Part III. The mystery of the incarnation and the personality of the savior

THE INTERIOR LIFE AND THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

"For to me, to live is Christ."

IN ORDER first of all to understand the importance of the mystery of Christ for each one of us at every stage of our interior life, even the lowest, let us inquire what is meant by the interior life in the more general meaning of the term, and then in the more specific and deeper sense.

The Intimate Conversation of Every Man with Himself and the Basic Tendencies of the Will

The words "interior life" at once call forth a mental picture of a state of relatively profound recollection that may seem inaccessible to most of us who live in the world, engrossed in our affairs from which at times we seek recreation in amusements of one sort or another. This commonplace impression contains both truth and error. The interior life, as its name indicates, presupposes a certain recollection in God, but this recollection is not as out of reach as may at first appear.

Every man, whether good or evil, holds a more or less serious conversation with himself at certain hours of the day whenever he is alone and often enough even amid the throngs of a bustling city. ( )n his way home from work in the streetcar a laborer, when he is not joking or talking with his fellow workers, may appear pensive: he is holding an interior conversation with himself. What is he thinking of? Perhaps that within a week he will be out of a job. How, then, will he provide for his wife and his children? The tenor of his a interior conversation varies with his age. When he is young, he thinks of the future. When he is old, he carries within himself the accumulated experience of some sixty years which tends to be translated into an over-all judgment on life; and this judgment will vary widely, depending on whether a man's life has been good or bad and on whether he is or is not a Christian. ,

The interior life is an elevated form of the interior conversation of every man, when this conversation becomes or tends to become a conversation with God. . , 1C ,

In this intimate discourse which each man has with himself, the life of the senses, of the imagination, of the sense memory, and or the emotions all take part, as is the case with animals. In addition, there is participation by the mind, the intelligence, which passes judgment on life. There is also a more or less latent act of the will, which is created to love and to desire what is good. In this interior state there is a fundamental love, a basic tendency of the will, that differs widely among men.¹

A man will judge differently about the ultimate goal to be pursued, according as the basic tendency of his will is or is not rectified, good or evil. 2 All men seek happiness. Some seek it where it is to be found, in the true good; others seek it where it is not, in satisfying their sensuality or their pride.

Many persons, without being willing to admit it, love themselves above all else, and more or less consciously make everything converge upon themselves as if they were the center of the universe. Along with this self-love, and as it were on the side, they also have a somewhat ineffectual love for their family or their country. Such men do not have an interior life, for their interior conversation with them-

Cf. ibid.. Vol. I, Introduction, pp. 79 - * Zl . . , , . . /p./,;,, -ou tit i St. Thomas often state, this principle in the form g.ven .t by Anstotle (ElJ, , Bk Til chap 5) : Depending on whether a man is virtuou, or not, he w, judge d.fferen y a, to I estimate goal to be pursued, for according to his intcnor ^on ^c tr good L«, ,o him a, fitting or not .0. Cf. St. Thomas, la Ilae, q.9, a.*, la llae, q.58, ..5. •ml Cnjemn'i commentary on the latter passage. amiuA elie- lS principle, .he portion of truth in the philosophy of act.on, we have .tressed else- where: U ritliw,, J» t>»» 'P •'' />""'"'- 61 selves is of death rather than of life. Instead of elevating them, it lowers them.

According to the Gospel, these souls are in a state of spiritual death or of mortal sin. The basic tendency of their will is turned away from the true good, away from the Sovereign Good which is the principle of all others. What they are really seeking is not truth and the true good of man, of their family, of their children, of their country. On the contrary, they are seeking perpetual pleasure and the money needed to procure it. According to Christian philosophy they live by the quest of pleasurable good and of the useful, without rising to really desire moral good conceived by right reason as the object of virtue.

Their fundamental will is directed toward death, not toward life. They have no interior life. What they discover deep within themselves is death; and hence they seek to escape from themselves, to externalize themselves in study, in science, in art, or in social and political activity, or to live by their imagination and their senses and thus forget their sad evaluation of life which would lead them to discouragement and pessimism.

In this regard Pascal says that the man who would escape from himself by taking up hunting, for instance, prefers the pursuit of the hare to the hare, and in a more elevated order of activity prefers the search for truth to truth itself. He is ever in need of something new. This is the reverse of changeless contemplation of attained truth. Such a man seeks to escape from himself to avoid boredom, emptiness, discouragement. But sometimes the hour of discouragement ran become by the grace of God the moment of conversion. This has happened many times: a despairing man about to seek death remem- I h i s the name of God, invokes it, and, perceiving the grandeur of the mystery of Christ and of our Redemption, is converted and thencef' >rt h gives himself wholly to the service of God and to the salvation of souls.

On a lower level and without going that far, souls in the state of mortal sin may at moments entertain some such noble thoughts as these: "Honor is the poetry of duty"; "a beautiful life is a thought of youth realized in maturity." Sometimes an actual grace may il- luminate one of these noble maxims and lead souls to seek higher

• When the basic tendencies of a man's will are directed toward the moral good, the object of virtue, when this man desires the good itself or duty, efficaciously and not merely as a fancy, more than he desires pleasure and what is useful to obtain it, then it can be said of him that he already has an interior life. If such are the basic tendencies of his will, then the interior conversation that he holds with himself in hours of solitude or in crowded streets is a conversation that is directed toward life. In reality this man who genuinely and efficaciously loves the good more than himself is beginning to converse interiorly with God and no longer with himself.

St Thomas 3 says that when a child, even one who has not been baptized, attains to the full age of reason, he must choose the path of goodness and duty in preference to the path of pleasure. He must efficaciously desire the true good and from that instant on orient his entire life toward it. For one wishes the end, even if it is only dimly understood, before wishing the means. But to desire efficaciously the true good more than self is already to love more than oneself the bovereign Good, God, the Author of our nature. Fallen man is not capable of such an efficacious love without being regenerated through grace, which cures him of original sin. That is why St. Thomas does not hesitate to teach that a child-even one who has not been baptized— who after he has reached the full age of reason efficaciously loves the good more than self, is justified by the baptism of desire, because this love, which is already the efficacious love of God, is not possible to man in his present state without regenerative grace.*

Doubtless if this child is not in a Christian environment he will find it most difficult to persevere; but if he does persevere, he will receive ever richer graces and will be saved. In a Christian environment he will naturally receive much more help. That is why it is such a great grace to have been born in the Church. •

We cannot overemphasize this point: the moment the fundamental will of a man is efficaciously directed toward the true good the man is justified, he is in the state of grace, he possesses within himself the

seed of eternal life. He already has a certain interior life which is truly alive, even if it is not yet as recollected as might be desirable.

The man who has persevered in the state of grace for a considerable time comes to have especially in moments of solitude, in the silence of a church, or in the midst of a crowd, an interior conversation with himself which is no longer one of egoism and self-love, but which is already in its own way a conversation with God.

As we ride in a crowded bus of an evening we can sometimes, even without having the gift of the discernment of spirits, recognize those men and women who have gone astray in misconduct and are the despair of their families — if they have any — and those who on the contrary live by the thought of the good and gropingly by the thought of God, by a faith that may indeed need to be enlightened but that is nevertheless the pupil of their mind's eye. These persons offer up a short prayer from time to time; and when they are not praying, their interior conversation does not separate them from God. They are the living proofs of the truth of Christ's consoling words to His apostles: "For he that is not against you, is for you." B Often they seem happy to meet a priest and sometimes ask him to pray for them and for their families.

They are good at heart. God is hidden in the depth of their hearts, and He draws them to Himself by lights and graces proportioned to i heir condition. In their own way these men are treading the path toward eternal life. Are there many of them of an evening in a crowded bus? God knows who they are. In any case we should remember that it is never by chance that two spiritual and immortal souls meet, wherever it may be, in a train or elsewhere, especially if one of them tl ifl the state of grace, even more so if one is very closely united to God Ind can through prayer call down on the other the light of life.

What has just been said gives us a distant glimpse of the interior life, what it must become in a truly Christian soul that is destined to tend ever more rapidly toward God. As a stone falls faster when approaching the earth that attracts it, so must souls tend more rapidly inward God in the measure that they come closer to Him and that He draws them to Himself with increasing force. Their fundamental will

must tend with ever-increasing efficacy toward God. They must therefore, especially in moments of solitude whether in a church or in a crowded street, converse ever more intimately, not in a selfish manner with themselves, but generously with God who dwells within them.

Their fundamental will thus rectified and supernaturalized must be more and more victorious over selfishness in all its forms. They must reach out beyond themselves, and instead of seeking to relate everything to themselves they must try to relate everything to God. Their fundamental will must become zeal for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. Then they will have an interior life that is truly fruitful for themselves and for their neighbor.

Clearly, the interior life is all that really matters for each one of us. It is much more indispensable than what we speak of as the intellectual life. For without a true interior life man is the prey to selfishness and pride and can have no wholesome, lasting, and profound influence on society.

This true interior life is realized in its fullness by the saints, but especially by the Saint par excellence, our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the necessity of reflecting, and reflecting with love, upon the interior life of Jesus and of not being contented with knowing Him from the outside in a purely historical manner, as the speculative theologian may do when he does not strive hard enough to live what he teaches.

What Christ Must Be to Us

The need of reflecting on the interior life of the Savior is particularly great in the present period of general confusion, when individuals and entire peoples misunderstand the ultimate end of human life and forget the profound difference between perishable, material goods and immutable, spiritual goods. Material goods divide us in the measure that we eagerly seek them ; for they cannot belong at one and the same time to everyone as a whole and to each one in particular. A given house and lot cannot belong integrally and simultaneously to several men any more than the same territory can belong to several nations. On the other hand, as St. Thomas, following St. Augustine, 9 has

•Cf. Si. Thomiu, 1» Uac, q.*8, ».4 »'!>» '"». I 1 *' »• 1 » d J« often remarked: spiritual goods can belong at the same time and in plenitude to all and to each ; and they unite us the more in the measure that we seek them. Thus, each one of us can live by the same truth, by the same virtue, by the same God, by the same Christ our Savior.

Every Christian should ultimately be able to say, as did St. Paul: "To me, to live is Christ." T

As St. Thomas remarks in explaining these words, 8 a man's life is what interests him most. It is by living that his faculties reach fulfillment. It is to life that his existence is dedicated. For example, the Angelic Doctor adds, for some, to live is to hunt} for others, it is study, intellectual activity; for others still, to live consists in exterior activity. For a soldier, to live is to engage in military service. Finally, to the Christian, to live — once he has become fully conscious of the grandeur of his destiny — is Christ. This is particularly true of the priest, the apostle, whose mission it is to reveal to others the mystery of Christ.

Indeed, it is not enough for us to understand Christ's message. We must also put it into practice. Jesus Himself has told us in the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount: "Everyone therefore that heareth these My words and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not for it was founded on a rock. And everyone that heareth these My words mil doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof." 9

In his commentary on St. Matthew, St. Thomas remarks: The rock pa which we must build signifies Christ Himself: as St. Paul tells us, I he spiritual rock is Christ. 10 . . . But there are those who listen to Christ's message only in order to know it (without putting it into practice) j they build on the intelligence only, and that is to build upon the s;md. . . . Others listen to His message in order to put it into pnu rice and to love God and their neighbor; these build on rock . . .

and they can ask with St. Paul: 'Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?'" 11

These words, written by a man of learning like St. 1 nomas, are significant. 12 For to St. Thomas, to live was not only to study. To live was Christ, to whom he had consecrated all his labors and his entire

Certainly, both intellectual and exterior activity are necessary. But the Christian must love his work not only for the natural satisfaction and the profit he derives from it, but for Christ who must be known and loved, "that a man may live not to himself, but to God." In this way his powers are increased tenfold, even a hundredfold He is no longer giving only himself, he is giving Christ for the salvation of

80 To live more and more by Christ we must die to ourselves, that is, to the life of egoism, sensuality, and pride. "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." We must stop making ourselves the center of existence, and unconsciously relating everything to ourselves. On the contrary, we must relate everything to God. This is the precious fruit of the spirit of sacrifice, which progressively causes to die within us all that is disorderly. The spirit of sacrifice gives us peace and the tranquillity of order by making us give first place in our souls to charity, to the love of God and of souls, a love that is ultimately victorious over all egoism and all disorderly love of self . _ ' As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, man since his fall is inclined consciously or unconsciously to relate everything to himself, to think continually of himself, and to love himself in prefer-

»St°Tho^'s' own words are a, follow, (/« MaUhaeun, y :,6) : "Fundamentum est illud super q uod ponit aliqui, intentionem suam. Quidam en.m aud.unt - ^ aedificant super intellect: et haec est aed.ficat.o super arenam Qu da ™ * utem audi, ut faciat et diligat, et hie aedificat super petram, qu.a super 5«mnp « JgW* • • Istud enim fundamentum est super caritatem. Qu.s nos separab.t a cantate CI St.?

M St. Thomas, Ba Hae, Mft a. 6 ad 3 . In his commentary on the Ep.stle o the Ga a tian. St. Thomas also says: "Homo quantum ad illud d.c.tur v.vere, m quo pnn- ch 'liter n'ru,a, .uum affectum, et in quo maxime delectatur Unde et hommes , qu, , m stucho eu in venationibu. maxime delec.antur, dicunt hoc eorum vi.am esse: qu.l.bct autem homo babtl QUI m prWuviVit quwren. tan.um quod .uum est .oh «.b. v.v. t. . • . Cum vero q unci, bona aliorum, .liri.ur e.iam illi. vivere." In th.a Kiue St. Paul could truly lay: "For me, to live i. Chrlit."

ence to all else. If, however, he listens to Christ's message and puts it into practice, the day will come when, instead of thinking continually of himself and of relating everything to himself, he will live by Christ, and through Him he will think almost always of God, the Supreme Truth and Goodness, and he will relate everything to Him. Then will the fundamental will of his soul be truly rectified and supernaturalized; his interior life will be founded in the image of God's, in whom the Word, the expression of the thought of the Father, produces Love by spiration and makes all things converge toward the Supreme Good.

It is from this point of view that we must meditate upon St. Thomas' treatise on the Incarnation. When, during the last days of his life, the saintly doctor was so absorbed in superior contemplation that he could no longer dictate the last pages of his Summa, he thought that the mysteries hidden in Christ are inexhaustible and that the doctors had discovered only a minute portion of them.

St. John of the Cross tells us the same thing in the Spiritual Canticle, 1 * in which he calls these mysteries "caverns" to symbolize their unfathomable depth. May the Lord deign to give us a deep and keen understanding of these mysteries so that we may the better see the radiation of His goodness.

JESUS, THE SON OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS

F' WE would fathom the interior life of our Lord, we must first hear the testimony He has given of Himself, of His divine sonship, and of His mission as Redeemer. . >

We shall begin by examining this testimony as it is presented in the first three Gospels, written between a.d. 50 and a.d. 70 Next we shall observe in the Acts of the Apostles, composed around a.d. 63- 64. how St Peter in his first sermons proclaimed Jesus to be the bon of God. In the third place we shall note St. Paul's testimony on the divinity of Christ as expressed in the first epistles, written between 4 8 and 59. Finally we shall study on this point the Gospel of St. John, written between a.d. 80 and a.d. 100 precisely to defend Christ's divinity against the denials of the first heretics.

The historical study of the Gospels has its use, especially from the point of view of apologetics, as a means of enlightening unbelievers and of answering their objections. However, such a study is not altogether indispensable. For, even if primitive documents were lost the living tradition and the living magisterium of the Church would suffice. This oral tradition preceded Scripture, and through it m the first place the word of God was transmitted by our Lord and by the

^ Weluiow that many liberal Protestants, and after them the modernists, have maintained that the divinity of Jesus is not expressed in the Gospels, but that it is a dogma deduced by Christian thought from the notion of the Messiah. 1 They further hold that in all the Gospel texts the name "Son of God" is equivalent only to "Messiah and docs not signify that Jesus is in reality and by nature the Son of God.

JESUS IN THE SYNOPTICS I3

Several rationalists, among them Renan, B. Weiss, H. Wendt, and A. Harnack, have recognized in Christ a certain divine sonship superior to Messiahship. Yet they deny that by reason of this sonship Jesus is truly God. Renan, concluding his Life of Jesus, writes: "Rest now in thy glory, noble pioneer! Thy work is done; thy divinity founded. . . . Henceforth, beyond frailty, thou shalt behold from the heights of divine peace the infinite results of thy acts. . . . Between thee and God men will no longer distinguish." a

A little further on, Renan adds: "In order to make himself adored to this degree, he must have been adorable. . . . The faith, the enthusiasm, the constancy of the first Christian generation is not explicable, except by supposing, at the origin of the whole movement, a man of surpassing greatness. 8 . . . This sublime person, who each day still presides over the destiny of the world, we may call divine, not in the sense that Jesus has absorbed all the divine, or has been adequate to it (to employ the expression of the schoolmen), but in the sense that Jesus is the one who caused his fellow-men to make the greatest step toward the divine." 4

Among conservative Protestants, F. Godet in Switzerland, Stevens, ( ■m e, Ottley, and Sanday in England have in recent years defended I he divinity of Jesus as expressed not only in the Fourth Gospel and in the epistles of St. Paul but in the Synoptics as well. 8

To rightly understand the testimony of the Gospels, we must remember that they contain over fifty passages in which Jesus is called i he "Son of God." It is important also that we grasp the sense in which these words, "Son of God," must be taken.

In Scripture the word "son" is used with reference to another man cither in the strict sense to denote one who is born of another, or in the broader sense to designate a disciple or an adopted heir. Likewise the word "son" is used with respect to God, either in the broad sense that Christians are the children of God and live by His Spirit, or in the si rict and exact sense reserved to the Second Person of the Blessed

" Knicji Renan, The Life of Jesus (Everyman's Library, 1934), p. 227. J Ibid,, pp. a 3 7 * *lbid., p. 243.

" B« ilu- tcceunt of their teaching in Rev. Marius Lepin's work, Jesus Messie it Fits de Oitu, p. > > 7.

I4 OUR SAVIOR

Trinity, who in the Prologue of St. John's Gospel, is called "the onlybegotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father." 8 We shall see that even in the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is called the Son of God in the strict and exact and most elevated sense, inasmuch as He has declared that He not only participates in the divine nature through grace, as we do, but that He possesses the divine nature with all its properties and rights.

Jesus' Reserve in Manifesting His Divinity

It should be noted that Jesus manifested His divine sonship only by degrees. More important still, when in Caesarea St. Peter said to our Lord in the name of the apostles: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," St. Matthew reports: "Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ." 7 Likewise one day when He was casting out unclean spirits, the latter cried out: "Thou art the Son of God," and St. Mark tells us: "He strictly charged them that they should not make Him known." 8 Again, after the Transfiguration, our Lord said to the three apostles whom He had taken with Him to Thabor: "Tell the vision to no man." 9

Why this reserve? Because men's souls were not yet prepared to receive such an exalted revelation and they could not have borne it. In fact, Jesus saw that many Jews understood the prophecies only in a material sense, that they were awaiting a temporal Messiah who would restore the kingdom of Israel and set them over the other peoples. Thus, if from the start of His ministry Jesus had declared Himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God, He would have aroused a wholly exterior enthusiasm in this throng which craved wonders and earthly prosperity, and the true meaning of His words would have been lost. Even at the end of His ministry Jesus said to the apostles: "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now." 10 The sublime truth of the mystery of the Incarnation had to be unveiled slowly in the subdued light of the parables, so that little

JESUS IN THE SYNOPTICS i 5 by little souls might grow and become capable of hearing the divine message.

We have here an example of Christ's humility: although He had infinite treasures of light, love, and power, He remained hidden, never seeking to astonish or arouse admiration. He wished to save souls by working secretly deep within men's hearts. Far from declaring His divine sonship, as He did at the end of His ministry before His death, He at first tended to conceal it so that those whom He wished to enlighten and mold would not be dazzled or blinded by a light that was too powerful. He disposed them progressively to receive greater light. How totally differently are His ways from those of false wonder-workers who would astound and deceive! There is a great lesson here for us: souls must be taught the truth gradually, as much of it as they can bear at a time.

But Christ's testimony, very reserved at first, became more and more articulate until, during the last days of His ministry, it became clear and luminous to all who had ears to hear.

As recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus first manifested His divinity by claiming certain privileges, and He then affirmed with ever-increasing clarity that He was the Son of God. Let us follow I his ascending progression, for it is the accomplishment of all the Old Testament prophecies, the fullness of revelation bearing the authentic mark of God's works, fortiter et suaviter, power and gentleness.

The Divine Rights Claimed by Jesus

Jesus has claimed seven major privileges that can belong to God llone.

According to St. Matthew and St. Mark, Jesus proclaimed Himself to be greater than the prophet Jonas, greater than Solomon, 11 greater than David, who called Him his Lord in Psalm 109: "The I .ord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thy Inemies Thy foolstool." With respect to this prophecy Jesus said to Hie Pharisees: "If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?"

St. Matthew adds: "And no man was able to answer Him a word." 1J Jesus has also shown Himself to be greater than Moses and Elias, who appeared at His side at the Transfiguration. 18 He is greater than John the Baptist, as we see by His answer to the precursor's disciples who had been sent to ask Him: "Art Thou He that art to come, or look we for another?" 14

He stands forth even greater than the angels, for we find in St. Mark 15 and in St. Matthew 16 that, after His victory over Satan, "the angels ministered to Him." And He Himself said: "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels: and then will He render to every man according to his works." 17 "And He shall send His angels ... and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them." 18 Neither Isaias nor any other prophet ever spoke of sending his angels.

Now, He who is superior to all the prophets and to the angels is superior to all creatures.

Moreover, Jesus demands with regard to Himself faith, obedience, and love, even to the abnegation of all contrary affections and to the sacrifice of one's life. In foretelling the persecutions of the first three centuries, He said: "A man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it." 19

Jesus knew, when He spoke thus to His apostles, that they would suffer martyrdom. These words, which were to be fulfilled especially during the persecutions, would bespeak intolerable arrogance if Jesus were not God. What prophet ever dared to say: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me"? As for the saints, the higher they rise the less they speak of themselves; their ego tends to be obliterated before God. How is it, then, that Jesus spoke with

such majesty of Himself, He who was so humble that He accepted the deepest humiliations for our salvation? Again, after the rich young man had refused His call to perfection, He said: "Amen I say to you, there is no man who hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My sake and for the gospel, who shall not receive a hundred times as much now in this time . . . with persecutions : and in the world to come life everlasting." 20 "He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth." 21

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Commentary on St. Matthew, 12:30, sees in these last words a manifestation of Christ's divinity. God alone, he remarks, is the final end toward which every man must tend, and that is why he who is not with God (who does not tend toward Him) is separated (or turned away) from Him. That is why Elias said: 22 "How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him." 28 But, St. Thomas continues, a mere man could not say: "He that is not with Me is against Me." While it is permissible to remain neutral or indifferent with regard to a man who is a man and no more, one cannot remain neutral or indifferent with respect to God, our final end. Therefore, since Jesus has spoken these words, it must mean that He is superior to all creatures.

About the very beginning of His ministry, Christ also declared in His Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake." 24 "For My sake" means to suffer persecution for justice' sake and for the noblest of all causes, an act that will be richly rewarded in heaven.

Jesus calls for obedience and perfect abnegation. He also speaks M 1 he supreme Lawgiver, equal to the Lawgiver of Sinai who gave Moses the ancient law for the chosen people. Since Christ came to complete this divine law and to purge from it the false interpretaii' his of the rabbis, He expressed Himself several times in the following manner: "You have heard it was said to them of old. . . . Hut I say to you. . . ." 28 Thus He forbade divorce, which Moses

had permitted only because of the hardness of the Israelites' hearts. 2 * He also proclaimed Himself "Lord of the Sabbath." 27

In addition, He performed miracles in His own name, using the form of a command. To the paralytic He said: "Arise, . . . and go into thy house." 28 He raised Jairus' daughter by saying to her: "Talitha cumi," that is to say: "Damsel (I say to thee), arise." 29 He also brought back to life the son of the widow of Nairn, saying to him: "Young man, I say to thee, arise." 80 He commanded the sea swollen by the storm: "Peace, be still." And St. Mark tells us, "the wind ceased j and there was made a great calm." 81 And they feared exceedingly: and they said to one another: "Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey Him?"

The apostles, on the contrary, performed miracles in the name of Jesus. 82 Peter said: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise, and walk. ... By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth . . . this man standeth here before you whole." 83

In addition, Jesus claims the power to remit sins, to make souls over, to fill them once again with divine life, a power which, the Pharisees recognized, can belong only to God. This calls to mind the scene described in St. Matthew: "And behold they brought to Him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then said He to the man sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house." 84 St. Matthew adds, "And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men."

Likewise He said: "Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you." 86 Beyond this, He claimed the right to communicate to others the power to remit sins: He said to His

apostles: "Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven." 86

Jesus has claimed not only the power to remit sins, but also the power of judging the living and the dead. He answered Caiphas: "And you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of God, and coming with the clouds of heaven." 87 "And He shall send His angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together His elect. . . ." 88

He also promised to send the Holy Ghost, saying to the disciples before the Ascension: "And I send the promise of My Father upon you: but stay you in the city, till you be endued with power from on high." 89 Therefore He is not inferior to the Holy Ghost whom He promised to send.

Finally, Jesus accepted adoration, 40 of which Peter, Paul, and Barnabas — and even the angels, in the Apocalypse — declared themselves unworthy. 41

Thus it is clear that Jesus, according to the Synoptic Gospels, claimed for Himself seven major privileges which can belong to God alone, namely:

1. He is superior to all creatures: greater than Jonas, than Solomon, than David, than Moses, than Elias, than John the Baptist; and He is superior to the angels, who are "His angels."

2. He demands with regard to Himself, faith, obedience, and love, even to the abnegation of any contrary affection and to the sacrifice of one's life.

3. He spoke as the supreme Lawgiver, in the Sermon on the Mount.

4. He performed miracles in His own name.

5. He claimed the power to remit sins and has conferred this power on others.

6. He claimed the power to judge the living and the dead of all human generations.

7. He promised to send the Holy Ghost, and His promise was accomplished on Pentecost.

Jesus can claim these rights and powers only if He is not merely God's envoy, the Messiah, but God Himself. He affirmed His Godhead only in a veiled manner in order to prepare souls little by little to receive a more explicit affirmation, which was to become increasingly clear and powerful up to the moment of His condemnation to death.

The Divine Sonship of Jesus according to the Synoptic Gospels

In the first three Gospels our Lord not only claims privileges and rights that belong to God alone, but on several occasions He declared that He is the Son of God in the strict and proper sense, which is totally different from the meaning of the term applicable to the souls of the just as a whole.

First of all He declared Himself to be the Son of God when speaking of the happiness in store for the humble who answer the divine call. In St. Matthew we read: "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me by My Father. [He does not say merely 'our Father,' as we do, but 'My Father.'] And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him." 42

These words are also recorded in St. Luke, 43 and the authenticity of this text is admitted not only by Catholic exegetes but by the majority of Protestant critics as well. What is here affirmed is the equality of the Father and the Son with regard to knowledge and cognoscibility: "No one knoweth the Son but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son." The Father is by nature unknowable, for He is beyond the reach of natural knowledge. The same is true of the Son. Yet they know each other perfectly. This equality in knowledge, as St. Thomas remarks, 44 presupposes consubstantiality,

JESUS IN THE SYNOPTICS *i or the possession of the same divine substance. In other words, it is the common substance of the Father and of the Son which is said to be unknowable inasmuch as it is beyond natural cognition. If no one knoweth the Son but the Father, it is because, like the Father, the Son is inaccessible to any created natural knowledge ; therefore, it is because He is God.

Loisy, among the Modernists, has conceded this traditional explanation of the text. He even goes on to remark that its meaning is substantially the same as the following words of St. John: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." 45 That these texts of St. John and St. Matthew are equal in sublimity, Loisy recognizes. Yet lie adds without any basis whatever, and against almost all other Critics including the liberal Protestants, that, while this affirmation is contained in St. Matthew and St. Luke, Jesus did not make it Himself, it having merely been attributed to Him by Christian tradition. 46

Jesus made a similar declaration in His response to Peter's confession at Caesarea: "Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed .11 1 t hou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven." 47

Some critics say that it cannot be proved historically that in this confession Peter affirmed anything more than the Messiahship. For Peter's words are reported by St. Mark (8:29) as: "Thou art the I Ihrist"} 48 and by St. Luke (9:20) as: "The Christ of God." 49 It is Wily St. Matthew who records the words: "Thou art Christ the Son 'il i he living God." As a matter of fact, on the basis of Peter's words ftlone it would be difficult to prove that they affirm anything beyond Die Messiahship. But we also have Jesus' answer: "Blessed art thou, Bimon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven." By these words Jesus showed that Peter had affirmed more than the Messiahship, for the signs of the

John i :i 8. Cf. Alfred Firmin Loisy, The Gosfel and the Church, trans, by Christopher 10,1903.

Against this opinion of Loisy's, cf. Father Lagrange, Revue biblique, April, 1903, p. L 1 ,il»o Lcpin, of. cit., p. 313. 4f Matt. 16:16. 4 «Mark8:i 9 . « Luke 9:10.

Messiahship had already been manifest since the beginning of the Savior's ministry, and several of the apostles had already recognized Him to be the Messiah. Thus Andrew, Philip, and Nathaniel 60 had already recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and for this reason followed Him.

Jesus had already clearly enumerated the signs of His Messiahship to the disciples of St. John the Baptist." Thus the Messiahship in itself did not require any such revelation as that spoken of by our Lord in His answer to Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven." These words are equivalent in meaning to the preceding text of St. Matthew: "And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father." 02 Therefore it can be said: If Peter could know only through the Father what he affirmed concerning Jesus, he must have affirmed His divine sonship. It does not, however, follow that Peter was given to know through faith at that moment the nature of this divine sonship as explicitly as it would later be defined by the Church. 88

In the parable of the vineyard and the wicked husbandmen, there is a third affirmation of Christ's divine sonship. It is recorded by all Synoptics." The authenticity of these texts is conceded by most critics, even by many liberal Protestants. St. Mark tells us: "And He [Jesus in the presence of the scribes and chief priests] began to speak to them in parables: A certain man planted a vineyard . . . and let it to husbandmen; and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant to receive of the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. Who having laid hands on him, beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and used him reproachfully. And again he sent another, and him they killed: and many others, of whom some they beat, and others they killed. Therefore having yet one son, most dear to him; he also sent him unto them last of all, saying: They will reverence my son. But the husbandmen said one to another:

This is the heir; come let us kill him; and the inheritance shall be ours. And laying hold on him, they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those husbandmen; and will give the vineyard to others." 58

At the conclusion of this parable, Jesus at once added: "And have you not read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner. By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.' " 86 St. Mark reports that thereupon Jesus' enemies "sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people. For they knew that He spoke this parable to them. And leaving Him, they went their way."

The application of this parable of the wicked husbandmen is in fact evident. The servants of the lord of the vineyard, whom he sent to the husbandmen, were the prophets. A little later, Jesus tells the Pharisees unequivocally: "You are the sons of them that killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: Mid some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge. . . . That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth. . . . Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children . . . and thou wouldest not?" 57

Therefore, if the servants of the Lord of the vineyard are the prophets, His dearly beloved Son is more than a prophet and Messiah, He is truly His Son.

This parable describes exactly the same mystery as that spoken of nt the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "God, who at sundry limes and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom I Ic hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world. Who being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His

a 4 OUR SAVIOR substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high." 68

What is more striking about the application of the parable of the wicked husbandmen is that the priests of the synagogue who heard and understood it were the men who by very reason of their function were supposed to know the Scriptures and the signs of the Messiahship best. Therefore they should have been the first to welcome the Messiah. Yet it was they who resisted Him most obstinately. God offered them the fullness of revelation and great glory: participation in Christ's work and entrance with Him into eternal life. They preferred a merely human glory to one that was wholly divine: "to sit in the first chairs in the synagogues" 59 and to remain there. It follows that in trying to resist the majesty of God they were overwhelmed by His glory, which was to have become theirs. As they were too deeply attached to things of least value — their human traditions and their status, to which they clung jealously — their souls did not open up to receive the great gift of salvation that God wished to give them. Thus the apostate priest was crushed beneath the grandeur of his priesthood because he did not receive with humility the immense grace it bestowed on him. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." 60 Zaccheus' eyes were opened, whereas the priests of the synagogue were blinded.

There is a fourth affirmation of Jesus' divine sonship in His question to the Pharisees: "What think you of Christ; whose son is He? They say to Him: David's. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" 81 St. Matthew adds, "And no man was able to answer Him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions." 62

The authenticity of this text is admitted by the principal liberal critics. The Lord referred to in the psalm which Jesus quotes is superior to David, and equal to the highest Lord, God the Father.

JESUS IN THE SYNOPTICS 2J

A fifth affirmation of the divinity of Jesus is to be found in His answer to Caiphas during the Passion. In St. Matthew we read: "And the high priest said to Him: I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ the Son of God. Jesus saith to him: Thou hast said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his garments, saying: He hath blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold now you have heard the blasphemy." 63

It was not merely His Messiahship that Jesus affirmed in His answer to the high priest. For divine sonship and the privilege of being seated at the right hand of the Almighty as well as of exercising sovereign power are not attributes of the Messiah as such. That is why Caiphas tore his garments and cried out "He hath blasphemed," as is recorded in the first three Gospels. The Gospel of St. John throws light on the other three. In St. John we find that after the paralytic's cure ". . . the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He did Bi 'I only break the Sabbath, but also said God was His Father, making I limself equal to God." 84 Again in St. John, after Jesus had said "I ind the Father are one," we read: "The Jews then took up stones to stone Him." 88 This is the explanation of Caiphas' question to Jesus, Eor the high priest was aware of Christ's earlier declarations: "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ i be Son of God." Finally, in St. John there is another text that throws light on the Synoptics: "The Jews answered him: We have a law; und according to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 68 Certainly it would not have been considered a I nine for our Lord to affirm His Messiahship, for everybody was at thai time expecting the Messiah, the anointed one, God's envoy. Thus 1 Ic must have affirmed that He was superior to the Messiah.

I n St. Matthew there is a sixth affirmation of Jesus' divinity. It ippears after the recital of the Savior's resurrection in the formula of baptism: "And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is |ivcn to Me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all

nations ; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." 67 Thus ends the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Loisy denies without valid reason the authenticity of the baptismal formula, as having been pronounced by Jesus Himself. But he at least recognizes that the use of this formula is attested to in Didache 7:1, and it is probable that it was universally accepted by the Churches at the beginning of the second century. 68

Now in this formula of baptism the Son is equal to the Father and to the Holy Ghost. But if He were not God He would be infinitely inferior to Them. As to the closing words, "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world," they give promise of divine assistance which is a fulfillment of Isaias' prophecy: "And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." 99

What are we to infer from these six affirmations? We must conclude, in opposition to the Modernists, that in the Synoptic Gospels the declarations of Jesus regarding His eminent dignity proclaim far more than His Messiahship and announce the divine sonship which is His alone.

Moreover, this divine sonship is superior to Messiahship, not only in the sense conceded by such rationalists as Harnack, but in the sense that it places Christ above all creatures, equal to God and Himself God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

That is the meaning of the words quoted above: "No one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son." Equality of knowledge. "Going therefore teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." And according to the Synoptics as according to St. John, Jesus was crucified because He had declared He was the Son of God, equal to His Father. It should be added that in St. Luke the angel Gabriel declared to Mary: "The Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 70 Also, in St. Matthew it is

recorded that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Precursor "saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 71

What is truly remarkable is that those who should have been the first to recognize Christ's mission failed to do so. This throws a searching light on the meaning of a divine mission. Father Clerissac tells us that "The Incarnation is a mission of the Son of God in the world and is propagated through the multiplicity of ecclesiastical ministries in all epochs." 72 Thus the Church carries on Christ's mission. She has been sent by Him, and she preserves His spirit. Our task is to be docile to her voice, which transmits God's word to us and which leads us, sometimes amid many snares and errors and ruins, toward eternity. 78

73 Ibid. "The unmistakable sign that we are adhering to the full spirit of the Church i» never to admit that we can be made to suffer by the Church any differently than by God."

OUR SAVIOR, THE AUTHOR OF LIFE, ACCORDING TO THE FIRST SERMONS OF ST. PETER AND OF THE APOSTLES

E HAVE seen that according to the Synoptic Gospels Jesus affirmed not only His Messiahship but also His divine sonship, by claiming privileges that belong to God alone, such as perfecting the Mosaic law, remitting sins, judging the living and the dead, and declaring that "no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son."² Besides, it was because He proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God that He was accused of blasphemy by the high priest and that He was afterward crucified. 2

Certain rationalists, like Welhausen and Loisy, have maintained that these declarations in the Synoptics resulted from a progressive idealization after Jesus' death and were attributed to Him although He Himself never really pronounced them.

To defend such an interpretation, these rationalists would have to prove that after Jesus' death there was time for the progressive idealization of His preaching to take place. Yet it is historically certain that the opposite was the case. For, according to the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul whose authenticity is not open to doubt, the apostles began teaching even as early as Pentecost that Jesus had proclaimed Himself to be not only the Messiah but also the Son of God. 8

St. Peter's Discourses in the Acts of the Apostles

The authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles is historically certain. It has been accepted not only by all Catholic critics and conserva-

» E. Jaiquicr, Let Aclei des afSlres (Etudes bibliqucs, Paris, 1916)1 cf. J. M. Vosti, O.P., Tlinti in Actui Apoiiolurum (193 1)> 1 f.

tive Protestants, but by many rationalists like Renan, Reuss, Harnack, etc., who attribute the entire book to St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul. Very probably the Acts, which close abruptly with the recital of St. Paul's arrival in Rome in a.d. 62, were written around the year a.d. 63-64, and at least before a.d. 70, the year of the destruction of Jerusalem. The rationalist Harnack declared in 1908 that this opinion should be considered plausible. 4

The Acts of the Apostles record the sermons delivered by St. Peter on Pentecost and the days following. In these sermons Peter, speaking to the Jews, laid particular emphasis on the Messianic character of Jesus, calling to their attention that He was approved of God, 5 for He performed miracles, He rose from the dead, 6 and the prophecies were fulfilled in Him and through Him. But in addition Peter attributed to Jesus a sanctifying role that far surpasses the Messiahship, and ascribed to Him privileges that can belong only to God.

In his Pentecost sermon, St. Peter said: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by Him, in the midst of you, as you also know: this same being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, hav- Ing loosed the sorrows of hell, as it was impossible that He should be holden by it. For David saith concerning Him: . . . Thou wilt not . . . suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. ... Ye men, breth- ■ 11, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David; that he died, and was buried; and his sepulcher is with us to this present day. W hereas therefore he was a prophet, . . . foreseeing this, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ. For neither was He left in hell, neither did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised again, whereof all we are witnesses. Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the I loly Ghost, He hath poured forth this which you see and hear. . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly that

• Pit A poitelgtscliichte (1908), p. an 1 cf. P. Batiffol, Orpheus et I'Evaiigi/e (1910), p. mi. * Act* a ns. 9 M/rf., 4:33.

God hath made both Lord and Christ this same Jesus, whom you have crucified." 7

The apostles often called Jesus "Lord," 8 a term which the Jews, when they spoke Greek, reserved for Yahweh. 9

In his second sermon, after he had cured in Jesus' name the man born lame, St. Peter said: "Ye men of Israel, why wonder you at this, or why look you upon us, as if by our strength or power we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus, whom you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate, when he judged He should be released. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. But the Author of life you killed, whom God hath raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. . . . And the faith which is by Him, hath given this perfect soundness in the sight of you all." 10

The expression "Author of life" can be applied to Jesus only if He is the Son of God in the true sense, and Himself God. For God alone, who is life by essence, can by participation produce the life which pulses in every living creature. Only God can bring a corpse back to life; and above all God alone can give the life of the soul, grace, which is a participation in His intimate life. Therefore, when St. Peter said, "You killed the Author of life," it is the same as if he had said, "Jesus is God." The thought of Jesus especially as the Author and the dispenser of supernatural life, and his words are equal in sublimity to those of St. John: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men"; 11 "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly"; 12 "I am the way and the truth and the life." 13

There is testimony also in St. Peter's beautiful answer to the high priest, when he and St. John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. The high priest of the synagogue, surrounded by the ancients and scribes, asked the two prisoners: "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?" They were referring to the cure of the man born lame. "Then," it is reported, "Peter, filled with the

Holy Ghost, said to them: Ye princes of the people, and ancients, hear: If we this day are examined concerning the good deed done to the infirm man, by what means he hath been made whole: be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by Him this man standeth here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved." 14 The record adds that the members of the Sanhedrin "could say nothing against it. . . . And calling them, they charged them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus." 16

In this testimony Peter made three major affirmations. First, he said that the miracle was performed in the name of Jesus. Miracles, however, are not accomplished in the name of a mere prophet, but in the name of God, for He alone can produce a genuine miracle, that goes beyond all natural forces. Secondly, he called attention to psalm 117, as Jesus Himself had done in the parable of the wicked husbandmen: "The stone which was rejected by you the builders, ... is become the head of the corner." Thirdly, Peter affirmed that Jesus is the Savior of the world, as did the converted Samaritans according to St. John: "Neither is there salvation in any other." This was equivalent to saying that Jesus is the Author of salvation; and, according to the psalms the Author of salvation is God Himself, 10 1 he Author of grace. This is to say once again that Jesus is the Author of life.

I'cter continued to give the same testimony when, after he had been delivered from prison by an angel, the high priest questioned bill) again. He and the other apostles answered: "We ought to obey G'od, rather than men. The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree. Him hath God exulted with His right hand, to be Prince and Savior, to give repent-

"Attend unto my help, O Lord, the Gotl of my salvation" (Ps. 37:23) ) "O Lord, the < lod '>f my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before Thee" (Ps. 87:2) | "O Lord, Lord, the strength of my salvation . . ." (Ps. 139:8).

Ja OUR SAVIOR ance to Israel, and remission of sins. And we are witnesses of these things and the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to all that obey Him." 17

Exasperated by what they had just heard, the members of the council wished to have the apostles put to death, but a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law revered by the entire people, took up their defense, showed the drawbacks to putting them to death, and added: "Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God." 18 The members of the Sanhedrin followed his advice and were content to scourge the apostles. Then, forbidding them to speak in the name of Jesus, they released them. "And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. And every day they ceased not in the temple, and from house to house, to teach and preach Christ Jesus." 10

At the first Council of Jerusalem, Peter, in order to show that the converted Gentiles were not to be obliged to observe the law of Moses but only the gospel, rose and said: "Men, brethren, you know that in former days God made choice among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, who knoweth the hearts, gave testimony, giving unto them the Holy Ghost, as well as to us; 20 and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe to be saved, in like manner as they also." 21 Again this is as much as to say that Jesus is the Author of salvation or of the supernatural life.

Several times during his sermons Peter called Jesus "Lord," 22 "Lord of all." 23 To Cornelius the centurion he said: "He commanded lT Acts 5 :9 f. 11 Acts 5 =3 8 f. 18 Acts ss» : f.

10 In fact, as stated in the Acts of the Apostles (10:46), some converted Gentiles began "speaking with tongues, and magnifying God," a sign that they, too, had received tin Holy Ghost. Cf. also Acts 11:15.

us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was appointed by God, to be judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets give testimony, that by His name all receive remission of sins, who believe in Him." 24 The author of the Acts tells us that as Peter was still talking, "the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word," 25 and they began to speak with tongues and to glorify God.

It was also in the name of Jesus that the apostles performed miracles and conferred baptism.

Lastly, there is a twofold testimony in the martyrdom of St. Stephen and in the conversion of St. Paul, both recorded in the Acts.

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen and the Conversion of St. Paul, Signs of the Divinity of Jesus

The account of the martyrdom of St. Stephen says in part: "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." 20 The Jews then "crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him. And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; 27 and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul." And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed saying: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." "And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord."

As he was dying, Stephen, the saintly deacon, said: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," just as Jesus had said to His Father: "Into Thy hands, I commend My spirit." 28 It seems, therefore, that St. Stephen, • x ing the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, recognized I lim as the Son of God. And it was from Jesus that he received the grace of dying like Him, praying for his executioners.

The prayer of the dying Stephen, said in Jesus' name, had ex-

,T Stoning was the punishment reserved for blasphemers. 28 Luke 23:46.

traordinary efficacy. "We read in the Acts: "And Saul [the young man guarding the garments of those who were stoning the holy deacon] was consenting to his death. And at that time there was raised a great persecution against the Church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all dispersed through the countries of Judea and Samaria. ... But Saul made havoc of the Church, entering in from house to house, and dragging away men and women, committed them to prison." 29

A few days later, Stephen's prayer was answered. As recorded in the Acts, Saul was converted on the road to Damascus: "Suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Who said: Who art Thou, Lord? And He: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do." 80 And in fact, Ananias, one of the Lord's disciples, heard the following words with regard to Saul: "Go thy way; for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake." 81

Then Ananias went to Saul and said: "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, He that appeared to thee in the way as thou earnest; that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. . . ." 32 Paul then spent several days with the disciples who were at Damascus, and "immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God." 83 The Jews then began to persecute Paul and plotted to kill him. But he went to Jerusalem to contact the apostles. Since they were afraid of him, he had Barnabas tell them how on the road to Damascus "he had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken to him." 84

Thus Saul saw the Lord in His glorified humanity. He bore testi-

mony to it in the recital of his conversion 85 and added certain new details to convince his listeners that he had not been the victim of an illusion: "And they that were with me, saw indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of Him that spoke with me." 36 He also recorded the words of Ananias, 37 and the warning that he received from Jesus Himself. 88 He retold the story of his conversion before King Agrippa, who recognized his innocence. 89

Finally, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he wrote: "Am I not an apostle? Have not I seen Christ Jesus our Lord?" 40 And again, a little farther: ". . . He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures: And that He was seen by Cephas [Peter] ; and after that by the eleven. Then was He seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present. . . . After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time. ... If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." 41 That is to say, we have no guaranty that God has accepted His death for our redemption. If, on the contrary, Jesus is victorious over death by His resurrection, it is because on the cross He conquered sin, the consequence of which is death, and therefore He is the Savior of the human race.

What are we to conclude from the testimony contained in the Acts of the Apostles concerning the divinity of Jesus? We must conclude that immediately after Pentecost the apostles declared Jesus to be t he Son of God, the Author of life, the Savior of the human race, the Judge of the living and the dead.

How could the apostles, who had been, as it were, morally crushed during the Passion, give such steadfast testimony even at the price of martyrdom, had they not been sustained by the One who gave aid to St. Stephen during his martyrdom and who converted Saul on the road to Damascus?

What is particularly evident is that, contrary to the rationalists J. Weiss, Holtzmann, and Loisy, sufficient time did not elapse for

a progressive idealization of Jesus' teaching to take place. Jesus was proclaimed the Son of God, the Author of life, and the Savior on Pentecost and consistently thereafter. This was the belief of the first Churches from their very foundation. And when between a.d. 50 and 59 St. Paul wrote his first epistles — to the Romans, to the Corinthians, and to the Thessalonians — he affirmed the divinity of Jesus as a dogma already held by these Churches, which were composed in part of converted Jews who were firm believers in monotheism and therefore scarcely inclined to accept the divinity of the Savior without incontestable divine revelation. Sufficient time did not elapse to permit a gradual idealization of Jesus' teaching. When, a little later on, the Ebionites denied the divinity of Jesus they were unanimously reproved by the Church j and St. John wrote the Fourth Gospel in refutation of their heresy.

THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION ACCORDING TO ST. PAUL

THE epistles of St. Paul corroborate the testimony concerning the divinity of Jesus contained in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. St. Paul expressly affirmed the divinity of Jesus, and he spoke of it not as of a belief unknown until then but as of a dogma already accepted by the Churches to which he was writing.

We must not forget that the principal epistles, the two to the Thessalonians, the two to the Corinthians, and those to the Galatians, the Romans, the Ephesians, the Colossians, and the Philippians, were written between 48 and 59, or between 50 and 64, as is recognized by several rationalists, among them Harnack and Julicher.

Let us first view St. Paul's Christology in broad outline, and afterward stress what he said concerning the divinity of Jesus. 1

St. Paul's Habitual Contemplation and His Christology

The Apostle of the Gentiles did not come to know the Savior in the same manner as the other apostles, by accompanying Him in His ministry, listening to His sermons, witnessing His miracles, and observing His actions. St. Paul was converted after the death of Jesus, OB the road to Damascus, and he saw Him only in His glory after I lis resurrection. 2 He attained this knowledge in a single instant by m extraordinary grace at the moment of his miraculous conversion. The divine words that he heard then were to remain engraved in his

• Cf. F. Prat, S.J., The Theology of St. Paul; M. J. Lagrange, O.P., Commentaire sur VI fit re aux Komains; J. M. Vosti!, O.P., Stitdia Paulina (1928), chap, ioj Commentaritu in Rpiitulam ad Epheiiot, Commenlarius in Efistulam ad Thessalonicenses.

soul forever: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? ... I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." 3 And the Lord had said to Ananias: ". . . this man is to Me a vessel of election, to carry My name before the Gentiles; ... I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake." 4

It follows that the object of St. Paul's habitual contemplation was not what Jesus accomplished during His ministry, but His infinite greatness, His divine character as Creator, His action upon redeemed mankind, His mind, His reign in souls. St. Paul almost always contemplated Jesus in His glory. That is why he wrote to the Ephesians: "He . . . ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and other some evangelists and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all meet . . . unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ." 5

Indeed St. Paul thought of Jesus as truly man, born of woman and of the posterity of David, 6 but a man who has never known sin, T and who by His love, His humiliations, and His sufferings on the cross, has won for us the eternal life which He Himself enjoys in heaven: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." 8

St. Paul proved by Scripture that the Messiah was to suffer and die for us, and then rise from the dead, 9 and that Jesus is the Messiah thus defined. 10 He habitually designated Jesus as "the Lord." 11 In the Septuagint the term "Lord" is the usual translation of the word Yahweh (or Jehovah). Thus, to call Jesus "Lord" is to say that He is God. Like the Latin Dominus, the term ku/hos implies absolute

TESTIMONY OF ST. PAUL sovereignty not only in the natural order over the world, but in the order of grace over the Church and over consciences. It is in this vein that St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus, that in all things you are made rich in Him, ... so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 12 In his epistles St. Paul calls Jesus "Lord" more than 230 times. But in many passages he affirms more explicitly that Jesus is the Son of God not by adoption but by nature.

The Divine Sonship of Jesus according to St. Paul

The epistles of St. Paul proclaim the divine sonship of Christ Jesus by attributing to our Lord three great privileges that could belong to no creature, however exalted it might be: First, He is the first-born and the head of all the just, even of the angels. Secondly, everything subsists through Him and for Him. Thirdly, at the end of the world all things will be finally placed under His dominion.

Jesus is the first-born and the head of all the just according to the testimony of the Epistle to the Romans: "For whom He foreknew, I lc also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son; that He might be the first-born amongst many brethren. And whom He predestinated, them He also called. And whom He called, 1 hem He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified." 18

This doctrine is often developed in the other epistles: "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ." 14 "In whom we have redemption . . . according to the riches of His grace, which hath superabounded in us . . . that He might make known unto us the mystery of His will ... in the dispensation of the fullness of limes, to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on c;irth, in Him." 16 "The exceeding greatness of His power . . . He wrought in Christ, raising Him up from the dead, and setting Him

on His right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality and power and virtue and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." 16

"He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He may hold the primacy." 17 "Who is the head of all principality and power," 18 that is, the head of the angelic powers. In fact, Christ has said: "The Son of man shall send His angels" 19 on judgment day to gather together the elect. And during His life on earth He had the power to cast out devils and gave this power to His apostles. Christ's superiority over the angels is explained in its every aspect in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1:5 — 2:18.

The second privilege of Jesus Christ, according to St. Paul, is that everything subsists through Him and for Him. To the Colossians, he wrote: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature [according to eternal generation]. For in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things consist." 20 . . the body of His glory, . . . whereby also He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." 21

The third privilege attributed to Christ Jesus by St. Paul is that all things will finally be placed under His dominion at the end of the world. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians he writes: "And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all [the just] shall be made alive. . . . Afterward the end, . . . when He shall have brought to nought all [rebellious] principality and power and virtue. For He must reign, until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. 22 And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: For He hath put all things under His feet. 23 . . . And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." 24

TESTIMONY OF ST. PAUL

To the Colossians St. Paul likewise wrote: "For I would have you know, what manner of care I have for you and for them that are at Laodicea. . . . That their hearts may be comforted, being instructed in charity, and unto all riches of fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus: in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 26 By reason of these treasures Jesus surpasses the highest choirs of angels.

These three privileges cannot belong to any creature whatsoever. Of no creature, not even the angels, can it be said: "He is the firstborn, head of all the just"; "all things subsist through Him and in Him"; "all things will be finally subject to Him at the end of the world."

Moreover, many texts of St. Paul explicitly speak of Jesus as the Son of God in a particular sense that is fulfilled in Him alone.

In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul declares he is the apostle of Christ Jesus, to announce "the Gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets, in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made to Him of the seed of David, according to the flesh, who was predestinated 26 the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead." 27 In other words, Jesus, true man, born of the race of David, was proven to be the Son of God by the miracle of His resurrection.

Likewise, in Romans: "God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh; that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." 28

To the Galatians: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, under the law: that He might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son [that is, the Holy Ghost, promised by His Son], into

*• The Vulgate uses the word "predestinated" instead of "declared," the former being • possible meaning of the Greek but more difficult to explain because of what is said Immediately following concerning the miracle of the Resurrection.

your hearts, crying: Abba, Father." 29 This text shows more clearly the difference between the just who are the sons of God by adoption, and He who is truly the Son of God by nature.

St. Paul affirmed this natural divine sonship even more explicitly when he spoke of the eternal pre-existence of the Son of God, or of the divine person of Christ before the Incarnation. In fact, he wrote to the Colossians: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature [born before all creatures, and not created] : for in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church, . . . Because in Him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. . . ." 80

In the above text the Son of God is manifestly called "Creator" in the same sense that God Himself is so called in the Epistle to the Romans: "For of Him, and by Him, and in Him are all things." 81

St. Paul often liked to contrast the annihilation of the crucified Jesus with His glory, His power, and His sovereign wisdom as Son of God. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians he wrote: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. . . . But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption." 82

We find the same antithesis in the Epistle to the Philippians: "For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him. . . ." 88

It would be impossible to express more forcefully the annihilation,

TESTIMONY OF ST. PAUL the crushing of the humanity of the crucified Jesus, and at the same time the eternal pre-existence of His divine personality as Son of God, equal with God.

Likewise, Paul said to the Colossians: "For in Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead corporeally [really] ." 34 And to the Romans: "For I wished myself to be anathema from Christ, for my brethren . . . who are Israelites . . . and of whom is Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen." 35 This text is similar to the one in the Epistle to the Colossians, cited above, in which it is said that the Son of God created all things and "by Him they consist." 38

In the New Testament there are several analogous doxologies in honor of Christ, 37 whence comes the "Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto" at the conclusion of the psalms in the Office, affirming the equality of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, and offering to all three equally the cult of adoration reserved for God alone.

All of St. Paul's testimony concerning the divine sonship of Jesus is summarized at the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1:1 ff., which calls to mind the parable of the wicked husbandmen: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world.- Who being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high. Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they." 88

The remainder of chapter 1 of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains clearly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature, the I 1 eator and Master of all things, the head of the kingdom of God, whereas the angels are only servants of God and His sons by adoption. 30 Thus, if men were required to obey the commands of the angels

""For to which of the angels hath He said at any time, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee? And again . . . Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth: mid (he works of Thy hands are the heavens" (Heb. 1:5-10). Cf. also Heb. 2:10.

of the Old Testament, how much more must they obey the word of Jesus Christ who, after having been humbled and humiliated during His passion for our salvation, is now crowned with glory. 40

This adheres to the general principles of St. Paul's Christology, which derives from the fact that Paul was converted on the road to Damacus after Jesus' death, and thought of Him especially in His glory, risen from the dead. Paul saw Christ in His infinite grandeur, as God's only Son, as Creator and preserver of all things, as the head of the kingdom of God. Let us bear in mind that St. Paul was "caught up to the third heaven . . . and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter." 41

It was Paul also who wrote: "And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me." 42 Paul's enjoyment of very elevated revelations did not prevent his being afflicted by one of those humiliating crosses that all men must drag after them as ceaseless reminders of their nothingness.

Now, in speaking so magnificently about the divinity of Jesus in his Epistles written between a.d. 48 and 59 (or between 50 and 64), St. Paul wrote not as of a dogma hitherto unknown but as of a dogma already accepted by the Churches which he was addressing. We must therefore conclude, contrary to the rationalists J. Weiss, Holtzmann, and Loisy, that this dogma of the divinity of Jesus did not result from a progressive idealization which might little by little have trans-

40 Some liberal Protestants and rationalists, like Sabatier and Guignebert, have maintained that according to several texts of St. Paul it seems that Jesus is inferior to the Father, and that God sent His Son and raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8 13 ; I Thess. 1:10) j that there is only one God, namely, the Father, and one Lord, who is Jesus Christ (I Cor. 8:6; 12:5 f.) 5 everything is Christ's and Christ is God's (I Cor. 3:23) ; the Son will place His kingdom in the Father's hands and will be subject to Him (I Cor. 15:24- 285 1 1:3 j Eph. 1:17).

The answer to this difficulty is that Jesus possesses two natures, one divine and the other human. As man He is inferior to the Father, and as Son of God He receives His divinity from the Father. This is manifestly the meaning of these texts, which would otherwise contradict the ones cited earlier that affirm the equality of the Father and the Son. The first rule for interpreting an author's texts is not to interpret them in such a way as to make him contradict himself.

41 II Cor. 12:2-4. The Hebrews called "third heaven" (empyrean) the spiritual heaven where God dwells, above the heaven of air (atmosphere) and the heaven of the stari (ether). "II Cor. 12:7.

formed and transfigured the original teaching of Jesus and of the apostles. Sufficient time did not elapse for such a progressive idealization, since about the year 48 or 59 St. Paul already spoke in his Epistles of the divinity of Jesus as of a dogma accepted by the Christian world. This acceptance was the result of the apostles' teaching from Pentecost onward. Had not St. Peter preached on Pentecost and consistently thereafter that Jesus is the Author of life, the Savior of all, the Judge of the living and the dead? 48

St. Paul's affirmations on the eternal pre-existence of the divine person of Jesus are equal in sublimity to those in St. John's Gospel, of which we shall speak last.

THE WORD MADE FLESH ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN

OF RECENT years Catholic exegetes have proved at great length that there is no valid argument against the authenticity and the historicity of the Fourth Gospel, unanimously attributed by tradition to the apostle St. John.³ It has been demonstrated that by reason of both the language and the style in which it is written, this Gospel was composed by a Jew, an eyewitness and a disciple of Jesus. Moreover it has been shown that the author was he who is called "the disciple whom Jesus loved" in this book where the apostle St. John is never mentioned by name. St. John wished to supplement what was lacking in the Synoptics in the matter of factual description especially of events that occurred in Judea, and also in the matter of our Lord's sermons which the first three Gospels often recorded only in substance. 2

The Fourth Gospel was written between the years 80 and 100, as the rationalist Harnack admits. Its chief purpose is unquestionably dogmatic. It was written in particular to prove, in opposition to the Cerinthians and the Ebionites, that Jesus is really the Son of God, as proclaimed in 20:31. The events recorded are never presented as allegories or parables. They are set forth as facts that really occurred. Nor can it be said that in reporting Jesus' sermons St. John tended to present his own personal views. In several places he has clearly dif- a Cf. Lagrange, O.P., Saint Jean (1915), chaps. 1—3 ) J. M. Voste", O.P., Stadia Joaimta (1930), chaps. 1, 6( Bntiffol, L'enseignemenl de Jisut, pp. 196 ff.

ferentiated between the words of Christ and the private reflections he was making about them. 8

The Prologue

The prologue of the Fourth Gospel provides the dogmatic foundation and presents the point of view of the entire work. It explains the meaning of the expression "Word made flesh," and the nature of the relationship between the Word and God (i:i f.): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was Godj the same was in the beginning with God." That is to say: before the world and before time, the Word was from all eternity. He was with God, as His interior thought. He was in substantial and active communion with God the Father, but distinct from Him, and He was sent by Him. Although He is distinct from the Father, the Word is none the less consubstantial with the Father, for it is said: ". . . and the Word was God." The Word was eternally united to His Father by nature and by His will. In these first verses of the prologue, St. John raises his mind's eye from the Savior's humanity to 1 lis divine personality and to His divinity. It is as if someone stood on the shore gazing out over the ocean and became lost in its immensity, though actually seeing but a tiny portion of it. Yet the ocean is finite and limited, whereas the perfection of the Word is infinite.

The relationship of the Word to creatures in general is expressed in the following verse (1:3): "All things were made by Him: and without Him was made nothing that was made."

All things without exception, even matter, were made by Him. The Father possesses the creative power, but nothing comes into existence unless the Word gives it form. The world, before it was created, existed ideally in the Word; for it was eternally present to the divine intelligence wherein all is life. 4

Finally, the relationship of the Word with men is expressed in verses 4 and 5 : "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

«Cf. St. Augumine, In Evang. sec.Joannem, chap, i, §§ i, 1 6 ( St. Thomas, la, q. 18, R.4.J HoMtiet. Elevations tur lis mystens, 12th week, 10th elevation.

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." The natural light of the intelligence and the supernatural light of revelation and faith that the Word pours upon the earth shine among men in the darkness of ignorance and sin; and many men have remained hardened in spite of the miracles performed by the Word made flesh and they have not received the light He brought them.

A little further on, the Evangelist says: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" and ". . . the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil" (3:19).

By contrast, what did He give to those who received Him? "But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name" ( 1:12-13) ; that is, to all those who received Him as the Creator and as the Author of eternal salvation, whether they were Jews or pagans, He gave the power to become, in the supernatural order, adopted sons of God. This sonship is not the result of natural generation. It is not born "of blood nor of the will of the flesh [the blind instinct of the senses] nor of the will of man [enlightened by reason]." It comes directly from God.

It can be said that the adopted sons of God are "born of God" (1:13) in the sense that Jesus used when He spoke to Nicodemus: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." 6 Likewise St. Peter says that by the grace that sanctifies us we become "partakers of the divine nature," 6 and we participate in the intimate life of God.

This is the nature of the relationship of the Word with God the Father and with men. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 7 "Flesh" in this case means "man," as it often does in biblical language; 8 it was chosen in order to emphasize the reality of Christ's human nature and the supreme self-abasement of the Word. All the heresies concerning Christ Jesus have been shattered by this word

' "All flesh bed corrupted its way upon the enrth" (On. 6:111 Ina. 40:5) Joel 2:28).

"flesh," whether they denied His divinity or His humanity, or the unity of the two natures in the person of the Word.

What are the sources of this doctrine? 9 They are to be found in our Lord's own teachings, preserved in the apostolic tradition and compared with what the Old Testament tells us of the eternal wisdom of the word of God. 10

After the prologue, the Fourth Gospel divides naturally into two parts. First, Jesus manifests His mission and His divinity during His public life (1:19 through chap. 12). Secondly, Jesus manifests His mission and His divinity during His passion and after His resurrection (chapters 13 to 20).

Jesus Manifests His Mission and His Divinity during His Public Life

First of all, men of good will acknowledge Jesus as God. Then the unbelief and opposition of many Jews break forth and increase. Finally, Jesus is glorified in His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. There are the three sections of the first part of the Gospel of St. John.

It was John the Baptist who first designated Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God (1:29 f.): "Behold the Lamb of God, behold I lim who taketh away the sin of the world. ... I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him.

• Several rationalists maintain that the doctrine of St. John on the Word or Logos it derived in part from Philo, his Jewish contemporary. Philo indeed speaks of a Logos whom he calls "son of God" and who has a part in the formation of the world and brings to men * celestial revelation. But Philo's Logos is not the Creator j he is the son of God in the nunc sense as is all creation. He is neither Messiah nor Redeemer. Philo never had any idea of the Incarnation.

,0 In the Old Testament creation is attributed to the word of God. "And God said: Be light made. And light was made" (Gen. 1:3). The word of God is then personified in lUr Psalms (Ps. 32:6} 106:201 147:15, 18 i 148:8). According to Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom hai its origin and scat in God (1:1) | it is eternal and is made manifest in the works of 1 nation (1 :4, 9, 10) j it is an unfathomable abyss of knowledge (24:38 ff.). This doctrine is developed and clarified in 7:24-26) 8:6, 8j 9:4, 9.

I he epistles of St. Paul contain several of the elements of the Johannine doctrine of thl Logos: Col. 1:15 f.| Phil. 2:5-1 1 j Hcb. 1 :i— 3 j 4:12. St. John may have used the word Logos, whose meaning was being distorted by several philosophers, in order to clarify its iiinuiiiiig.

And I knew Him not; but He who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon Him, He it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God."

On the two succeeding days the first disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael, accepted Jesus as the Messiah and even as the Son of God, according to the testimony of John the Baptist ( I: 35> 4i> 45, 49)- Then Jesus performed His first miracle at Cana (2:11), and manifested Himself at Jerusalem by driving the traders out of the temple, saying: "Make not the house of My Father a house of traffic" (2:16). Many, seeing the miracles He performed, believed in Him (2:23).

Then He said to Nicodemus (3:13 ff.): "And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. . . . So must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting."

John the Baptist gave further testimony (3:31-36): "He that cometh from above, is above all. ... He that cometh from heaven, is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth: ... for God doth not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son: and He hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting."

Jesus then manifested Himself in Samaria, and the Samaritans recognized Him: "We . . . know that this is indeed the Savior of the world" (4:42). In Galilee Jesus cured the son of an officer, and the latter together with his entire household believed in Him (4:53).

Yet scarcely had the men of good will acknowledged the divine sonship of Jesus when the Jews' unbelief burst forth and became increasingly bitter. This opposition found its first outlet when the Savior cured a paralytic on the Sabbath (5:16 ff.). "But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work. Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He did not only break the Sabbath, but also said God was His Father, making Himself equal to God. Then Jesus answered and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner. . . . For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom He will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son; that all men may honor the Son, as they honor the Father. . . . Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath life everlasting. . . . For as the Father hath life in Himself, so He hath given to the Son also to have life in Himself."

The Galileans, too, were incredulous when Jesus said that He was the bread of life on which they must feed through faith and that later He would give Himself to them as food (6:48—52).

The opposition in Judea increased at the feast of the tabernacles (chapters 7 to 9). Then Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am the light of the world. . . . Neither Me do you know, nor My Father: if you did know Me, perhaps you would know My Father also" (8:12, 19). And He added (8:42, 56, 59): "If God were your Father you would indeed love Me. . . . Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it, and was glad." The Jews answered Him : "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him. But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple." The words "Before Abraham was made, I am," imply that Jesus' life had no beginning and therefore express the eternal and immutable pre-existence of the person of the Word before the Incarnation.

The same opposition was intensified on the occasion of one of Jesus' M i nions given at the time of the feast of the dedication. As He walked in the Temple, Jesus said (10:27 ff.): "My sheep hear My voice: Uld I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand. That which My Father hath given Me is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one."

The Jews again took up stones to stone Him as a blasphemer "because," they told Him, "that Thou, being a man makest Thyself God" ( 10:33). Jesus had indeed affirmed His divinity when He said: "I and the Father are one," and by claiming to be almighty like the Father and therefore able to preserve souls in the path of goodness so that no one could snatch them from His hand. The Jews understood so well that He had affirmed not only His Messiahship but also His divinity that they treated Him as a blasphemer and decided to stone Him. They were awaiting a Messiah, but a conquering Messiah who would answer their nationalistic aspirations. A short while later Jesus, after saying "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25), brought Lazarus back to life. The Jews who witnessed the miracle believed in Him. It was then that the Sanhedrists decided to put Him to death (11:53).

At the end of His ministry, Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. There were Gentiles who wished to see Him. A voice from heaven uttered these words: "I have both glorified it [My name], and will glorify it again. . . . Jesus answered, and said: . . . I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself" (12:28-32). Nevertheless the Savior's enemies persisted in their unbelief.

Jesus Manifests His Divinity during His Suffering and in His Glory

At the Last Supper our Lord said to His disciples: "You call Me Master, and Lord; and you say well, for so I am" (13:13). In the discourse after the Last Supper, Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me" ( 14:6). God alone can say not merely "I have the truth and the life," but "I am the truth and the life." For God alone is the eternally subsistent Being. Later, when Philip asked: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us," Jesus answered him: "Have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known Me? ... Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? . . . The Fa- ther who abideth in Me, He doth the works," the miracles that I perform (14:9 ff.).

When He promised the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Jesus added: "He shall glorify Me; because He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you. All things whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine. Therefore I said that He [the Holy Ghost] shall receive of Mine, and show it to you" (16:14 ff.; cf. 16:28, 32).

In His prayer for His disciples (John 17:1-5, 9 f.), Jesus said again: "Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee . . . that He may give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given Him. ... I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee. ... I pray . . . for them whom Thou hast given Me: because they are Thine: And all My things are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them."

The divine glory of Jesus was also manifested in His passion, in spite of the hatred of His enemies and the humiliations they inflicted on Him. The soldiers who had come with Judas fell back when Jesus said to them: "Whom seek ye?" "Jesus of Nazareth." "I am He" ( 1 8 :4-6). And He proclaimed to Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world. . . . Everyone that is of the truth, heareth My voice" (18: 36 ff.). And when Pilate sought to save Him and said: "I find no cause in Him," the Jews answered: "We have a law; and according to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God" (19:6 f.).

Finally, to those who had eyes to see, the glory of Jesus was made manifest in His last words: "It is consummated" (19:30); as well as by the heroism of His death, by His magnanimity toward His executioners, and last of all by His resurrection. His glory was manifested again after the Resurrection in His last commands to His ftpostles: "Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they arc retained" (20:21 ff.). Thomas the apostle, at long last convinced of the reality of the Resurrection, cried out to Him: "My Lord and My God" (20:28).

Later, after the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus fulfilled the promise He had made to Peter and conferred upon him the office of governing the entire Church: "Feed My lambs. . . . Feed My sheep" (21:16 f.). Thus He stood forth ever more clearly as the head of the kingdom of God.

What are we to conclude as to the testimony of the Fourth Gospel concerning the divinity of Jesus? As recorded in that Gospel, Jesus' declarations state explicitly that He is the Son of God by nature and not by adoption: and it is for this very reason that the Jews demanded His death. For they said: "He said God was His Father, making Himself equal to God" (5:18; 10:33; 19:7).

Now, this testimony is the same as that in Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22: "All things are delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him."

Finally, the affirmations contained in St. Matthew and St. Luke are equal in sublimity to the magnificent prologue of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the onlybegotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. ... No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" ( 1 :i, 14, 18).

St. John also says in his First Epistle, 1:1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. . . . That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." This is the tenor of St. John's contemplation, and it is very similar to St. Paul's.

The persecutor converted on the road to Damascus met the disciple that Jesus loved. What St. John tells us in his Gospel around a.d.

80 is what St. Paul wrote in his Epistles around a.d. 53. It is also what St. Peter preached on Pentecost and thereafter when he said that Jesus is the Author of life and the head of the kingdom of God which was announced by the prophets.

THE PROPHETIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SAVIOR

WE KNOW that taken as a whole the prophecies of the Old Testament all contain three fundamental assertions: There is but one God; His spiritual kingdom is to encompass all nations; the Messiah to be sent by Him is to be the head of this kingdom. This general view is clarified and abundantly confirmed by the study of the principal prophecies taken individually, especially if we consider the progressive development of the divine revelations from the promises made to the first man and to the patriarchs, to the prophecies of David and Isaias which describe in detail even the circumstances of the life and passion of the Savior.

It is also well to remember that these patriarchs and prophets included several that prefigure the Christ who was to come. For example, Abraham the Father of believers, Isaac who carried the wood of his sacrifice and allowed himself to be bound in preparation for his immolation, and Joseph who was sold by his brothers and became the savior of his people. Then there were Moses, the liberator, the head and lawgiver of the Hebrews; Job, the figure of the suffering Christ; David, who typified the Messiah by his trials, his kingship, his prayer, and his psalms; and Jeremias who loved and suffered for his people; and then there was Jonas. It was our Lord Himself who pointed out Jonas as the figure of His preaching and His burial.⁴

The Prophecies of the Patriarchal Period

The prophetic revelations of the patriarchal period up to and including Moses announced the Savior of the world who was to be of the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Juda the son of Jacob, who gave His name to one of the twelve tribes of Israel and who was the father of the royal race of David.

Immediately after the sin of the first man, God, at the same moment that He decreed punishment for sin, announced the future Savior who was to be of the race of the woman, and by whom this race would crush the head of the serpent. 2 Lamech announced that the future benediction would pass through Noe, 3 who was in fact saved from the flood together with his family and with whom God renewed His alliance, giving him the rainbow for a sign. 4

Noe in his turn announced that God would choose the tents of Sem in which to dwell. 6 In fact, it was Abraham, the son of Sem, whom God chose to make the father of His people. He said to him: "Go forth out of thy country . . . and come into the land which I shall show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed." 8 God renewed this promise to Abraham several times, 7 particularly when He told him of the birth of Isaac from whom would come his posterity.

Finally, Abraham was put to the test when the Lord asked him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of the promise. But the angel of the Lord stopped him: "Lay not thy hand upon the boy; . . . now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake. . . . Because thou hast done this thing, ... I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven. . . . And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 8

Then Isaac, by virtue of his father's merits, received the same divine blessing: "Because Abraham obeyed My voice." 9 When Jacob won his brother Esau's birthright away from him, he heard from his father Isaac's lips these words of blessing: "God almighty bless thee, and make thee to increase, and multiply thee: that thou mayst be a multitude of people. And give the blessings of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed after thee." 10 Jacob even heard the Lord tell him: "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: . . . and in

thee and thy seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed." 11 It was then that he saw a ladder that touched heaven; on the ladder the angels of God were ascending and descending and above it was the Lord Himself. It was the same Jacob who, on the verge of death, blessed his sons and said in particular to Juda: "The scepter shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations." 12

To summarize the prophecies of Genesis: Salvation was to come from the posterity of the woman, from the race of Seth, from the branch of Sem, from the family of Abraham, from the family of Isaac, and of Jacob, and from the tribe of Juda. 13

Later, Balaam announced: "A star shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter shall spring up from Israel." 14 Finally Moses, the legislator and liberator of Israel, announced: "The Lord thy God will raise up to thee [Israel] a Prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: Him thou shalt hear." 16 This promise in its fullest sense clearly includes the Messiah, the prophet par excellence, the universal mediator between God and men, the author of the second alliance as Moses was the mediator of the first alliance. That is why the New Testament relates this promise to Christ and declares that it was fulfilled in Him. Jesus Himself says to the Pharisees: "For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe Me also j for he wrote of Me." 16

After Pentecost St. Peter said to the Jews: "Moses said: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me: him you shall hear according to all things whatsoever he shall speak to you. And it shall be, that every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. . . . [For] to you first God, raising up His Son, hath sent Him to bless you; that every one may convert himself from his wickedness." 17 St. Stephen, the first martyr, also repeated this prophecy of Moses before he was stoned by the Jews. 18

18 For these prophecies cf. Gen. 3:151 5:291 9:261 12:31 26:1-41 35=91 W** " Num. 24 : 1 7. " Deut. 18:15. u John 5 :46.

The Period of the Kings

During this period, which was primarily David's, the Messiah was announced as king, Son of God, priest par excellence, and there were even descriptions of His passion and sacrifice.

First of all Anna, Samuel's mother, saluted from afar in her canticle the king and the Christ that God would send: "The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and He shall give empire to His king, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ." 19

Through the lips of the prophet Nathan God promised to David as a reward for building the Temple: "And when thy days shall be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house to My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. . . . My mercy I will not take away from him. . . . And thy house ... and thy throne shall be firm forever." 20

The title "son of David" given to the Messiah in rabbinical writings presupposes the universal acceptance by the Jews of the Messianic significance of the passage just quoted.

David himself in the psalms announced the universal dominion of God, and he described the glories and sorrows of the Messiah, who was to be the King of all peoples: "And all kings of the earth shall adore Him: all nations shall serve Him. For He shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper." 21

How pregnant with meaning are these words, especially when applied to the feasts of Epiphany and of Christ the King! David called this King "the Anointed of the Lord," "Christ," and even "Son of God," as, for instance, in psalm 2: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord, and against His Christ," that is, against the One who had received the royal anoint-

»o II Kings 7:12-16. This prophecy refers specifically to Solomon (verse 13), but in Solomon are included all his descendants (verses 14-16). St Peter applied this prophecy to Jesus Christ (Acts 2:30).

6o ing, the Anointed One par excellence, the Messiah-King. The psalm continues: "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. . . . But I am appointed king by Him over Sion, His holy mountain, preaching His commandment. The Lord hath said to Me: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession." This prophecy has been fulfilled in the catholicity of the Church.

Psalm 109 describes the kingship and the priesthood of the Messiah: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand: until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool. The Lord will send forth the scepter of Thy power out of Sion. . . . The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent : Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech. The Lord at Thy right hand . . . shall judge among nations." St. Paul enlarged on this prophecy in his Epistle to the Hebrews.

Yet David also foretold in psalm 39, verses 7-9, that the Messiah would offer Himself up voluntarily as a victim for sin; "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire. . . . Burnt offering and sin offering Thou didst not require. Then said I, Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will: O My God, I have desired it, and Thy law in the midst of My heart." In the Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul says that Christ uttered these words upon coming into the world and offered Himself as a voluntary victim because the sacrifices of the Old Law were powerless to wipe out sin. 22

Psalm 21 contains the words Jesus pronounced on the cross: "O God, My God, . . . why hast Thou forsaken Me? ... O My God, I shall cry by day, and Thou wilt not hear: and by night. . . . But Thou dwellest in the holy place. ... In Thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and Thou hast delivered them. They cried to Thee, and they were saved. . . . But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. All they that saw Me have laughed Me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head. He hoped in the Lord, let Him deliver Him:

let Him save Him, seeing He delighteth in Him. For Thou art He that hast drawn Me out of the womb: . . . depart not from Me. For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help Me. . . . Fat bulls have besieged Me. ... I am poured out like water; and all My bones are scattered. . . . My tongue hath cleaved to My jaws. . . . For many dogs have encompassed Me: the council of the malignant hath besieged Me. They have dug My hands and feet. 23 They have numbered all My bones. And they have looked and stared upon Me. They parted My garments amongst them; and upon My vesture they cast lots. But Thou, O Lord, remove not Thy help to a distance from Me; look toward My defense. . . . Save Me from the lion's mouth."

Finally, in psalm 1 5, verse 10, David announced the fruits of the Messiah's sacrifice and His resurrection: "Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; nor wilt Thou give Thy Holy One to see corruption."

As Father Lagrange, O.P., shows, the only literal explanation of psalm 16 (15), verse 10, especially according to the Greek, is that made in the Acts of the Apostles: 24 the person who speaks in this psalm hopes to rise from the dead. The apostles, who testified to the resurrection of Christ, quite naturally saw in it the fulfillment of the verse. 25

Even in psalm 21, which begins with the words "O God, My God, . . . why hast Thou forsaken Me?" David described the glory of the Messiah as being the fruit of His passion: "I will declare Thy name to My brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him: all ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the seed of Israel fear Him: because He hath not slighted nor despised the supplication of the poor man. Neither hath He turned away His face from Me: and when I cried to Him, He heard Me. . . . All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord [to the God of Israel] : and all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall adore in His sight." 26

2S Likewise in Ps. 68:21 we read: "And they gave Me gall for My food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." "Acts 1:25-321 13:35-37.

" Lagrange, "Le Messiaiiismc dans les Psaumes," in Revue biblique (1905), p. 192. " Pi, j 1 :i 3-28.

Summing up, David announced the sufferings and the glories of the Messiah. The Messiah was to be the Son of God, He was to be the mighty king, merciful to the humble but dreaded by the wicked, the priest par excellence. 27 At the same time He was to be the voluntary victim for sin; He was to be overwhelmed with anguish and suffer a terrible death ; but He would rise glorious from the grave. 28

After David there was Solomon, who sang of the eternal Wisdom that was to be manifested to the world: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways. ... I was set up from eternity. . . . Wisdom hath built herself a house. . . . She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table. . . . And to the unwise she said: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you, . . . and walk by the ways of prudence." 29 Today we have the Eucharist, the Eucharistic bread, and the precious blood.

Then too, the Canticle of Canticles, according to tradition, sings of the union of Christ with His Church, mention of which is also made in psalm 44:7.

It is clear that the prophecies of the period of the Kings, as well as the earlier ones, always refer to a Messiah who was to be of the race of Israel, but who was also the Son of God, and Himself God: "The Lord said to my Lord." It was by referring to this psalm 109, that our Lord silenced the Pharisees with the words: "What think you of Christ; whose Son is He? They say to Him: David's. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son? And no man was able to answer Him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions." 80 Thus the prophecies of this period are clear and explicit.

The predictions of the period of the prophets, particularly those of Isaias, shed still more light on the Savior and on the work He was to accomplish.

The Period of the Prophets

At this period in the history of Israel, it is the origin of the Savior, His qualities, His functions, and His sacrifice that were brought into relief.

Abdias (chap. 2i) made the general prophecy that saviors were to come on Mount Sion. Joel predicted the pouring forth of the Spirit of God on all flesh, and he added: "And it shall come to pass, that everyone that shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved: for in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said, and in the residue whom the Lord shall call." 81 Osee announced the conversion of Israel and the kingship of the future Messiah. 82 Micheas portrayed the peoples flocking toward Jerusalem the city of salvation, 88 and the Messiah's birth at Bethlehem: "And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. . . . Now shall He be magnified even to the ends of the earth." 84 We can see the fulfillment of this oracle in our own time in the progress of the missions or of evangelization.

It was Isaias especially who in his great prophecy described the birth of the Messiah, His divine attributes, His universal kingdom, His sacrifice which was to bring salvation to all peoples, and His triumph.

First, the nativity: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel." 85 This isolated text is indeed remarkable, but it is somewhat obscure. Who is this virgin? The answer is made clearer further on, for the name "Emmanuel" is more explicitly defined in the following chapter, in which Emmanuel means "Lord," "Messiah," "God is with us." 86 St. Matthew, and after him Catholic tradition, interpret the "virgin" of Isaias' text to mean the Virgin

Mary, and "Emmanuel" to mean the Word incarnate, the Son of God made man, truly God with us. 37 In St. Matthew i :20 f., we see how the revelation made to Joseph before the birth of Jesus is the consummation of the one made earlier to lsaias: "Behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins." Now all this was to happen, St. Matthew tells us, "that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

The functions of the Messiah are described in chapter 9 and those following: "For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace." 88 The coming of no greater person could be prophesied. The words "God the Mighty" clearly mean that in this child who was to come into the world would rest the fullness of divine power. Very few grasped the meaning of these words when they were written. They have the sublimity of the prologue to St. John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

In chapter 11 we read: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse [David's father], and a flower shall rise out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness. 39 And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. . . . He shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." These are the gifts of the Holy Ghost that the Messiah was to re-

,T Cf. Lagrange, "La Vicrge et Emmanuel," in Revue biblique (1892), p. 4811 and Knabenbauer, Comm. in Isaiam, I, 172. 88 Isa. 9:6 ff.

88 According to the Hebrew this verse should read, "fear of the Lord"i but the Scptuagint and the Vulgate use the word "godliness," which has almost the same meaning.

ceive in an eminent degree and the just were to receive also by participation.

The Messiah's universal kingdom is proclaimed in 1 6 :5 ; 18:7; and in chapters 24 to 27. His character as cornerstone is spoken of in 28:16: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a cornerstone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten." After Pentecost St. Peter tells the members of the Sanhedrin: "This [Jesus, in whose name the lame man had been cured] is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." 40 lsaias had said that this cornerstone would be "a stone of stumbling. . . . And very many . . . shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken in pieces [against it]." 41 St. Paul also mentions it in the Epistle to the Romans, and he adds: "whosoever believeth in Him shall not be confounded." 42 Similar references are to be found in Ephesians 2:20 and in I Peter 2:4.

lsaias announced that God Himself would come: "God Himself will come and will save you. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free. . . . And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein. . . . They shall walk there that shall be delivered. And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads." 43 Usually the prophets associated the Messianic deliverance with the supreme apparition of God upon earth. 44

The virtues and works of the servant of God are clearly foretold: "Behold My servant, I will uphold Him: My elect, My soul delighteth in Him: I have given My spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor have respect

to person, neither shall His voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not be sad nor troublesome, till He set judgment in the earth. . . . Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens and stretched them out. ... I the Lord have called Thee in justice. . . . And I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: that Thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I the Lord [the One who is], this is My name: I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven things." 48

According to some rationalists, "servant of God" signifies the people of Israel as a whole. However, most present-day critics and all Catholic exegetes point out that in this prophecy the "servant of God" is clearly differentiated from the people of Israel. The words "The bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth," refer to a real person, distinct from the mass of the people. In fact, as St. Matthew tells us,* 6 Jesus commanded His apostles not to speak of His miracles so as not to arouse in the populace a craving for marvels, thereby applying the prophecy to Himself.

Isaias placed great stress on the Savior's sacrifice. He described it, even specifying certain details that were accomplished to the letter in the passion of Jesus: "I have given My body to the strikers, and My cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away My face from them that rebuked Me. The Lord God is My helper, therefore am I not confounded: therefore have I set My face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded." 47

"Behold My servant shall understand, He shall be exalted, and extolled, and shall be exceeding high. As many have been astonished at thee, so shall His visage be inglorious among men, and His form among the sons of men. . . . And there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and His look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed Him not.

Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows. 4 * . . . But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 49 Here we have the mystery of the Redemption in its entirety, both in its essential aspects and in some of its details.

"He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, and He shall not open His mouth. He was taken away [put to death] from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare His generation? because He is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of My people have I struck Him." 60

Not even the apostles, with the exception of John, realized at the moment of the passion and death of our Savior that it was for our salvation that He was thus offering Himself and dying on the cross.

This prophecy is so extraordinary that it has been called "the Passion according to Isaias." For it is the redemptive Passion in the most profound sense, in its supreme motive of mercy and justice. It is the Passion glimpsed in advance in its most inward aspects, as it was in a measure understood by Mary at the foot of the cross, by St. John, the holy women, the good thief, and the centurion. It is the Passion, infinite wellspring of grace, whose true nature was to remain hidden to the great majority of those who saw Jesus die on the cross.

Finally, after describing the humiliations and sufferings of the Messiah, the prophet told of His triumph and the conversion of many: "And the Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmity: if He shall lay down His life for sin, He shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in His hand [that is to say, the conversion of all peoples and the coming of the kingdom of God throughout the world]. . . . Because He hath delivered His soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and He hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors." 61 After the Resurrection and the Ascension St. Paul writes to the Hebrews: "He

*• Likewise the friends of Job looked upon him as a sinner.

[Christ] continueth forever. . . . Whereby . . . always living, to make intercession for us." 52

Isaias' prophecy comes to a close with a description of the glory of the New Jerusalem that attracts all nations by its light, its holiness, and its splendor: "All you that thirst, come to the waters. . . . And the nations that knew not thee shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found: call upon Him, while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way ... for He is bountiful to forgive. For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts." 83

"Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising." 54

Isaias even gives us a glimpse of the celestial Jerusalem: "Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day; ... but the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory. Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not decrease: for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." These texts anticipate what our Lord was so often to speak of as "eternal life." 68

As Father Condamin, S.J., says in Le Uvre d'lsa'ie: "In this magnificent poem Jerusalem is represented as the center of the universal kingdom, extending over all nations, a religious kingdom where everything converges toward the cult of Jehovah composed of the just and the saints, an eternal kingdom (55:3; 60:15, 19, 20; 61:8). The theologians are correct in seeing the realization of these promises in the Church founded by Jesus Christ, since the Servant of Jehovah is Jesus Christ and since the numerous posterity of the Servant, the multitudes of men given to Him at the price of His sufferings and

death, are to people the New Jerusalem (53:10-12; 54:1-3)." 86 Isaias is unquestionably the greatest of the prophets because of the importance of his revelations and the majesty of his style. He lived during one of the most troubled periods in the history of Israel, which at that time suffered much at the hands of the Assyrians. 87 As Ecclesiasticus (48:25-28) tells us: "Isaias . . . comforted the mourners in Sion. He showed what would come to pass forever, and secret things before they came." Isaias' style is both simple and sublime, perfectly natural, majestic and powerful. His judgments are concise, penetrating, and stress the salient points, dissipating illusions and emphatically drawing attention to the kingdom of God, giving a presage of the Messiah's greatness and of the majesty of divine glory.

Isaias also had true poetic genius. His vigor and imagination were equal to the great ideas he was called on to express. His poetic genius is particularly evident in the contrasts, the antitheses of his predictions. In his work, the prophecies themselves are always in poetry, some of it in verse; and very beautiful verse it is. His writing is the product of the noblest inspiration, in the truly supernatural sense of the word.

After Isaias, there was Jeremias who foretold the coming of the true pastor whom God would raise from the dead: 58 "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch : and a king shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." 89 Ezechiel also said in the name of the Lord: "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; . . . there shall be showers of blessing. . . . And they shall know that I the Lord their God am with them." 00 After the vision of the restoration of life to the dried bones, Ezechiel said: "And My s8 P. 361.

87 Isaias now appears to us clothed in glory, but during his life he was a simple man even though he came from a noble family (7:3), married only one woman (3:3), and became the father of two children (7:3; 8:3, 18). He was the friend and counselor of a much-harassed king, Ezechias; and after the invasion of Sennacherib (chap. 37 ff.), the prophet whose name was to be known to all succeeding generations retired into obscurity. According to a very ancient tradition he suffered martyrdom, being cut asunder with a WOO'den saw. St. Paul (Hcb. 11:37) speaks of the prophets who were thus put to death. A similar Jewish tradition holds that Jeremias was stoned to death.

servant David shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd." 61

Later Jesus would say: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth His life for His sheep. ... I am the good shepherd; and I know Mine and Mine know Me. As the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." 62 The universal kingdom of God announced by the prophets is realized in the Church militant, suffering, and triumphant.

Daniel saw the little stone flung down from on high that was to overthrow the colossus with clay feet, the symbol of idolatry. He saw, too, that "the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Then he explained the symbol by saying: "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and His kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand forever." 63 This was the announcement of the indefectibility of the Church.

Daniel also foresaw the power that would be given to the Son of man: "And He gave Him power and glory and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him: His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and His kingdom that shall not be destroyed. . . . The saints of the most high God shall take the kingdom: and they shall possess the kingdom forever and ever." 64

Finally, Daniel announced in a very mysterious manner in the prophecy of the seventy weeks the time of the coming of the Messiah (9:24.) : "Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished: and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed." The tradition of the Church has understood this verse to refer to the work accomplished in the world by the com-

ing of Jesus Christ. The seventy weeks are seventy periods of seven years, like those in Leviticus, 65 until the advent of Him who was to wash away the sins of the world.

Among the last prophets, Aggeus promised his contemporaries that the Messiah would enter the new temple they were then building. 66 Zacharias saluted the Messiah on Sion (2:8-13), the "Orient," who will raise up the true temple of the Lord, the king on his humble mount, on an ass, the Savior, the source of grace to Jerusalem. 67

Malachias, the last of the prophets, announced the forerunner who was to follow him four centuries later; 88 he spoke of the sacrifice that would replace all others: "From the rising of the sun even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation: for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." 89 Catholic tradition applies this verse to the sacrifice of the New Law, that is, the Eucharistic Sacrifice which perpetuated in substance the sacrifice of the Cross until the end of the world among all evangelized peoples.

Such was the progressive development of the divine revelations on the Messiah. From the very beginning of the period of the prophets this development was characterized by wonderful unity. All these prophecies announce the establishment of the monotheistic religion, the universal reign of the true God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who was to become the God of all the nations of the earth. The prophecies all announce the Messiah, the head of the kingdom of God, Savior of the world, who was to be of the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the tribe of Juda, the son of David according to the flesh and yet the Son of God and the priest par excellence whose painful sacrifice would wash away the sins of the world and would be an infinite source of grace to all souls of good will.

The Power of the Prophecies

Once we understand the true meaning of the divine testimony contained in the Old Testament, telling of the coming of the Savior, we can grasp some of the power of these predictions.

God alone by His foreknowledge could know long before the event (at least 400 years) and even in detail many free acts of the future involving the free will of a number of persons, the free will of the Messiah and that of His disciples and persecutors.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem 70 of the family of Juda and of David, 71 to preach the gospel to the poor and the meek ; 72 He opened the eyes of the blind, restored the infirm to health, and led to the light those that languished in darkness. 78 He showed the perfect way and was a teacher to the Gentiles. 74 He was a victim for the sins of the world. 78 He was both the stone of stumbling and the cornerstone. 76 He was also like the little stone which Daniel spoke of 77 that was to grow into a mountain and fill the earth.

He was rejected, misunderstood, 78 betrayed, sold, 79 struck in the face, mocked, covered with spittle, 80 given gall for drink. 81 He was pierced, His hands and His feet were nailed; 82 He died as a result of this brutal treatment, 83 and upon His vesture men cast lots.

He rose from the dead 84 the third day. 85 He ascended into heaven to take His place at the right hand of the Almighty. 80 Kings took up arms against Him. 87 But afterward the kings of many peoples throughout the earth adored Him. 88 And the calling of the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, foretold by the prophets, was accomplished.

Considering all these prophecies from our vantage point, after they have been abundantly fulfilled, we are aware of something truly remarkable about them.

71 Gen. 49:10; Isa. 7:13 f. "Ibid., 55:41 42:1-7. TT Dan. 2:35. 80 Isa. 50:6. 83 Dan. 9:26. 8 " Ibid.

Only God could forsee all these free acts by men, many of whom were in opposition to one another. Above all, only God could foresee the unquestionably extraordinary facts which depend on His liberty alone and are beyond the natural expectations of men, such as the birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem rather than elsewhere, or His triumph after the annihilation of His passion, or again the evangelization of the entire world, as known to the ancients, by a few poor Galilean fishermen.

Such numerous, confident, and extraordinary predictions cannot be natural phenomena. They surpassed human sagacity, and the natural aspirations of the Jews as well. For the Jews were much inclined to view even religious matters in a materialistic light, and they were little disposed to allow other peoples to participate in their religious privileges.

Nor can these predictions be fortuitous in nature. For blind chance, being accidental, cannot be the first cause of order in the world or of the great events which give history its noblest meaning. If it were, then order would spring from the absence of order, the harmony and beauty of great human lives would derive from an unintelligent cause, and what is more perfect would come from what is less perfect, without any reason whatever.

Lastly, the extraordinary holiness of Jesus which everyone — even Renan and the other rationalists — recognize, can come only from an intelligent and holy cause, and this cause must be God Himself by whom Jesus was sent forth.

Thus Pascal was able to write: "The greatest proofs of Jesus Christ are the prophecies. And God Himself furnished them most liberally. . . . For sixteen hundred years (that is, since Abraham) He raised up prophets; and for the next four hundred years He spread these prophecies, together with the entire Jewish people which held them in custody, throughout the world: 89 it was necessary not only that there be prophecies to make people believe, but that these prophecies be cliff used over the face of the earth so that everyone would accept the Gospel." 00

" During this period the Jews spread into Alexandria and Asia Minor, and from the luticr into Greece and the Roman Empire. »° Pensles, sect. 1 1, "Les Propheties."

Pascal, to show more clearly the power of these predictions, emphasizes the multiplicity of prophets who came at different epochs, in various conditions, and yet who were all in agreement with regard to what they were announcing.

"Had even one man written a book of prophecies about Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner [in which He was to be born, live, and die], and had Jesus Christ come in fulfillment of these prophecies, this would have been evidence of infinite power. But we have much more here: we have a succession of men over four thousand years [that is, since the beginning of the world] who came one after the other and constantly and without variation foretold the same advent. It was an entire people that announced it and that subsisted for four thousand years in order to bear witness as a body to the assurances they had of it, from which neither threats nor persecutions could deter them: this fact has a far greater significance."

The time foretold by Daniel in particular 81 could not have been humanly foreseen because of the complexity of the events involved. Pascal says: "It takes courage to predict one thing in so many ways: the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies (spoken of by Daniel), the end of the kingdom of Juda and the seventy weeks (or seven years) had to be simultaneous and to come before the destruction of the second temple [of Jerusalem] ." In fact, Daniel had said: "And after sixty-two weeks [to follow immediately upon the other seven] Christ shall be slain. . . . And a people with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." 92 As it actually happened, a few years after the death of our Lord, in the year 70, the Roman army led by Titus captured and destroyed Jerusalem.

It was also predicted that during this period, before the destruction of Jerusalem, many pagans would be taught and brought to a knowledge of the true God adored by the Jews, and that many would be converted. Pascal adds: "During the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, large numbers of pagans adored God and led an angelic life: young girls consecrated their virginity and their lives to God; men gave up their pleasures. What Plato was unable to persuade a few chosen and learned men to do, a secret power M Dan. 1:171 v:aoi n:a B. "Ibid., 9:16.

could succeed in urging upon a hundred million ignorant men by virtue of a few words."

In fact, between the time of Jesus' death and the year 70, the date of the destruction of Jerusalem, many notable events occurred including Pentecost, the conversion of St. Paul, his three apostolic voyages, the first council of Jerusalem, the foundation of the different Churches to which St. Paul addressed his letters, his own martyrdom and that of St. Peter.

Indeed, what was the cause of all this? Pascal continues: "The rich give up their possessions, children leave the comforts of their parents' homes for the austerity of the desert. What does all this mean? It is what was foretold long before. For two thousand years (that is, since Abraham) no pagan had adored the God of the Jews; and at the time predicted throngs of pagans turned to adore this one and only God. Temples were destroyed, kings bowed before the Cross. What does all this mean? It is the Spirit of God which has been poured out over the earth."

The prophet Joel, speaking in the name of the Lord, had announced: "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. . . . Moreover upon My servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth My Spirit." 98

And this is what really happened. As Pascal also tells us: "All the peoples of the world lived in infidelity and in concupiscence; the whole earth was aflame with charity. Princes left their honors; girls suffered martyrdom. Whence comes this power? It is that the Messiah has come. These are the effect and the signs of His coming."

Despite persecutions and passions in revolt, this all came to pass: "All the great of the earth unite [against Christ and the apostles], the scholars, the wise men, the kings. The former write, the latter condemn, still others kill [during three centuries]. And, notwithstanding all this opposition these simple and helpless people resist all these powers and conquer even these kings, these scholars, and these wise men, and wipe idolatry from the earth. And all this is accomplished by virtue of the force that had foretold it." 94

Through the lips of Ezechiel the Lord had announced the king-

dom of the Messiah: "I the Lord have brought down the high tree [idolatry], and exalted the low tree. ... I the Lord have spoken and have done it." 98

Pascal did not fail to note an objection that comes naturally to mind with respect to these prophecies: "If all this was so clearly foretold to the Jews, why did they not believe it? And why were they not exterminated for resisting something so evident?"

"I answer," he says: "First of all, it was predicted that they would not believe something so clear and that they would not be exterminated. Secondly, nothing brings greater glory to the Messiah} for it was not enough that prophets should exist; it was necessary that their prophecies be preserved without suspicion." That is how everything came to pass. "The Jews, by killing Jesus in order not to accept Him as the Messiah, gave Him the crowning mark of the Messiah. And by continuing to misjudge Him they became the irreproachable witnesses [speaking against themselves though not wishing to be conscious of it] ; and by killing Him and continuing to deny Him, they accomplished the prophecies." 98

In fact, both David and Isaias had announced the Servant of God would be "despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity. . . . And we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted." 97

Yet the prophets announced not only His sufferings and His death of expiation, but also His elevation and the establishment by of a spiritual kingdom of God over all peoples. This has been : plished by the evangelization of the whole world.

Thus, from all eternity God foresaw the sin of the Jews, but He did not will it in any way. He merely permitted it for the sake of a greater good, for the sake of the heroic patience of the Savior. This divine foresight suppressed neither the free will of Jesus nor that of His persecutors.

Two conclusions come forth from all this. The expectation for the Messiah was distorted, given a materialistic turn by the national prejudices of the Jews. But let us not give a materialistic interpreta-

M Pascal, he. cil.

tion to the Gospel, let us not lower it to our level; but by our fidelity let us rise toward its level, let us allow divine grace to raise us toward the Gospel, and let us truly put it into practice.

The penetrating force of the prophecies must produce its effects not only upon our minds, but also upon our hearts and souls. We must show by our own lives that Christ has really come into the world, that He is the Savior, that His regenerative action is ever at work in the world and must continue until the end of time, just as in the early days of Christianity.

The divine personality of jesus

TTF WE would glimpse at the intimate life of our Lord as it has been JL from all eternity, we must pause and contemplate the mystery of His divine personality.

We have seen with what reserve He at first manifested Himself so as not to arouse a wholly external enthusiasm in a crowd craving for marvels and for earthly prosperity. Now we can understand a little better why in the beginning He showed Himself under the veil of the parables as the Sower of divine truth, as the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep, as the only son of the master of the vineyard who was sent after the servants had been ill-treated and killed by the husbandmen. In the last-mentioned parable He announcd that He would be put to death.

In the course of His ministry He gradually showed Himself to be equal to the divine Lawgiver of Sinai, since He came to perfect the divine law. When He cured the paralytic He claimed the power to remit sins, to remake or regenerate men's souls: "Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you."⁵

Finally, as His passion approached, He declared more openly the fact of His divine sonship. He affirmed it before the Pharisees with an authority that can belong only to God. He who was meek and humble of heart did not fear to tell them: "Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am." He declared: "I and the Father are one." "I am the way and the truth and the life." 2 He did not merely say, as had the prophets, "I have received the truth that I might transmit it to you." He said: "I am the truth and the life," words that God alone can rightfully use.

Such was Jesus' teaching with respect to His divinity and it was so understood by the apostles. St. Peter saw in Him "the Author of life." 3 St. Paul spoke of Him as "the Son of His [God's] love, . . . who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature," in whom "were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible"; 4 the Son who being equal with God the Father "humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross." 6 St. John the Baptist looked upon Him as "the Lamb of God . . . who taketh away the sin of the world." 8 And St. John the Evangelist called Him the Word made flesh: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

Thus the Church merely repeats the testimony that Jesus gave of Himself when she professes in the Creed that He is "the only-begotten Son of God, light of light, true God of true God, . . . being of one substance with the Father," and that by Him "all things were made" (Nicene Creed).

Such in brief is our Lord's testimony about His divine sonship. With the help of theology, let us meditate on the meaning and scope of this testimony. Let us also ask God to give us the grace of contemplating this mystery. For in this contemplation our souls must find their daily nourishment and they must live by it more and more with each passing day.

In order to penetrate even a little into the mystery of the divine personality of Jesus, we must understand the fittingness of the Incarnation with respect to both God and man. This will give us much light.

Jesus has claimed for Himself the properties of divine nature and those of human nature as well. He has shown Himself to us as truly a man, who was born in time at Bethlehem and died on the cross. At the same time He had told us: "I am the way and the truth and the life." I am the truth and the life in their fullness.

How can one and the same person have two natures that are infinitely apart, divine nature and human nature? We have perhaps ceased to look upon this with astonishment, the holy astonishment

of contemplation. There is, of course, another form of astonishment that leads to negation.

Incredulity objects: A God made flesh would be no longer God or man, but a fabulous being, a myth, half-God, half-man. He would have a hybrid nature, neither divine nor human (this was Eutyches' error) .

The incredulous ask: How could the infinite God who governs the world be in person in the body of a helpless little child? An infinite God in the womb of a virgin! Thus does human wisdom speak, seeing only darkness in supernatural truths that are far too lofty and too mighty for it.

Indeed, the union of humanity and divinity in the person of Jesus remains an incomprehensible mystery for the believer, and it will be definitely explained only in heaven. Yet the light of faith shows us even here below that on the one hand God tends to communicate Himself as much as possible to man and that, on the other hand, man tends to be united as much as possible to God. When we place these two truths side by side, we begin to glimpse from afar the union of humanity and divinity in the person of the Savior. We shall strive to develop these two points in what follows.

God Has Given Himself in Person to Humanity

God, on the one hand, tends to communicate Himself as much as possible to man. Why? Because God is the Sovereign Good, and goodness is essentially communicative. The good naturally tends to pour itself out, to share the riches within it. T And the more perfect a good is, the more it tends to communicate itself fully and intimately. 8 The sun sheds about it light and heat. Plants and animals having reached adulthood give life to other plants and animals. At a higher level, the artist and the scholar, who have conceived ideas, strive to make them known. The apostle who loves goodness passionately, desires to communicate it to others. Goodness is fundamentally communicative} the higher its level the more abundantly and in-

• Cf. St. ThpOMU, Contra Qenlet, Hk. IV, chap. 1 1, no. U timately it gives itself. Whereas the friendship of a superficial soul remains totally external and a matter of the affections, the friendship of a noble soul is the generous gift of its innermost self.

Thus, since God is the Sovereign Good, it is highly fitting that He communicate Himself in the highest degree possible to His creatures, both intimately and fully. But this divine communication, fitting as it is, remains free — something that the Neo-Platonists did not understand. It is in no way necessary to the infinite beatitude of God. For He finds His beatitude in the possession of His own sovereign goodness, which is infinitely superior to all created goods and cannot be increased by them. 9 God created all things freely. At the dawn of creation it was through His goodness that He gave His creatures being, life, intelligence. Through a wholly gratuitous love He raised men and angels to the supernatural life of grace, to a participation in His own intimate life. Is this the limit of what God can do?

Why could He not give Himself in person? Is it not the peculiar quality of friendship to inspire us to give our innermost selves? Why could not the Word of God give Himself in person to a privileged soul, in such a manner that the Word, this soul and its body would form only one person, a single self, that of the Word made flesh, in whom would dwell divine perfections and human properties, a person who could truthfully say: "I who speak to you am the way, the truth, and the life."

Thus in a marvelous manner would be realized the principle that God, the Sovereign Good, tends to communicate Himself to man in the highest degree possible. Goodness is essentially communicative, and the nobler it is the more abundantly and intimately it gives itself. This is the most elevated aspect of the mystery of which we are speaking.

The Full Development of the Human Personality and Union with God

The unbeliever objects: But then, since Jesus would possess no human personality, He would not be truly a man. This was the ob-

Si jection once raised by Nestorius and his disciples. Some modern rationalists expand this view by saying that human personality consists primarily in the consciousness a man has of himself and in the liberty by reason of which he is his own master. 10 Thus, if Jesus did not have a human personality, — and this is what the Church teaches — then He had no human consciousness of Himself nor any human liberty, but only a divine consciousness and a divine liberty. Hence, they claim, He was not truly a man, and having no human liberty He was powerless either to merit or to obey. If on the other hand, these rationalists add, it is held that He had both a human consciousness and human liberty coexistent with a divine consciousness and a divine liberty, then it must be said that there were in Him two personalities, two persons, doubtless very intimately united by knowledge and love, but none the less two persons and not a single person. Therefore, the rationalists conclude, Jesus is only the greatest of the saints who was intimately united to God in a truly extraordinary degree; but He cannot be called God. In short, if personality is formally constituted by consciousness or liberty, in order for Jesus to be only one person, He could have only one consciousness and one liberty. Thus He could not be at one and the same time truly God and truly a man.

This objection is based on a superficial and false conception of personality, and it leaves out of consideration the very intimate relationship between the full development of a human personality and union with God. We have to lay very much stress on this matter, for it is the second aspect of the mystery of Christ's divine personality.

To understand how Jesus, without having a human personality, a human ego, can be truly a man, and how His humanity is glorified and not lessened by the divine personality of the Word, we must consider for a moment the nature of personality in general. This would be an easy enough task had not so many errors piled up regarding this matter. We must therefore clear them away so as to preserve the true meaning of the words "I" and "me" which everybody uses.

With St. Thomas we must ask ourselves what is personality, ami rise progressively from the lowest degrees of human personality up

"Gllnther and Ro»mini erred in thui viewin B Christ'i penonality. Cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 1917.

to the most perfect. We shall then be able to glimpse through the twilight of faith at the personality of the Savior, far above that of a St. Paul, a St. Peter, or a St. John.

Personality is a positive thing. It is that which makes every being endowed with reason an independent subject who can say "I," "me"; and which makes him a being who belongs to himself, his own master sui juris; and by reason of which are attributed to him a reasonable nature, being, and ability to carry on the operations in which his activity consists. In this sense it is ordinarily said that Peter and Paul are persons, two distinct persons. Each of them is an independent subject and a totality to which we attribute human nature, existence, activity. Each of them says "I," "me." This fact differentiates the person as a primary subject of attribution from all that is fitting to him, and the person cannot be attributed to another subject. We say: "Peter is a man, Peter exists, Peter speaks well." But we cannot attribute Peter to another subject. He himself is the primary subject of attribution existing and functioning as a separate entity. 11

It follows that our personality, or that by which every being endowed with reason is an independent subject, an entity to which its nature, its existence, and its operations are attributed, cannot be formally constituted by anything which is attributed to it as a part. Our basic personality can therefore not be formally constituted either by our body, or even by our soul, that is, by either of the two parts of the nature which is attributed to us, nor by any one of our faculties or of our acts.

It is therefore clear that our basic personality, from the ontological point of view, cannot be formally constituted by our consciousness. Consciousness of the ego, the "me," is not the ego, the "me." The former presupposes and knows the latter, but does not constitute it. Nor does our liberty formally constitute our personality. It is merely a psychological and moral manifestation of our basic personality, the latter belonging to the ontological order, or the order of being. For the act presupposes being: in order to act, one must first be.

Thus our personality is more fundamental than consciousness and u Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.a, q.4, a.i (Cajetnn'a commentary, no». 6-8)1 q-"7i a. 1 f.

liberty. Personality is what makes each one of us an independent subject to which is attributed all that is fitting to him. And if we can attribute to Jesus as to a single independent subject two intelligences (one divine and the other human) and two liberties, it will follow that there are not in Him two persons, but only one. 12

All this contains a great mystery which we cannot understand. But it is not unintelligible or absurd. On the contrary, we can progressively rise to it, starting from the lowest degrees of the human personality. It is easy enough to see that from the psychological and moral point of view a human personality grows in the measure that it tends to become more intimately united to God, obliterating itself before Him. This union in self-effacement, far from being servitude, is a glorification. 13 If we study this fact carefully, we shall get a glimpse of what is realized in Christ, not only from the psychological and moral points of view, but from the point of view of being or of the basic personality.

Whereas God, as we were saying earlier, tends to give Himself as much as possible to man, the perfect man tends to become as closely united as possible to God.

Some have thought that personality develops in the measure that man becomes more and more independent in his existence and in his action from all that is not himself, and in the measure that others depend upon him. In this sense, the personalities of Napoleon and Goethe have been glorified.

Such a concept leaves out of account the fact that our personality

« When we say with St. Thomas that our personality is that by which every reasonable being is an independent subject to which is attributed his nature, his existence, and his operations, we are not conceding that what formally constitutes our personality is our existence. Existence is a contingent attribute of every created person, and it is not what makes a person a primary subject of attribution. No created person is his own existence, he merely has existences in this respect he differs from God. The Thomists say: Persona Petri, imo fersonalitas Petri, non est suum esse, sed realiter dislinguitur ab eo. And St. Thomas himself wrote (Ilia, q.i 7) a. 2 ad i): "Being is consequent upon person, ... as upon that which has being." Cajetan has shown with much penetration (In Illam, q.4. a. 2, no. 8) that without this notion of personality we cannot explain the truth of the following judgments: Peter is a man, Peter exists, but he is not existence. From this it also follows that in Jesus there is only one person, a single subject, and one existence (Ilia, q. 17, a. 2) and that He was truly able to say: "I am the truth and the life," that is, being itself.

consists especially in independence with regard not to all things, but to those which are inferior to us and which we dominate by our reason and our liberty, such as the independence of the soul which can subsist after the dissolution of the body.

When we glorify certain human personalities that have disregarded the rights of God, we are forgetting that our special independence with regard to inferior things is based on the very strict dependence of our souls with regard to the superior things, that is, Truth and Goodness, and in the last analysis with regard to God. If our reason rules space and time, the things of the senses, it is because it was created to know God, the supreme Truth. If our liberty conquers the attraction of the things of the senses, it is because it was created to prefer God to them, and to love Him, the universal and total Good above all else.

From these facts derives a noble and neglected law, namely, that the full development of the personality consists in becoming more and more independent of inferior things, but also in becoming ever more closely dependent upon Truth, Goodness, that is, upon God Himself.

False personality, on the contrary, consists in a so-called independence with regard to everything, including God Himself, to whom obedience is refused. This false personality scorns the so-called passive virtues of humility, patience, and gentleness. It is nothing but insubordination and pride, and reaches its fullest development in the devil whose motto is: Non serviam ("I will not obey")- As a matter of fact, it leads to the worst of all servitudes. True personality, on the other hand, is realized in the saints, but particularly in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many false ideas arise about the development of personality because the mystery of the Incarnation is no longer contemplated and because it is forgotten that the full development of the human personality consists in being effaced before that of God, by becoming as united as possible to Him. We must consider this fact most carefully that we may begin to understand how it is that the humanity of Jesus is in no sense diminished because in Him human personality has made way for the divine personality of the Word. This is the culminating

S6 point of the lofty law: Human personality grows by effacing itself before that of God.

Indeed, wherein lies the superiority of the good man over the libertine? It is that the good man conforms his will to God's. Whereas the libertine is crushed by adversity, the good man grows with it, ever conforming his will more closely to God's. Whence comes the superiority of the man of genius over the ordinary worker? He is inspired by God; he is closely dependent upon a superior inspiration.

Nobler than the man of genius, a higher and more powerful personality has manifested itself through the ages: that of the saints. Personality is measured by the profound and lasting influence it can exert. Now, the influence of a saint is not limited to his own country or his own time. In a sense it extends to the whole Church in a sphere superior to space and time.

For almost two thousand years millions of souls have been living by the epistles of St. Paul, as if these pages had been written yesterday, whereas almost nobody, except for a few scholars, reads the letters of Seneca. For the past seven centuries thousands of religious have lived by the thought of a St. Bernard, a St. Dominic, a St. Francis of Assisi, of a St. Catherine of Siena and a St. Claire. How is it that these saints have exerted such a tremendous influence on souls? Whence comes their prodigious personality that raises them above the limits of their country and their time?

The secret is that in a sense they were one with God. They had died to themselves in order to live for God. No one but the saints has fully understood that human personality can truly grow only by dying to itself so that God may reign and live ever increasingly within it. That is why the saints, and only the saints, — as St. Catherine of Siena tells us — declared war on their own egos, the ego composed of self-love and pride. They have sought to live more and more not for themselves but for God, and consequently to die to their own judgment and to their own will, in order to live solely by the thought and the will of God. They have willed that God should be their alter ego, more intimate than their own ego. They have willed to become the servants of God, just as the hand is the servant of the will. They have willed to become genuinely adopted sons and friends

THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS R 7 of God, to the point of living continually for Him and of orienting the basic tendencies of their thought and of their will always toward Him. At certain moments of union they were able to say with St. Paul: "I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me." 14 The full development of human personality consists in losing itself in that of God. 15

And yet even the greatest saint remains a being distinct from God, a creature. He has indeed substituted divine ideas for his human ideas, and the divine will for his own will, but he is none the less a being distinct from God. Even our Blessed Lady during moments of most intimate contemplation remains a creature.

At the summit of holiness we find our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him God has given Himself in person to the greatest extent possible to humanity, and humanity has been personally united to God to the greatest extent possible, to the point of forming a single ego with the Word of God. In Jesus Christ, God's ideas have been substituted for human ideas, and the divine will has fully subordinated the human will. But that is not all. Something far more fundamental has taken place. At the root of the intelligence and of the will, at the root of the soul itself, in the order of being, the divine person of the Word has assumed the humanity of Jesus. That is why He could say: "I who speak to you, I am the way, the truth, and the life." "The Father and I are one." 18

15 This superior impersonality of the saints is the fruit of their interior life. We can see it in St. John the Baptist, who wished ever more ardently to efface himself so that our Lord might be increasingly acknowledged. Likewise St. Thomas Aquinas retired more and more into the background of his books so that only the light and the truth might shine out of them. By this self-effacement the saints make place for God, and at certain moments it is clear that it is God who lives and speaks in them.

18 We can see here the profound difference between personality and individuality. Individuality derives from matter, which is the principle of individuation. Thus two men are two distinct individuals because in each of them human nature has been received in a determinate portion of matter, at a given point in space and in time. Likewise two dropj of water, similar as they may be, are two because the nature of water is received in each in a given portion of matter and in a given quantity. Individuality, deriving as it does from matter, is thus a reality of a very low order.

Personality, on the contrary, is something very lofty. For it is that by which every reasonable being is an independent subject, sui juris, the subject of existence and of his operations (Ilia, q.a, a. 2 ad 2). This fact is true not only of man but also of the angels and of the divine persons of the Blessed Trinity. Each of the three divine persons is a distinct *'I" even

That is why Jesus has a unique manner of pronouncing the word "I," a word that the saints rarely use except to accuse themselves of their faults. They know that all the good we do is accomplished through the power of the Lord, whereas evil comes only from ourselves. They know that our egos, composed of self-love, are, as Pascal has said, hateful, whereas the ego of Jesus is adorable: It is the ego of the Word made flesh. 17 He alone has been able to say: "He who loves his father and his mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." No one but God can speak thus.

How is it that Jesus infinitely surpasses all the saints whose model, light, strength, and life He is? It is because in Him, in the strictest meaning of the words, human personality, the human ego, has been replaced from the first moment of His conception and for all eternity by the divine personality of the Word.

In Jesus Christ there is no human personality, no human ego, and yet He is truly a man. His humanity, far from being lessened by personal union with the Word, is glorified by this union. From its union with the Word, Christ's humanity receives, as we shall see, an innate, substantial, uncreated holiness. Similarly, our imagination is nobler than that of the animals because it is united to our intelligence. In us imagination serves a superior faculty, and it is elevated by this subthough all three possess the same indivisible nature, fully communicated by the Father to the Son and by Them to the Holy Ghost: Goodness is fundamentally diffusive of itself, and the more intimately and fully diffusive it is, the higher the order to which it belongs. (Cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gentcs, Bk. IV, chap, jl.) It follows that in Jesus the personality, which is that of the Word, is uncreated, whereas in Him, as in ourselves, individuality derives from matter, the principle of individuation, by virtue of which His body is a specific body rather than some other and occupies a given portion of space rather than any other. Thus individuality and personality are quite distinct: to develop one's individuality often means to become ever more egoistical; whereas the real development of personality is to be found, as we have seen, in an ever more intimate union with God.

17 Here we get the full meaning and scope of the following words of St. Thomas (Ilia, q.2, a. 2, ad 2): "Personality pertains of necessity to the dignity of a thing, and to its perfection so far as it pertains to the dignity and perfection of that thing to exist by itself (which is understood by the word person). Now it is a greater dignity to exist in something nobler than oneself than to exist by oneself. Hence the human nature of Christ lias a greater dignity than ours, from this very fact that in us, bemg existent by itself, it has its own personality, but in Christ it exists in the Person of the Word. 1 hus . . . the sensitive part of man, on account of its union with the nobler form which perfects the species, is more noble than in brutes, where it is itself the form which perfects.

ordination, as is strikingly clear in artists of genius. It is the glory of the inferior to "serve" and thus to contribute to the realization of an end superior to itself. This has been understood by those who have associated the words "servitude" and "greatness." "To serve God is to reign," and no creature ever served Him so well as did the holy humanity of our Savior.

Innumerable corollaries could be deduced from this doctrine. Let us merely mention the more important ones.

The Hypostatic Union The Most Intimate Union after That of the Trinity

We can see that this personal or hypostatic union (that is to say, the union in a single person or in a single subject of divinity and humanity) is not merely a moral union born of the conformity of the human will with the will of God through grace and charity. Indeed, this moral union with God, which exists especially among the saints, can become most intimate. In the Old Testament, Abraham was called the friend of God, but he remained infinitely removed from God. The same holds for the apostles and for the greatest saints.

Nor is this personal or hypostatic union a natural and essential union, for it does not constitute a single nature or essence. The two natures remain completely distinct, although intimately united. As a matter of fact, divine nature is absolutely immutable and cannot convert or change itself into a created nature; and if it could, then Jesus would no longer be truly God. On the other hand, human nature cannot be converted or changed into divine nature; and if it could, Jesus would then not be truly a man. Nor can the two natures enter into the composition of a third nature, for this would presuppose a modification or alteration of divine nature, which is absolutely immutable, and which cannot be the incomplete part of a whole that is more perfect than itself.

The personal or hypostatic union of divinity and humanity in Jesus docs not in any sense involve the confounding of the two natures. Likewise, in ourselves the union of body and soul docs not involve any confusion of the two. Within limits we might make the following comparison and say that, just as our body is dominated, vivified by our soul, and will be reanimated by it on the day of resurrection, thus in Jesus human nature is completely dominated by God, possessed by the Word. 18 Christ is not a fabulous being, demi-god and halfman. He is true God and true man, without any pantheistic confusion of the two natures united in His divine person.

Thus are supernaturally realized in this sublime mystery God's desire to give Himself as much as possible to man, and man's yearning to be united as much as possible to God.

This is the strongest and most intimate union possible, after the union of the Blessed Trinity. In the Blessed Trinity the three persons are necessarily one and the same divine nature. In Jesus it is a fact that the two natures belong to the same person. This personal or hypostatic union, which constitutes the God-man, is incomparably more intimate than that of our soul with our body. Whereas the body and the soul are separated at death, the Word is never separated either from the soul or from the body which He has assumed. 19 The union is immutable and indissoluble for all eternity.

We do not contemplate enough this ineffable mystery of merciful Love. The sublimity of the mystery derives from the very fact that two natures infinitely remote from each other, one supreme and the other lowly, are so intimately united. Beauty results from unity shining through variety. When the diverse elements are infinitely removed from each other and yet intimately united, we have not merely beauty but the truly sublime. Only divine love is strong enough thus to associate supreme riches and human nature, with all the sufferings which can overwhelm it.

When we make the way of the cross and contemplate Jesus on His painful journey, bowed beneath the weight of our sins, let us remember that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and through Him

18 Yet there is a notable difference: whereas our body and our soul are the two parti of our human nature, the humanity and the divinity of Jesus are not parts of a single nature, but they are united in the same person.

10 Even when the body of Jesus was separated from His soul after His death, it was not separated from the person of the Word. There remained on the cross and in the holy •epulcher the sacred cadaver of the Word made flesh. Cf. St. Thomas, Ills, q.50, a.».

we shall go toward this ocean of divine life where He alone can lead us, by giving us the grace of perseverance.

We love to contemplate the sea and the mountains, and to gaze long at them in admiration. Why do we not contemplate more often this immense mystery of the Incarnation, which brings us salvation? Very simple souls, molded by the Gospel and the liturgy, attain this contemplation, as has happened quite often in the countryside of France, Spain, and Italy.

When we enter a church we often do no more than ask for a special favor for ourselves and for our dear ones. Should we not remember sometimes to thank God for having given us our Lord? The Incarnation surely merits a special act of thanksgiving. This thanksgiving which must begin here below will be continued by the saints for all eternity. This will be the canticle of the elect about which we read in the Apocalypse: "To Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honor, and glory, and power, forever and ever." 20

A soul that thanks God daily, in the intimacy of meditation, for having given us His Son, is certain to attain to a high degree of union with God. Any humble soul, even one lacking in human culture, can thank God for the infinite gift He has given us.

ERSONALITY

In What It Is Formally Constituted

EVERY theologian knows that personality cannot be formally constituted either by consciousness or by liberty. Consciousness of self presupposes the existence of the self of which one is conscious, but it does not constitute the self. Liberty is also a psychological and moral manifestation of the fundamental personality, to which it is attributed and which it therefore presupposes. Persons are free, but it is not liberty that constitutes them formally. Therefore it is possible for Jesus to be a single person, even though there are in Him two consciousnesses and two liberties, one divine and the other human.

Basic personality is not of the order of the act, as we have said, but of the order of being, for action presupposes being. In order to act, one must first of all be.

This basic personality is, according to natural reason or common sense, that by which every reasonable being is a primary subject of attribution who can say "I," "me," and to whom is attributed all that belongs to him, whereas he himself is attributable to no other person. Thus, Peter and Paul are persons. It is commonly said: Peter is a man, Peter exists, Peter is good, and so on. In each of these affirmative judgments the verb "to be" expresses the real identity of the subject of the proposition and of the attribute. When we say "Peter is a man," we are in fact saying that Peter is the same being who is a man, who exists, and so on.

How can the real identity of the subject and the attribute of each of these propositions be safeguarded? This requires that there exist in Peter, beneath the diversity of the qualities which are attributed to him, something that is "one," that is identical and real, something that formally constitutes him as the primary subject of attribution of all that is fitting to him. That is his basic personality in the ontological order, or the order of being.

According to some, this personality is something negative: Peter would, according to them, be a person because his humanity would not depend either radically or actually upon a divine person, or because it had not been assumed, as was the humanity of Jesus, by a divine person.⁶

Many theologians have rejected this opinion for a number of reasons: 1. What formally constitutes that by which each of us is a primary subject of attribution cannot be something negative. If dependence is a positive thing, independence is all the more a positive perfection, even though we express it in negative terms. In fact, the independence of God in the realm of being is the supreme perfection, positive in the highest degree.

1. The natural personality of each one of us cannot be defined by the absence of a wholly supernatural and exceptional grace, that is, by the absence of the grace of hypostatic union. It is not the absence of a supernatural gift which constitutes the realities of the natural order. If this were so, it would follow that the realities of the natural order are not naturally knowable and definable.

2. In the Blessed Trinity there are three personalities which are not negative but positive realities, and which must have an analogical similarity with created personality; otherwise we could not know them.

3. The real identity affirmed by such judgments as "Peter is a man, Peter exists, Peter is good" cannot be constituted and explained by something negative. There must be something positive that constitutes the subject as such, fundamentally identical in itself, under the diversity of qualities which are attributed to it.

This identity is not assured, either, by the portion of matter which exists in each of us. For, if this were the case my body, inasmuch as it is this individual body constituted by this particular portion of matter, or my hand, inasmuch as it is this individual hand, would each be primary subjects of attribution. Now this is not true at all, for both my body and my hand are attributed to me as parts of myself. And with respect to Christ, the individuation of His humanity by matter is infinitely removed from His uncreated personality.

5. Moreover, those who maintain that personality is a negative thing usually refuse to admit that there is, prior to the consideration of our mind, a distinction between every created essence and its existence, between every created person and its existence. Now it is true, prior to the consideration of our mind, that the humanity in us is not its existence and the person of Peter is not his existence, for God alone is His existence. God alone has been able to say: "I am who am." And it is because He is God that Jesus was able to say: "I am the truth and the life." No created person is existence ; it merely has existence, which it has received. Of themselves a created essence and a created person are merely susceptible of receiving existence.

6. Those who hold that personality is something negative generally also refuse to admit that in Jesus there is only one existence. Now, as St. Thomas has well shown, the unity of existence follows from the unity of the person. 2 If the humanity of Jesus had its own existence, then it would have in the order of being its ultimate actuality or perfection independently of the Word, and the hypostatic union would be merely an accidental union, so it seems. There is in this view the danger of unconsciously returning to Nestorianism, which held that there were in Christ two accidentally united persons.

For these various reasons most theologians admit that personality consists in something positive. But there remains some divergence of opinion among them.

Some theologians hold that personality is a substantial mode which presupposes existence. 8 The reason for this view is that they, like those mentioned above, make no real distinction (that is, no distinction prior to the consideration of our mind) between created essence and existence. As a result, the substantial mode which constitutes human personality presupposes not only human essence or nature, but the existence which is identified with the essence.

• Cf. Suarez, Dhfut. Mtiafh., di.p. J4. «'••*» D ' '«carnal\om, diip. 11, icct. J.

The Thomists answer this objection as they did the preceding opinion: Before the consideration of our mind the humanity in us is not existence, for God alone is His existence. Hence the distinction between the created essence and existence does not follow the consideration of our mind, but on the contrary precedes it. That is to say, it is a real distinction. Indeed it is not a spatial distinction of things which can be separated one from the other. Yet it is a distinction which is real, infinitesimal as it may appear, for it is anterior to the consideration of our mind. The so-called distinction of reason follows the consideration of our mind. And there is no middle ground between the real distinction and the distinction of reason, for a distinction either does or does not precede the consideration of our mind.

Thus personality does not presuppose existence, but the opposite is true, as St. Thomas says: "Being is consequent upon person, . . . as upon that which has being." 4 Existence is attributed to it as to a primary subject of attribution, which is itself not attributable to any other.

In addition, since existence is in all things the ultimate actuality or perfection in the order of being, all that happens to a substance already endowed with its own existence happens to it accidentally. Hence, if Jesus' humanity were to have its own existence, the substantial mode subsequent to existence (spoken of by the second group of theologians) would be only accidentally fitting to it. Thereupon the hypostatic union would become accidental, bringing us unwittingly back toward Nestorianism.

A third opinion holds, in opposition to the two preceding ones, that personality is indeed something positive that does not presuppose existence but is identified with existence, which in turn is distinct from the created essence. Thus Peter's personality would be identified with his created existence, and the personality of Jesus with the uncreated existence of the Word. 8

Although this opinion is very similar to the doctrine of St. Thomas, it still differs from it on a significant point. St. Thomas wrote: "Esse

non est de ratione suppositi." 6 On the contrary, personality is what formally constitutes the person.

He also wrote: "Being is consequent upon nature, not as upon that which has being, but as upon that whereby a thing is: whereas it is consequent upon person or hypostasis, as upon that which has being." 7 Being is consequent upon nature, by reason of which Peter is a man; and it is consequent upon the person of Peter, which exists.

Thus if, according to St. Thomas, existence follows the person, it does not formally constitute the person.

It is even absolutely impossible for existence, which is a contingent attribute of every created person, to formally constitute the latter as a primary subject of attribution. That would amount to saying that the personality of Peter is his existence. Now, God alone is His existence. As the Thomists say: "Persona Petri (imo personalitas Petri, qua formaliter constituitur ejus persona) non est suum esse."

Prior to the consideration of our mind, this proposition is true: "Peter is not his own existence." "Only God is His own existence." St. Thomas says: "An angel is composed of esse and quod est." 8 "Quod est" is the person who exists. There is a real distinction not only between created essence and existence, but between the created person (understood to be fully constituted by its personality) and existence.

Likewise the identification of created personality with existence leads to the denial of the real distinction between created essence and existence, a distinction which is none the less maintained by the partisans of this opinion and which is also a fundamental doctrine of Thomism.

It may be objected: But Peter is not his humanity either, and yet he is not really distinct from it. Why then, since he is not his existence, would he be really distinct from his humanity?

8 Quodlibet, II, q.2, a. 4: Esse non est de ratione stiff ositi creati. On the contrary, "per- «onalitas est de ratione pcrsonae seu suppositi rationalis naturae." Moreover, in the Treatise on the Incarnation, St. Thomas docs not deal with the unity of existence in Christ (Ilia, q. 17) until he has dealt with the hypostatic union and considered its consequences. Thm consequence (i.e., est unum esse in C/iristo) is therefore not the formal constituent of the personal or hypostatic union of the two naturci.

We answer: Peter is really distinct from his humanity, just as the whole is distinct from its essential part, and he is all the more distinct from his existence, which is in him not an essential part but a contingent attribute.

Prior to any consideration of our mind, the following propositions are true: Peter is not his human nature. Peter is not his existence. In fact, Peter is not his human nature, for it is only the essential part of all that he is. The part, even the essential part, is not the whole. Therefore it is false to say: Peter is his nature. The verb "to be" expresses the real identity of the subject and the attribute, and even the essential part is not really identical with the whole.

Furthermore, Peter is not his existence either, for his existence is for him only a contingent attribute. In fact, Peter could very well not exist. Existence is in him neither an essential attribute nor what formally constitutes his person, since his person is merely susceptible of existing. In all created persons existence is a contingent attribute which, because it is a contingent attribute, cannot formally constitute the person as a primary subject of attribution.

In addition, as St. Thomas says, in God there are three personalities and only one existence: "The three persons have merely one being." 9 Thus the divine persons are not formally constituted by existence; hence they would not be analogically similar to human personality if the latter were formally constituted by existence.

If then personality is (1) something positive, (2) which does not presuppose existence, and (3) is not identical with existence, what is it?

The answer is, as the Thomists teach in general 10 and as Cajetan teaches in particular: Personality, according to natural reason or to common sense, is in every reasonable being that by which he is the primary subject of attribution of individuated reasonable nature, of existence, of accidents. 11

In other words, personality is required in him to safeguard the real identity affirmed by all of the following propositions: Peter is a

10 Cf. also Jacques Maritain, Les degrfs du savoir, pp. 845-53. u In 111am, q.4, a. a, noi. 6-1 1.

man, Peter is existent, Peter is good, that is, Peter is the same being or subject who is a man, who is existent, who is good. Beneath the variety of essential and contingent qualities that are attributed to him, there must be in him something real, positive, identical, which is not any of the parts attributed to him and which formally constitutes him as the primary subject of attribution or as the whole. Thus what formally constitutes personality cannot be either individuated nature or existence or consciousness or liberty. It is what constitutes the primary subject of attribution as subject (supposition). In Latin it is called "subsistentia," and with respect to beings endowed with reason, "personalitas."

This conception which seems too abstract and too subtle for some minds is merely, as Cajetan remarks, the simple explanation of what natural and common sense tell us. This is of major importance. 12

That by which every reasonable being is the primary subject of attribution is manifestly of the substantial order and not of the accidental order. It is the term in which are united individuated nature, 12 Cajetan (In Illam, q.4, a. 2, no. 8) explains admirably how it is necessary to go from the nominal definition of the person, conceded by common sense, to the real definition which he defends and which is nothing but the metaphysical explanation of the nominal definition, an explanation by means of a simple conceptual analysis, without reasoning. It suffices to search for the profound meaning of the personal pronouns: I, me, thou, he. Aristotle had already noted (Metafh., Bk. V, chap. 8) that the so-called primary substance is the primary subject of attribution, in opposition to the so-called secondary substance, which is the nature of the subject. For example, Peter is a primary substance, or more exactly, he is more than the humanity that is attributed to him as his nature. St. Thomas has clarified this notion of the person in his explanation of the mystery of the Incarnation (Ilia, q. z, a.2 S q.4, a. 2; q.17, a. 1 f.) by showing, as we have seen, that personality is in every reasonable being that by which he is a primary subject of attribution of individuated nature, of existence, and of operations. And Cajetan adds (In Warn, q.4, a. 2, no. 8) : "Accedit ad haec quod nomen hypostasis, aut personae et similiter nomina propria naturarum cum pronominibus, ut hie homo, hie bos, et similiter pronomma demonstrativa personaliter, ut ego, tu, ille, omnes confitemur significare formahtcr substantiam, et non negationem aut accidens aut extranca. Si omnes hoc fatcmur cur ad quid rei significatae perscrutantcs, divertimus a communi confessione?" That is to say: Why, when we seek the real definition of the person, do we turn away from the notion of common sense, or the nominal definition commonly received by all of us, which is the starting point that we all wish to safeguard?

Cajetan is not indulging in a reverie here. This is the metaphysics of what the grammarian calls the personal pronoun: I, me, thou, he. This metaphysics of the personal pronoun (or of the possessive adjective, my, thy) is no less important than that of the noun, the substantive, than that of the verb or of the adverb of time or of place. Cf. Aristotle, I'trihermtntiat, Bk. I, dt nomint, dt vtrbo, etc.

existence, the operations attributed to the person, as parts of the same entity. Thus, by analogy, the top of a pyramid is the term and the culminating point of the lines which converge toward it. This is in reality quite mysterious for us, for we do' not have an immediate intellectual intuition of it, as do the angels. Our knowledge rises only with difficulty from the sensible to the intelligible. Yet what is here affirmed is not any more mysterious than what is commonly affirmed with regard to continuity. As St. Thomas remarks: "If the humanity of Christ were separated from the Word, it would become a distinct person, just as when one separates two parts of a continuous line, each of the two becomes a whole." 13 What is here affirmed is not any more surprising than the commonly accepted fact that the division of a ringed animal like the worm produces two animals instead of one. The division creates a term that did not previously exist. Thus, any continuum is divisible ad infinitum, without ever being infinitely divided; for it is composed of infinitely divisible parts. (Cf. Aristotle, Physica, Bk. Ill, chap. I.)

It follows from this that the humanity of Christ, which is completed by the uncreated personality of the Word, is not a human person. For it is not a primary subject of attribution. When Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He attributes to Himself, to the same self, the properties of human nature (I who speak to you) and those of divine nature (I am the truth and the life). That is why St. Thomas says in substance: "Temporal nativity would cause a real temporal filiation in Christ if there were in Him a subject capable of such filiation." 14 He also writes: "If the human nature had not been assumed by a divine person, the human nature would have had its own personality; . . . the divine person by His union hindered the human nature from having its personality." 16 "Si praeestitisset (personalitas humana) . . . , desiisset per corruptionem." 16

Thus, according to St. Thomas, the humanity of Christ does not have its own personality as it would have had if it had not been per-

/// Stnt., dist. V, q. 3, a. 3. "Ad tertium dicendum, quod scparatio dat utrique partium totalitatern ct in continuis dat ctiam utrique esse in actuj unde supposito quod (Verbum) liominem deponcret, subsistcret homo ille per sc in natura rationali, ct ex hoc ipso acciperet rationed) personae." " Summa Iheol., Ilia, q.35, a. 5 ad 1.

sonally united to the Word. But it does not follow at all that there is something lacking to Christ's humanity, for, as St. Thomas says, it is much nobler to exist in the Word than to exist in oneself. 17

On the basis of this notion of personality, the truth of the following propositions is proved: Peter is a man, but he is not his humanity, which is the essential part of him; Peter exists, but he is not his existence, which is in him only a contingent attribute.

From this we can also see why there is in Jesus only one personality, only one primary subject of attribution, to which both human nature and divine nature are fitting, as well as both human liberty and divine liberty. There is in Him therefore only one existence, 18 for existence follows the person, which is the subject that exists. The unity of the person thus entails unity of existence.

Finally, the hypostatic union is not accidental, it is substantial, inasmuch as the two natures belong to the same person and exist by the same existence. 19 In this manner is maintained the profound meaning of Jesus' affirmation: "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

THE FITTINGNESS OF THE INCARNATION AND OUR INTERIOR LIFE

"Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you."

HAVING considered the fittingness of the Incarnation from the point of view of God, who is inclined to give Himself as much as possible to man, and from the point of view of man, who is disposed to become as united as possible to God, we must now consider this mystery with reference to the loftiest virtues which are, as it were, the soul of our interior life.

These loftiest of virtues are called the "theological virtues," because they have God as their immediate object and because they unite us to Him. Through faith we adhere to what God has revealed of Himself and of His works. Through hope we tend toward God, sustained by His help, in order some day to possess Him and to see Him face to face. Through charity we supernaturally love God more than ourselves, above all things, because He is infinitely lovable, infinitely better than we are, and because He first loved us as a Father.

Undoubtedly these three virtues are the noblest of all; from above they inspire the moral virtues which bear not on our final end but on the means to attain it. Thus faith must inspire prudence; and our charity, our love of God and of souls, must inspire and also quicken from above the virtues of justice, fortitude, and temperance, by making them meritorious with respect to eternal life.

If these are the three most exalted virtues that can dwell in a human soul, what is their relationship to the mystery of the Incarnation? For no other divine intervention could more successfully have snatched us away from evil and more powerfully dispose us toward goodness.

Following the thought of St. Augustine, St. Thomas⁷ tells us that after man's fall God could have redeemed us by other means than that of the Incarnation. For example, He might have sent a prophet to explain to us the conditions of forgiveness. But then there would not have been perfect reparation for the offense against God caused by mortal sin, which by turning us away from God actually denies or refuses to God the infinite dignity of final end or Sovereign Good. In order to make perfect reparation for this offense, which has a gravity immeasurable as is the person offended, it was necessary that a human soul offer to God an act of love of infinite value. This could be accomplished only by a human soul which belonged to a divine person, who alone is capable of performing acts of truly infinite value.

Thus the Word made flesh can offer to His Father in reparation an act of love of unlimited value, which can please God more than all the combined sins of men displease Him.

That is why the Incarnation was the most fruitful source of grace to redeem us, and at the same time necessary for perfect reparation to God for the offense committed against Him. No divine intervention could so successfully tear us away from evil. Nothing could have cured us so completely of our three wounds — concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life — as the sufferings, the poverty, and the humility of our Savior.

At the same time, the mystery has a second aspect which we must insist on particularly because of its bearing on the interior life: The Incarnation, by extricating us from the forces of evil, disposes us powerfully toward goodness. For it offers us the perfect model of all virtues and it increases tenfold, so to speak, our most exalted virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Faith Increased Tenfold

First of all, faith is given much greater certainty by the Incarnation because of the fact that we believe in God who has come to us in sensible form to speak to us.

The formal motive of faith, as a theological virtue, is the authority of God who reveals the truths we are to believe.

It is because God is infallible and cannot err or lead us into error that the first man after his fall believed the divine promise of a Redeemer, that Abraham believed that the Messiah would be born of his race, and that the prophets believed that He would come not only for the salvation of Israel but for the salvation of mankind. The authority of God, who makes revelations and seals His revelations by miracles, is a motive in itself very firm and infallible. Yet God remains hidden, and dwells in an inaccessible light. He remains invisible even when He speaks through prophets like Moses, Elias, or Isaias, even when He confirms their preaching by extraordinary miracles.

Very much more certain does our faith become when God comes to us and, taking a body and human lips like our own, speaks to us Himself through the medium of the senses yet in a tone and with an authority which can belong only to God! How much is our faith reinforced when the Word of God is made flesh and comes to tell us: "Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life"; 2 or again: "I am one that give testimony of Myself," 8 for I am light itself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." 4

None of the prophets could speak in these terms. They were able to say: "I have received the truth," but not one of them could affirm: "I am the truth and the life."

Jesus Christ, our Savior, is Himself the prime truth, both revealing and revealed. That is why, as St. Augustine says, 6 He can bear witness to Himself and to the other mysteries, just as light manifests itself by manifesting colors and all that it illuminates.

Primary revealing truth, the formal motive of our faith, in other words, the authority of God the Revealer, is manifested palpably, so to speak, in Christ and in His sublime manner of teaching.

True, we do not see Christ's divinity here below, either with the eyes of our body or with those of the mind, but Jesus speaks with such great authority when He says: "Amen, amen I say to you, be-

fore Abraham was made, I am," 6 that there can be no doubt He is the living God become palpable who now speaks to us in order to increase our faith tenfold. In fact, the messengers of the Pharisees could not help saying: "Never did man speak like this man." 7 The Samaritans also said to the woman whom our Lord had converted and who had called them to hear the Messiah: "Now we believe not because of what you have told us but because we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He is really the Savior of the world."

If the tone of the Cure of Ars' voice betrayed his holiness when he preached, how much more must the tone, the authority, and the magnetism of our Lord Jesus Christ have bespoken His holiness! That is why from the time of His first Sermon on the Mount, "the people were in admiration at His doctrine. For He was teaching them as one having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees," 8 who commented on the scriptural texts without making them live. The simple in heart have an understanding of the greatness of things. They recognized our Lord's greatness from the moment of His first sermon. The fact that the populace afterward condemned Him resulted from their having been misled by perverse men.

What a privilege to have heard even for an instant the Word made flesh preach and to have received directly from His lips His doctrine in all its vigor, simplicity, and grandeur!

St. John has written in his Gospel: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." 0 Again, in his First Epistle he said: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life: . . . that which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you." 10

Our faith is thus supremely confirmed by this highest testimony, which has been made palpable, so to speak, by the Incarnation. Thus St. Paul could write to the Hebrews the following words in order to confirm them in their faith: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all,

in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world." 11

Let us suppose for a moment that the Incarnation had not taken place and that the loftiest teaching was that of the prophets, of Elias or Isaias. How much diminished would our faith be, how meager the history of humanity, by comparison with what they are in reality! The very greatness of the prophets would vanish, for they were great only inasmuch as they were the precursors of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Those who have ears to hear" cannot be mistaken as to the tone of the Savior's voice nor as to the sublimity of His doctrine. Despite trials, obscurity, temptations, let us believe in the word of Jesus, let us keep it in our hearts, and let us live by it in the spirit of faith. "The just man liveth by faith." 12

Hope Strengthened

The Incarnation not only confirms our faith; it also greatly arouses our hope.

Through this theological virtue we desire and await the Supreme Good, and we tend toward it supported by the divine assistance promised by God to those who believe. The prime object of hope is a future good and one that is difficult to attain, the Supreme Good which we are to enjoy for all eternity. The formal motive of hope is divine assistance, or, better still, it is God Himself infinitely willing to help us, Deus auxilians. He is infinitely willing to help because He is infinitely merciful and all-powerful, and because He has promised to help us to achieve the summit of our destiny. God is true to His promises. This is one of His most beautiful titles: "The Lord is faithful in all His words." 18

St. Paul was fond of repeating this thought. Anyone who despairs doubts the infinite mercy of the One who is Goodness itself. Judas' greatest sin, after he had been unfaithful, was to doubt the fidelity of God, who has promised His help to the greatest sinners if they asked it of Him.

Yet, although hope is entirely consonant with the deepest aspira- "Hcb. i:if. "Rom. 1:17. "Ps. 144:13.

tions of our hearts, there is in us, alas, an inclination toward discouragement, especially after we have for many years been bruised by the battles and hardships of life.

Now the mystery of the Incarnation is calculated to revive our confidence, for it brings us not only the divine assistance of grace, but the Author of grace Himself. It is God infinitely willing to help us who was given to us at Bethlehem, Deus auxilians. He is the formal motive or the reason for our hope, and He remains with us in the Eucharist.

Our confidence is increased because God, by coming to us in person, gives a palpable manifestation of His infinite goodness. We tend to have greatest confidence in our friends and in the measure that they prove to us that they have a genuine and deep affection for us. But Jesus is God infinitely willing to help, Deus auxiliator, who never tires of telling us of His merciful love.

He says to all men: "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. rr:a8). The One who speaks thus is the Author of salvation, as the liturgy tells us: "God, the bestower of pardon and the author of human salvation, we implore Thy clemency. . . ." 14

To the paralytic who thought only of his bodily cure, Jesus said: "Thy sins are forgiven thee"; that is to say, I am curing your spiritual and immortal soul, which is much more precious than your body that is destined to return to dust. And as a sign of the spiritual cure of the soul, Jesus cured this poor man of his paralysis. This miracle was but a sign of something incomparably more wonderful: the resurrection of the soul to the essentially supernatural life of grace.

St. Paul wrote to the Romans in order to confirm their hope: "If God be for us, who is against us? He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?" 18 These words must have strengthened the Christians in the catacombs during the three centuries of persecution. St. Paul added: "Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God that justifieth. Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died,

M Prayer from the Office of the Dead, according to the Dominican rite. " Rom. I yea that is risen also again ; who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? (As it is written: For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)" 19

All these things were fulfilled to the letter in Rome during the ten general persecutions which the Roman emperors inflicted upon the Christians from the days of Nero to those of Diocletian. And the following words of St. Paul were also fulfilled in their entirety: "But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us." 17 We overcome in the sense of making the life of grace shine upon and illumine even our adversaries through our love for them. "For I am sure," St. Paul went on to say, "that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor might nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

That is to say, no created power whatever can separate us from the love that Christ has for us and that enkindles in us a reciprocating love. No created or creatable power can cause God to abandon the just, those who have been justified by the blood of His Son, unless they themselves abandon Him first. The Colosseum of Rome is a reminder to each succeeding generation of the victory of Christ's love over the blind fury of His persecutors. The imposing ruins of this amphitheater built by Vespasian and Titus bear enduring witness to the hope and the fortitude of the martyrs who were sustained by the promises and the love of the Word made flesh.

Through all their tortures they remained faithful by the efficacy of the grace of Christ. As St. Paul says, they overcame "because of Him that hath loved us." 18 The formal motive of our hope is not our own personal effort, by which we cooperate with divine assistance. The formal motive of our hope is God Himself, infinitely willing to help, Deus auxilians, God Himself who through the Incarnation is with us and remains with us in the Eucharist as the daily nourishment of our souls. It is thus that our confidence in God is greatly strengthened by the Incarnation. The Word did not become incarnate without good reason. It was not for material progress or the advancement of science, but for the sanctification of our souls, and we, too, should ardently yearn for this sanctification.

More Ardent Charity

Finally, this mystery of our faith should enflame to the highest pitch our charity, our love of God and of souls. As St. Augustine says in words that theologians will repeat until the end of time: "For what principal reason did the Word become Incarnate, if not to manifest His love for us? . . . Since we cannot love Him [first], let us at least learn to give Him love for love." 19

Through infused charity which we receive in baptism we are called on to love God supernaturally more than ourselves. We are called on to love Him as our great friend who loved us first and who is infinitely better in Himself than all His blessings taken together. To love Him thus is to desire efficaciously the accomplishment of His holy will as expressed in His commandments} that is, we must desire that He should truly and completely reign in our souls and that He be glorified by us eternally in the words of psalm 1 12:1 : "Praise the Lord, ye children: praise ye the name of the Lord."

Thus charity is superior to hope. Through hope we desire to possess God, ultimately for God who is the final end of our hope as of all the virtues. 20 Through charity we efficaciously love God, our best friend, formally for Himself alone; and we love Him more than ourselves, desiring for Him all the blessings that are fitting for Him; that His kingdom come and that His goodness be manifested in what we call divine glory. To love God is to conform our entire life to these words of the Our Father: "Thy will be done": Thy will, as expressed in Thy commandments, be done on earth as it is in heaven. To love God is also to say to Him with trusting abandonment: "Into Thy hands I

11 D$ calechizandis rudibus, cliap. 4.

20 As Cajctan says (in llam Uae, q. 17, a. 5, no. 6) : "Per spem, desidcro Dcum, non propter me, sed mihi (jam finaliter), propter Deum qui est finis ultimus actus ipei."

commend my spirit," I offer Thee the marrow of my will, do with it whatever Thou please.

Through charity, by efficaciously loving God more than ourselves, we generally love all His eternal decrees, ordered toward the manifestation of His goodness. So God, the infinitely Good, becomes for us another self, who is in a sense more truly we than we are ourselves. For He possesses within Himself all the good that can exist in each one of us. In this sense God contains more of me than I do, for He is what I am in an eminent degree.

This divine goodness, the formal object of charity, has been manifested to us by the supreme love through which God has given us His only Son: "God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son." 21 We can even say that this is the fundamental truth of Christianity, for it was this act of God's love for us which gave us our Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

St. John tells us this in his First Epistle: "By this hath the charity of God appeared toward us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. My dearest, if God hath so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 22

St. Paul writes in the same vein to Titus: "For the grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men; instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." 28

The incarnation of the Word thus greatly strengthens our faith, our hope, and our charity. It gives us the example of all the virtues, and particularly it is the principle of an act of love infinite in value rising upward within the soul of Jesus, a redemptive act of love which is more pleasing to God than all the sins in the world can displease Him.

Let us give thanks to God for this blessing of the redemptive Incarnation which to some extent makes palpable for us primary re-

no vealing Truth, merciful Omnipotence, and supreme Goodness; and which never ceases to pour out to us, especially through the Eucharist, all the graces that we need in our indigence. These three divine perfections, which are the formal motive of the three theological virtues, are for us like three stars of the first magnitude, three lamps of fire, St. John of the Cross tells us, which guide us through the night on our pilgrimage toward the light of eternity.

We can indeed say with St. Paul in profound gratitude: "God (who is rich in mercy) for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ (by whose grace you are saved)." 24 This grace is the seed of glory. Let us pray that we may persevere in it and through it, so that it may truly be within us "the beginning of eternal life."

THE MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION AND THE INTIMATE LIFE OF JESUS

"I believe in God . . . the Son . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven."

Nicene Creed

ONE of the considerations which can help us penetrate deeply into the intimate life of Jesus is the motive of the Incarnation, the motive of His coming into the world, which must always have been present in His mind as the purpose of His earthly life. We should like to call attention, as St. Thomas himself has done, to the three following points: i. The motive of the Incarnation was a motive of mercy. 2. The Word, in becoming incarnate to redeem us, did not in any sense subordinate Himself to us but on the contrary re-established the primitive order on an infinitely loftier level. 3. In His intimate life Jesus is first of all Savior, priest, and victim.

The Motive of the Incarnation, a Motive of Mercy

The opinion is held by some that in the actual plan of Providence, the Word would have become incarnate even if man had not sinned. Christ would then have come not as a Savior and victim, but as the head of the kingdom of God and as the supreme doctor, in order to give greater glory to God and thus to crown creation. He would have come with an immortal body, not subject to pain. But, champions of this opinion maintain, sin having supervened, Christ came in mortal flesh, in came ■passibili, as Savior and victim for our salvation.

According to this opinion, it is accidentally, so to speak, that in the in actual plan of Providence Jesus is Savior and victim. He is first of all the King of kings, the head of the kingdom of God.

St. Thomas has weighed the value of this opinion, which had already been expressed in his own time, and he writes with regard to this subject: "There are different opinions about this question. For some say that even if man had not sinned, the Son of man would have become incarnate. Others assert the contrary, and seemingly our assent ought rather to be given to this opinion. For such things as spring from God's will, and beyond the creature's due, can be made known to us only through being revealed in the Sacred Scripture, in which the divine will is made known to us. Hence, since everywhere in the Sacred Scripture the sin of the first man is assigned as the reason of the Incarnation, it is more in accordance with this to say that the work of the Incarnation was ordained by God as a remedy for sin; so that, had sin not existed, the Incarnation would not have been. And yet the power of God is not limited to this; even had sin not existed, God could have become incarnate."⁸

In other words, according to St. Thomas, Thomists in general, and many other ancient and modern theologians, the motive of the Incarnation was above all a motive of mercy, to liberate fallen humanity from its misery. From this point of view Jesus is first of all Savior and Victim rather than King, and therein lies the primordial trait of His spiritual physiognomy.

This interpretation is based on many passages of Scripture and on some very weighty testimony of tradition. Both Daniel 2 and Zacharias 3 declared that the Messiah would come "that sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished." Jesus Himself said: "The Son of man is come is seek and to save that which was lost." 4 Likewise, in St. John He said: "God so loved the world as to give His onlybegotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him." 5

St. Paul wrote: "Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners." 8 To this St. John added in his First Epistle: "The blood of

MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION

Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 7 And "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." 8 Finally, "God . . . hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." 9

Moreover, the name "Jesus" does not mean King or Doctor, but Savior, and the names God gives always express the primordial trait of the spiritual physiognomy of those who receive these names. The angel Gabriel, sent by God, said to Mary: "Behold thou . . . shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus." 10 To Joseph the angel said: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins." 11 Thus the motive of the Incarnation is that reason for which it was necessary: to save us through perfect reparation for offense against God by means of an act of reparative love which would be more pleasing to God than He is displeased by all the sins of the world, and which would be an infinite source of grace for us.

Tradition is no less affirmative than is Scripture, as we can see in the Nicene Creed: "I believe ... in one Lord Jesus Christ, the onlybegotten Son of God. . . . Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven." This is the meaning of the entire liturgy of Advent and of the Nativity, which for many centuries has prepared the faithful for the celebration of the birth of the Savior.

The Fathers of the Church also teach in general that according to the actual plan of Providence the Word would not have become incarnate if men had not been in need of redemption. This is the doctrine in particular of St. Irenaeus, 12 St. Athanasius, 13 St. Gregory Nazianzen, 14 St. John Chrysostom who was the greatest of the Greek Fathers, and St. Augustine, the most illustrious of the Fathers of the Latin Church.

12 "If flesh had not been in need of being redeemed, the Word should not have become Incarnate {Adv. haereses, V, xiv, 1)."

1S "The Word would not have become man if it had not been necessary to redeem us" {Adv. Arian., or. 1, no. 56).

14 "Why did God assume humanity, united to divinity (in Jesus)? Without any doubt, in order to prepare our salvation. What other reason can be given?" (Oratio 3, no. 1.)

U4 OUR SAVIOR

St. John Chrysostom says explicitly: "There is no other cause for the Incarnation than this: God saw us fallen, abject, oppressed by the tyranny of death, and He had mercy." 15 St. Augustine likewise says: "If man had not fallen, the Son of man would not have come." 16 The motive of the Incarnation was a motive of mercy. This is repeated by St. Thomas, all the Thomists, and many other theologians.

The Thomists in particular add this reason: Once God has determined the plan of Providence, He does not modify it because of some unforeseen accident. He has foreseen all things. No good can occur unless He has willed it, and no evil unless He has permitted it for a greater good. Therefore, it cannot be said that God modified His actual plan as the result of the sin of the first man. The efficacious divine decree on the world extended from the start to everything that was to happen, in a positive manner with respect to the good and in a permissive manner with respect to evil. 17 Now, in actuality the Word came in flesh that was mortal and subject to suffering, which fact, as universally admitted, presupposes sin. Therefore, by virtue of the primitive decree, the Word would not have become incarnate if man had not sinned. This is, as we have seen, what the Scriptures and tradition tell us clearly. In other words, the motive of the Incarnation has been a motive of mercy. As our Lord told us Himself: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 18 There is much consolation for us in this fact. For even the greatest sinners who cry out to the Savior are saved.

God Has Permitted Evil, Man's Sin, Only in View of a Greater Good

There is another aspect of this mystery which makes it possible to answer the sometimes agonizing question that is called the problem of

1T The efficacious divine decree of the Incarnation bears from the outset not only on the substance of this fact, but also on the circumstances hie et nunc under which it wai realized, particularly on the circumstance in a passible and mortal flesh) a circumstance which by common consent presupposes the prevision of Adam's sin.

MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION n S evil. Why did God permit evil, especially moral evil, the sin of the first man, foreseeing as He did that it would spread to all men, who would because of it be deprived of grace and of the privileges of the state of innocence?

St. Thomas presents very well this second aspect of the mystery, which some of his commentators have neglected 19 but which happily others have emphasized. 20 He says: "There is nothing to prevent human nature from having been raised after sin to a level above its original state. For God permits evil only in view of a greater good. This is why St. Paul wrote to the Romans, 5:20: 'Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.' And the Church sings during the benediction of the paschal candle: 'O happy fault, that merited so great a Redeemer! ' " 21

It is indeed clear that God cannot permit evil, especially sin, except in view of a greater good. Otherwise the divine permission which allows sin to occur would not be holy. It would be impossible to say a priori for what great good God permitted the sin of the first man. But after the fact of the Incarnation we can and we must say with St. Paul: God has permitted sin to abound only so that grace might more abound in the person of our Savior and through Him in us.

Thus, when the Word became incarnate to redeem us He did not subordinate Himself to us in any way whatever (He remains infinitely superior to us, and the Incarnation is of greater value than our redemption) ; but He stooped down toward us to raise us up to Himself. For it is the nature of mercy to incline the superior person toward the inferior one, not to subordinate the former to the latter but to elevate the inferior person. In this way, when the Word became incarnate He bent down in order to restore the primitive order, the original harmony, and even to raise this primitive order far above its original level by uniting Himself personally to human nature and l * For example, John of St. Thomas and Billuart.

ao See the explanation of this point of doctrine by the Carmelites of Salamanca and by the Dominicans Godoy and Gonct. See also Cajetan's excellent presentation (In lam, q. 1a, a, a, no. 7) : (Si non csset peccatum a Deo permissum) "deesset universo hostia ilia divini suppositi, quam in cruce obtulitj quod adeo bonum fuit et est, ut excedat in bonitate omne malum culpae non solum hominum, sed daemonum. . . . O felix culpa."

thus manifesting to us in the most perfect manner possible His omnipotence and His goodness. 22

God permits evil only for a greater good, and He would not have permitted the immense evil which is original sin if He did not have in view the greater good which is the redemptive Incarnation. Thus it is that divine mercy, far from subordinating to us the Word made incarnate for us, is the highest manifestation of the power and goodness of God. It sings the glory of God more loudly than all the stars in the firmament.

The Word made flesh, our Savior, is infinitely greater than the first innocent man. Making necessary allowances, Mary is also incomparably superior to Eve. And when Mass is celebrated in the poorest village church, a worship is offered to God which is infinitely superior to that offered to Him by the first innocent man in the Garden of Eden.

The Primordial Trait of the Spiritual Physiognomy of Jesus

It follows that it was not accidentally that Christ is Savior, priest, and victim. This is the chief aspect of His life. He is not first of all a king and a sublime doctor who became accidentally, because of man's sin, a victim and the savior of humanity. 23 As His name "Jesus" signi- t! It has been objected that it would be perverse to order the superior with respect to the inferior. But the Incarnation is superior to our redemption. Thus it would be perverse to order the former to the latter.

The Thomists have always answered as follows: It would certainly be perverse and even absurd to order the superior to the inferior as to a principle of perfection and to a final end. However, it is not perverse to order the superior to the inferior as to a perfectible subject which must be perfected. Thus, although our body is made for our soul, God orders the soul in a certain manner to the body in order to vivify it, and He would not create the soul of a particular child unless the body of that child were about to take shape. Likewise, although we exist for Christ, who is our end, yet He came to save ui and He would not have come if we had not needed to be saved. As there is a mutual dependence between the body made for the soul and the soul which vivifies the body, "causa* ad invicem sunt causae, sed in divcrso genere," there is also a mutual dependence between the Incarnation in view of which original sin was permitted, and to deliver ui from this ■in the redemptive Incarnation was willed by divine mercy.

" Even in the Mass and the Office of Christ the King, mention ia repeatedly mad* of Christ aa the Savior, for He ii king both by right of birth and by right of conquest.

MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION n 7 fies, He is first of all the Savior, and His entire life was ordered to His heroic death on the Cross, through which He accomplished His mission and His destiny as Redeemer. The motive of the Incarnation was our redemption by the heroic act of love on Calvary. The stigmatics like St. Francis must have penetrated very deeply into this truth.

As a result, Christ appears greater and the unity of His life much more profound. His life was ordered completely toward the act of love by which, in offering Himself up on the cross, He conquered sin, Satan, and death, an act of love which is more pleasing to God than He is displeased by all the sins of men.

This is what St. Thomas says: "God loves Jesus Christ not only more than the entire human race but also more than all creatures taken as a whole. For He willed for Him a greater good by giving Him a name above all other names. He willed that He be truly God. This supreme excellence of Christ has not been diminished by the fact that His Father delivered Him up to death for our salvation. On the contrary, Christ thus became the glorious victor (over sin, Satan, and death), 'the government is upon His shoulder'" (Isa. 9-:6). 24

Now we can understand why the thought of the redemption by the Cross, together with the thought of the glory of God, were uppermost in the mind of our Lord when He came into the world and remained so throughout His life. 25 As St. Paul says: "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me. . . . Then said I: Behold I come . . . that I should do Thy will, O God." 26

This oblation was ever living in His heart. It was the soul, as it were, of His preaching and of His sacrifice. The first three Gospels report that Jesus said: "The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many." 27

In one of His most beautiful parables, the parable of the Good

He conquered this universal kingship during the Passion when He was crowned with thorns before He received the crown of glory in heaven. 84 la, q. 20, a.4. ad ti

™ On this point sec ihc beautiful book written in the seventeenth century by Chardon, O. P., La croix de J cms. 20 Hob. 10 =5-7.

Shepherd, He said: "I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. . . . Therefore doth the Father love Me: because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from Me. But I lay it down of Myself." 28

Again He said: "I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?" 29 He was speaking of the baptism of blood, the most perfect of all. 80

He expressed the purpose of His mission in still different words: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself. (Now this He said, signifying what death He should die.)" 81

This thought was continually in our Savior's mind when He was training the apostles, when, for instance, He told Peter that he could not bear to hear of the coming Passion: "Thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." 82 Likewise, when He said to the sons of Zebedee: "Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of: or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?" 88 This was His underlying thought also at the Last Supper, at the moment when He instituted the Eucharist: "This is My body, which is given for you. . . . This is the chalice, the new testament in My blood, which shall be shed for you." 84 "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 86

Finally, Jesus on several occasions spoke of the hour of His passion as "His hour," 86 for it is the hour above all others to which His whole earthly life was dedicated.

Jesus is above all else Savior, priest, and victim. This is the primordial trait of His spiritual physiognomy, the fundamental character of His interior life. What are the consequences of this for us?

It follows that in the actual plan of Providence, it is not by accident that souls must, in order to be sanctified, carry their crosses in union with the Savior. He Himself has told us so: "And He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. . . . For he that shall lose his life for

"John 10:11-18. "Luke ia:4 9 f. ° Cf. St. Thomm, Ilia, q.46, hi. "John 12 :j if. "Matt. 16:13. "Mark 10:38. •* Luke aa :i 9 f.

MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION 119

My sake, shall save it." 87 This was magnificently fulfilled by the martyrs who, by uniting their sufferings to those of the Savior, in turn saved souls, sometimes even the souls of their persecutors.

It follows also that in order to be a saint, and even a great saint, it is not necessary to be a doctor or a man of action. It is enough to be genuinely configured to the crucified Christ, as was St. Benedict Joseph Labre who could call his own only his poverty and his heroically supported pain, and who appeared to be the living image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, it follows (as St. Thomas explains with great profundity 88 in speaking of the effects of baptism) that while the sanctifying grace which the first man in the state of innocence possessed is a participation in divine nature and makes us children of God, the specifically Christian grace which was communicated to us after the fall by Christ the Redeemer makes us "living members of Christ." That is why Christian grace as such inspires us to suffer following the example of Jesus in order to expiate, to make reparation for the outrages committed against God, in order to collaborate for our salvation and that of our neighbors, just as the members of a single body must help one another.

That is why no Christian idea can win acceptance, and no Christian work can persevere, until it has passed through trials and tribulations. "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." 89

This is how Christians are profoundly configured to their head, who said concerning Himself to His disciples of Emmaus, although they did not yet understand it: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?" 40 Isaias had announced it in his prophecy of the Passion. 41 It is required every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and it will be repeated until the end of the world.

HE PREDESTINATION OF CHRIST

PTT^HE light that illumines from above the whole life of a saint is -L his predestination, that is, the act of intelligence and love by which God has from all eternity ordered or destined him to a given degree of glory and has decided to grant him for the attainment of this glory all the graces he will need, from the very first to that of final perseverance.⁹ Through many bitter trials perhaps, the servant of God will with the help of these graces merit the beatitude of eternal life, to which he has been predestined from all eternity.*

As for children who die after baptism without having had time to merit, they have been predestined to glory without having to strive for its attainment.

What is true of all the elect, angels and men, adults and children, is that they have been predestined to glory, i.e., eternal life.

The Exceptional Nature of Christ's Predestination

The predestination of Christ, the first among predestined souls, is absolutely exceptional. His is not only the predestination to glory or eternal life. His is predestination to the unique grace of personal union with the Word, a grace that is incomparably superior to that possessed in heaven by all the angels and saints.

As man, Christ was predestined to become not the son of God by adoption but the Son of God by nature. 8

"Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.24., a. 1 f. Thomists who have meditated at length on the articles of St. Thomas bearing on the motive of the Incarnation and on the predestination of Christ know that for St. Thomas these two questions balance each oilier and that the second permits us to insist on what in the preceding chapter we called the

THE PREDESTINATION OF CHRIST

St. Paul wrote to the Romans: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son; that He might be the first-born among many brethren." * Jesus is thus the first of the predestined souls. From all eternity God has willed Him to be His Son by nature, and He has desired to make of the elect, angels and men, His sons by adoption. The first-mentioned sonship vastly surpasses the latter.

In the Epistle to the Colossians, we read: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. . . . He is before all, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He may hold the primacy." 6

It was first of all to divine sonship by nature that Jesus as man was predestined, and all the gifts that He received derived from this first one, which is the noblest of all. It is from this sonship by nature that springs the beatitude of His saintly soul, the light of glory that permits Him to see the divine essence with a penetration which is superior to that of all the blessed. Not only does Jesus see God face to face as do all the saints in heaven, but He Himself is God. And it is certainly much greater to be God than to see Him.

Christ's Predestination, the Cause of Our Own

It follows that Christ's predestination is the supreme model of our own, 8 as our divine sonship by adoption is a participating likeness of the divine sonship by nature. In this sense, as St. Paul says, we have been "predestinated to be made conformable to the image of" T God's only-begotten Son. But we receive only a participation in the divine nature, sanctifying grace, whereas the only-begotten Son of second aspect of the mystery: God permitted the sin of the first man for a greater good, which is the redemptive Incarnation. He permitted sin to abound that grace should more abound. We thus grasp better the meaning of the "felix culpa quae talem ac tanlum meruit habere reJrinptorrm." * Rom. 8:19. B Col. 1:15-18.

"Cf. St. Augustine, De praeJeslinalione samtorum, chap. 13. Cf. also St. Thomas Ilia, q.14, a.j. T Rom. 8:29.

the Father has received from Him divine nature in its entirety by eternal generation. He is "God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God," as is said in the Nicene Creed. He is the Word of God made flesh, and, being the Son of God by nature, He cannot become His son by adoption and by participation. For a father does not adopt someone who is already his own child. 8

Lastly, in predestining the elect from all eternity, God decided that Christ the Redeemer would be the cause of their salvation, 9 and that He would merit for them all the effects of predestination: grace, final perseverance, and eternal life. This is brought out in all the texts of Scripture in which Jesus is called "Savior," "author of salvation." For instance: "He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting"; 10 "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly"; 11 "My sheep hear My voice: and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand. That which My Father hath given Me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one." 12

As God, Jesus predestines the elect. As man, He has merited for the elect all the effects of predestination: habitual grace, actual graces, final perseverance, and glory. 13 Thus all the elect are subordinated to Him, according to the words of St. Paul: "All are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 14

This gives us an insight into the grandeur of the prologue to the Epistle to the Ephesians: "Blessed be the God and Father of our

8 Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 13, a. 4: "Christ, who is the natural Son of God, can nowise be called an adopted son." 9 Cf. ibid., q. 24, a. 4.

18 As God, Jesus has predestined all the elect, angels as well as men. As man, He has merited for men grace and glory, and He merited for angels at least the accidental graces by which they serve Him as His ministers in the kingdom of God. They are His angels, as the Gospels tell us on several occasions: "And then shall He [the Son of man] send His angels, and shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven" (Mark 13:27). Cf. also Matt. 13:41 1 24:31. Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 8, a. 4: Christ is the head of the angels, who arc part of the Church triumphant ; Ilia, q. 59, a. 6: Christ judges the angels, His ministers, and He is terrible to the demons. 14 I Cor. 3 :»3.

THE PREDESTINATION OF CHRIST

Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ: as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity. Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself: according to the purpose of His will: unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath graced us in His beloved Son. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which hath superabounded in us in all wisdom and prudence. . . . In whom [Jesus Christ] we also are called by lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will; that we may be unto the praise of His glory, we who before hoped in Christ." 16

This lofty doctrine of the predestination of Christ throws light on the predestination of Mary to be the Mother of God. The predestination of Christ, as man, to be the Son of God by nature is in fact identical with the eternal decree of the Incarnation. Now this decree bears upon this fact as it was to be realized hie et nunc, in certain given circumstances. And therefore it includes not only Jesus, but Mary as well. From all eternity it had been decided that the Word of God made flesh would be born miraculously of Mary ever virgin, united to Joseph the just by the bonds of a genuine marriage. The execution of this providential decree was expressed thus by St. Luke: "The angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: ... the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 18

We see therefore that Mary's predestination is intimately bound up with that of Jesus, and since our Lord is not the adopted son of the Most High, since He is His Son by nature, Mary is, in the order of dignity, the first adopted daughter of God, far higher than the

angels through the degree of grace she received at the moment of the Immaculate Conception, in view of her unique mission as Mother of God and Mother of men. Her predestination is all of a piece, so to speak, with that of her Son, as are their lives here on earth and in heaven.

T~he sanctity OF JESUS

Innate, Substantial, Uncreated Sanctity and the Fullness of Created Grace

"And we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the onlybegotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

HAVING considered the motive of the Incarnation, which is our salvation, we must, in order to penetrate deeper into the intimate life of our Savior, consider His sanctity. This will help us to understand ever better the meaning of these words of St. Paul: "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound."¹⁰ Jesus is infinitely more perfect that Adam was in his innocence; and while there are obstacles to grace since the fall which did not exist in man's innocent state, yet the grace which comes to us from Jesus is more abundant, if we do not resist it, than that which the innocent Adam would have transmitted to us. The grace we receive through Jesus introduces saints into a more profound intimacy with God, the intimacy of the Eucharistic Communion, which did not exist in the earthly paradise.

Let us therefore consider the radical perfection of Jesus which permeates His entire soul and which shines forth in all His faculties and virtues. We refer to His sanctity and to the fullness of grace that He has received.

As St. Thomas shows 2 holiness in general has two essential characteristics: first, absence of all stain, of all sin, and of all directly or

1 as indirectly voluntary imperfection; and second, a firm union with God. The latter is, in fact, the principal trait of sanctity, from which the former derives. For it is in the measure that one is firmly united to God that one avoids directly or indirectly voluntary sin, sins of commission as well as sins of omission or negligence. These two aspects of supernatural perfection have often been expressed as follows: Sanctity is separation from all that is impure, from all that is earthly in the pejorative sense of the word, 8 and it is also the immutable and fundamental consecration of the soul to God. This separation and this consecration are perfected in heaven, but they exist to a lesser degree here below, sometimes even in children who have the sanctity of their age, such as St. Tarcisius and Blessed Imelda.

But where shall we find here below perfect sanctity? A Greek philosopher once asked: "Where shall we find the ideal man?" We have the answer in the life and death of Jesus.

Let us contemplate these two aspects of sanctity as they exist in Jesus. Whereas in us, who come from below, a progressive separation from the world leads to union with God, in Jesus, who comes from above, it is the personal union of His humanity to the Word which leads to a separation of all that is impure or even merely less perfect.

The better to understand this radical perfection of the Savior, let us progressively rise from our earthy regions toward those where He dwells. Let us first inquire what the absence of sin and of imperfection means with relation to Him. We shall then be better able to grasp the most positive characteristic of His sanctity and its uniqueness.

Jesus Was without Sin

Unbelievers are forced to admit on the basis of the history of Christ's life that no man as perfect as He ever walked the earth. Even those who, like Renan, spent their lives denying the divinity of Jesus — something terrible in its consequences — even they have been obliged to concede that He is incomparably superior to all the pagan sages, that the virtue of Socrates pales before His goodness, His pa-

• In Greek 47101 (holy) comes from d ylj (unattached lo earth).

tience in tribulation, His gentleness toward His tormentors. Several rationalists have gone so far as to say: There will never be any higher moral perfection on earth; Jesus will always remain the unequaled model, the ideal man of wisdom.*

In actual fact, no one was able to discover any sin or imperfection in Jesus. Certain mealymouthed humanitarians have reproached Him with His anger against the Pharisees and the money-changers in the Temple, but it is clear that this anger was the holy indignation of zeal. Only those can disapprove who through their egoism have become totally indifferent to the rights of God and to the salvation of souls.

Not only has it been impossible to discover any fault in Jesus, but even before His birth heaven was gathering testimony in favor of His absolute innocence.

Isaias announced: "And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace." 5 And: "Behold My servant, I will uphold Him: My elect, My soul delighteth in Him: I have given My spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall His voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till He set judgment in the earth." 8

Later, on the day of the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel said to Mary: "The Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." T

An angel said to Joseph: "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins." 8 Jesus, virginally conceived

• A young woman who did not have the faith but who was seeking truth began to read Renan's Life of Jesus upon the advice of her unbelieving father. The result was the opposite of what her father expected. In reading what Renan had been forced to say about the greatness of Jesus in order not to contradict the truth too obviously, she received a great interior light, believed at once in the divinity of the Savior, and from that day became an excellent Christian and a soul of prayer. She finally obtained th« conversion of her father. * Isa. 9:6.

in the womb of Mary, was thus exempt from original sin; and it was in prevision of His merits that His Mother was preserved from this stain.

The aged Simeon, divinely enlightened, saw in the child Jesus "the salvation . . . of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." 9

St. John the Baptist at first refused to baptize our Lord, and said to Him: "I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?" Jesus answered him: "Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfill all justice." And that day the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven was heard to say: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 10

Later on, the Pharisees spied upon our Lord, seeking some excuse to make an accusation against Him. Jesus, with supreme dignity which equaled His humility, answered them: "Which of you shall convince Me of sin? . . . He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God." 11 In defense of the woman taken in adultery, who was about to be pitilessly stoned, Jesus said: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." But no one felt himself pure enough to cast that first stone, and so they "went out one by one." 12

During the Passion, Pilate declared: "I find no cause in Him." 18 He washed his hands before the crowd, saying: "I am innocent of the blood of this just man: look you to it." 14 The Jews could say only one thing: "We have a law; and according to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 15

The centurion, seeing Jesus' gentleness toward His persecutors during the crucifixion and the signs which accompanied His death, cried out: "Indeed this was the Son of God." 16

Finally, Christ's resurrection is the glorious manifestation of His sanctity, as the apostles never tire of proclaiming. St. Peter, calling attention to one of Isaias's prophecies, wrote in his First Epistle: "Christ . . . suffered for us, . . . who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, . . . who His own self bore our sins in His body

upon the tree: that we . . . should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed." 17

The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: "For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for His own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, in offering Himself." 13

All these testimonials from heaven and earth attest that Jesus is without sin. He was never grazed by original sin, and He never committed even the slightest personal sin.

Far more, not only did our Savior never actually commit sin, but He was absolutely impeccable. As is commonly taught by the Fathers and by theology, our Lord was impeccable on three grounds: by reason of His divine personality, by reason of the inamissible plenitude of grace that is His, and by reason of the immediate vision He had of Supreme Goodness, from which He could not turn away. Just as a mass of red-hot iron which is kept in the fire cannot grow cool, so it was that Jesus' soul, personally and indissolubly united to the Word and thereby enriched with the fullness of grace, and always illumined by the light of glory, could not sin.

It is absolutely impossible to attribute sin to the Word made flesh. That would amount to saying: God has sinned. He could die for our salvation, but not sin. God cannot turn away from Himself, outrage Himself. This is crystal clear.

Likewise, a soul which has received the fullness of grace in an inamissible manner cannot sin; for this would involve losing this plenitude, or at least diminishing it.

Finally, a soul which sees God immediately, as do the saints in heaven, cannot turn away from Him or cease for a single moment to love Him.

Jesus Free from All Imperfections

Apart from sin, there was never in Jesus the slightest involuntary disorder of the emotions, nor any moral imperfection. There was

never in Him a focus of covetousness and lust such as exists in us as one of the consequences of original sin. Indeed, He was not exempt from the attacks of the world and the devil. He even allowed temptation to rise up against Him, in order to teach us how to conquer it. "[Jesus] was led by the Spirit into the desert, for a space of forty days; and was tempted by the devil." 19 These were temptations of vainglory and pride, to which He made answer with words from Scripture and acts of humility.

There was no moral imperfection in our Savior which might have diminished His sanctity. He was never unfaithful or slow to respond to the slightest inspiration from His Father. "He that sent Me, is with Me, and He hath not left Me alone: for I do always the things that please Him." 20 He never had any other purpose than to "glorify God" by saving souls, in accordance with the fullness of His mission. 21

Such is what is sometimes called the negative aspect of Christ s sanctity: the absence of all sin. But since sin is itself a privation, a disorder, this aspect— that is, the absence of disorder— is already very positive and it manifests to us to a certain extent the intimate union with God which formally constitutes the sanctity of Jesus.

Before entering upon this great subject of the holiness of Jesus, with particular emphasis on the aspect of separation from the spirit of the world, from the spirit of covetousness and pride, let us come back to what we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter: namely, the difference between the Savior who comes from heaven and ourselves who come from below.

The sacred soul of Jesus is separated from the spirit of the world by His very elevation, because He comes from above, because He is the Word made flesh, come down from heaven to save us. It is His inward greatness that separates Him from all that is inferior. He cannot become attached to these things. By reason of His very elevation He is detached from earthly pleasures, from honors, from worldly affairs. He is a perfect model of poverty: He "hath not where to lay His head." For the same reason He was detached from the pleasures of the world, and He was free from family responsibilities >• Luke 4:1 f. ,0 John 8 :» 9 . " Cf. John, chap. . 7.

because He came to found a universal family, the Church. Hence He is the perfect model of religious chastity. His elevation also separates Him from any spirit of willfulness. When He was twelve years old He declared that He had come to tend to His Father's business, 22 and He obeyed even unto death, and to the death of the cross. St. Thomas tells us that He had no need to make the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience because from the first moment of His conception His will was strengthened and immutably fixed not only upon the good, but upon the best.

Since our Lord comes from above, it is His greatness which separates Him from all that is inferior, not to isolate Him but so that He may act upon the world from a great height, and so that in consequence His action may be more universal and more profound. Such is the action of the sun upon the earth when it is at its zenith, at the highest point above the horizon. Because our Lord was by His very elevation free from the bonds that attach men to earthly goods, to their family, to their own little ideas, to their own will, He was able to act not only on the men of one nation or of one era, but upon the whole human race, to whom He has brought eternal life. It is because of the greatness of the Savior that the Gospel is accessible to all, even the most humble, while at the same time surpassing the understanding of the greatest geniuses. It is for the same reason that the Gospel has never grown old and that it will always be timely with an immutable timeliness, superior to that of the fleeting moment.

Jesus was not of the world, but He was given to the world by God's infinite mercy that He might redeem it. This is brought out by the first aspect of His sanctity, freedom from all sin and imperfection.

There is a vast difference between our Lord and ourselves in this respect. Since He comes from above, He is separated by His very elevation from all that is inferior, evil, or less good. As for us, we come from below, from the world of sin, of lies, of covetousness and pride. So we have to separate ourselves progressively from the spirit of the world, from all that is disorderly in it, and progressively rise toward God. This is the meaning of the Commandments and of the three evangelical counsels.

I32 OUR SAVIOR

At this point some may at times be tempted to think that in this work which is so hard for us we have more merit than our Savior. This is an aberration, for our merits would not exist without the grace which comes from Him. Besides, this would be forgetting that by reason of His very elevation our Lord suffered more acutely from sin than we shall ever suffer from it. The fullness of grace increased considerably in His soul the capacity of suffering from the greatest of evils, namely, mortal sin, about which we are not sufficiently grieved because the disorder which it involves is too deep-seated for us to perceive. Our Lord suffered because of sin in the measure of His love for His Father whom sin offends, and in the measure of His love for our souls which sin ravages and kills.

Thus, whereas we must struggle and suffer in order to free ourselves from sin, our Lord has suffered from it infinitely more than we, in the measure of His purity and of His love.

To understand better this most consoling aspect of the sanctity of Jesus, let us repeat the beautiful prayer recommended as a thanksgiving after Holy Communion: "Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Passion of Christ, fortify me. O good Jesus, hear me. Hide me in Thy sacred wounds. Never permit me to be separated from Thee. Defend me from the evil spirit. At the hour of death, call me and command me to come to Thee, so that in the company of Thy saints I may praise Thee for all eternity. Amen."

Let us now enter the sanctuary of the Savior's soul and contemplate the most positive aspect of His sanctity, which constitutes it formally.

The Innate, Substantial, Uncreated and Inamissible Sanctity of Jesus

Through its personal union with the Word, the soul of Jesus has an innate, substantial, uncreated sanctity which is in consequence absolutely perfect and inamissible. This sanctity is constituted especially by the grace of union with the Word and it infinitely surpasses the sanctity of even the greatest servants of God. 28

•"Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.6, a.6: "The grave of union i« the personal bcinR that ii

No doubt, when we read the lives of these privileged beings, the saints, we are struck by the splendor of their virtues, of their goodness, of their generosity, of their ardor in sacrifice. Next to them, the most radiant integrity is dull, and the lives of pagan heroes seem external and without depth.

The outstanding trait of the saints is that they have given themselves not merely to an earthly ideal of the intellectual or moral order, but they have given themselves fully to God, they are taken and possessed by Him, and they live only for Him and for the sake of saving souls. They interpret the counsels of God's love as commands, and they allow themselves to be guided by divine inspiration, even when it leads to the greatest sacrifices. And, the more they abandon themselves to God, the more the Lord showers His gifts upon them; and the more they receive, the more they give, bringing life to their fellow men.

Withal, this sanctity of the greatest of God's servants is infinitely inferior to that of the Savior. The sanctity of the saints gradually frees itself from many imperfections; it is not an innate perfection; it is the crowning of a long and painful effort, the fruit of the workings of grace and of their merits. It is the end of a slow ascent during which even the guides sometimes stumble, as did Peter during the passion of his Master. It is easier of course to walk in the plain on the beaten paths than to make this ascent, especially where there is no trail to follow and no firm footing. Sometimes one turns back. It seems as if one is lost and will be caught without shelter in the darkness and cold. As St. John of the Cross remarks, there are ups and downs in this ascent. For three steps forward one makes two backward, but one advances none the less; and after long periods of tribulation during which the servant of God is not free from committing sin, he progressively arrives under the illumination of faith to union with God. His sanctity, alloyed now with impetuosity and again with cowardice, is a slow and laborious task, the work of grace and of personal coopera- j»ivcn gratis from above to the human nature of the person of the Word." Ibid., Ilia, q.llj a. 2 ad n q. 24, a.(1) f., on whether Christ was predestined to be the Son of Godj q. 2C1, a. 1 f., on Christ as Mediator. Cf. John of St. Thomas, De incnrii., disp. 8, a. 1 1 (Jonet, Of incarn., disp. 11 1 Hillunrt, Ot inrarn., disp, 8, a.i, tion, and it has still many signs of human fragility, as we see in the lives of the greatest saints, namely, the apostles. 24

Besides, the holiness of the servants of God is in their case an accidental perfection, in the sense that it is superadded to their being. It consists in the higher degree of sanctifying grace which they have received and in the charity that has blossomed in them. This perfection is also accidental in the sense that while still here below they can lose it, as Adam lost it for himself and for us. Finally, it is a perfection which always leaves room for a greater perfection, for a deeper understanding of the mysteries of God, and for a more burning charity, the fruit of greater graces and greater efforts.

The sanctity of Jesus, on the other hand, did not progressively free itself from manifold imperfections: it is innate in Him. Jesus was born holy. He was holy even from the first moment of His conception, by the personal union of His humanity with the Word. Thus His soul was from the start sanctified by the divinity of the Word, by the grace of personal union with the only-begotten Son of the Father. It is therefore incomparably better consecrated than a chalice, than the soul of a priest marked with the sign of priesthood. Jesus is above all others the "Anointed of God." 26 He is given exclusively to His Father's "business," as He said at the age of twelve when He was found among the doctors. His sacred soul was supremely pleasing to the Father from the first moment; within it the kingdom of God is realized in its absolute fullness.

The sanctity of Jesus is thus innate and anterior even to His birth. And, by reason of His merits, His mother, the Virgin Mary, received the grace of innate sanctity through the grace of the Immaculate Conception.

But what belongs to Christ alone and what is not to be found in any other human soul or in any angel is the fact that His sanctity is not merely innate, but substantial and uncreated. This is not an accidental perfection, superadded to His being. It is the sanctity of the eternal Word that substantially sanctifies the soul of Jesus in giving it sub-

14 Although the just can avoid each venial tin taken individually, they cannot avoid them all taken as a whole or continually. To do that, they would need the very ipecial Bruce received by the Blcucd Virgin. u Pi. 44:8.

sistence. The sanctity of the Word thus penetrates His soul in the highest degree possible. If the saints are beings taken by God, possessed by Him, how much more so is "the Anointed of God," who has received the fullness of the divine unction and who subsists by it? For, as we have seen, there is in Jesus only one subject of attribution, a single person, and thus a single subsistence or personality, that of the Word, and a single existence, by reason of which He said: "Before Abraham was made, I am." 28

That is the same as saying that the sanctity of Jesus, like the grace of union with the Word, is not only substantial, but it is uncreated. For it is formally constituted by the uncreated personality of the Word, which has united itself for all eternity with the soul of the Savior, so that in Jesus the two natures exist through the uncreated existence. This is what makes it possible for Him to say: "I am the truth and the life" or "I am who am." 27

Isaias spoke of Jesus when he said: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated. . . . Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered His face, and with two they covered His feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His glory." 28

St. John likewise records these words in the Apocalypse: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come." 29

This substantial and uncreated sanctity of Christ is therefore the most perfect sanctity conceivable, the most intimate, and the most steadfast. Because of it He is the Saint of saints. Can a divine person be more intimately and indissolubly united to a soul, to a created nature, than by communicating to it Its own subsistence, or personality, and Its existence? A greater sanctity than this cannot be conceived. In fact, we can say that while the apostles Peter and Paul are saints,

" Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 6, a. 6 : "The grace of union is the personal being that it given gratis from above to the human nature of the Person of the Word, and is the term of the assumption. Whereas the habitual grace pertaining to the spiritual holiness of the man is an effect following the union." Ilia, q. 17, a. a: "Whether there is only one being in Christ." "Isa. 6:i-j. "John 4:8.

Jesus is sanctity itself, just as He is God Himself and the Deity. This sanctity is therefore inamissible, for Christ cannot cease being Christ, the Anointed of God. This He will always be, in aeternum. By the same token He is a priest for all eternity.

In a word: the sanctity of Jesus is constituted above all by the grace of uncreated union, which consists in the possession forever of the Savior's humanity by the person of the Word.

Jesus continually lives, therefore, in an order superior to that of nature, and to that of grace, that is, of supernatural created sanctity. His soul lives in a special order, the order of the hypostatic union, the order of the personal and substantial life of God, wherein He is placed by the grace of His union with the Word. 30

The saints, especially those who are in heaven, enjoy the ecstasy of knowledge and of love. Their intelligence and their will are, as it were, lost in God, taken away by the divine object. The blessed soul of Jesus, on the other hand, enjoyed from the first moment of its creation an ecstasy superior to that of contemplation and of love. It enjoyed, as we have said, the ecstasy of being or of existence, an habitual, tranquil, permanent ecstasy. For the soul of the Savior subsists only by the personality and by the uncreated existence of the Word. 31

Such is the innate, substantial, and uncreated sanctity of Jesus, formally constituted by the personal union of His humanity to the Word. Taking up this affirmation by the Church that the sanctity of Christ is innate, some unbelievers have said that in consequence His sanctity is without difficulties and without merit. Though Jesus' sanctity is not the fruit of merit, it is the source of all His merits and of ours as well. 32 Besides, if anyone has faced here on earth hardship, contradic-

30 The Virgin Mary touches this hypostatic order by reason of the grace of her divine maternity, inasmuch as she is the Mother of God, or the mother of Jesus who is God. That is why she is entitled to the worship of hyperdulia.

81 As the soul separated from the body subsists after death and will on the day of resurrection communicate its existence to the body which it will once again vivify, so the Word communicated His uncreated existence to the humanity of the Savior at the moment of the Incarnation.

"As St. Thomas explains (Ilia, q. 19, a. 3), it is true of Christ as of ourselves that It ii nobler to have something through merit than without merit. Thus Jesus merited the glory of Hit body, 1 1 is Resurrection, Mis Ascension, the exaltation of His name, and the sal- tion, combat, it was our Savior. Shall we say that the saints, endowed with special graces from their childhood, have less merit than we? The principle of merit is charity or love of God. Therefore he who has a greater love of God has more merits, and he also suffers much more than others from the greatest of all evils, namely, sin. We can see, therefore, that we cannot even surmise how much our Savior suffered. His innate, substantial, and uncreated sanctity considerably increased the capacity of His soul to suffer here on earth from sin, which is an offense against God and which brings us death by turning us away from Him.

The Fullness of Created Grace

From His substantial and uncreated sanctity our Lord derived created sanctifying grace, and this He received in its fullness. And from grace derive the supernatural virtues and the gifts of charity, wisdom, piety, humility, patience, meekness in a proportionate degree, which is far superior to that of the saints and to that which was realized within the soul of Mary.

Was it possible that the soul of the Savior, which was united in the highest degree possible to God, the source of all grace, should not have been full of grace? Was it possible that His soul, which was to make us participants of all the supernatural gifts, should not itself have been adorned with all of them? 88

Created grace is a participation in divine nature which, like a second nature, increases the stature of our souls to produce connaturally 84 supernatural and meritorious acts. It is like a divine graft in us which elevates us to a superior life. The soul of Jesus received this grace in its absolute plenitude. That is what St. John meant when he wrote: "And we saw His glory, . . . full of grace and truth." 35 A few vation of our souls. But we must make one exception to this principle if the temporary deprivation of something would diminish our Savior's perfection more than the merit which presupposes this deprivation would increase His perfection. Thus Jesus did not merit the beatific vision, for the temporary deprivation of this vision would diminish His perfection more than the merit would increase it. Christ could merit only what was in Him the principle of merit: His divine personality and the fullness of grace. ** Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.7, n.o.

great saints, such as St. Stephen the first martyr, and above all Mary, received a relative plenitude of grace, proportioned to their mission in the Church. Thus the archangel Gabriel said to Mary: "Hail, full of grace." 36 Jesus, however, received grace in its absolute fullness, that is to say, in its supreme degree.

According to the actual plan of Providence, this grace cannot be any loftier, for it is morally proportioned to the highest dignity, that of the person of the Word made flesh. 87 Furthermore, in the soul of Jesus this grace cooperates in supernatural and meritorious acts which are, by reason of the personality of the Word, of infinite value.

Finally, this grace possesses the maximum of extension, for it corresponds to the most universal of all missions, that of the Savior of all men. It extends to all supernatural effects, and it contains within itself in an eminent degree, as a superior well-spring, all the graces necessary to the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, and the virgins of all lands and of all times. As St. Thomas tells us, 88 the soul of Jesus received habitual grace just as the sun receives light, with the greatest intensity and radiance. And since there is probably in the physical world a center of light of even greater intensity and radiance than the sun, let us use it as a feeble symbol of the fullness of created grace within the soul of our Savior. This is to say that the habitual grace within the soul of Jesus surpasses in intensity and splendor that of all the saints and angels together, as the light of the sun excels that of the planets and their satellites.

Christ received this fullness of grace from the first moment of His conception, for it is an immediate consequence of the personal union with the Word. And even in this first instant He received it freely; for His holy soul was created as were those of the angels not in a state of sleep but in a waking and freely acting state. 89

This plenitude was so perfect even from the first moment that it could not increase during the course of the earthly life of our Lord/ 0

"Cf. ibid., q.34, a. 3. Thus the justified adult freely receives sanctifying grace, the principle of merit. Likewise the angels were created in the state of grace. Cf. St. Thomas, la, q.6a, a. 3.

40 The Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (553) defined, in opposition

But with the same degree of grace, He accomplished works that were ever more perfect as He grew in years, until the consummation of His mission on the cross. 41 Thus we might say that the sun's light, while maintaining an unchanging degree of intensity, lights and warms the earth more as it approaches the zenith, the highest point in the sky.* 2

This plenitude of grace was from the first moment of Jesus' life the source of the virtues and gifts which are reconcilable with the beatific vision and with personal union to the Word. 43 And these virtues and gifts proceed from it in a proportionate degree, that is, the supreme degree. 44 This fact gives us an insight into the charity of Christ, even from the first moment, and into His love for His Father and for souls, His wisdom, His prudence, His piety, His justice, His fortitude, His patience, His humility, His meekness.

From the first moment of His earthly life, He possessed in the supreme degree all the virtues excepting those which fundamentally admit of an imperfection that cannot be reconciled with the beatific vision. For He received the beatific vision from that first instant. Thus it was that He had neither faith nor hope, both of which will disappear in us to make way for the vision of God. 45 Nor did He have contrition, which presupposes personal sin, but He took upon Himself the punishment which our sins demanded. 48

This shows us the falsity of saying that Christ, having received so to Theodore of Mopsuestia, that the blessed soul of Christ was not subject to the passions and that it did not become better through progress in virtue and good works: "ex perfectu operum non melioratus est Christus." (Cf. Denzinger, no. 124.)

42 In Mary, on the contrary, there was an increase in grace and in charity, from the initial plenitude at the moment of the Immaculate Conception until the moment of final plenitude at her death, before the Assumption.

48 Cf. Isa. if Hi "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord." 44 Cf . St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 7, a. 2.

" From this it follows that there was never faith or hope greater than Mary's. Her heroic faith and hope, especially at the foot of the cross, far surpassed the faith and hope of the angels while they were still in their transitory state.

44 For the same reason Mary did not have contrition, although in union with her Son she bore the punishment for our sins.

much, could not suffer. Quite the contrary. As we have already remarked, the fullness of grace in Christ's soul greatly increased His capacity for suffering here on earth from the worst of all evils, namely, sin. The nobler and purer a soul is here on earth, the more it suffers from mortal sin, the radical disorder that turns souls away from God, their final end.

This spiritual suffering began in our Lord's soul from the instant He knew of His mission as Savior. 47 It was then that He offered His first act of love, in union with those which were to follow until His death. From the start He offered up His whole life in an incomparably more perfect manner than does the religious when at his profession he promises obedience until death.* 8

This fullness of grace is manifested in the marvelous harmonizing of apparently opposed virtues. Harmony, which is unity in diversity, is all the more beautiful in the measure that there is a more profound unity in a vaster diversity, and that there is a deeper intimacy between widely separated elements.

In Jesus are admirably reconciled the loftiest supernaturality and the simplest and most spontaneous naturalness. But when we try to be natural, we often forget the exigences of grace and fall into the practical naturalism of indifference. If, on the other hand, we try to attain supernatural perfection without passing through the indispensable intermediaries, we fall into a state of arrogant rigidity, reminiscent of the Jansenists, or into a false supernatural exaltation which borders on eccentricity. In Jesus, nature and grace are wonderfully harmonized because He possesses the fullness of grace and because His nature is completely docile.

In Jesus also the most sublime wisdom and the most astute practical sense are also harmonized. As for us, we are usually either too abstract, lost in vague generalities, or, on the contrary, we put undue emphasis on details, without viewing things from a sufficient height.

47 St. Paul says: "Wherefore when He [Christ] cometh into the world, He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me: . . . Behold I come: . . . that I should do Thy will, O God" (Heb. 10:5-7).

48 This explains why the first meritorious act of Christ, although of infinite value, did not render the succeeding acts superfluous. He offered up the first united to all the others, as ddtlned to lead llim to the death of the cross.

Within Jesus are also united perfect justice and boundless mercy, whereas in us justice often turns to severity, and mercy to weakness. Let us call to mind our Savior's forgiveness of the adulterous woman: what firmness and yet what generosity!

Likewise in Him are harmonized a supreme dignity and the deepest humility. Among men, however, magnanimity is frequently accompanied by haughtiness, and souls that are naturally modest often remain pusillanimous and without energy.

Finally in Jesus are reconciled the most heroic strength and the greatest meekness, as witnessed by the smile of the Crucified praying for His executioners: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 49

Nowhere else can we find a loftier or deeper moral harmony, more far-reaching in its scope, or of greater splendor, couched in terms of such noble sobriety.

The Consequences for Us

Jesus is the sun of sanctity, eager to shower His splendors upon us. He received holiness as the universal principle of all graces, graces of light, of attraction, of power. He is not a vessel, a brook, or even a river of sanctity: He is its living source.

St. John tells us: "And of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace." 00 Let us contemplate the radiation of this sanctity in the lives of the saints, of the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins of all times, including our own.

Let us remember that when we were baptized we received from the Savior the same emanation of supernatural life. If we have fallen back into the death of sin, we have been spiritually revivified by absolution, Christ's own pardon, and our souls have been placed once again beneath the living waters of grace, beneath the torrent of divine mercies. If we face tribulation, let us remember that the grace offered to us is proportionate to the sacrifices demanded of us. Let us allow ourselves to be drawn to the Savior, to be illumined, warmed, and vivified by Him. Let us allow ourselves to be loved by His pure and

powerful love, which will purify us more and more. If He makes us suffer, it is to make us like Himself, and to associate us with the mystery of the Redemption through suffering. Let us ever ask Him for new graces, including the grace of final perseverance. And, without resisting, let us allow these graces to inspire us to ever greater acts of generosity, for our own salvation, for that of our neighbor, and for the glory of Christ. Let us also pray for saints who will tell the men of our time what they most need to hear, saints who by their lives will reveal to them Christ's love for us.

Even in the Old Testament the Lord said to His ministers: "Be holy because I am holy." 61 Now that we have received the One who is the Saint of saints, let us say to Him: "Lord, sanctify us, so that we may sanctify Thy name, that we may bear witness to Thy mercy, and that Thy kingdom may become more firmly established within us." This is the first prayer that children learn from their mothers, for these are the first words of the Our Father: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name," that is, may His name be glorified, may its holiness be recognized, not only by our words but by our acts, by our whole life, which should be a song of glory for the Creator in recognition of His goodness.

XII

THE HUMAN INTELLIGENCE OF THE SAVIOR AND HIS CONTEMPLATION

"Never did man speak like this man."

WE HAVE inquired into the nature of the innate, substantial, uncreated sanctity of our Lord and into the absolute fullness of grace which derives from this sanctity and radiates upon the souls of all men.

We must now consider the supernatural riches of the Savior's intelligence, will, and heart. We shall speak first of His human intelligence, for there can be no doubt that Jesus has a human intelligence, the property of His human nature, as well as a divine intelligence, the property of His divine nature. This point has been defined by the Church in opposition to Apollinarianism. To maintain that He has only a divine intelligence is to claim that He has no soul and that the Word takes its place. If this were the case, Jesus would not be truly a man, since He would possess only the least important part of human nature, namely, the body.

To gain some insight into the spiritual riches of Jesus' human intelligence, let us first of all consider Him in His actual role as teacher, and then inquire into the nature of His contemplation of the truths which He taught.

What Kind of Teacher Was Jesus?

Modern rationalists are willing to see in Him a profound moralist of great delicacy and charm, who translated into figurative and highly popular language the maxims of ancient Judaic wisdom, "giving them a new life by filtering them through His impressionable soul," as one of these rationalists puts it.¹¹ But they are generally agreed that Jesus never had any doctrine; that He never taught a body of truths or of dogmas that no one could knowingly and willfully reject without turning away from God and losing his soul. According to them, it was only much later, by a slow process of elaboration, by the union of the Christian religion with Greek philosophy, that Catholic dogma was constituted.

To make Jesus seem more like one of us, liberal Protestants and modernists have held that He was ignorant of many matters relative to the kingdom of God and that He did not have from the beginning of His life the consciousness of His Messiahship. Both groups admit that He bore within Himself a ferment that brought forth a new religious movement, but they hold that He did not teach a doctrine and a truth which no one can refuse to believe without turning away from the way of salvation.

What on the other hand do we see in the Gospel? In St. Luke (2:46-49), we read that when Jesus was twelve years old He was found by Mary and Joseph "in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers. . . . And He said to them [Mary and Joseph] : How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know, that I must be about My Father's business?" 2

Thus, long before His public ministry, Jesus knew His mission. During this ministry He spoke repeatedly of His doctrine, of the truths to which He came to bear witness, of the light He was bringing into the world, of the faith to be given to His words. As St. Mark reports, He began His ministry by preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying: "The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel." 8 St. Matthew says that "when Jesus had fully ended these words [the Sermon on

CHRIST'S CONTEMPLATION i 4 j the Mount], the people were in admiration at His doctrine. For He was teaching them as one having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees." 4 St. Matthew also reports that Jesus said to His apostles before leaving them: "All power is given Me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." 5 St. Mark reports these words even more fully: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned." 8 This is indeed the doctrine necessary for salvation.

In the Gospel, Jesus continually appears as the Master and continually speaks of His doctrine. On Holy Thursday, having washed His apostles' feet, He said to them: "Know you what I have done to you? You call Me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If then I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet. . . . I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. ... If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them." 7

Jesus often said: "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do the will of Him, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." 8 In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus says as many as six times: "He that believeth in Me [with a faith quickened with love], hath everlasting life." 9 And to the Pharisees, He said: "If I do [the works of My Father] , though you will not believe Me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." 10 And: "Whilst you have the light, believe in the light." 11

The apostles also preached everywhere that Jesus' word was divine. St. Paul declared that he had received his doctrine from Jesus Himself, when he wrote to the Galatians: "I give you to understand,

" Ibid., tilji.

H6 brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." 12 At this point St. Paul calls to mind his conversion and the fact that his doctrine conforms with that of the other apostles, and that it was approved in a conference with them at Jerusalem. It is by this evangelical doctrine that the entire primitive Chuch lived, without any concern at all about reconciling it with Greek philosophy. We see, therefore, that Jesus presented a unified doctrine, whatever the rationalists may say to the contrary.

Far more than this, the sublimity of Jesus' doctrine is apparent the moment one hears it preached, especially when one compares what it tells us of God and of human life with what the philosophers or even Moses and the prophets have said. A person easily finds in Jesus' teaching the loftiest dogmas and the purest morality. And the more it is put into practice, the more does its grandeur impress itself upon us. The more anyone lives by it the more he loves it, the more he sees its eternal timeliness, whereas the works of even the greatest geniuses always grow old in some particular.

The most eminent philosophers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle, had certainly risen above the materialism and skepticism of their predecessors. Indeed, they had affirmed the existence of God, the Supreme Intelligence and the Sovereign Good. But they had not been able to attain the explicit idea of creation ex nihilo, which presupposed no pre-existing subject to be transformed. Especially they had not been able to grasp the idea of a free creation, the idea of the creative Fiat expressed in the first lines of Genesis. They could not arrive at an understanding of the extent to which this world's beings depend upon God. In consequence their idea of Providence remained very timid. They dared not affirm that divine Providence can extend to the smallest details of the lives of each of us. They spoke with even greater timidity of the life to come, of its rewards and punishments. When they did affirm it, their affirmation, as they said, was in terms of a beautiful possibility. 13 Their moral teaching, beautiful in certain respects, remained marred by some rather gross errors. They did not even think it was possible to abolish slavery, and their personal lives

11 Gal. i :i i £. u Life to come was tliui presented even In the P/iaedo.

CHRIST'S CONTEMPLATION i 47 were far below the level of their teaching; in fact, their lives sometimes were the negation of their teaching.

How different is the Gospel, in which Jesus speaks with absolute certainty of God, His Father and ours, of Providence, and of eternal life! Did He train Himself naturally, as has been claimed, by the simple meditative reading of the Old Testament, of Moses and the Prophets?

Moses and the Prophets certainly far surpassed the ancient philosophers inasmuch as they affirmed, through the light of revelation and with absolute certainty, that God is the One who is, that everything has been created from nothing, that God made man holy and good in the beginning, and that after our fall He labored mercifully for the restoration of His people, to whom He had promised a Savior.

Yet, in the teaching of Moses and the Prophets the intimate life of God, the Blessed Trinity, remained hidden, and the omnipotence of the Creator inspired especially fear, the beginning of wisdom. The Lord's commandments had taken into account the imperfection of men's souls, which were going through the hard experience of being in need of redemption, and which had to be slowly guided toward the new era of the promised Savior.

Jesus, on the other hand, taught with the most absolute certitude, without any timidity whatever, not only the truths of creation and of the soul's immortality, but the dogma of eternal life which was far beyond any conception of the life to come that the philosophers talked about. And He made eternal life known not merely by symbols like that of the promised land, which were used in the Old Testament; but even in His first words on the beatitudes, He declared: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. . . . Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. . . . Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ... Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." 14 In the parable of the talents the faithful servant was told: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 16 That is to say: See God as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves I Iimsclf.

From the start of His ministry, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not merely tell us, as Moses did, that God is the Creator and Master of all things, but that He is our Father. Accordingly Jesus taught us to pray thus: "Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done." 16 What loftier idea of God can be given to men, and what more sanctifying power for their lives? This is the essence of the whole of Christian dogma and morality.

This eternal Father, Jesus continued, has an only Son, begotten from all eternity, and "God so loved the world, as to give His onlybegotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting." 17 Jesus increasingly manifested Himself to be this only-begotten Son, come to save us, to redeem us by His mission and by His death: "The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many" (Matt. 20:28).

He declared that He would rise from the dead, ascend into heaven, but that He would still be present in the Church until the end of time in the form of the Eucharist, 18 and through the Holy Ghost whom He would send and who would dwell in us in order to make us grasp the meaning of the gospel and thus lead other souls to eternal life. 18 Thenceforth eternal life is seen to be indissoluble union with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the radiance of the beatific vision: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

Can we fail to endure patiently anything that is said untruly about us when we remember that it has been said of Him who is the Teacher of teachers, who is "the truth and the life," that He never had a doctrine?

His teaching includes not only the dogma of creation which had been so clearly enunciated in the Old Testament, but also those of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Eucharist, and eternal life. These are all, of course, unfathomable supernatural mysteries, but mysteries which answer our most deep-seated natural

" Malt. »«:i6j Mark I+UlJ I-uke 11:19. "John r+Iltl) J<S| 1 s :i« t i«7t Acti lit.

aspirations and which arouse in us nobler ones. They are mysteries which harmonize admirably with one another, and it is in vain that the incredulous seek to find any contradiction in them. How superior is this doctrine to the timid affirmations of the philosophers and to the often obscure predictions of the prophets!

In its simplicity this doctrine is sublime in the true sense of the word. The sublime is indeed what is most elevated, most extraordinary in the order of the beautiful. And as the beautiful is a splendid harmony, the splendor of unity in diversity, so the sublime is the loftiest and most intimate harmony of most diverse and separated elements, in appearance irreconcilable. The sublime is particularly the intimate union of supreme goodness and the deepest wretchedness. When divine mercy bows to this extent, gratitude must find expression not merely in words but in tears: the sign of a relationship that is so profound that it is beyond expression in human terms. Now the mysteries of the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Eucharist, are the union of the infinite riches of divine mercy with the universal wretchedness of man, the union of man's poverty with the infinite grandeur of God.

This sublimity is no less apparent in the moral teaching of Jesus than in the mysteries He revealed.

How petty the maxims of the pagan sages seem, compared to the Gospel! They say, as Socrates did: "Know thyself"; "be manly"; "The measure of goodness is the good man," who lives by right reason. Jesus came to say: "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." 20 Be you perfect, not merely as the angels are, but as the heavenly Father is perfect. For you have been made participants not only of the angelic life, but of the intimate life of God, the seed of eternal life, which will consist in seeing God as He sees Himself, and in loving Him as He loves Himself. "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."

The wise men of antiquity said with pride: "The strong man grappling with adversity is a divine spectacle." Jesus said with humility, simplicity, and depth: "Blessed are they that mourn [their sins], Blessed arc they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," it is already realized within them. Such words had never been heard. So lofty are they that even believers are often slow to understand when persecution comes to them. They are astonishing words, and yet so simple when spoken by our Savior.

There is no affinity between the highest moral teaching of the pagans and that of Jesus. The philosophers spoke of acquired virtues, which are often unstable. The virtues our Savior spoke of are the infused virtues which must grow with merit until the supernatural life of eternity.

The new law of the Gospel, which is a law of love, is likewise far superior to the law of fear promulgated by Moses: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. . . . But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment." 21 "You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love [only] them that love you, ... do not even the publicans this? ... Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." 22 These words summarize the entire Sermon on the Mount, spoken at the beginning of our Savior's ministry.

As we have said before, Jesus substituted for the petty nobility of the human virtues the highest nobility of sanctity. He preached hunger and thirst for the justice of God, that is, for union with God. 23

It is difficult to know what in this doctrine is most to be admired: its loftiness, its depth, its scope, its intimate understanding of the heart's secrets, 24 its infallible views on the future. All these supernatural splendors harmonize wonderfully with the most complete naturalness in expression and with the most astute practical sense.

24 Ibid., 9:4. Before curing the man sick of the palsy, Jesus said to the Pharisees: "Why do you think evil in your hearts? " On several occasions He showed that He knew the heart's most intimate secrets. Cf. Matt. 11:151 12:18s 26:10s John 1:151 4='91 6:6$\ 7:101

Nowhere can there be found a more perfect harmony between nature and grace. Here natural aspirations are not merely filled but surpassed, and the word of Christ inspires far superior aspirations which are united in the efficacious and powerful desire for the supernatural life of eternity, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. These were words completely ignored by the pagan sages, and the Old Testament prophets could only lisp them.

Here indeed the plenitude of divine revelation is given to us here on earth in a still obscure manner, in order to lead us to the definitive and dazzling revelation of eternity.

By its sublimity and its conformity with our highest aspirations, the doctrine of Jesus so far surpasses all other doctrines, even that which the chosen people rightly gloried in having received from God, that we cannot fail to recognize in it a powerful and superhuman originality. But this is not the originality of an innovator who is breaking with the past. Jesus said: "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 25

We can well understand that the astonished Jews asked: "How doth this man know letters, having never learned?" 26 And the messengers of the Pharisees, daring not to lay hands on Him, admitted: "Never did man speak like this man." 27

It cannot be maintained, therefore, that Jesus merely bore within Himself a ferment which became the principle of a new religious movement, but that He did not have a doctrine. The entire Credo is to be found in His teaching and can be expressed in His own words, not only in the words reported by St. John, but in those of the first three Gospels, words which are bound up with the whole fabric of the story, with all the facts of His life, His passion and death.

How Jesus Taught

The manner in which Jesus taught is no less sublime in its simplicity than the object of His doctrine. It has been said that "A man's style is the man." Christ Jesus has indeed His own style. In order to have

even a vague notion of His ascendancy over souls, it would be necessary to have heard the sermons of great saints like St. Bernard, St. Dominic, and the holy Cure of Ars.

St. Thomas tells us that the apostle 28 must express himself in such a manner that the word of God may enlighten the intelligence, stir the heart, and arouse the will to the accomplishment of the Commandments. The apostle, therefore, must speak with authority, in the name of God, with simplicity so as to be understood by every soul, with supernatural unction to stir hearts, and with power to turn wills toward God.

Jesus' method of teaching reveals a sovereign authority which is equaled only by the simplicity and unction with which He communicates the loftiest truths; whence the power of the Gospel and the profound influence it has exerted for almost two thousand years, in spite of its austerity and its demands.

The incomparable authority of Jesus is manifested through His power in affirmation and through the influence of His sanctity. How did He affirm? He did not make use of the procedures of human eloquence which flatter the hearer, seeking to please him and to gain his admiration rather than enlighten him. There is not the least bit of oratorical artificiality in the sermons of the Master. He also avoided the abstract considerations of the philosophers and the scriptural discussions of the scribes, who scrutinized the sacred texts without bringing out their true meaning. Jesus did not argue. He spoke in brief, clear, penetrating formulas: "If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out; . . . and if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off." 29 "Love your enemies: ... and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you." These are formulas that jostle unruly passions, amaze the reason, but that address themselves directly to souls of good will, and arouse this good will in those who are seeking the truth. As for unreasonable and rebellious spirits, these formulas sink deep into them like streaks of light and condemnations.

"All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them." 30 "If one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other. And if a man will contend with thee in

CHRIST'S CONTEMPLATION i S3 judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him." 31 For in this manner you will win the soul of your brother, you will enlighten and save him. These maxims are so new and so beautiful that they are not easily forgotten. They remain within us like the light of conscience which inspires us toward goodness and chides us for our selfishness.

Jesus affirms with the authority of the supreme Master: "You call Me Master and Lord; and you say well, for so I am." 32 He considers Himself above any human judgment, above any crossexamination, any criticism, any contradiction. No one else has ever used His formulas: "For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, heareth My voice." 88 "Amen, amen I say unto you: ... I speak that which I have seen with My Father." 34 "You believe in God, believe also in Me." 3H "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. . . . Although I give testimony of Myself, My testimony is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go." 36 "I am the way and the truth, and the life." 87 There is no loftier doctrinal authority.

The authority of His life confirmed that of His intelligence. As for the philosophers, their conduct was often in contradiction to their moral teaching. Even Moses was not as perfect as the Lord demanded of him, and because of this he did not enter the Promised Land. 38 Jesus, on the other hand, began by practicing in all perfection everything that He taught: "Jesus began to do and to teach." 89 Because He had accomplished perfectly all the commandments and counsels, without the slightest flaw, He was able to say: "Which of you shall convince Me of sin?" 40 "For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also." 41 "If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father's commandments, and do abide in His love." 42 His teaching was but the reflection of His conduct, and He asks incomparably less

from us than what He Himself has done for us: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross." 48 The authority of a man's life has never so well confirmed the authority of his doctrine.

What is no less remarkable is the fact that this sovereign authority was coupled with the greatest simplicity. Among many human teachers simplicity is destroyed by pompousness born of pride, which is in reality foolishness. Jesus is too great to feel the least pride in His intelligence and in His life. In His greatness, He is the model of humility: "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me." 44 He cares neither for titles nor honors, nor for the role of learned doctor. Of the scribes and Pharisees He said: "They love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the marketplace, and to be called by men, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren." 45

And while the Pharisees loved to sit in the chair of Moses, to whom did He choose to preach the Gospel? The poor, the poor who were so despised by the pagan sages. This, together with the miracles, is actually a sign of His Messiahship: "The poor have the gospel preached to them." 48 Isaias had declared that He would "preach to the meek" and "heal the contrite of heart." 47 Thus it was that Jesus preached throughout the countryside, on the shores of Lake Genesareth, in Solomon's portico, always in a simple unstudied manner. There was nothing about Him that bespoke artistic or human effort. As He told His listeners, "the words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life." 48

One of the most extraordinary things about our Lord's preaching is that the more sublime the object He spoke of, the calmer was His language. There was never the slightest tinge of exaltation in His words. As Bossuet has well said: "Who can fail to admire the condescension with which He tempered the loftiness of His doctrine? It is at once milk for infants and bread for the strong. One can see that He is filled with God's secrets, but it is evident that He is not astonished by them as are other mortals to whom God reveals Himself:

He speaks about them naturally, as one being born into these secrets and into this glory. And what He possesses beyond measure, 40 He pours forth by measure, so that our weakness may be able to bear it." B0

After the Last Supper, He said to the apostles: "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will teach you all truth." 51 Finally, it was with the utmost simplicity that He recommended humility to His apostles: ". . . calling unto Him a little child, [He] set him in the midst of them. And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 62 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven." 53 For such a man enters into intimacy with God through mental prayer and through love. Thus are admirably reconciled in Jesus's manner of teaching the highest authority, along with simplicity and humility. How complicated does the abstract doctrine of the philosophers seem beside this eminent simplicity!

Lastly, Jesus spoke with an unction that was truly divine, despite the austerity of His counsels. His own words were realized within Himself: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 64 He preached continually of the love with which God first loved us, when we were still sinners. One could feel that He Himself was overflowing with charity and wished ardently for our salvation. He said: "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." 65 His preaching was one of glad tidings: "Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and(1) will refresh you." 58

This unction, the expression of His mercy, was particularly palpable in His conversation with the Samaritan woman: "If thou didst know the gift of God, and who He is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have

48 Ibid., 3 134. 60 Discours sur I'histoire universelle, Part II, chap. 19.

M Clearly the reference here is to the second conversion, for the apostles were in the itntc of grace, three had been on Mount Thabor, and all of them were to receive Communion before the Passion. Peter's second conversion took place at the end of the Passion, Immediately after his denials. It was then that he began to enter into the intimacy of the kingdom of Cud, and even mor* so on Pentecost. " Matt. 18:1—4.

given thee living water." 67 This unction was also noticeable in His preaching of the beatitudes and in His last conversation with the disciples before the Passion. During His last discourses it was as if sheets of light, luminous waves, descended from heaven to become diffused in ever wider circles upon the generations to come.

This divine unction, which was the effect of grace, gave foreknowledge of the Holy Ghost of whom it has been said: "His unction teacheth you of all things." 68 There is no romantic sentimentalism about it. It is accompanied by renunciation, it fights against sin, against the spirit of the world and the spirit of evil: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." 69 While Jesus tells us often that He brings us peace, union with God, He also says that in order to attain this peace we must know how to fight against all within us that would lead us to evil. It is with this in mind that He said: "I came not to send peace, but the sword." 00 Those most beloved of God have been called on to suffer most cruelly from the persecution of those who would not hear the joyful tidings of the Gospel.

In St. Luke we read: "The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter." 61 And in St. Matthew: "And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." 62 These family rifts were frequent during the three centuries of the persecutions. One can sense here the exigencies of the divine law.

It is this saintly austerity united to humility which demonstrates the wholly supernatural origin of the Savior's unction. He has sometimes told His saints: "Do not lay too much store on the favorable judgments of men, for I love thee with a perfect love. I spent My earthly existence in humiliations and scorn and in a hidden life. It was thus that I glorified My Father, laid the foundations of My Church, and remedied the evils of pride. This is the path that thou must follow." 88 This is truly Christ's own style, His own manner.

« Cf. Vie de la Venerable Marie-Celeste Crostarosa by Rev. J. Favre, C.SS.R., p. 15 a.

As Father Grou, S.J., says very well: "A humble teacher can teach great things, but he will teach them with humility. ... If he speaks with emphasis and authority, it will not be for his own glory but to extol the one in whose name he speaks and to make a deeper impression on the minds of his listeners. This is how Jesus Christ taught. . . . It is impossible to say such lofty and divine things in a simpler manner. . . . This is how those who have an interior spirit teach. . . . They speak with assurance and at the same time with humility, because they are not speaking of themselves. . . . Their discourses exert upon well-prepared hearts a persuasion, an efficacy that can come only from the grace which prompted their words." 64

These are the reasons why the Gospel has such power and such a profound attraction upon our souls. It both jostles and captivates them. It jostles our unruly passions and captivates our good will. And yet this book was not written directly by our Lord. As St. Thomas says: 65 "It was fitting that Christ as the most excellent of teachers should adopt that manner of teaching whereby His doctrine is imprinted on the hearts of His hearers," by the grace of light and strength which He granted them. This is the highest magisterium, the living magisterium. And this is why, as St. Thomas also remarks, 68 the new law of the Gospel is first of all written spiritually in the hearts of the faithful by the grace of the Holy Ghost, before being materially written on stone or parchment. Jesus was content to write in the souls of His apostles a living letter that they have made known to the world: "Going therefore teach ye all nations." And in actual fact, His doctrine spread, in spite of innumerable obstacles, to the limits of the world known to the ancient peoples.

Today, after twenty centuries, this power of communication continues to exert its influence, thus verifying the affirmation: "Heaven and earth shall pass, but My words shall not pass." 07 As St. Peter said, these are "the words of eternal life." 88 Until the end of the world our Savior will raise up new priestly vocations so that the gospel may ever be preached for the salvation of souls.

"* L'lnlMeur de Jesus, chap. 24: "Maniere d'enscigner."

While the books of the Greek philosophers stay on library shelves, consulted by a handful of scholars, the Gospel has been for twenty centuries the spiritual food of millions of souls. Even the modern societies which reject the Gospel are none the less impregnated with it in spite of themselves. Whereas the more sincere among the philosophers admit that they are powerless to change the interior dispositions of men, Jesus, with but a few poor Galilean fishermen and in spite of three centuries of persecutions succeeded in changing the moral ideas of humanity. 60 Through His grace He gave to multitudes of souls the love of goodness, to many He gave a supernatural ardor for sacrifice, and He dispersed among all peoples marvelous flowers of sanctity. The Christian martyrology which is read daily in the Office after Lauds is a great motive of credibility, a notable sign of the divine origin of Jesus' doctrine.

No one else has been able to keep a doctrine ever living down the centuries through an immortal race of disciples, so that after two thousand years we still accept it as "the words of eternal life."

When we read the Gospel in a recollected manner we wonder how our Savior was able to unite in His teaching and in His manner of preaching such diverse qualities: the supreme authority of His doctrine and of His life together with such perfect simplicity and humility, an unction which moves men's hearts together with an austerity which makes heavy demands on human nature. The intimate union of such different qualities cannot be explained naturally. Our temperaments are in a sense determined by nature, and must be completed by virtue. The profound union in Jesus of such diverse qualities can be the effect only of very high virtue and of very lofty contemplation, in other words, the effect of the most extraordinary grace.

Our Savior's Contemplation Superior to All Others according to the Gospel of St. John

In what light did Jesus contemplate the things He taught? In an effort to understand this, let us raise our minds progressively toward Him, starting with a less sublime teaching. Then wc shall see what

Cf. St. Tliomm, Contra Genlcs, Bk. I, chap. 6.

CHRIST'S CONTEMPLATION i S9

Jesus has Himself told us in the Gospel of St. John concerning his vision of divine things.

The greatest geniuses of the pagan world, such as Plato and Aristotle, contemplated their doctrine in the natural light of the intelligence, in the light of first principles abstracted from sensible things, and in the mirror of these things the power of their vision discovered a reflection of divine perfections. Thus they taught that God is the primary Being, the supreme Intelligence who ordained all things and who is the sovereign Good. Yet there remained in their affirmations much obscurity and uncertainty.

The prophets of the Old Testament contemplated the doctrine that they announced in the light of prophecy united to the supernatural light of faith. This light was incomparably superior to the natural light of the intelligence with which the greatest Greek philosophers were endowed. Thus Isaias foresaw the promised Savior: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace." 70

However, the light of prophecy and that of infused faith are still obscure in the sense that they do not give us the evidence of the supernatural mysteries. They merely lead us to adhere to the infallible testimony of God. Just as the most distant stars cannot manifest to us the outermost limits of the firmament, so the infused light of prophecy and that of faith do not suffice to shed light on what St. Paul calls "the deep things of God," 71 namely, His intimate life which we shall clearly understand only in heaven. Beyond doubt the gifts of the Holy Ghost, gifts of knowledge and wisdom, give us a living, quasiexperimental knowledge of the supernatural mysteries, helping us to penetrate and enjoy them. Yet these gifts do not bring us out of the obscurity of faith.

The apostles, as had the prophets before them, received the light of prophecy and that of infused faith in a high degree. One of them, St. Paul, in view of his exceptional ministry, received even a special and extraordinary grace of light which he described as follows: "I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I

know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I know . . . that he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter." 72 In this passage St. Paul seems to be recalling the ravishment mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, where these words of the great convert are recorded: "And it came to pass, when I was come again to Jerusalem, and was praying in the Temple, that I was in a trance, and saw Him saying unto me: Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem ; becasue they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me." 78

When St. Paul says that he was ravished to the third heaven he meant, as did the Hebrews, the spiritual heaven where God dwells, the empyrean above the heaven of the air (the atmosphere) and even above the heaven of the stars (the ether). It is therefore probable that, in accordance with the thought of St. Augustine 74 and of St. Thomas, 75 St. Paul means that for a short moment he was raised up to the beatific vision of the divine essence. These great doctors, who had themselves received extraordinary graces of contemplation, 76 say it seems that in that brief moment Paul contemplated what "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard . . . what things God hath prepared for them that love Him." 77

After this ravishment the great Apostle was so profoundly convinced of the truth of the divine doctrine which he was preaching that his conviction was always far beyond even the loftiest words that came to his lips. Sublime words flowed from his pen, sometimes pouring forth like a torrent rushing down a mountainside, and yet they cannot express what he saw. His noblest words are but the inadequate means of expressing, in terms suited to our intelligence, an intuition far above us. Sometimes, alas, a preacher may have more on his lips than exists in the faith of his own heart, and then his preaching becomes theatrical, affected, and bombastic. St. Paul, on the contrary, knew far more than he could tell. There was always much more

" The authority of those who reject this opinion is very slight compared to that of Augustine anil Thomas Aquinas. « I Cor. 2:9.

within his soul than on his lips; the spirit dominated the letter and vivified it.

St. Paul spoke of what he had contemplated in God. St. Thomas says that "preaching must derive from the fullness of contemplation" 78 if it is to be living and sanctifying and in any way resemble the words of fire that are referred to in the psalms (n8:i40). 79 We cannot hope to describe the magnificence of a mountain view unless we have actually been up there ourselves. It will not suffice merely to page through a travel guide. That Paul might speak with the greatest possible light and vigor concerning God and the redemptive Incarnation, he had been raised at least for an instant to the summit of divine contemplation. That is why he was the great Doctor of the Gentiles, charged with transmitting to them for the first time the teaching of the Master.

But if Paul was raised for at least one moment to the contemplation of the divine essence, what are we to say of Jesus Himself?

It is true of course that through His divne intelligence Jesus never ceased seeing God. Far more than this, His divine intelligence which is common to the three persons, is identical without any real distinction whatever with the divine essence known from all eternity; and the person of the Word is "the brightness of eternal light," 80 "the brightness of His [the Father's] glory." 81

However, with respect to His human intelligence, was it only in the obscurity of faith that Jesus ordinarily attained the supernatural mysteries of which He spoke, the deep things of God which He leaches us to know dimly? Did Jesus have but a few moments of ecstasy, as St. Paul did, remaining ignorant of many things relating to the kingdom of God?

The infallible magisterium of the Church has given a partial answer to this question. It has been defined, in refutation of the heresy of the Agnoetes, that Jesus as man was not ignorant of anything whatever relating to the kingdom of God, 82 that will be consummated in

" Cf. Dcnzingcr, Enchiridion, no. 248. Declaration of Gregory I (a.d. 600) : "Omni- DOtiBl I'ilius nescire se elicit diem (judicii) quern ncsciri facit, non quod ipse ncsciat, sed quia hum- sciri nbtlBM permittat . . Diem ergo ct horKTfl judicii scit IX-us et homoi heaven and that includes all the elect, both angels and men. Can He who even as man is the head of the kingdom of God be ignorant of anything that relates to His function? Can He be ignorant of the day of judgment and the number of the elect for whom He is meriting salvation? The Church tells us that such ignorance could not have been in Him.

But in what light did Christ's human intelligence know here below everything concerning the kingdom of God? Was it only in the light of prophecy united to the light of faith? Or was it in a higher light? Was the sacred soul of our Savior deprived during His life on earth of the light of glory by which the saints in heaven see God face to face? If it is probable that St. Paul while here on earth received this light for at least one instant, what are we to say of the sacred soul of Christ?

The theologians answer in unison: Jesus saw what He taught in the light of the beatific vision. 83 Jesus possessed throughout His earthly life and in a far higher degree the contemplation which St. Paul seems to have attained for an instant during an ecstasy. The contemplation of Jesus even here on earth was not inferior to that which the saints enjoy in heaven. This has been the common teaching of theologians particularly since the twelfth century, and the Church has declared that it would be rash to deny it. 84

What is the foundation for this doctrine which is commonly accepted in the Church? It is founded first of all on several of Jesus' statements. In St. John He said to Nicodemus with regard to spiritual regeneration: "Amen, amen I say to thee, that we speak what we sed ideo, quia Deus est homo. Res autem valde manifesta est, quia quisquis Nestorianus non est, Agnoita esse nullatenus potest . . . Scriptum est: 'Sciens Jesus, quia omnia dedit ei Pater in manus' (Joan., 13:3). Si omnia, profecto et diem judicii et horam. Quis ergo ita stultus est, ut dicat quia accepit Filius in manibus quod nescit?"

88 It is no slight matter that on this point all theologians agree, whether they be Thomists, Scotists, Suarezians, or Molinists. Their disagreement on controversial matters shows the value of their agreement on those that are not controversial.

84 Cf. Dcnzinger, Enchiridion, nos. 2183 ff. The Holy See declared by a decree of June 5, 19 1 8, that it would be foolhardy to teach the following propositions: "Non constat fuisse in anima Christi inter homines degentis scientiam, quam habent beati seu comprehensorcs. — Ncc ccrta dici potest scntcntia quae statuit animam Christi nihil ignoravisse, icd ah initio cognovisse in Verbo omnia, praeterita, praesentia et futura, icu omnia quae Deui icit scientiu visionii."

know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not j how will you believe, if I shall speak to you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." 8B

The words "what we know" in this passage are synonymous with "what we have seen," as is said immediately afterward. Now, Jesus spoke as a man. It was therefore as a man that He saw God and the things of heaven. Must not testimony correspond to the knowledge from which it derives?

And as at the particular moment when Jesus was saying these words the souls of the deceased just were awaiting their entry into heaven, He said as we have just seen: "No man hath ascended into heaven but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." Thus Jesus was already in heaven not only as the Son of God, by reason of His divinity and of His divine intelligence, but as the Son of man, by reason of His human intelligence. Not only was He to be in heaven after His death, resurrection, and ascension, but He was there already at that moment. This was the same as saying that as of that instant through His human intelligence He already saw God face to face, without any intermediary whatever. For what is heaven if not the spiritual homeland where the blessed enjoy the immediate vision of God or of eternal life, which consists in seeing God as He sees Himself and in loving Him as He loves Himself?

Tradition commonly holds, therefore, that Jesus even while here on earth was at once viator et comprehensor, that is, He was a wayfarer toward eternity and a comprehensor or blessed, already in possession of eternal life. 88

Jesus also said in St. John: "Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father; but He who is of God, He hath seen the Father. Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life." 87 Jesus was here saying that the believers have heard the Father, His word, but have not seen Him; whereas He, Jesus, "who is of God, He hath seen the Father." Therefore this can mean only that

He was more than a believer, that He was not reduced to believing in God, to believing in His own divinity and in His own divine personality. For He had more than faith ; He had the vision that the blessed possess in heaven. 88 There is an immense difference between believing and seeing.

Likewise, in His priestly prayer, Jesus in praying for His disciples said again: "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the world." 89

These last words are singularly expressive: "I will that where I am [that is to say, in heaven], they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me." The apostles already had supernatural faith. Jesus was asking for them the beatific vision, the vision of the divine essence and of the glory which had been given to Him as man, and which derives from the uncreated glory or essential beatitude which He enjoys as God. He asked for His apostles the perfect grace which He Himself already had, that is, eternal life, which consists in seeing God and Him whom God has sent. 90

This is how St. John the Baptist and after him St. John the Evangelist understood the testimony of the Master. St. John the Baptist said to Jesus' disciples: "I am not Christ, but ... I am sent before Him. . . . He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh. 91 He that cometh from heaven, is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth: and no man receiveth His testimony. . . . For He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of

88 It follows from this that the loftiest faith that ever existed was Mary's, especially when she stood at the foot of the cross. It was a faith superior to that which the angels had during their short journey toward eternity.

80 Cf. John 17:3: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."

81 "He that is of the earth, of the earth he is," is the principle of contradiction or of identity applied to the order of spiritual things, to show how much they differ from the things of earth. Flesh is flesh, spirit is spirit. They must not be confused.

God: for God doth not give the Spirit by measure. 92 The Father loveth the Son: and He hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting," that is, he has entered upon eternal life. 93

The testimony of St. John the Baptist given above is as lofty as that of St. John the Evangelist in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." 94 Is this not saying that in contrast to the prophets who had not seen God, the onlybegotten Son had seen Him, and that He had seen Him as man, for it was as man that Jesus made God known? This vision is the source of His testimony, infinitely superior to all those that preceded.

In his First Epistle St. John also says: "Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is." 95 Then will Jesus' priestly prayer be answered: "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me." 98

The more deeply one contemplates in the real sense of the expression these words of Christ, the more one grasps in the obscurity of faith the truth that our Savior possessed even here on earth the light of glory. It was this light that He manifested to three of His disciples on Mount Thabor when for a few moments His body was transfigured.

Finally, is this not what St. Paul tells us: "In Him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell; 97 ... in whom [Jesus] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 98 "That . . . you may be able to comprehend, . . . what is the breadth and length and height and depth . . . also the charity of Christ." 99 "God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days

95 God would have given Him the Spirit with measure if here on earth Jesus as man had had only the obscure and limited knowledge of infused faith, and not the knowledge of vision. 93 John 3:28-36.

hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world. Who being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance, . . . being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they." 100 Since Jesus was "appointed heir of all things" even here on earth, He also enjoyed here below the eternal heritage. Otherwise His human intelligence would have been less enlightened than that of the angels whom He already called "His angels" or His ministers in the kingdom of God. Lastly, if Jesus did not already possess the beatific vision here on earth He would have been made more perfect when He received it after His death, His charity would have increased with His knowledge of God. But this is contrary to the teaching of the whole Catholic tradition, according to which Christ did not become better or more perfect. 101 Therefore He did not make the transition from faith to the vision of the divine essence. For, if that had been the case His charity or love of God at the moment of transition would have increased as would habitual created grace, and this is contrary to all traditional teaching concerning the absolute plenitude of grace that Jesus received from the very first instant of His conception. 103

The Savior's Contemplation according to Theology

Can theology make even more explicit the meaning of the scriptural passages that we have just quoted? It can and does indeed by means of highly fitting arguments which St. Thomas has admirably presented. 103

St. Thomas says that Jesus must have possessed even here on earth the vision which thousands of blessed souls have in heaven. Every intelligent being must have the knowledge fitting to his state. This is true of the physician, the magistrate, and the priest. Too often incapable and improvident persons occupy high posts, to the detriment

101 Cf. Concilium Comlantinofolit. II (a.d. 553) t Dcnzinger, no. 114.

103 Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.7, a. Its "The grace of Christ cannot be increased . . . since Christ as man was a true and full comprchrnsor from the first instant of His conception." ""Ilia, q.io, a. 4.

of those whom they are guiding. However, this cannot be the case of those directly chosen by God to be His extraordinary ministers in the transmission of revelation. Thus Providence owed it to itself to give Jesus the science or knowledge proportionate to His mission.

Jesus' mission is that of the Teacher of humanity, charged with leading it to eternal life. He was constituted for all time as the Teacher of teachers, the Master of the apostles, the doctors, the greatest contemplatives. After Him no one will come who is more enlightened or who will teach us better the way that leads to eternal blessedness. Must not the perfect Master, then, possess the evidence of what He is teaching, especially if He is Himself "the way, the truth, and the life"?

The great Sower of truth, charged with telling all human generations until the end of time "the words of eternal life," must have known this eternal life even while He was still on earth. He knew the divine essence not "through a glass in a dark manner" but "face to face" according to St. Paul's words. 104

The divine essence that St. Paul probably saw for a brief moment in an ecstasy, Jesus saw continually here on earth through His human intelligence, without needing to interrupt His conversation with His apostles. He was above ecstasy, and His words were so luminous precisely because His intelligence was perpetually illumined by this spiritual sun which never suffered eclipse even while He slept, even during the dark hour of His passion.

Millions of souls in heaven enjoy this contemplation, and they have attained it only through the merits of Jesus Christ. Could He, then, have been deprived of that which He gave to others through His merits? The Master of all humanity must have had the vision of the goal toward which He was leading it. This is the principal reason given by St. Thomas.

There is a second reason. It was fitting that He should have this vision so that He might possess a clear knowledge of His own divinity and not merely believe in it obscurely. We do not yet fully grasp the immense difference between believing and seeing. We shall have a clear knowledge of this difference the moment we enter heaven.

Finally, the third reason is that Jesus is the natural heir of God, as St. Paul tells us. 10B Even as man, Jesus is the Son of God by nature, and not by adoption as we are. But the natural heir enjoys his heritage from the start. Jesus has therefore had eternal life as a birthright. The fullness of grace which He received at the moment of His conception must have blossomed forth at that very instant, otherwise Jesus would have become more perfect afterward. This, as we have seen, is contrary to the Second Council of Constantinople. 106 For had this been the case, His charity, His love of God, would have increased later on when He emerged from the obscurity of faith and received the light of glory.

The fact that the upper reaches of Christ's soul enjoyed the beatific vision even here on earth is not irreconcilable with the fact that Jesus was still in a sense a wayfarer toward eternity. He was proceeding toward eternal life in His mortal body which was still subject to suffering and in His soul as well, inasmuch as it too was still capable of suffering and like ourselves knew through acquired knowledge, which is the fruit of experience and reflection. Thus Jesus was at once wayfarer and comprehensor. He enjoyed beatitude in the highest reaches of His soul, and He was a voyager in its less elevated parts which were in contact with the hardships of His life as Savior and victim. 107

Even during His passion He did not lose the beatific vision, but He freely prevented the irradiation of the light of glory upon His lower reason and sense faculties. He did not wish this light and the joy that proceeds from it to lessen in any way by their radiance the sorrow which was invading Him from all sides. He completely yielded Himself up to suffering, so that the holocaust might be perfect. 108 Thus, although in a much less perfect manner, did the martyrs in the midst of their sufferings rejoice, as they gave their blood in testimony of their faith in Christ.

What did Jesus' human intelligence contemplate under the light of glory? The divine essence, the Blessed Trinity, which He already

,00 Hcb. i :2: "[God] hath appointed [Jesus] heir of all things."

knew in a more perfect manner than did the angels inasmuch as His sacred soul through its personal union with the Word was nearer to God than they. He also contemplated in the divine essence everything that related to His universal mission as head of the kingdom of God, as leader of men and of angels, as judge of the living and of the dead. This is to say that in God He already knew all creatures, all souls, all that they have done, are doing, and will do. He knew the number of the elect, on what day and at what hour this number will be complete: in other words, at what hour the world will come to an end. Nor is there anything about the angelic world that He did not know, for the angels are His ministers in the kingdom of His Father, and He has said that they are "His angels" whom He will send on judgment day to gather the elect. 109

We can now understand what St. John of the Cross wrote for contemplatives in his Ascent of Mount Carmel (Bk. II, chap. 22): "In the law of Scripture the inquiries that were made of God were lawful. . . . But now that the faith is founded in Christ, and, in this era of grace, the evangelical law has been made manifest, there is no reason to inquire of Him in that manner. . . . For, in giving us, as He did, His Son, which is His Word — and He has no other — He spoke to us all together, once and for all. . . . And this is the sense of that passage with which St. Paul begins . . . 'God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son [Heb. 1:1]. . . Wherefore he that would now inquire of God, or seek any vision or revelation, would not only be acting foolishly, but would be committing an offense against God, by not setting his eyes altogether upon Christ, and seeking no new thing or aught beside. . . . Set thine eyes on Him alone, for in Him I have spoken and revealed to thee all things, and in Him thou shalt find yet more than that which thou askest and desirest. For thou askest locutions and revelations, which are the part; but if thou set thine eyes upon Him, thou shalt find the whole; for He is My complete locution and answer,

,0 ° Mark 13:17: "And then shall He [the Son of man] send His angels, and shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost pnrt of heaven."¹²

and He is all My vision and all My revelation ; so that I have spoken to thee, answered thee, declared to thee and revealed to thee, in giving Him to thee as thy brother, companion and master, as ransom and as reward. For since that day when I descended upon Him with My Spirit on Mount Thabor, saying: 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him [Matt. 17:5],' I have left off all these manners of teaching and answering, and I have entrusted this to Him. Hear Him; for I have no more faith to reveal, neither have 1 any more things to declare." 110

Jesus is the Master of teachers, the Master of the greatest contemplatives. He saw immediately in the divine essence what He taught. That is why the more souls advance the more they forsake all other books and seek nourishment only in the Gospel or in the words of our Savior.

In an order inferior to the beatific vision, Jesus also had the infused knowledge which is possessed by the angels and which is sometimes granted in a measure to the saints, as when, for example, the apostles after Pentecost preached in foreign languages without having learned them. Jesus also knew the various dialects better than did the apostles through the grace of Pentecost. 111

Finally, Christ Jesus, like all other men, had the knowledge of experience which He rapidly gained through the exercise of His senses and of His intelligence. This was one more of His perfections, which was not made useless by reason of His superior knowledge, for even though experience taught Him the same things He already knew by

110 The Complete Works of St. John of the Cross, I, 173 f.

111 According to several theologians, it was this infused knowledge which made it possible for Christ to merit from the first moment of His life when He did not yet have any acquired knowledge, and also later on to merit while He slept, for this infused knowledge does not necessarily require the participation of the imagination (Ilia, q. 1 1,

As said by John of St. Thomas (De incarn., d. 17, a. 3, n. 14) and the Salmanticenses (De incarn., disp. 27, dub. 3, 55), Jesus was able to merit even by acts of love which were the immediate consequence of the beatific vision. For the beatific vision allows the liberty to love God, if not in Himself and for Himself, at least inasmuch as He is the reason for loving creatures. Thus God necessarily loves Himself and freely wills to create in order to manifest His goodness. Thus, too, the blessed in necessarily loving God whom they see face to face freely pray for us. See below, chap, ij: "The Liberty of Christ."

other means, it taught Him to know them in a different way. He foresaw far in advance and infallibly that He would be crucified at a given hour on a certain day. Yet when the moment of the crucifixion came, the experience of pain taught Him in a way something new that no prevision could reveal to Him in the same degree. Thus, St. Paul tells us: "And whereas indeed He [Jesus] was the Son of God, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered: and being consummated, He became, to all that obey Him, the cause of eternal salvation." 112

Thus did Christ's human intelligence contemplate even here on earth, under the illumination of His divine intelligence. Let us meditate on the light of His sacred soul, and the supernatural riches which it possessed from the very first moment of His life. He knew us beforehand and He knows our entire existence as it is in the book of life. He knew then and He knows now all the hereditary influences that have contributed to form our temperaments. He knows all our natural aptitudes, all the supernatural graces we have received and those we have refused. He sees all our acts, past, present, and future. He sees the state of our souls thirty years from now, three hundred years and three thousand years from now. He knows our faults much better than we do; and what deep humility this should inspire in us! He knows the exact moment and the circumstances of our death, and what will follow for each one of us.

Lord Jesus, give us Thy light when we pray, lead us from reasoned meditation on Thy perfections to the prayer of the heart which will unite us more intimately to Thyself. Thou art the Good Shepherd who leads His sheep into eternal pastures. Make Thy words come to realization within us: "The sheep hear his [the shepherd's] voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. ... I am the Good Shepherd; and I known Mine, and Mine know Me. . . . My sheep hear My voice: and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand. That which My Father hath given Me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one." 118

XIII

The human will of our savior

"As the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I."

NOW that we have spoken of the human intelligence and of the contemplation of Jesus, we must consider His human will and the eminent perfection of His liberty.

The Church has defined that Jesus has two wills, as He has two intelligences: a divine and uncreated will, the property of His divine nature, and a human will, the property of His human nature.¹³ If our Savior did not indeed have a human will beneath His divine will, He would not be truly a man, and He would not have been able to obey or to merit. For obedience and merit presuppose the submission of a will inferior to another that is more elevated.

The Mystery

The human will of Jesus possesses a very high perfection and a great mystery: His will was even here on earth impeccable, and yet it was perfectly free in obeying and in meriting.

Not only did Jesus never disobey His Father in actual fact, but He could not disobey Him. He was impeccable by reason of His divine personality, by reason of the inamissible plentitude of grace and of the beatific vision which were His. For these three reasons He was absolutely impeccable. Yet He obeyed freely, with perfect liberty, which is not merely spontaneity but the absence of necessity in mak-

17a ing a choice {libertas non solum a coactione, sed a necessitate).¹⁴ How can obedience be free and meritorious when disobedience is not possible? This mystery is so great in the eyes of some theologians who have been unable to avoid contradiction, that they have claimed that Jesus had not received from His Father the commandment, the obligation to die for us. His Father, according to their reasoning, merely suggested or counseled this sacrifice, without requiring it of Him, and Jesus accepted it freely.

This manner of thinking, which is foreign to the doctrine of the great masters, has no foundation whatever in Scripture. On the contrary, Jesus in the Gospel speaks several times of the commandment He received from His Father, the commandment to die for us: "I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from Me: but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down : and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of My Father." 9

Likewise, after the Last Supper and just before the Passion Jesus said again: "I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything. But that the world may know, that I love the Father: and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I. Arise, let us go hence" (John 14:30 f.). When St. Paul told the Philippians (2:8) that "Christ

Merit, which no longer exists in heaven, presupposes not only spontaneity but true liberty, the absence of necessity in making choices and in loving. That is why the Church has condemned the following Jansenist proposition: "Ad merendum et demerendum in statu naturae lapsae non requiritur in homine libertas a necessitate, sufficit libertas a coactione" (Denzinger, no. 1094). Psychological free will is not moral liberation from disorder either, for the former can exist without the latter and vice versa, as in the love that the blessed have for God whom they see face to face.

•John 10:17 f. In this text of St. John are affirmed both the commandment to die for tia and, immediately preceding, the liberty with which Jesus accomplished this cominnndment. St. Augustine even says that by these words Jesus demonstrated that He gave Mis life because He willed to, when He willed to, and in the manner He willed. {De Trin., Ilk. IV, chap. 1 j, no. 16.)

Jesus . . . humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross," he was speaking of this commandment and not of a mere counsel.

Besides, Jesus spoke of other divine commands that constituted an obligation for His human liberty: "If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father's commandments, and do abide in His love." *

How, then, are we to reconcile this free and meritorious obedience of Jesus with His absolute impeccability? This will always remain a mystery for us here on earth, but it appears impossible only to those who conceive of liberty after the manner of the world and not after the manner of saints. Liberty, in the eyes of the world, is freedom to disobey as well as to obey, freedom to do evil as well as to do good. True liberty, according to the saints, is not freedom to disobey but only to obey, it is not freedom to do evil, but only freedom to do good. Now this liberty of goodness is supreme in Jesus.

Liberty in the eyes of the world is the power to choose between good and evil, between duty and selfish whims, between obedience and revolt. It is the power to say with Satan: "I will not obey." One might as well claim that reason is the faculty for knowing what is false as well as what is true.

If liberty is thus understood, clearly it is impossible to see how Jesus was free, He who never rebelled against divine authority or the commandments of His Father, and who could not rebel against them.

But as reason is the faculty for knowing the true and not the false (although it can be put to bad use by incorrect thinking), so true liberty, according to God and the saints, is the power to choose not between good and evil but between several goods whose attraction does not necessitate the will. 6 It is this free will that exists in God, in the sacred soul of our Savior, and among the blessed in heaven. In order

• Cf. St. Thomas, la, q.6z, a. 8 ad 3: "Free will in its choice of means to an end ii disposed just as the intellect is to conclusions. Now it is evident that it belongs to the power of the intellect to be able to proceed to different conclusions, according to given principles; but for it to proceed to some conclusion by passing out of the order of the principl«] comes of its own defect. Hence, it belongs to the perfection of its liberty for the free will to be able to choose between opposite tilings, keeping the order of the to understand it, let us rise for a moment to the contemplation of God's impeccable liberty. We will then realize that the human liberty of Jesus is the purest image in the created order of God's own liberty.

God's Impeccable Liberty

It is clear that God is both sovereignly free and absolutely impeccable. He is in no sense free to sin, that is, to turn away from Himself, from His divine goodness that he necessarily loves. Yet He enjoys sovereign liberty in the order of goodness, inasmuch as His divine goodness leads Him to love the creatures which He can create or fail to create as He wills. It is with perfect liberty that He created us to manifest His goodness. This is the dogma of divine liberty. 8

There is indeed a mystery in all this, but there is no contradiction: whereas it was truly fitting that God should create, yet He did so with perfect liberty, so that there would have been no disadvantage to Him had He not created. The theologians say with great exactness: "Creatio ita conveniens est ut non creatio non sit inconveniens." Contrary to Leibnitz' view, 7 God would not have been less good and less wise if He had not created, for as Boussuet says, "God is no greater for having created the universe." Before Creadon, God was already infinite, so that after creation there is not any more being but only several beings, there is not more life but only many living beings. As St. Thomas says, "since the goodness of God is perfect, and can exist without other things inasmuch as no perfection can accrue to Him from them, it follows that His willing things apart from Himself is not absolutely necessary." 8

Likewise God has freely raised angels and men to the life of grace, end in view; but it comes of the defect of liberty for it to choose anything by turning away from the order of the end; and this is to sin."

0 Cf. Council of the Vatican: "Deus bonitate sua et omnipotenti virtute, non ad augendam suam bcatitudinem nec ad acquirendam, sed ad manifestandam perfectionem suam per bona quae crcaturis impertitur, liberrimo consilio simul ab initio temporis utramque dc nihilo condidit creaturam, spiritualcm et corporalem, angelicam videlicet et mundanam ac dcindc humanam quasi communem ex spiritu et corpore constitutam." Cf. Lateran Council IV, ibid., no. 428.

T Leibnitz erred on this point when he said that God would be neither good nor wise if He had not created.

•Cf. St. Thomas, la, q. 19, a.j, c. and ad 51 Contra Genlts, Bk. I, chaps. 76 and 81.

and He could without any disadvantage to Himself not have so raised them. Furthermore, God has freely willed the Incarnation, and He might well not have willed it and have remitted sin in some other way.

So, too, God sows the divine seed in men's souls in greater or less abundance, according to His good pleasure. "The Spirit breathes where He will." It is with perfect liberty, of course, that God has chosen one race of people rather than another which by its patriarchs and prophets would prepare the way for the mystery of Redemption. It is with perfect liberty that He chose within this people Mary rather than some other virgin to become the Mother of the Savior, and Joseph rather than any other just man to be the foster father of Jesus. It is with complete liberty also that God chose one century rather than another for the coming of the Messiah, just as He freely chose a given hour for the creation or beginning of the universe and another hour for the end of the world when the number of the elect will be complete.

This is the sovereign liberty which is admirably reconciled with absolute impeccability. God cannot turn away from Himself. He is absolutely impeccable, but He is perfectly free with regard to all created things. He does not have the liberty of evil, which is a form of our defectiveness, but He has the liberty of goodness in its absolute fullness.

Christ's Impeccable Liberty, the Perfect Image of God's Liberty

The sacred soul of our Savior enjoys now and enjoyed while on earth through grace a human liberty superior to that of the angels. No created liberty ever was or ever will be more conformable to divine liberty. Our Savior's human liberty was from the first moment the living image of God's liberty.

As we have just said, God is free, not to love His own divine goodness, but to desire to manifest His goodness by creating us who had no right whatever to existence. And as God is infinitely good and wise from all eternity He did not become any better by freely creating the universe. Thus God enjoys both absolute impeccability and the sov- ereign liberty which can be exercised only in the order of goodness.

Now, Christ's human will is the pure image of the uncreated will, since it is the human will of the Word of God made flesh, superior to the angels and to all the blessed in heaven.

We must conclude, therefore, that Christ's human will is like God's, of which it is the image, at once absolutely impeccable and perfectly free, possessing a liberty which can be exercised only in the order of goodness.

Like God, the sacred soul of Christ while here on earth was free, not to love divine goodness in itself, which He clearly saw in the light of the beatific vision, but to love the manifestation of divine goodness in creatures. 9

Christ's sacred soul while here on earth loved God seen face to face with a love superior to liberty, just as God loves Himself necessarily} but Christ loved creatures freely, as finite manifestations of God's infinite goodness.

So it was that Jesus was free to call to the apostolate His first twelve disciples rather than other Galilean fishermen. He was free to choose Peter rather than another of His apostles to become His vicar, the head of His Church. He was free to call John to a friendship of predilection. He was free to convert Saul on the road to Damascus on a given day and at a given hour, and to make him or not to make him the Apostle of the Gentiles. He was free to choose among several goods within the order of goodness itself, but He was not free to will evil. His impeccable liberty could not deviate, just as His human intelligence, always enlightened by divine light, could not err.

Can a Command Requiring a Free Act Destroy the Liberty of That Act?

A precept or commandment in the true sense certainly takes away the moral liberty to act otherwise, since it constitutes a moral obliga-

• St. Thomas says (la, q. 19, a. 3): "God wills His own goodness necessarily. . . . Hence, since the goodness of God is perfect, and can exist without other things inasmuch at no perfection can accrue to Him from them, it follows that His willing things apart from Himself is not absolutely necessary. Yet it can be necessary by supposition, for supposing that He wills I thing, then He ia unable not to will it, as His will cannot change."

tion. For the contrary act is illicit and forbidden. But no commandment takes away the psychological liberty to act in conformity with its demands. On the contrary, a free act of obedience is required, and if the precept destroyed the psychological liberty of this act, it would destroy itself as a precept. For example, the commandment to love our neighbor makes the contrary act of hatred illicit or forbidden, but far from destroying the liberty of our act of love for our neighbor, it demands a free and meritorious act. 10

Our Savior had during His life and still has an impeccable psychological liberty, the pure image of God, with regard to all goodness whose attraction did not necessitate His will. We must conclude, therefore, that this impeccable psychological liberty was not destroyed by the divine command to die for us. Otherwise this precept which demanded a free act of love and obedience would have destroyed itself. 11

Faced with the command to die for us, Jesus was free in the accomplishment of this inevitable duty. His freedom with respect to this duty was the freedom of goodness and not the freedom of evil. He could not disobey, but as St. Paul tells us, He freely obeyed "unto death, even to the death of the cross." He had given expression to this liberty Himself when He said: "I lay down My life. ... No man taketh it away from Me: but I lay it down of Myself. . . . This commandment have I received of My Father." 12

10 Thus man is not free to choose the religion that pleases him. He must choose the true religion, but he chooses it freely.

11 Jesus necessarily loved only God as seen face to face. This fact is necessarily and intrinsically connected with supreme beatitude. Thus the soul necessarily wishes to exist, to live, and to know, otherwise it would not see God. But Jesus freely chose the means that had only an accidental connection (by virtue of an extrinsic precept) with the final end, for example, death on the cross. This form of death, terrible in one of its aspects and salutary for us in another of its aspects, did not necessarily attract our Lord. The precept which demanded this death, did not change its horrible nature, and did not destroy the liberty of the free act that it required.

Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 1 8, a. 4 ad 3 : "The will of Christ, though determined to good, is not determined to this or that good. Hence it pertains to Christ, even as to the blessed, to choose with a free will confirmed in good." Cf. also Ilia, q. 15, a.i. See also among St. Thomas' commentators, John of St. Thomas, the Carmelites of Salamanca, Gonct, Billuart, and others.

Precisely wherein lies the liberty of this heroic obedience? In order to truly grasp it, we must consider two things. First, this death on the cross, under one aspect is terrible. Secondly, under another aspect it is eminently salutary for us, for the deliverance of souls. This death does not invincibly attract the human will of our Savior, as the goodness of His Father whom He sees face to face attracts Him. On the one hand, this horrible death is repugnant to Christ's sensibility and to every fiber of His human nature. On the other hand, it attracts our Savior as being the consummation of His mission. The commandment that is also related to it does not change the nature of this death, at once dreadful and salutary. Nor can this commandment destroy the liberty of the free act which it demands.

Under these conditions, what will be the deciding factor causing one or the other of these contrary aspects of a death at once horrible and attractive to prevail? The will of Jesus intervenes here freely, giving the preference to the good, to heroic sacrifice; but as this will is fundamentally righteous, it always intervenes in the correct manner. It intervenes freely because death on the cross is not in itself a good that invincibly attracts. Quite the contrary. Still, the human will of Jesus intervenes infallibly and impeccably because it is the will of the Word made flesh, because it is enlightened by the beatific vision, because it is full of grace and continually receives a very powerful and very gentle actual grace which, far from doing violence to liberty, actualizes it or puts it into action as is fitting.

Thus Jesus obeyed freely, although He could not have disobeyed. One catches a glimpse of this mystery when, for example, an act of painful obedience is required of a good religious. He obeys freely, without even thinking that he could, if he chose, disobey. He might be forbidden, for instance, to go to the bedside of a loved one who is dying, since the trip would be too long and another priest could just as well perform the last rites. This may be a most painful act of obedience required of him, but he accomplishes it freely. The idea does not even occur to him that he might disobey. As the virtue of obedience develops, it leads a soul further and further from the contrary act. It takes away the liberty of evil, but certainly not the liberty of goodness. In Jesus' soul this virtue, like the virtue of charity, is absolutely eminent and inamissible. 18

In heaven Jesus retains this liberty of goodness, even though He can no longer merit, since the hour for merit has passed. He has reached the end of His journey, He is no longer a wayfarer. Yet He retains the liberty of goodness, if not in the act of loving God seen face to face, at least in His love for creatures. The same is true of the saints. St. Dominic in his heavenly abode loves God whom he clearly knows with a love superior to liberty, but it is freely that he prays for one or another of his sons to obtain certain graces for them. If this is true of each of the blessed in heaven, it is much more true of our Savior. 14

In addition, our Lord's sensibility while He was on earth was perfectly obedient to His infallible intelligence and to His impeccable will. His emotions or passions, such as melancholy, fear, sensible joy,

18 In this sense the Thomists say: "Christus non potuit non obedire privative, scilicet recusando mortem ut praeccptam; sed potuit non obedire negative, recusando mortem secundum se." Thus the good religious freely obeys a very hard command without even thinking for a moment that he might disobey this command. He feels that the order is hard in itself, but the idea does not even occur to him to go against the order he has received.

14 The Thomists have wondered whether Christ while on earth freely accomplished the commandment to love God. They have divided into two main schools of thought on this point.

Capreolus, Ferrariensis, Medina, and Soto declare that Christ's love of God, ruled by the beatific vision, was necessary, above liberty, but that in Him the act of love of God ruled by infused knowledge, comparable to the natural knowledge of the angels, was free. These theologians hold that these were two distinct acts, as are the acts of knowledge from which they derived. Therefore, according to this view, it is probable that Jesus merited not only in loving creatures for God but in loving God Himself whom He knew througli infused knowledge, as distinct from the beatific vision. This solution does not exclude the following one, which appears to be more probable.

Alvarez, John of St. Thomas, the Salmanticenses, and Gonet think that Jesus' love of God, ruled by the beatific vision, is necessary, above liberty inasmuch as it related to divine goodness in itself, and that this love was free inasmuch as it related to divine goodness as a reason for loving creatures. They hold with St. Thomas: "Although God necessarily wills His own goodness, He does not necessarily will things willed on account of His goodnessj for it can exist without other things" (la, q. 19, a. 3). God necessarily loves His divine goodness considered in itself j He freely wills the manifestation of His goodness. It is probable that the same thing applied to the sacred soul of Christ while He was still on earth. And the blessed in heaven, although they necessarily love God whom they sec face to face, yet freely pray for certain sinners still on earth in order to obtain graces for them.

never went beyond the bounds of moderation. These emotions never took precedence over reasoned judgment and the consent of the will, as happens with us, but always followed them. When Jesus became angry with the merchants in the Temple, it was because it was His considered judgment that He must manifest to them His holy anger, the zeal for the glory of God. And if He was "sorrowful even unto death" at Gethsemane, it was because He willed to know this overwhelming misery so that the holocaust might be complete. 15

What a great lesson there is for us in this doctrine of the impeccable liberty of Christ! It teaches us that true liberty consists in being able to choose the good, not evil, just as reason is the faculty of knowing the true, not the false, though it may at times go astray. When the Church has condemned some error such as Jansenism or Modernism, there have been persons who have said: "We must either submit or depart." On the contrary, there is absolutely one thing only to do: obey and not disobey.

This doctrine also teaches us that the more we love God, as our Lord and the saints do, the freer we shall be with respect to all created goods to dominate the attraction of worldly goods and not to fear the threats of the impious. The martyrs have demonstrated the power of Christian liberty, which endures all kinds of torture rather than be unfaithful to God, and which is more concerned with union to God than with union to the body.

Let us ask our Lord that He continually decrease our inclination toward evil by making virtue thrive in us, and by confirming our will in the direction of goodness, so that it may one day be definitely confinned in goodness in heaven, when sin will no longer be possible and when we shall have become through the power of Christ impeccable and truly free, enjoying the liberty of the children of God.

Footnotes

1. Tauler has stressed this point emphatically. He bring, it up again and again Ci Sermo »s de Tauler, translated by Hugueny-Thcry (edmons de La sprUuelle, .927). ↩

2. Matt. 11 :i7. 2 Matt. 16:63. ↩

3. St. Irenaeus in his book Adversus Haereses, written between A.D. 174 and 189, says that the Fourth Gospel was composed by John, the disciple of the Lord who leaned on His bosom at the Last Supper, and that he published it while living in Ephcsus. Now, St. Irenaeus had close relations with St. Polycarp and with other direct disciples of the apostles, and he is an exceptional witness inasmuch as he was born in Asia, lived in Rome, and became bishop of Lyons. ↩

4. Malt. 12:39 ff.i Luke 11 :i9 ff. ↩

5. Malt, ititli ↩

6. Cf. Srotiu, In III Sent., d. 1, q. 1, nos. 5 ff.i d. 5, q. 1, no». 4 f. ↩

7. Ilia, t|. i, a. a. ↩

8. Ilia, q. i, «. 3. * Dan. 9:14. • Each. 3 :g. ↩

9. Cf. St. Thomas, la, q. 13, a. 1, 4. * Ibid., a. 5. ↩

10. Rom. 5:10. ↩

11. To a believer, this word "impressionable" seems to have been chosen in order to denature as much as possible the lofty inspiration here in question. This word robs it of all that it is, while apparently conceding to it a certain poetic grandeur of the order of the imagination and of sensibility. To think that such words have been spoken with regard to 1 1 iin who is "the way, the truth, and the life"! ↩

12. 7 o ↩

13. Cf. Third Council of Constantinople, against the Monothelites, definition of the two wills of Christ. (Denzinger, no. 189.) ↩

14. Animals act spontaneously when they go toward food that they like, but they do not act freely. Their action is necessitated by instinct. In another, infinitely superior, order of things, God loves Himself spontaneously but necessarily, not freely. The blessed who see God love Him spontaneously, but necessarily, with a love superior to liberty, for they are infallibly ravished by divine goodness immediately known as it is in itself. Cf. St. Thomas, la Hae, q.4, a. 4: "The will of him who sees the essence of God, of necessity loves whatever he loves, in subordination to God." ↩