Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 79 - Part II.



YOUCAT Question n. 79 - Part II. Did Jesus have a soul, a mind, and a body just as we do?


(Youcat answer - repeated) Yes. Jesus “worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved” (Second Vatican Council, GS 22, 2).     

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 472) This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk 2:52), and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience (Cf. Mk 6 38;  8:27; Jn 11:34; etc.). This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a slave" (Phil 2:7).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The humanity of Jesus is complete and includes also the fact that Jesus possessed a soul and developed psychologically and spiritually. In this soul dwelled his human identity and his special self-consciousness. Jesus knew about his unity with his heavenly Father in the Holy Spirit, by whom he allowed himself to be guided in every situation of his life.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 473) But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person (Cf. St. Gregory the Great, "Sicut aqua" ad Eulogium, Epist. Lib. 10, 39: PL 77, 1097A ff.; DS 475). "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God" (St. Maximus the Confessor, Qu. Et dub. 66: PG 90, 840A). Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father (Cf. Mk 14:36; Mt 11:27; Jn 1:18; 8:55; etc.). The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts (Cf. Mk 2:8; Jn 2 25;  6:61; etc.).     

(This question: Did Jesus have a soul, a mind, and a body just as we do?  is continued)

No comments: