Sect. 183Redundancy (Overflow) of the Divine Idioms on Christ as Man: His Divine Glory and PowerRedundancy (Overflow) of the Divine Idioms on Christ as Man: His Divine Glory and Power
I. Having obtained a clear notion of Christ as distinct subject of attributions, we are enabled likewise to gain a deeper insight into the communication of idioms between the Man Christ and the God Christ. Although, in general, the communication is mutual, yet it is not the same on both sides: “the human” is appropriated by God, but has no influence on His Divine Existence, whereas “the Divine” is infused into man and gives him a more perfect existence. Besides, the Divine privileges (axiomata) are more communicable than the human properties, and some of them must be attributed to Christ as man directly and formally, by reason of His formal fellowship or participation in them. From this point of view, the communication of idioms appears as an outpouring of the Divine privileges on Christ as man, and may fitly be termed “communication by redundancy.” This term, then, implies that the Word Incarnate not only retains His Divine privileges in His Divinity, but also transfuses and enforces them in the Man constituted by the Hypostatic Union, and that, consequently, this man, even as man completed in his personality by the Word, has co-possession and co-fruition of these privileges.
II. The Redundancy of privileges is founded upon the general principle that in every substantial compound, the whole, even considered in its material elements, participates in the privileges or excellences of the formal principle, whether this be an inherent form as in natural compounds, or an insubsisting form as in the Incarnate Word. The term “redundancy” itself describes the manner or form in which it takes place—transfusion of Divine privileges into God’s consubsistential image, or into the Anointed and the Bud of God. The subject-matter of this communication is summed up by Scripture and the Fathers as a participation in the Divine Glory and Power (δόξα, δύναμις, gloria et virtus, cf. 2 Peter 1:3, etc.).
III. Holy Scripture describes the essential glory of Christ as of the highest dignity and power, and worthy of the highest honour and worship: He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, and the Holy of Holies (§ 93). The names “God,” “Lord,” and “Holy” connote here a glory communicable to creatures; but the first, “God,” must be taken in contradistinction to Jehovah, as conveying the idea of the godlike highness and power of some person. Now the fact that Christ is placed above all other gods, lords, and saints, in a manner proper to the true God alone, shows that His participation in the Divine glory is not merely extrinsical and accidental as in other creatures, but intrinsical and substantial: He is not a simple image, but the perfect likeness of God; He is the Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Father, on the same throne, and exercising the same power. Just as in the constitution of Adam—created to the image and likeness of God—the foundation was laid for his natural glory and dominion over the world, so in the constitution of Christ—the consubsistential image of God (that is, who subsists in a Divine Person)—the foundation is laid for His Divine Glory and Power.
1. The Man Christ is God, and shares with God the title of Lord pure and simple, or Lord of glory (2 Cor. 2:8), by reason of His Divine Personality. He is independent of any superior being, and really Sovereign, equal in rank and dignity with God. Again, for the same reason, He has an essential and absolute right to all internal and external goods of the uncreated and self-subsisting God; in the first place, to the Divine Essence and Nature. He has especially the right to enjoy and use these goods in and through His humanity, in as far, of course, as this can be done by a created nature. Lastly, this co-possession of Divine properties entitles the Man Christ to all the honour and worship due to God by virtue of His infinite excellence.
2. The supreme glory of God shines forth most in His Holiness, which is the splendour of His infinite perfection considered as the supreme and absolute God (§ 89). In this absolute Sanctity the Man Christ participates through the fact that His personal Principle is Himself Holy God, and that the Holy Ghost substantially dwells in Him as His own Spirit, and excludes even from His human nature all kind of unholiness. The holiness of Christ differs from that of other creatures, as the substance differs from the accident; it is part of His essence, and can neither be lost nor impaired.
3. Not only the Divinity and Holiness of the Lord are poured out on the Man Christ—the Divine Power is also communicated to Him, inasmuch as Christ “has life in Himself” like God (John 5:26), and is “the prince or author of life” (Acts 3:15), and “vivifier,” that is, giver of eternal life (Heb. 5:9; cf. 1 Cor. 15:45; Heb. 9:14, and 7:16). This third feature of the glory of the Man Christ is, like the two preceding, founded on His being constituted a Person by a Divine Principle, the substance and source of life. Observe, however, that this power is always in Holy Scripture attributed to Christ as a saving, sanctifying, beatifying, but never as a creating or conserving power; thereby indicating that creative power must not be attibuted to the Man Christ formally as man, since creative power admits of no created co-operation.
IV. The participation of the Man Christ in the glory and power of God is specially a participation in the glory and power of the Word: the Divine prerogatives of the Internal and Eternal Image of God flow on to His perfect external Image and Likeness. An intimate analogy exists between the communication of the Father’s Divinity to the Son, and the communication of the privileges of the Logos to His humanity. As the Logos is the “Wisdom and Power of the Father” in this sense, that He is not only the same in essence with the Father, but also the seat, the bearer, and the administrator of the Father’s Wisdom and Power; so likewise the Man Christ is the seat, the bearer, and the administrator of the prerogatives of the Logos. This Christ expressed in the words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”—that is, I am the perfect Mediator of truth and life. St. Paul teaches the same: “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
V. The whole theory of the redundancy of Divine glory and power may be thus summed up: All the glory and the power which by virtue of the eternal generation flow from the Father to the Son, flow over from the Son to the Man Christ, and replenish Him to the utmost of His capacity; Christ, as Son of God, is the born heir of Divine Power; as co-owner of the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, He is the Giver of supernatural life.
I. Having obtained a clear notion of Christ as distinct subject of attributions, we are enabled likewise to gain a deeper insight into the communication of idioms between the Man Christ and the God Christ. Although, in general, the communication is mutual, yet it is not the same on both sides: “the human” is appropriated by God, but has no influence on His Divine Existence, whereas “the Divine” is infused into man and gives him a more perfect existence. Besides, the Divine privileges (axiomata) are more communicable than the human properties, and some of them must be attributed to Christ as man directly and formally, by reason of His formal fellowship or participation in them. From this point of view, the communication of idioms appears as an outpouring of the Divine privileges on Christ as man, and may fitly be termed “communication by redundancy.” This term, then, implies that the Word Incarnate not only retains His Divine privileges in His Divinity, but also transfuses and enforces them in the Man constituted by the Hypostatic Union, and that, consequently, this man, even as man completed in his personality by the Word, has co-possession and co-fruition of these privileges.
II. The Redundancy of privileges is founded upon the general principle that in every substantial compound, the whole, even considered in its material elements, participates in the privileges or excellences of the formal principle, whether this be an inherent form as in natural compounds, or an insubsisting form as in the Incarnate Word. The term “redundancy” itself describes the manner or form in which it takes place—transfusion of Divine privileges into God’s consubsistential image, or into the Anointed and the Bud of God. The subject-matter of this communication is summed up by Scripture and the Fathers as a participation in the Divine Glory and Power (δόξα, δύναμις, gloria et virtus, cf. 2 Peter 1:3, etc.).
III. Holy Scripture describes the essential glory of Christ as of the highest dignity and power, and worthy of the highest honour and worship: He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, and the Holy of Holies (§ 93). The names “God,” “Lord,” and “Holy” connote here a glory communicable to creatures; but the first, “God,” must be taken in contradistinction to Jehovah, as conveying the idea of the godlike highness and power of some person. Now the fact that Christ is placed above all other gods, lords, and saints, in a manner proper to the true God alone, shows that His participation in the Divine glory is not merely extrinsical and accidental as in other creatures, but intrinsical and substantial: He is not a simple image, but the perfect likeness of God; He is the Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Father, on the same throne, and exercising the same power. Just as in the constitution of Adam—created to the image and likeness of God—the foundation was laid for his natural glory and dominion over the world, so in the constitution of Christ—the consubsistential image of God (that is, who subsists in a Divine Person)—the foundation is laid for His Divine Glory and Power.
1. The Man Christ is God, and shares with God the title of Lord pure and simple, or Lord of glory (2 Cor. 2:8), by reason of His Divine Personality. He is independent of any superior being, and really Sovereign, equal in rank and dignity with God. Again, for the same reason, He has an essential and absolute right to all internal and external goods of the uncreated and self-subsisting God; in the first place, to the Divine Essence and Nature. He has especially the right to enjoy and use these goods in and through His humanity, in as far, of course, as this can be done by a created nature. Lastly, this co-possession of Divine properties entitles the Man Christ to all the honour and worship due to God by virtue of His infinite excellence.
2. The supreme glory of God shines forth most in His Holiness, which is the splendour of His infinite perfection considered as the supreme and absolute God (§ 89). In this absolute Sanctity the Man Christ participates through the fact that His personal Principle is Himself Holy God, and that the Holy Ghost substantially dwells in Him as His own Spirit, and excludes even from His human nature all kind of unholiness. The holiness of Christ differs from that of other creatures, as the substance differs from the accident; it is part of His essence, and can neither be lost nor impaired.
3. Not only the Divinity and Holiness of the Lord are poured out on the Man Christ—the Divine Power is also communicated to Him, inasmuch as Christ “has life in Himself” like God (John 5:26), and is “the prince or author of life” (Acts 3:15), and “vivifier,” that is, giver of eternal life (Heb. 5:9; cf. 1 Cor. 15:45; Heb. 9:14, and 7:16). This third feature of the glory of the Man Christ is, like the two preceding, founded on His being constituted a Person by a Divine Principle, the substance and source of life. Observe, however, that this power is always in Holy Scripture attributed to Christ as a saving, sanctifying, beatifying, but never as a creating or conserving power; thereby indicating that creative power must not be attibuted to the Man Christ formally as man, since creative power admits of no created co-operation.
IV. The participation of the Man Christ in the glory and power of God is specially a participation in the glory and power of the Word: the Divine prerogatives of the Internal and Eternal Image of God flow on to His perfect external Image and Likeness. An intimate analogy exists between the communication of the Father’s Divinity to the Son, and the communication of the privileges of the Logos to His humanity. As the Logos is the “Wisdom and Power of the Father” in this sense, that He is not only the same in essence with the Father, but also the seat, the bearer, and the administrator of the Father’s Wisdom and Power; so likewise the Man Christ is the seat, the bearer, and the administrator of the prerogatives of the Logos. This Christ expressed in the words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”—that is, I am the perfect Mediator of truth and life. St. Paul teaches the same: “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
V. The whole theory of the redundancy of Divine glory and power may be thus summed up: All the glory and the power which by virtue of the eternal generation flow from the Father to the Son, flow over from the Son to the Man Christ, and replenish Him to the utmost of His capacity; Christ, as Son of God, is the born heir of Divine Power; as co-owner of the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, He is the Giver of supernatural life.
Seção 62% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.