Hi
Rufaro, thanks
for the question you posted under "The Spiritual Journey 4a": “In your diagram, what do you mean by "culturally"
ready to absorb our humanity?”
When
I do mention this expression, I am speaking about the time when Jesus
starts His Mission, at the age of 30. He is first Baptised. Here is
how I did put it in the Diagram: “Baptism of Christ: at
the age of 30 (see
Luke 3:23), He starts His
ministry. Christ
is ready to receive us in Him. The Sponge is culturally and humanly
ready to absorb our humanity.”
As
I did mention in “The Spiritual Journey 2”, Jesus
grows, in His human nature, as saint Luke says: “And
Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men”
(Luke 2:52). His Divine Nature doesn't grow, doesn't require any
growth.
To Save us "out of love"
Since
God wants to save us with His human nature, considering His Human Nature as a noble living “tool”* we need to pay attention to the
way God does it.
*”tool”:
first, let us not be offended by the expression “tool”. It has to
be taken and understood and an image, and only taking part of the
similarity not all of it. Because a normal “tool” we use in our
daily life is rather a “dead” one. While we can't say that about
the “human nature” that the Son of God takes. It is alive. A
body,
a soul
and the highest part of the soul: the spirit,
are very alive, they have their functions, and their relative
autonomy according to their very nature. They are called here “tool”
only in a analogical way. They have their total and full dignity. So
let us not take the negative aspect of the image.
It
would have been much “easier” for God to save us with his Divine
Nature
alone, but this wouldn't be an “out
of love”
way to save us, it would have been “out
of power”.
Love makes the one who loves similar to the beloved. God loves us,
and it is because He loves us that He wants to save us and bring us
back to Him. God is moved by love, by His very Nature (the Divine
Nature): Love.
So,
since Love (the Holy Spirit) makes the One Who loves (Jesus) similar
to the loved one (us), He wanted to get as
close as
possible to us (including all what constitutes us as “humans”,
i.e. culture). He then wanted to be like
us,
as much as He could (except for sin). This means that all the pores
of his Human Nature (body, soul and spirit) had to open, develop, and
be similar to ours, and “discover” us. Of course in His Human
Nature, He is purer than us. But “pure” means as well with
greater sensitivity, greater intelligence, greater capacity to love.
"He [humanly] learned obedience" (He 5:8) |
He
wanted to be similar to us, starting with His Culture: He is born
amongst the “chosen People of God”, in a specific moment in history, in a specific land, with a
specific language, specific habits, traditions, concepts: in a word: He had a
specific Culture.
He certainly, out of love, did observe us humans,
and studied us, in order to love us more, and to help us better. Of
course He had high knowledge, coming from his Divinity and from the
Holy Spirit, reaching his soul. But still, in order to use his “human
nature” according to the laws and functioning of his human nature,
out of love, He had to “undergo” the speed (the slowness) and
capacity of digestion of the human process of growth (it takes years,
rightly)!
Sometimes
we pay less attention to the 30 years of preparation of Jesus. At 12 he becomes adult according to the Jewish tradition. He goes to the Temple.
Jesus, at 12, in the Temple |
Then, after that, he comes back to his home town and to his
home town. And continues the human process of growth, from 12 to 30:
this means 18 years of “work” of preparation. "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them." (Luke 2:51)
Jesus and Joseph |
This
great “work” He goes through is very important in order to
understand the whole process of Salvation/Redemption.
He
saves us with His humanity (as pointed out in a previous
post (Spiritual Journey 2), mentioning a Council that defined that
issue, “Constantinople III, 680-681”), and His Human Nature (body, soul and spirit) is like a “hand” (or a "sponge") that is
supposed to “grasp” us, hold us, embrace us, surround us, absorb us, be
united with us.
His
Body holds and embraces for inside our body,
his
Soul our soul, and
his
spirit our spirit.
(his "spirit" is the highest point of his soul; saint Thomas Aquinas calls
it in latin: mens)
In
order to “hold” us tightly, and be united with us, His human
Nature (the “tool”) has to be ready: mature, adult, knowing his
own culture, the words, the mentality, the habits, and tons of things
that constitutes a “culture”.
With
His Human Nature he had to undergo this journey in order to
get closer to us. So these years (from 12 to 30) are very important
for that purpose.
During these years He is constantly getting (with his human nature) closer and closer to us, getting a better inside understanding of “who we are”, our weaknesses... He is our Saviour, and he took the human journey of growth to be as well “perfectly human” (as it is needed for that type of salvation: the salvation “out of love”).
In
order to save, out of love, according to God's vision, He
needs to be perfect God and perfect human. Coming out
of the womb of our Lady doesn't make him (or any other being) a
fully human being. In the animal world, us humans (we are more
than animals but it is just a comparison), we are the specie that
requires the greatest number of years to achieve maturity, and
readiness for life. The process in long. We do not become humans by
just coming out of the womb of our mother. We need years and years.
So,
in order to become our Perfect Saviour, Jesus had to become
Perfectly Human. In order to reach that “perfection”, he
had to undergo, out of love, this journey of human, cultural growth.
He
wanted for us Mercy, He wanted to understand us, from
inside of his Human Nature, therefore, He went through this
journey. This is why, I said that at that time (at the age of 30),
when he started His Public Mission, he was ready, in his Human
Nature.
Of
course, at each age, He was perfect: He had the human perfection of
each age. But He still had to go through all the ages. If He really
wants to save us “out of Love” he had to be as close as
possible to us, and similar to us as much as possible. So
we can recognise in Him not only “the God that knows everything”,
but “the Human Nature” that feels us, that carries us, that
underwent through all that trouble to Save us.
The
preparation of His Words
Plus,
you have to add the fact that His words, all the words that He will
use to save us, were like prepared, backed, in his Human Nature,
during all these years. They came out of His Human Nature (brain,
soul,..), full of Divine life, truthful to God, but as well truly
truthful to us humans (having a human aspect to them).
Jesus
had to “form” them in Him.
It
is too easy to consider that everything landed in his humanity, in
his human nature, from above, by the action of the Holy Spirit. But
this understanding is heretical, in the sense that it doesn't respect
a theological rule that says that each nature had to work and act
according to its own rules and functions (see st. John Damascene, “De
fide orthodoxa”, taken on board by st. Thomas Aquinas “Summa
Teologica” IIIa Pars).
The
words He uttered, these words that are described as “Spirit and
Life” (see John 6), i.e. that contain “Holy Spirit” and
“Divine Life” have been formed in His Human nature
throughout the years: his sensibility, his choice, his brain, his
culture, what he saw and received in his culture from his mom, his
adoptive father, his family, his human experience, what he noticed
and observed.
These
words that He uttered and that saint John, in his Gospel, admires,
are really a great achievement. They are like Him, in the same fully
Divine and fully human. They took time to “bake” in Him,
adhering to His human rhythm of growth, forming them, in Him, by the
help of the Holy Spirit and his prayer. (Here I am speaking about the
human side of Jesus).
His
Perfection, at each stage of His human life, is not at all undermined
by that growth. He is God at all the stages of His life. He has as
well the human perfection of each stage of His life. But still, he
“grew
in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men”
(Luke 2:52).
I
hope I replied t your question.
PS Speaking about Jesus, here is John Rutter's, “Dormi Jesu”, "The Virgin's Cradle Hymn", a short lullaby text.
PS Speaking about Jesus, here is John Rutter's, “Dormi Jesu”, "The Virgin's Cradle Hymn", a short lullaby text.
“Dormi,
Jesu! Mater ridet
Quae
tam dulcem somnum videt,
Dormi,
Jesu! blandule!
Si
non dormis, Mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat,
Blande,
veni, somnule.”
“Sleep,
sweet babe! my cares beguiling:
Mother
sits beside thee smiling;
Sleep,
my darling, tenderly!
If
thou sleep not, mother mourneth,
Singing as her wheel she turneth:
Come,
soft slumber, balmily!”
Thank you very much for the response, I have a better understanding now.By the way, John Rutter's Dormi Jesu is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome Rufaro. :-)
ReplyDeleteI am glad you liked John Rutter's "Dormi Jesu"... there are plenty of music pieces that are really beautiful... this is why I add one from time to time...