Sect. 192The Fulness of the Supernatural Perfection of the Spiritual Life of Christ’s Humanity—fulness of Created GraceThe Fulness of the Supernatural Perfection of the Spiritual Life of Christ’s Humanity—fulness of Created Grace
I. Although the Hypostatic Union did not destroy the essential likeness of Christ’s human nature to ours, it none the less freed the united nature from all spiritual imperfections. Christ’s lowliness, which is necessary for the ends of the Incarnation, extends to external appearances and internal passibility, but by no means to spiritual imperfection. The twelfth canon of the Fifth General Council lays down as a dogma, against Theodore of Mopsuestia, that Christ’s spiritual perfection was not gradually developed from a state of imperfection like ours, and by a similar process. The same doctrine is stated with more detail in the Confessio Leporii (Hardouin, i. p. 1267). The body of Christ was indeed subject to natural growth, and He submitted to this in order to show His true humanity, and to set us an example of spiritual progress. Yet this only requires that the external manifestation of internal perfection should keep pace with the natural development of His bodily life. The imperfections of this latter, when accepted freely and for a good end, are neither dishonourable nor useless; whereas imperfections in the spiritual order never can be either honourable or useful. In Christ such spiritual shortcomings would be a degradation of His Divine Person, and opposed to the ends of the Incarnation.
The scriptural texts which insist upon Christ’s likeness to us in all things, if read in the context, only refer to His external lowliness and passibility. “Christ, being in the form of God … debased (ἐκένωσεν) Himself,” etc. (Phil. 2:6, 7; see also Heb. 2:17, 18, and 4:15, and context).
II. Holy Scripture describes the perfection of Christ’s humanity as complete from the beginning: as given, ipso facto, with the Hypostatic Union. Christ, on the one hand, appears as full of grace and truth and wisdom; on the other, as the model and fountain-head of all spiritual perfection in creatures. He is the Vine of which we are the branches, the Head of which we are the body. As mediator between God and man, He receives from God the fulness of perfection, and communicates perfection to man. As to the measure of His created perfection, the Fathers—at least since the Nestorian heresy—and the Schoolmen without exception, hold that in intension and extension it surpasses the perfection of all creatures. “And the word was made flesh … and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, … and of His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John 1:14–16; cf. 3:34, 35). “He is the head of the body, the Church; Who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead; that in all things He might hold the primacy: because in Him it has well pleased (the Father) that all fulness should dwell …” (Col. 1:18 sqq.). “In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge … for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally, and you are filled in Him Who is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:3, 9, 10). In presence of these dogmatic utterances, the historical text, “Jesus advanced (προέκοπτεν) in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and man” (Luke 2:52), must be understood of the external manifestation of wisdom and grace, such as would be noticed by the historian. The Fifth Council has defined this against Theodore of Mopsuestia.
III. Like the spiritual perfection of other creatures, the perfection of the soul of Christ is due to created grace, which perfects its substance after the manner of an accidental vital quality. Such grace was not required in order to make the soul of Christ holy in itself, pleasing to God, and worthy of eternal life; in fact, it is not so much a grace as a dowry due to the soul of the natural Son of God. It was only required in order that His exalted dignity should be fully endowed with all Divine gifts, should possess the principle of a life perfectly holy, and thus exhibit to God a perfect Divine likeness, and to man a perfect model of sanctity. The uncreated grace of union gives the soul of Christ right and power to hold all the supernatural perfections of its life; yet directly and effectively this perfect life is infused through grace created by the Divinity. Both ought always to be considered as organically connected.
IV. The created grace of Christ is of the same nature as that given to men and angels, and is accompanied by all the gifts ordinarily connected with sanctifying grace, viz. the theological virtues which accomplish the supernatural living union with God, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, as expressly foretold by Isaias (11:2). From the theological virtues, however, must be excluded the obscurity of the faith, and also hope, so far as it is the unfulfilled desire of the Beatific vision. Again, among the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Fear must be taken in the sense of Reverence. Besides these ordinary graces, Christ possesses the extraordinary ones gratuitously given (gratis datæ) to the sons of adoption, either for their personal distinction, or for the good of others, e.g. the gift of prophecy and of miracles. The Holy Spirit, from Whom these extraordinary graces come, being the own Spirit of Christ, Christ possesses them as a natural endowment, whereas in the Saints they are but externally, and more or less accidentally, connected with sanctifying grace.
V. The created grace of Christ cannot be properly infinite, because it is created. Yet it possesses a threefold infinity, which may aptly be described as comparative, moral, and virtual infinity. In the existing order of things, the measure of grace given to Christ is such that, com pared to all other graces given to creatures, it surpasses them all beyond comprehension, and no greater measure of grace can be conceived. Again, considered in its organic unity with the grace of union, the created grace of Christ gives to all His actions an infinite moral value, and makes His soul the source from which an infinite number of subjects draw sanctification. In short, created grace in Christ is infinite as possessing infinite moral excellence and infinite power.
VI. Any increase in perfection is impossible in Christ: from the first moment of the Incarnation His perfection was consummata, i.e. brought to the highest possible degree. See St. Thomas, 3, q. 7; and on the text, Luke 2:52, see De Lugo, De Verbo Incarnato, disp. xxi. § 1, and Franzelin, thes. xlii.
I. Although the Hypostatic Union did not destroy the essential likeness of Christ’s human nature to ours, it none the less freed the united nature from all spiritual imperfections. Christ’s lowliness, which is necessary for the ends of the Incarnation, extends to external appearances and internal passibility, but by no means to spiritual imperfection. The twelfth canon of the Fifth General Council lays down as a dogma, against Theodore of Mopsuestia, that Christ’s spiritual perfection was not gradually developed from a state of imperfection like ours, and by a similar process. The same doctrine is stated with more detail in the Confessio Leporii (Hardouin, i. p. 1267). The body of Christ was indeed subject to natural growth, and He submitted to this in order to show His true humanity, and to set us an example of spiritual progress. Yet this only requires that the external manifestation of internal perfection should keep pace with the natural development of His bodily life. The imperfections of this latter, when accepted freely and for a good end, are neither dishonourable nor useless; whereas imperfections in the spiritual order never can be either honourable or useful. In Christ such spiritual shortcomings would be a degradation of His Divine Person, and opposed to the ends of the Incarnation.
The scriptural texts which insist upon Christ’s likeness to us in all things, if read in the context, only refer to His external lowliness and passibility. “Christ, being in the form of God … debased (ἐκένωσεν) Himself,” etc. (Phil. 2:6, 7; see also Heb. 2:17, 18, and 4:15, and context).
II. Holy Scripture describes the perfection of Christ’s humanity as complete from the beginning: as given, ipso facto, with the Hypostatic Union. Christ, on the one hand, appears as full of grace and truth and wisdom; on the other, as the model and fountain-head of all spiritual perfection in creatures. He is the Vine of which we are the branches, the Head of which we are the body. As mediator between God and man, He receives from God the fulness of perfection, and communicates perfection to man. As to the measure of His created perfection, the Fathers—at least since the Nestorian heresy—and the Schoolmen without exception, hold that in intension and extension it surpasses the perfection of all creatures. “And the word was made flesh … and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, … and of His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John 1:14–16; cf. 3:34, 35). “He is the head of the body, the Church; Who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead; that in all things He might hold the primacy: because in Him it has well pleased (the Father) that all fulness should dwell …” (Col. 1:18 sqq.). “In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge … for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally, and you are filled in Him Who is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:3, 9, 10). In presence of these dogmatic utterances, the historical text, “Jesus advanced (προέκοπτεν) in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and man” (Luke 2:52), must be understood of the external manifestation of wisdom and grace, such as would be noticed by the historian. The Fifth Council has defined this against Theodore of Mopsuestia.
III. Like the spiritual perfection of other creatures, the perfection of the soul of Christ is due to created grace, which perfects its substance after the manner of an accidental vital quality. Such grace was not required in order to make the soul of Christ holy in itself, pleasing to God, and worthy of eternal life; in fact, it is not so much a grace as a dowry due to the soul of the natural Son of God. It was only required in order that His exalted dignity should be fully endowed with all Divine gifts, should possess the principle of a life perfectly holy, and thus exhibit to God a perfect Divine likeness, and to man a perfect model of sanctity. The uncreated grace of union gives the soul of Christ right and power to hold all the supernatural perfections of its life; yet directly and effectively this perfect life is infused through grace created by the Divinity. Both ought always to be considered as organically connected.
IV. The created grace of Christ is of the same nature as that given to men and angels, and is accompanied by all the gifts ordinarily connected with sanctifying grace, viz. the theological virtues which accomplish the supernatural living union with God, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, as expressly foretold by Isaias (11:2). From the theological virtues, however, must be excluded the obscurity of the faith, and also hope, so far as it is the unfulfilled desire of the Beatific vision. Again, among the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Fear must be taken in the sense of Reverence. Besides these ordinary graces, Christ possesses the extraordinary ones gratuitously given (gratis datæ) to the sons of adoption, either for their personal distinction, or for the good of others, e.g. the gift of prophecy and of miracles. The Holy Spirit, from Whom these extraordinary graces come, being the own Spirit of Christ, Christ possesses them as a natural endowment, whereas in the Saints they are but externally, and more or less accidentally, connected with sanctifying grace.
V. The created grace of Christ cannot be properly infinite, because it is created. Yet it possesses a threefold infinity, which may aptly be described as comparative, moral, and virtual infinity. In the existing order of things, the measure of grace given to Christ is such that, com pared to all other graces given to creatures, it surpasses them all beyond comprehension, and no greater measure of grace can be conceived. Again, considered in its organic unity with the grace of union, the created grace of Christ gives to all His actions an infinite moral value, and makes His soul the source from which an infinite number of subjects draw sanctification. In short, created grace in Christ is infinite as possessing infinite moral excellence and infinite power.
VI. Any increase in perfection is impossible in Christ: from the first moment of the Incarnation His perfection was consummata, i.e. brought to the highest possible degree. See St. Thomas, 3, q. 7; and on the text, Luke 2:52, see De Lugo, De Verbo Incarnato, disp. xxi. § 1, and Franzelin, thes. xlii.
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