Sect. 200The State of Abasement (Κενώσις)—imperfections in Body and Soul Assumed by ChristThe State of Abasement (Κενώσις)—imperfections in Body and Soul Assumed by Christ

I. The state of abasement consists in the assumption of humanity and the simultaneous occultation of Divinity. The assumption of our nature by the Logos, if accompanied by a complete manifestation of His power and glory, would not be an abasement, but an act of gracious condescension. But He, to whom perfect glory was due from the beginning, chose to lower Himself not only to the position of our First Parents before the Fall, but to the condition of “the sons of man.” He began life as an infant, lowly, weak, and dependent on others, and only gradually attained the ripeness of manhood in which Adam was created. Placed by His birth among sinners, He renounced some of the privileges of His original justice and integrity, and submitted—as far as consistent with His dignity and conducive to the salvation of man—to the imperfections of human nature, and to the ordinances and laws to which human nature is subject. He thus did homage to God sufficient to redeem His brethren; He ennobled lowliness, and showed its value in the service of God; He set us a perfect example of all virtues, but especially of humility, patience, and mercy; He acquired a perfect title to our love.

II. The likeness of Christ in His abasement to the fallen sons of Adam does not comprise the actual loss of justice and sanctity, but only the pains and penalties attached to the loss. These pains and penalties fall partly on the body, partly on the soul, and consist in a liability to suffer from internal and external causes.

1. As regards the body, Christ resembled fallen man in that He was subject to most of the pains consequent upon bodily exertion and adverse external influences, e.g. fatigue, hunger, wounds. These sufferings were natural to Christ, inasmuch as they had a sufficient reason in the nature of His body: they could only be avoided by either avoiding their causes, or by suspending the action of these causes. But Christ, unlike His brethren, had a right to be free from actual suffering (because of His holiness), and His human will had the power either to remove or to suspend the action of all causes of pain. Hence in Christ the natural necessity of suffering was entirely subject to His free will: He suffered nothing which He did not choose to suffer (Isa. 53:7; John 10:17, 18).

Some bodily pains or states are not compatible with the dignity of Christ or useful to the objects of His mission: these He did not choose to suffer. Such are corruption (φθορά), disease (not weakness or wounds), and decomposition after death. A body inhabited by the all-preserving power of God could not be given over to corruption; the body of the eminently Holy One could not be submitted to a decomposition which is the image of the destroying power of sin. “Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption” (Ps. 15:10). Disease is the beginning of corruption, and was therefore excluded from Christ’s body. Other reasons are given by theologians: diseases are due to particular influences, not to the general weakness of our nature, which is all that Christ assumed; Christ’s body, formed by the Holy Ghost, did not contain the germ of disease any more than did the body of Adam created by God.

2. The natural weaknesses of the soul, the “passions” of the sensitive and rational appetites, were also retained in the soul of Christ, yet with a twofold restriction.

(a) The inordinate and sinful motions to which the soul of fallen man is exposed, found no place in the soul of Christ. They are inconsistent with His perfect holiness, and they cannot be used as means for the ends of His state of abasement. Only passions or affections of the soul, which are morally blameless (πάθη ἀδιάβλητα), and which in fallen man are pains or penalties, inasmuch as they cause the soul to suffer or to be disturbed, are useful to Christ’s ends, and therefore were permitted to coexist with His divinity and spiritual perfection. Such are the feelings of fear and sadness (Matt. 26:37; Mark 14:33, 34), and the share which the soul has in the sufferings of the body.

(b) Although sadness (tristitia) and other painful feelings affected the soul of Christ, they did not originate and act in Christ as they do in man after the Fall. The soul of Christ, like that of Adam before he sinned, possessed the power to prevent all such affects: their origin, intensity, and duration were alike dependent on His free choice. Moreover, He possessed the still greater power to prevent such emotions from having any disturbing effect on the operations of His soul and on His peace of mind. Fear and sadness are indeed a disturbance of the mind; yet they only upset the peace of mind when the mind resists the disturbance, which in Christ was not the case: He freely admitted the emotion, and exactly regulated its working.

The Fathers prove Christ’s power of regulating the emotion of His soul from John 11:33: “Jesus, when He saw her (Mary, the sister of Lazarus) weeping … troubled Himself,” viz. allowed the feeling of compassion to affect Him. See St. Augustine, In Joan. tr. lx.

III. To complete His abasement Christ chose to submit Himself to His Foster-father and His Mother; to the laws of the state, and to the positive laws of God. Yet instances occurred in which Christ by word and deed asserted His independence of all such laws. There was a special abasement in His submitting to the rite of circumcision and to the baptism of John, both of which were intended for sinners. Lastly, He took His social rank among the poor and lowly, and shared their hardships and privations. See St. Thomas, 3, qq. 14, 15.