ.

In order to redeem us, God “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7). Through the redemption, Christ satisfied God’s love for man, the love that was left unreturned by Adam and Eve when they sinned. Thus, through Christ, the friendship between God and man, put to death by original sin, was revived. As God, Christ was capable of responding to the divine love. In His humanity, Christ made a human response to the divine love—i.e., He committed His entire self to God. In other words, He acted as a priest. A priest is one who commits his entire self to God. As a priest—an office He possessed in His human nature, Christ loved. Christ loved the Father and the Holy Spirit as all human beings should. In other words, Christ loved the Father and the Holy Spirit as Adam and Eve should have.

God’s divine mercy as expressed throughout the Old Testament revealed some aspects of merciful love. In this way, divine providence prepared the way for Christ, the ultimate revelation of God’s mercy. Christ is the ultimate penetration of divine providence into the world—i.e., into the evil caused by the sins of all people. God’s mercy as revealed in the God-man saves us from original sin and its worst effects. As in the case of the people of the Old Testament, we are grateful to God because He saved us from sin and its worst effects. However, in and through Christ, we, unlike the people of the Old Testament, are enabled to respond properly to God’s expression of love. The Old Testament pattern of God’s mercy is followed—but it is infinitely transcended. The Church even refers to the first sin as a felix culpa, a happy fault, because God drew incalculable good from the evil of that first sin. See the “Exultet, Easter Proclamation.”

Thus, God does not abandon us. He takes care of us. He provides for us. His providence extends to becoming one of us so that He can be our friend and we can be His friends. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (Jn 3:16). His mercy is not in vain and His judgment that man is indeed “very good” (Gen 1:31) continues.

Beginning with creation, God continually offered His love to His people. There needed to be a human response to this divine love. However, Adam and Eve both rejected God’s love. The people of the Old Testament, afflicted with the effects of original sin, were incapable of responding to God’s love. Of course, God had the capability of responding to His own love—but God wished a human response. God found a solution: Jesus Christ, the God-man Who redeems all people. As God, Christ responds to the Father’s love. As man, Christ offers the Father a human response. In offering man’s response to the Father, Christ includes all people. God did not send His Son earlier because man was not yet ready to participate in Christ’s response to the Father.