Jesus is the created human nature of the Trinitarian Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God extended into creation. The doctrine concerning the divine and human natures of Jesus is summarized in the Catechism, CCC 464-483. Existing dogma of this hypostatic union limits itself to declaring that in the single divine person of Jesus Christ there existed a complete man, and complete God. Jesus had a human body, soul, intellect and will; and every faculty of God was part of Jesus, including the divine intellect and will. These existed in the one divine person of Jesus Christ; distinctly and functionally, without confusion or opposition.J
J Definitions must be understood when speaking of the person of Christ:
— “Person” is the title given to a moral being. A person is considered human or divine according to his highest mode of existence. Jesus was a complete human man, and completely God. Since Jesus’ highest mode of existence is divine, he is considered a divine person.
— “The Son of God”, is the second person of the Trinity of God, also called Trinitarian Christ. The Son of God may include others into his person, and does just this in enlarging the body of Christ. Jesus was not included into the Son of God, but originated from, and existed within the Son of God.
— “Christ” is first of al the Son of God. “Christ” is used Biblically as a title for the Messiah, but its present meaning is the entire body of Christ: Trinitarian Christ, Jesus Christ, angels, the faithful.
— “Jesus” is the man Jesus, who is now the pre-eminent individual of the person Christ. “Jesus of Nazareth” describes the human nature of Jesus.
“Jesus Christ” describes the divine nature of Jesus. These two natures constitute one person, who is called Jesus, or Jesus Christ.
— “God” is all that has absolute existence and being. It is impossible to become God, because God cannot be brought into being. However, God is free to include others into his person, and does this via Jesus who is the human nature of God.
— “Divine” refers to al who are fully and irrevocably included into the absolute being of God, via the body of Christ. This idea of divinization has been spoken of by the apostles and saints for 2000 years. The idea of our divinization is supported in catechism and scripture, (2Pet 1:4, 1Jn 3:2, Lk 6:40, 16:26; CCC 260, 398, 460, 795, 1988); St. John of the Cross also spoke of this idea. The book “Mystical Evolution” by Fr. John Arintero, is an extensive study of spiritual advancement from humanity to divinity and is stil in print.
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The distinct faculties of soul of Jesus and the Son of God
— will, awareness, intellect — are shown by the many instances of Jesus exhibiting will, knowledge and consciousness distinct from God, (Mt 26:39, Jn 6:38, Jn.5:30, Mt 24:36).
We have likely never considered the idea of one man having two intellects and two wills, (human and divine no less!) which operate seamlessly. There is no dogma as to this operation, but we may feel out an explanation.
We routinely think multiple thoughts. We might be cooking, ironing or even driving while our thoughts are fixed on our family, job or monthly budget. Likewise for our will; we routinely exert our will in two areas simultaneously. We may now envision two minds and two wills working seamlessly within the single person of Christ who had both human and divine natures. The divine nature of Jesus existed always, while the human nature of Jesus came into being at a specific time in history.
One way to envision this arrangement is to recall the Trinitarian Son of God as having a mind and a will. Now the Son of God extends himself into creation as the human Jesus. Along with the human body, Jesus is given a human mind and will. The human mind and will of Jesus might be thought of as a subset of NDE’s sometimes speak of additional incarnations of Jesus. As frequently occurs, terms are mislabeled and theology presumed. Trinitarian Christ (not human Jesus, who did not then exist) appeared as Melchizedek in the Old Testament. Melchizedek was "Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life…", (Hebrews 7:3).
Melchizedek was, and remained eternal, he only took on a temporary human appearance, unlike Jesus who was fully human. Christ again took on a human appearance and appeared to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18.
We observe that the many instances of angels taking on a human appearance does not make them human, they remain angels and not humans. Christ has taken on several human appearances, but only one human incarnation.
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the divine mind and will. Jesus is free to use his human mind and will within the bounds of the perfect divine mind and will of the Son of God.
The divine will of Jesus did not micromanage his human actions, rather he really used his human will, which operated within the larger bounds of the divine will. Jesus’ human will was used for human actions, while he had recourse to his divine, all powerful will in supernatural acts, to perform miracles for example. Likewise, the divine intellect of Jesus was used in prophetic knowledge, rather than in his work as a carpenter. The man Jesus was not a person separate from the Trinitarian Son of God; while fully human he might also be thought of as an intelligent physical member of the Son of God. Jesus is the human nature of the Son of God.K
Christ is now the entire body of Christ. It is no longer a matter of one divine intellect and one human intellect. The entire body of Christ has millions of human minds and wills, not to mention its angelic members. We begin our participation in the body of Christ as a member of the human Christ.L The human K The cross reveals to us, the human or divine status of each attribute of Jesus. On the cross, every human element of Jesus was corrupted by sin, “he became sin for us”, 2Cor 5:21. Jesus’ emotions, logic, body were all assaulted by sin, the divine will of Jesus alone remained uncorrupted. The will of Jesus was distinct and human, but also a subset, or contained within the divine wil , and necessarily remediated the assaulting sin into virtue.
L We become a member of the body of Christ by inclusion via the sacraments.
Both Catholic doctrine and NDE’s allow non-human members of the body of Christ. Recall that Christ is Heaven itself (Jn 11:25), and will include even the lion that lies down with the lamb, and former pets. We observe that animals in Heaven will then have immortal souls in accordance with eternal Heavenly existence. Dr. Pim van Lommel has interviewed hundreds of NDE patients, and notes that some do speak of their pets being in Heaven, (“Consciousness Beyond Life”, page 74).
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Christ is now the many fallible members who constitute the
ongoing Christ on earth. We work toward perfection, in hope of one day sharing in the divine nature of God, (2Pet 1:4, 1Jn 3:2, Lk 6:40, 16:26; CCC 260, 460, 795, 1988).M
Our participation in the body of Christ is first in the human nature of Jesus Christ (which explains why we are not divine in this life), then finally in the divine person of Jesus Christ in Heaven. It is Catholic doctrine that the faithful are the literal person and body of Christ, (CCC 795, 789; 1Cor 12:27, Rm 12:5, 1Cor 1:2, 1Cor 6:15).
The Catholic Church uses the term “mystical body of Christ”, with mystical meaning mysterious, but not symbolic. The single person Christ is now all who are members of the body of Christ, (CCC 1213, 795). The faithful on earth constitute the human nature of Christ, and those in Heaven are the divine nature of Christ.N
M The destiny of every member of the body of Christ is divinization, (2Pet 1:4, 1Jn 3:2, Lk 6:40, 16:26; CCC 260, 398, 460, 795, 1988), in which our created nature is included into the very divine nature of Christ. The human Jesus is no exception. The human nature of Jesus is now divine and has no contact with sin. God relies on the ongoing human Christ on earth (that’s us), to remediate sin. The apostle Paul speaks of this necessary and ongoing remediation of sin in Col 1:24, as does Peter in 1Pet 2:21.
N The Catechism of the Catholic Church states explicitly that we become Christ in at least two paragraphs: (1) CCC 1213, “Through baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ.”; (2) CCC 795, “…Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself…he and we together are the whole man.”
The idea and term “Whole Christ”, occurs at least six times: CCC 795, 796, 797, 1136, 1187, 1188. Christ is now all who constitute the body of Christ: Jesus, Eucharist, humans, angels.
If God is defined as “all that has unconditional existence”, then no human may become God, but we may “participate in the divine nature of God”, (2Pet 1:4). The existence of no human is necessary, at a minimum there is a human decision chain involved in the creation of any human.
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