C h r i s t o l o g y
God the Trinity
We cannot speak of God creating any part of himself, but God does progressively reveal himself, to humanity and even to his own self. The Trinity is three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not three Gods, but three divine persons, the three of which constitute the one God. The Trinity of God is a mystery—not fully understood, and incapable of full understanding by any human. The Son of God is begotten of God the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, and all three had their first revelation as Godhead.
Godhead is undifferentiated, unexpressed, absolute and singular being. Godhead is the simple, essential, unified, core God. Godhead is the necessarily first and fundamental revelation of God. Every movement of God — every act of thought, will and love further reveals and defines God. “When” Godhead acts in such a way as to reveal the divine Son, Godhead reveals himself to be God the Father. God makes revelation simply by thinking or willing ― when God thinks of himself, his image the Son of God is revealed.
The revelation of Godhead as the three distinct persons of the Trinity is thought to be non-optional. “When” Godhead thinks, he “first” thinks of himself, (what else, no creation yet). In doing so, Godhead reveals the trait of intellect, beyond the trait of pure being of the Godhead. When Godhead thinks of himself, he generates the complete image of himself who is the Son of God; and Godhead is now God the Father. The Son of God is the fullest expression of God. The Son of God himself is not yet fully revealed; the human children of God are called to be yet more expression of the Son of God, as the body of Christ. Godhead which is the essence of God, necessarily remains in the three persons who are God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Father and the Son directing their wills toward each other generates the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit may be thought of as the bond of love (commitment) between the Father and the Son. In example, think of two people having a common pursuit; this might be marriage or a business perhaps. As this pursuit is cultivated it becomes a real separate entity, this third entity becomes more than words. A marriage or a corporation is given a certain legal status and rights of its own. The efforts of the two people give real form to the third entity.
This example is necessarily inadequate. When God thinks and wills however; it is as real as it gets. The love of the Father and the Son toward each other is divine, selfless, full, intense, real, and permanent. Included in these thoughts is the possibility of creation outside of God. The Holy Spirit who results is divine, independent, full, intense, and permanent.
The Holy Spirit is the acting agent of creation, sent by the Father and the Son, and is a real and complete divine person. The Holy Spirit is the result of the mutual willing of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not necessarily God’s proportional will. It is possible, even likely that the Holy Spirit is God’s compete, but weighted will, with favoritism toward mercy, joy and peace.
The Holy Spirit is not just the mutual will of the Father and the Son; the Holy Spirit is a distinct divine person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit acts freely (within the bounds of divine perfection). The Holy Spirit is not just the result of love, but is a proactive lover. The Holy Spirit is not just the result of the mutual participation of the Father and the Son, but is himself a participant in the Father and the Son.
Jesus Christ
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.H
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 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.I
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.J The human 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).K
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.L 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.M