Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
My dear Parishioners,
Peace! The third article of the Apostle’s Creed is “Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary” There are nineteen (19) In Brief passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding this article of the Creed. The following is a reflection on article 482.
Jesus Christ is the Son of Mary is at the same time the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. This is central to Christian Faith. There are technical terms related to this mystery: Incarnation and Hypostatic Union, among others. To believe that Jesus Christ is true God and true man is to believe in the Incarnation, that God became like us in all things but sin to save us from our sins, from ourselves (cf. Hebrews 415). Jesus Christ being true God and true man is to say that in His Divine Person the two natures, human and divine, are one. This union of the two natures in His one Divine Person is called the Hypostatic Union. There are further implications of this.
One further implication of the Hypostatic Union is that as a human being, having a human nature which includes a human intellect, Jesus Christ is just like us, He grew in wisdom (cf. Luke 2:52) before all. Jesus Christ has not only a human brain but a human mind because He is fully human.
Another implication of the Hypostatic Union is that in His human will Jesus Christ only desired to do good, to do the will of the Eternal Father (cf. John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38).
Because the human nature of Christ Jesus is united hypostatically in the Divine Person of the Son, Jesus Christ, in His divine intelligence, which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is omniscient (all knowing). (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae III Q. 9-10).
We are reminded of the union of wills, though distinct, in the Agony in the Garden (Matthew 26:39, 42; Luke 22:42). Here, Jesus Christ, true God and true man prays to the Father in His human nature with His human will that if possible the cup of suffering could pass from Him. The clincher, however, is the submission of His human will to His divine will which He shares with both the Father and the Holy Spirit.
In Christ Jesus our Lord His human intellect and will are both perfectly in harmony without any discord with the divine intellect which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Similarly, Jesus’ human will and human intellect are also perfectly submitted to the divine will which He shares with both the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Our task is to, by His grace at work in us, submit our particular will and our particular intellect to that of Christ who calls us His friends if only we do what He says (cf. Matthew 7:21; 12:50; Mark 3:35; John 15:14-15). A tall order indeed, but we are able to meet His challenge by His grace given us in Holy Baptism and life lived in His mystical body which is Mother Church.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr