Christ, that is the entire body of Christ, was intended by God to be the fulfilled whole of creation. Angels, humanity, even the lion that lies down with the lamb were all intended to have a final form as Christ. We need not even wait until Heaven to begin our evolution into Christ, and all of this is supported by scripture, doctrine and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
With this destiny in mind, many teachings take on a new maximized form. Perhaps not so new, as the saints have spoken of our destiny as Christ, even the divine Christ for two thousand years. St. John of the Cross, the desert fathers, the mystics and others all speak of us as the ongoing Christ, and even of our final divinization.
Christ ― who is our intended destiny ― was revealed progressively, first as the Trinitarian Son of God, then as the human Jesus Christ. We shall examine (among many other topics in Christology), this pattern by which God creates then unites his creation into himself. The spiritual angels found their intended destiny in the spiritual Son of God. God’s human creation finds its destiny in and as the human Christ, who we know as Jesus.
This communion is an original intention and not only a redemption from sin. God’s communion with creation proceeds not because of sin, but in spite of it. The “mechanics” of spirit, sin, virtue, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and more will all be examined. We begin the study of Christ with a brief examination of God.
God
God is all that is absolute existence. As absolute existence, God is necessarily uncreated. God’s existence is not conditional upon any person, thing or act. As absolute existence, there are no conditions under which God cannot exist. Absolute existence does not preclude God from having other attributes, and we shall see that our own attributes of awareness, intellect, and free will existed first in the principle of our creation – God. This article examines God incrementally, beginning with God as pure existence.
It is impossible that God not exist. If anything exists, it is either unconditional existence (God), or a creation of God, since there could be no other source. Either way God exists. God is not the world or ourselves, because both of these were brought into being, and are not unconditional existence.
God is both the cause and the effect of his own being. We observe that God’s essence (to be), is the same as his existence (to be). This is quite different from the essence of a human (rational, physical being), or the existence of a human, (to be created from others). If we trace back the traits of essence and existence of all things to their source, we arrive at God.
It is impossible that something arise from nothing.1 All creation depends upon the previous step of creation, but an endless chain of cause and effect could not include an absolute and uncreated being. Absolute being must therefore be outside of any creation chain. Scientific investigation into creation supports the idea of our finite universe arising from an infinite source. Regressing back to the point of creation shows that our many dimensions (spatial, logical, mathematical, spiritual, physical) existed once as a single super dimension. This super dimension is traced back to an infinite single point of being, which has no prior cause.
The key element of God is eternal or absolute being. Eternity is the unified existence of cause and effect, God is the cause, and God is the effect. Internal to God this absolute being may be revealed as distinct ways, and even divine persons.
Among the many attributes we observe in creation are awareness, intellect, and free will. All these necessarily had their origin directly or indirectly, in the principle of creation. Therefore the Principle of creation (God), is an aware and intelligent being of free will. God is not an unaware force of nature. God is a free, aware, and intelligent being – a divine person.
God cannot increase in ability or virtue, nor be corrupted or lessened in any way. Sin and evil are corruption of God’s perfect and complete design in creation. Sin is the lacking of goodness, which was once present. Sin is the perfect made imperfect.
We necessarily have our origin, (via direct or extended means) in God. We shall see that God made all of creation for its own benefit and for God’s joy, with the intended goal of full union with God. It was to have been that simple, but sin entered into creation, and with it came new alternate possibilities.
Spirit
The topic of spirit should be dealt with before most other topics, since spirit is the “mechanism” as created by God by which creation operates. Events in creation are not a consequence of God pulling strings from Heaven, they are a consequence of humanity pushing levers on earth. These interconnecting levers are spirit: respect, moderation, reverence, love, hate. Just like matter, spirit is a creation of God. God is not a creation of the spirit world; rather, God creates and what he creates is first of all, spirit.
Spirit is intangible but as real as matter; and it has real effect. Spirit is immaterial being. Being is anything that exists: a rock, an idea, energy, emotion, logic, a person. Patience, respect, hate, reverence, morality, memory, free will are all spirit, and all have real effect in our world. Spirit is the underlying framework of all creation, and corruption of the willed moral virtues degrades the operation of all creation.
Spirit forms matter, spirit forms spirit, spirit forms events. Consider that anything that can be described in terms of logic, will, virtue, act, emotion, mathematics or physical law has these same immaterial spirits or qualities as its foundation. It is commonly known that energy and matter are the same substance in different configurations. Spirit, matter and events, likewise have an equivalence. Gospel accounts of this equivalence are the episodes in which Jesus makes bread, arms, legs (Mt 15:31), from nothing but his will; even events may be formed, the many biblical prophecies by Jesus and others link moral action to distant future events. Immaterial acts are real, and have real effect in our world, beginning with ourselves. “Spiritual efficacy” is the principle of the real effect of spirit.2
Spirit by definition has no finite boundaries, will is the boundary for spirit–God’s will, man’s will. Because of moral free will, virtue may be corrupted into vice. God is not the origin of evil; abuse of virtue by moral beings is the origin of evil. Deviation from the original perfection of God’s moral design necessarily causes disorder in our world. Any deviation from perfection can only be degradation.
We might observe that the material world is the real and normal order of creation, but before our material world existed, spirit alone was the medium of existence, (as with the community of the angels). This spiritual universe was no less real, and cause and effect were real within this spiritual realm. Indeed the world of matter is more like an overlay for the world of spirit. Spirit is the unseen framework of the entire universe, and was created as such by God. The practical consequences of this are that acts of patience, moderation, justice, generosity, chastity are real with real effects. The vices of these virtues are also real with real effect in our world. Spirit forms matter; spirit forms spirit; spirit forms events.
The idea that everything has a spirit is a necessary truth because everything has some immaterial qualities: logical or mathematical descriptions, willed moral virtues, time, emotion. Hundreds of years ago, St. Thomas Aquinas spoke of any thing having an underlying spirit that is mineral, vegetable or animal in nature. Disorder in our world is actually virtue which has become (partially) corrupted due to a lacking or misproportion. This corruption by misproportion comes about by willed mischoice by humanity.
We must give correct attention to God, ourselves and others in all our actions. If we fail in this, the resultant act is usually weighted towards self, at the expense of God or others. Sin is a misproportion of virtue, leaving a relative lacking of some virtue.
To take the quality of respect for example; we observe that when we give undue effort to self, dignity is corrupted into arrogance. If we fail to give proper moral effort to God, then irreverence results. If we fail to give others their due, then disrespect results.
In this example, if the student increased awareness of his own dignity, he would do well. But if he fails to also increase his efforts toward God’s virtue of humility, then a relative lacking and resulting arrogance might result.
From this we see that moral corruption is a matter of lacking or deficit of what should be present. A lack of effort toward God leaves a relative predominance of self. The results are not theoretical, but take the forms of war, poverty, famine and disease.
Spirit interacts directly with spirit according to common elements. The biblical ideas of a family or a nation sharing in the effects of virtue or vice are examples. If a virtue is corrupted by a person of ancient Israel (to take a common biblical example), then all who share common virtues will suffer to some degree. Persons who are of the same: family, tribe, nation, world will all feel the effects of another’s good of bad action.
This is the basis for the Biblical belief that children benefit or suffer from their parent’s virtue or sin. It was true for Adam and Eve, and it is still true today. This communal nature of spirit was created by God to benefit humanity, but with the advent of the disorder of sin, disorder was shared in addition to goodness. 3
God’s good judgment is also a factor by which spirit affects other spirit, matter or events. God is incapable of creating evil, but as our parent he does assign the evil of our sin to creation, according to his good judgment. In assigning the evil created by humanity, its disorder must be felt, but God could not assign evil with only an evil outcome possible.
A criticism of monotheism is that God seems to punish people by directing disorder (war, famine) upon them. In reality the evil of sin generated by humanity must be effected within creation (absolute divinity cannot be corrupted), God simply assigns our evil. God as our parent directs our evil according to his good judgment, for the highest goal ― the salvation of souls. It is not a matter of God punishing our bad behavior, but of God assigning our disorder. This assignment may be made directly, or by extension, by the workings of nature for example. 1Cor 5:5 describes our evil being effected in this life, sparing condemnation in the next.
Just as goodness may be mediated into evil, evil may be mediated into goodness. It is a matter of anger being morally mediated into patience, greed mediated into moderation and trust, indifference into piety. 4
The human soul is a spirit; the soul is a “form”, which gives function and purpose to one’s body and actions. A human person might be thought of as a soul to which the property of physicality had been added. One’s soul is the totality of one’s immaterial attributes, and the operating principle of one’s being.
Animals are considered to have a soul (though not immortal as in humans), which governs their operations. The human soul has traditionally been partitioned into that part which governs moral activities (superior partition or spiritual soul), and that part which governs non-moral activities and the body, (inferior partition or material soul).
It is thought that the human soul is created by God using both direct and indirect means. Those faculties of the soul which govern the body are created at conception by biological means. Those faculties of the soul having a moral dimension are thought to be created directly by God. 5
The human soul is not static, but has the ability to “grow”, and change. We may know our soul by observing our will, which in turn governs our thoughts and actions. Intellect, will and memory are properties of our soul.
Injustice and suffering in our world may only be truly eradicated by restoring its damaged spiritual foundation, which is the cause of evil. To give assistance after the fact is good, but even better is to prevent the disorder by avoiding those moral acts that degrade the spiritual foundations of our world and its people. This prevention is difficult to observe, because we are attempting to observe that which is prevented.
There is not a lack of good ideas in our world, but these do not take root in hearts because of moral disorder (sin) which corrupts will, faith, brotherhood and reasoning. War, hatred, greed and even disease, catastrophe and natural disasters are caused by the ongoing damage to the spiritual foundation of our world.
Christology
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.
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 Trinity is eternal, but far from static. In the Nicene creed, we read that Christ was begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. “Before” God was revealed as the Trinity, God was revealed as undifferentiated Godhead. Even today Christ adds members to himself as the body of Christ grows.
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.
The first and non-optional act of the newly revealed God the Father and God the Son is to love each other. 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.
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 (underlying) 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.6
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).7
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.
One way to envision this arrangement is to recall the Trinitarian Son of God (who we call Christ), as having a will that was absolute in its principles. The Son of God then extends himself into creation as the human Jesus. Along with the human body, is given a human mind and will. The human will of Jesus was a subset of the divine will. Jesus was free to use his human free will within the bounds of the perfect divine will of the Son of God.
The human free will of Jesus was absolute in its core principles. It was not his human body or reasoning that made Jesus divine, but his (divine) will which was contained within the absolute will of God.
Jesus can be thought of as the absolute will of God, enveloped with created human attributes. Around his absolute core is non-absolute flesh, emotions, awareness and reason. His human free will was free within the bounds of the divine will. Jesus is the human nature of the Son of God.8
Under the control of the divine will of Jesus, was a human mind, body, emotions and reasoning. All these operated under the divine will, and without the distortion of sin. It will be seen that the sacrifice of Jesus was to enter into the sin of humanity and remediate it into his own virtue. This sin corrupted all except the divine will of Jesus, allowing him to morally reform sin in all the varieties that it was presented under.
The divine will of Jesus did not micromanage his human actions, rather he 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.
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. 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).9
Our participation in the body of Christ is first in the human nature of 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. The faithful on earth constitute the human nature of Christ, and those in the fullness of Heaven are the divine nature of Christ. The single divine person of Christ is constituted of many, many human and angelic members.
Jesus did not require salvation–that is membership in the body of Christ–because he was a member of the body of Christ at his creation. We in comparison, are adopted into the body of Christ.
In summary:
• The body of Christ is no longer Jesus alone, but all who constitute Christ, as the body of Christ.
• The human nature of Jesus was divinized, and the task of remediation of sin now falls on the ongoing human Christ on earth, that us. This enlarged body of Christ has perfected and divinized members in Heaven, while the ongoing human Christ on earth works toward this goal.
• Our initial membership in Christ is in this ongoing human Christ on earth. Jesus now awaits us in Heaven where we will be incorporated into his divine nature.
Pre-sin, Post-sin
Christianity is often examined starting with original sin, but it is better examined starting from its ideal form prior to original sin. Sin, death and disorder were never a part of God’s plan. Even salvation was never intended, because sin and Hell were never part of the plan. What was planned was our inclusion into the divine life of Christ in this life (CCC 398, 2Pet 1:4).
This book will examine elements of the Christian faith from the perspectives of both original perfection and subsequent original sin. The current form of salvation, Eucharist, body of Christ and more were all modified by the advent of sin. Today we assume such imperfection in our world, but it was never intended. Sin and death were never part of the plan, but our reunion with Christ our creator was planned, (CCC 398). With no death planned, we were to have made divine communion with Christ in this life.
Likewise Hell was never intended by God, and Hell was not a punishment designed by God in response to sin. Hell is failed final communion, Christ attempts communion with humans (and angels). All that cannot make the personal, then general communion is left behind, that’s Hell, and it did not exist until the onset of sin.
What we call the two judgments are actually the two intended communions, which were corrupted by sin and now have Hell as a possibility. The personal communion planned by God is now corrupted by sin into the personal judgement, and now with Hell as a possibility. The general communion is now the general judgment with Hell as a possibility. This general communion was Christ’s desire to reunite and fulfill all