St Thomas Into The Incarnation Summary
The main goal of this exercise is to explore some of St. Thomas’s insights into the Incarnation that would be helpful in teaching, explaining, and clarifying the mystery of the Incarnation as presented in the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 456- 478. The main sources that will be used will be the Summa Theologica and Davies work on the Thomas’s thought. First we will briefly summarize the teachings found in those paragraphs of the Catechism. Next we enter the first part of the essay, in which we will delve into Thomas’s understanding of nature for insights focusing on the definition of the Incarnation proclaimed at Chalcedon. Then we will examine what Thomas has to say about the personhood of Jesus for similar insights.
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In the second part of the essay we will explore what Thomas has to say about the reason of the Incarnation by means of its appropriateness to the Divine nature. Then we will see how the Incarnation leads to the passion by means of the love Jesus has in His humanity.
FOUNDATION: THE CATECHISM First we begin with a brief summary of the content of the paragraph of the Catechism explicitly handling the Incarnation.
The Son of God became the son of Man so that men might know how much the Father loves them, reconcile with the Father, and imitate the Son, through partaking of His very life (CCC 456-460). God the Son became man for our salvation (CCC 461-462). Belief in this bold mystery is what makes the Christian faith distinct ( CCC 463). In the early Church, there were many misunderstandings about the nature of this mystery. After many centuries of heretics and heroes battling over the identity of their mutual love, Jesus Christ, the councils of the Church, guided by the Spirit of the Father proclaimed this mystery with greater precision. God the Son assumed human nature without change, confusion, separation, or division. One person, with a fully Divine nature and fully human nature without sin (CCC 464-469). Humanity is assumed by Divinity. Jesus has a human soul, with a human intellect, a human will, a human body, the Divine intellect, and the Divine will. Yet, everything that occurs to His human body occurs to His Divine person. His actions are actions of one of the Trinity. Christ’s actions through His humanity are Divine actions. He is truly God and truly man in every way except sin. (CCC 470) He knows and grew in knowledge in His humanity, while at the same time knowing everything that pertains to God, and what He was to reveal through His humanity, through …show more content…
the union between the two natures (CCC 471-474). In a similar fashion, His human will always perfectly obeys His divine will (475). His human body is the visible sign of the visible God and thus car and should be worshipped and adored (CCC 476-477). The Son of God loves us with all of His divinity through the Sacred Heart of His humanity, from the annunciation to the ascension, throughout all eternity CCC 478).
PART I: NATURE, PERSON, AND CHALCEDON
NATURE
Now that we have the teaching of the Catechism laid out we can turn to Thomas. The principle Magisterial statement on this matter, that both Thomas and the Catechism use, is the definition from the Council of Chalcedon, whose fathers professed that the one Son appeared in two natures, without confusion, change, division, or separation. Thomas, offers this notion of Christ early on in his reflection on the Incarnation. He continues from it to a masterful explanation of the Incarnation, which he does not consider in any way to be false, but rather he considers it an intense and mysterious reality of faith taught by the Incarnate Word Himself.
Given that faith builds upon and perfects reason, Thomas begins his explanation and response to the question, with a philosophical definition of nature: the essence or whatness of a thing, or what makes a given thing that thing. With that definition we can see that the Church has answered the question of what is Jesus in two ways. Jesus is fully God and Jesus is fully man. Thomas goes through several errors of thought regarding the Incarnation and steadily dismisses them. One such is the notion that the natures of Christ are mixed, like water infused with wine, or wine diluted with water. Thomas points out many problems with this idea. The principal problem is that the wine of Christ's divinity cannot be diluted by the water of His humanity because that would introduce change in the divinity.
Divinity is by definition unchanging. Thomas addresses this much earlier in the summa where he argues for the simplicity of God. Stating that God cannot exist in part, for parts must have a cause for them to come together. God is the first cause and therefore cannot have a cause. Given that He is not composite this also means that He cannot change. He has no capacity to change, or potency, and is pure act. Therefore, to be Divine is to be without change. It simply is impossible for anything to mix with divinity and turn out a new nature. This does not mean however that the humanity of Christ is eternal, rather it is created, if it were not, it would not be human. Thus, the personhood of Christ is Divine rather than human, the humanity is united to the Divine Person of the Son. (Davies
305)
Things also cannot come together to unite unless something causes them to do such. Therefore to say that the union of natures in Jesus causes change to them is impossible because change cannot occur in the Divinity. In addition, the mixture of His humanity and divinity is impossible because of the wide variation between the humanity and the divinity, making them effectively unmixable. If they were to mix then the Lord would not have the same nature as either His Father nor His mother, but would be an amalgamated being that could not be.
Here we have seen that Thomas begins with the Magisterial teaching and then uses philosophy to explain teh foundational concepts which undergird that teaching. What is Jesus? For thomas the whatness of Jesus is fully God and fully man. Given that He is fully God, these two things cannot mix on the level of nature. This is because the Divinity of Jesus is unmixable. For if something were to be mixed in then it could not be fully Divine. For Divinity by its nature is unchanging and uncaused. Therefore the two natures must come together in the way Chalcedon describes: without change, and without confusion. The last two phrases, without separation, and without division are on the level of person. PERSON
Another important note is that person and nature and not equivocal terms, they do not mean the same thing. Whereas nature is the whatness of a things, person describes a thing that has reason as part of its whatness. What is said of a particular thing is to be said of the person if it is a rational creature. Thomas argues that what “adheres to a person is united to it in person.” If that is true, then the Divine Word must be united to the Humanity of Christ on the level of person. In this resides the perfection of humanity and demonstrates how much more Christ is than us. For in His human flesh we see the very actions of God the Son made manifest in time. The abilities, or powers, of His human soul, that is the intellect and will, know the mind of God and do His will perfectly. Yet, His personhood is a Divine personhood, for the Son took up a particular human nature, and this human nature does not exist apart from the fullness of perfection that is the Son, in whose person the union occurs.
Thomas makes the distinction between nature and person in order to express that the two natures are united on the level of person. When things are said of a particular thing, and that thing is a person, those things are said of the person. Given that, and the unchanging, or immutable, nature of God, it is clear that the Eternal Divine nature takes up the created human nature into the Divine Person of the Son. Thus what is said of Christ’s action is also said of God the Son. As an example, when it is said that Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (cf Jn 11), it can be said that God wept at the death of Lazarus. This demonstrates the last two Chalcedonia phrases: without separation, and without division.
In the second part of the essay we will explore what Thomas has to say about the reason of the Incarnation by means of its appropriateness to the Divine nature. Then we will see how the Incarnation leads to the passion by means of the love Jesus has in His humanity.
FOUNDATION: THE CATECHISM First we begin with a brief summary of the content of the paragraph of the Catechism explicitly handling the Incarnation.
The Son of God became the son of Man so that men might know how much the Father loves them, reconcile with the Father, and imitate the Son, through partaking of His very life (CCC 456-460). God the Son became man for our salvation (CCC 461-462). Belief in this bold mystery is what makes the Christian faith distinct ( CCC 463). In the early Church, there were many misunderstandings about the nature of this mystery. After many centuries of heretics and heroes battling over the identity of their mutual love, Jesus Christ, the councils of the Church, guided by the Spirit of the Father proclaimed this mystery with greater precision. God the Son assumed human nature without change, confusion, separation, or division. One person, with a fully Divine nature and fully human nature without sin (CCC 464-469). Humanity is assumed by Divinity. Jesus has a human soul, with a human intellect, a human will, a human body, the Divine intellect, and the Divine will. Yet, everything that occurs to His human body occurs to His Divine person. His actions are actions of one of the Trinity. Christ’s actions through His humanity are Divine actions. He is truly God and truly man in every way except sin. (CCC 470) He knows and grew in knowledge in His humanity, while at the same time knowing everything that pertains to God, and what He was to reveal through His humanity, through …show more content…
the union between the two natures (CCC 471-474). In a similar fashion, His human will always perfectly obeys His divine will (475). His human body is the visible sign of the visible God and thus car and should be worshipped and adored (CCC 476-477). The Son of God loves us with all of His divinity through the Sacred Heart of His humanity, from the annunciation to the ascension, throughout all eternity CCC 478).
PART I: NATURE, PERSON, AND CHALCEDON
NATURE
Now that we have the teaching of the Catechism laid out we can turn to Thomas. The principle Magisterial statement on this matter, that both Thomas and the Catechism use, is the definition from the Council of Chalcedon, whose fathers professed that the one Son appeared in two natures, without confusion, change, division, or separation. Thomas, offers this notion of Christ early on in his reflection on the Incarnation. He continues from it to a masterful explanation of the Incarnation, which he does not consider in any way to be false, but rather he considers it an intense and mysterious reality of faith taught by the Incarnate Word Himself.
Given that faith builds upon and perfects reason, Thomas begins his explanation and response to the question, with a philosophical definition of nature: the essence or whatness of a thing, or what makes a given thing that thing. With that definition we can see that the Church has answered the question of what is Jesus in two ways. Jesus is fully God and Jesus is fully man. Thomas goes through several errors of thought regarding the Incarnation and steadily dismisses them. One such is the notion that the natures of Christ are mixed, like water infused with wine, or wine diluted with water. Thomas points out many problems with this idea. The principal problem is that the wine of Christ's divinity cannot be diluted by the water of His humanity because that would introduce change in the divinity.
Divinity is by definition unchanging. Thomas addresses this much earlier in the summa where he argues for the simplicity of God. Stating that God cannot exist in part, for parts must have a cause for them to come together. God is the first cause and therefore cannot have a cause. Given that He is not composite this also means that He cannot change. He has no capacity to change, or potency, and is pure act. Therefore, to be Divine is to be without change. It simply is impossible for anything to mix with divinity and turn out a new nature. This does not mean however that the humanity of Christ is eternal, rather it is created, if it were not, it would not be human. Thus, the personhood of Christ is Divine rather than human, the humanity is united to the Divine Person of the Son. (Davies
305)
Things also cannot come together to unite unless something causes them to do such. Therefore to say that the union of natures in Jesus causes change to them is impossible because change cannot occur in the Divinity. In addition, the mixture of His humanity and divinity is impossible because of the wide variation between the humanity and the divinity, making them effectively unmixable. If they were to mix then the Lord would not have the same nature as either His Father nor His mother, but would be an amalgamated being that could not be.
Here we have seen that Thomas begins with the Magisterial teaching and then uses philosophy to explain teh foundational concepts which undergird that teaching. What is Jesus? For thomas the whatness of Jesus is fully God and fully man. Given that He is fully God, these two things cannot mix on the level of nature. This is because the Divinity of Jesus is unmixable. For if something were to be mixed in then it could not be fully Divine. For Divinity by its nature is unchanging and uncaused. Therefore the two natures must come together in the way Chalcedon describes: without change, and without confusion. The last two phrases, without separation, and without division are on the level of person. PERSON
Another important note is that person and nature and not equivocal terms, they do not mean the same thing. Whereas nature is the whatness of a things, person describes a thing that has reason as part of its whatness. What is said of a particular thing is to be said of the person if it is a rational creature. Thomas argues that what “adheres to a person is united to it in person.” If that is true, then the Divine Word must be united to the Humanity of Christ on the level of person. In this resides the perfection of humanity and demonstrates how much more Christ is than us. For in His human flesh we see the very actions of God the Son made manifest in time. The abilities, or powers, of His human soul, that is the intellect and will, know the mind of God and do His will perfectly. Yet, His personhood is a Divine personhood, for the Son took up a particular human nature, and this human nature does not exist apart from the fullness of perfection that is the Son, in whose person the union occurs.
Thomas makes the distinction between nature and person in order to express that the two natures are united on the level of person. When things are said of a particular thing, and that thing is a person, those things are said of the person. Given that, and the unchanging, or immutable, nature of God, it is clear that the Eternal Divine nature takes up the created human nature into the Divine Person of the Son. Thus what is said of Christ’s action is also said of God the Son. As an example, when it is said that Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (cf Jn 11), it can be said that God wept at the death of Lazarus. This demonstrates the last two Chalcedonia phrases: without separation, and without division.