Theological Tidbits

What kind of knowledge did the Person of Christ possess? In His divine nature, Christ possesses the knowledge of God because He is God the Son. However, in speaking of Christ’s knowledge as a man, two extremes are to be avoided. One extreme holds that Christ possesses all divine knowledge in His human intellect. This is something that is not possible for a limited, human intellect. The other extreme holds that in His humanity while He was on earth, Christ did not see God as the saints see God in heaven—i.e., that Christ did not enjoy the beatific vision. In reality, Christ did experience the beatific vision. As a man, Christ must have possessed self-knowledge. Christ is the second Person of the blessed Trinity. In order for Christ’s human intellect to possess self-knowledge, Christ’s human intellect had to possess the most comprehensive knowledge of the second Person of the blessed Trinity as possible. Such knowledge of God is only possible for human intellects through the beatific vision—i.e., by seeing God face to face. Thus, Christ’s human intellect must have enjoyed the beatific vision on earth.

As God the Son, Christ is united to the divine nature. He has the divine intellect and the divine will. In time, God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, assumed a human nature. However, there is no confusion of the divine and human natures in Christ. Each nature remains what it is in itself—but both are united in Jesus, true God and true man, the second Person of the Trinity. Even though there are two minds and two wills in Christ, there is only one Person. Every other person, divine, human or angelic, possesses only one mind and one will. It is possible for God the Son—or for either one of the other two trinitarian Persons if either had become man—to possess two minds and two wills—and still be one Person because He is God. Only a divine Person is capable of expressing Himself—i.e., His Person, in and through more than one nature. Human and angelic persons are too weak—as compared to God—to express themselves in and through more than one nature. Thus, “‘By the power of the Holy Spirit’ the mystery of the ‘hypostatic union’ is brought about, that is, the union of the divine and the human nature, of the divinity and the humanity in the one Person of the Word-Son’” (Pope St. John Paul II).

Since Christ was fully human, He also possessed the spiritual powers of a man—i.e., a human intellect and a human will. How do we know that Christ had a human will? Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane reveals His human will. Clearly, at that moment, there was a struggle within Christ. The outcome was never in doubt. However, “He expresses all the psychological truth of His human nature which shudders at the prospect of suffering and death” (Pope St. John Paul II). In other words, within Christ there was a conflict. Christ was debating with Himself. Such a conflict or debate could not have existed if Christ were only God—i.e., if He only had a divine will. Such a conflict presumes a human nature with a human will. Knowing what He was about to suffer, Christ experienced an incredible fear. Fear, welling up within His humanity, caused His human will to debate with itself. The words are memorable: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will, but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). Thus, through His body—i.e., through the words He spoke, Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity made man, reveals that He possesses the spiritual powers that we, as persons, possess, namely, the powers of human intellect and human will. These powers demonstrate that Christ possessed a human soul. Therefore, His humanity was complete: body and soul.

Since Christ was fully human, He also possessed the spiritual powers of a man—i.e., a human intellect and a human will. How do we know that Christ had an intellect? Christ was known as a teacher. A teacher teaches what is unknown by using what is known. E.g., a math teacher often teaches that 1 + 1 = 2 by using some experiences familiar to the students: one apple plus one apple makes two apples. Further, the teacher almost always takes the familiar experience and manipulates it slightly so that it will convey the principle of the less. This manipulation of common human experiences as teaching tools is a function of a human intellect. Obviously, when Christ lived in Palestine, He constantly manipulated the common human experiences of the Jewish people and of their neighbors to teach God’s revelation. The parables—e.g., the Sower, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son, clearly reveal common experiences that become in the hands of the master teacher incredibly fruitful educational tools. Amazingly, not only have these parables proven effective for the people of the time of Christ—but they still convey to us the truths of God’s revelation. Clearly, Christ, as the master teacher, had to have a human intellect. He Himself is a witness to His intellectual faculty. He told His disciples the evening before He died, “You call Me teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am” (Jn 13:13).

Those who do not correctly answer the question of Christ “Who do you say that I am?” remain in a state of confusion. Peter, with the help of the Father, was the first one to answer Christ’s question correctly when he said to the man standing before him in the district of Caesarea Philippi, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). In other words, Peter was affirming that Christ was both human and divine. On the other hand, Arianism, Monophysitism, and Nestorianism all provided wrong answers to the question of Christ. The content of Peter’s answer must be repeated for each age in a language appropriate to that era so that all would come to know Christ. This service is rendered by Peter’s successors. Therefore, every Pope since St. Peter has been responsible for answering correctly the question posed by Christ to the first Pope. The Popes have confirmed who Christ is—and thereby they have confirmed who we are. They do this as a service to humanity as Peter did it in service to the Apostles and to the early Church.

The Popes have always taught that God the Son assumed a perfect human nature. Christ’s humanity is absolutely perfect because it is united to the second Person of the blessed Trinity (GS, 22). Even the human nature of Adam and Eve before sin was not as perfect as Christ’s. God could not have made our first parents with human nature as perfect as Christ’s because Christ’s human nature belongs to God Himself. In Christ, the divine Person determined the absolute perfection of His human nature. The fact that Christ had a real human body hardly needs substantiation. St. John says it best when he writes in the prologue of his Gospel, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory” (Jn 1:14). Christ’s human body was without flaw. Nothing less would have been worthy of God. In and through His body—His “flesh”, Christ manifests His divine Person—e.g., He—God the Son—worked with human hands. Thus, when He worked with His hands, He manifested or expressed His divine Person in and through His body.

“The central nucleus of the Christian faith is constituted by the twofold truth that Jesus Christ is Son of God and son of man, and that God the Father brought about the salvation of man in Him, His Son and Savior of the world” (Pope St. John Paul II).

Any answer to Christ’s question, “Who do you say that I am?” must include the teaching of the Council of Chalcedon—which proclaimed that “one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son, must be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion or change, without division or separation.” In other words, in Christ there is one divine Person—i.e., God the Son, Who unites in Himself a human nature and a divine nature. As man and God, Christ “fully reveals man to himself” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 22). Christ reveals man’s identity, proper activity and God’s bodily expression of His love. In addition, as God and man, Christ is our reconciliation with the Father, dissolving the alienation between God and man and reforging the link of love that joins the two together: “He it was, and He alone, Who satisfied the Father’s eternal love” (Pope St. John Paul II).