13. THE SINLESSNESS OF CHRIST

 

I. One of the singular glories of Our Lord’s Humanity is that He is “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Heb. vii. 26). This supreme quality of holiness and sinlessness proceeds in the first instance from the union of the Divine Person of the Word with the Humanity. That fact necessarily perfects the human nature of the same Person beyond all conception. The body and soul of Jesus Christ are the body and soul of God the Son. That Divine Person guides and rules them and acts through them with infinite perfection and holiness. The Sacred Humanity of Our Lord is therefore holy and spotless beyond the holiness of all angels and men, and beyond the holiness of the Immaculate Virgin, although she was absolutely stainless in every respect. Our Blessed Lord, as man, is then the supreme work of God’s creative power, beyond which nothing can be more perfect and holy. Not only is this most glorious to God, but it is a great glory to the human race that God should have conferred on it such a distinction, not granted even to the angels. We have all a share in this dignity: for the human race, taken in its entirety as including Jesus Christ, presents a sum of holiness surpassing even that of the whole host of heaven. You individually, when free from sin, and especially in Holy Communion, have a share in that holiness. Take care never to lose this privilege by mortal sin.

II. A second thing which makes a soul incapable of sin is the sight of God, which confers beatitude. This was the case with the Sacred Humanity. From the first moment of its human existence the soul of Christ enjoyed the Beatific Vision; it had attained from the first to its final aim and object, the fruition of the Divine Essence. Two things are involved in this, the clear vision of God and perfect love of Him. The soul, knowing and possessing the supreme good, cannot be deluded into choosing anything inferior, and still less anything contradictory, in its stead. Perfected love, further, cannot hate God, or, which is the same thing, cannot love that which is repugnant to Him. If you sin, it is because you do not know God thoroughly, because you do not see Him with the sight of vivid faith, or because you do not love Him above all things. The practical result of religion is to keep you sinless, and make you by degrees more holy, by promoting in you, first, a fuller knowledge, and then a fuller love of the supreme good. Strengthen these in your soul till “neither death nor life . . . nor things present, nor things to come . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord” (Rom. viii. 38, 39).

III. Another thing that restrains from sin is a clear knowledge of the nature of sin, its enormity, and foulness; and this is dependent on our knowledge of God. We know these things, during this life, more by the testimony of God than by direct evidence, so that their reality does not come home to us. Our Lord alone had perfect knowledge. He could see the surpassing horror of sin and the misery it involves, more than the blessed do in heaven or the lost in hell. He saw it as the deadly enemy and the antithesis of His Divinity. He hated it beyond all things, and was infinitely removed from it. He could see that which is so close to us and so dear to us, but which would kill us with horror if we could only glance beneath the veil of pretended goodness and deceptive pleasure which hides its real character. He knows that all the pains of hell apart from sin would be a less misery than the presence of one mortal sin in the soul. Hence He hates it with a necessary and eternal hatred. Strive to realize these truths, and acquire the spirit of Christ, so as to be ready to do all things and suffer all things rather than consent to a single mortal sin.

12. THE INFIRMITIES OF CHRIST.

I. “A man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity; and His look was, as it were, hidden and despised; whereupon we esteemed Him not” (Isa. liii. 3). Our Lord was all this, notwithstanding the perfection and power of the hypostatic union. It might have been expected that the Divine Nature in Him would have communicated all possible perfections and immunities to the human nature. In fact the Sacred Humanity was elevated and enriched by the communication of many extraordinary gifts, and it was also the most perfect and beautiful example of human nature. Christ is believed to have been perfect in manly vigour, and grace, and strength, and form; “beautiful above the sons of men” (Ps. xliv. 3). He was free from such infirmities as were inconsistent with divine purity and glory; from all internal derangements and maladies, which are generally the result of personal or ancestral excesses. Otherwise the action of the Divinity upon Our Lord’s body was suspended, and only for a moment did He permit it to be exercised, in His Transfiguration; its full effect came into operation only after the Ascension. Still there remained most of the afflictions of life; and Our Lord suffered most of our infirmities, in being subject to hunger and thirst, weariness and weakness, heat and cold and sleeplessness, violence and death. Suffer with willingness any infirmities that God sends you; be patient under ill-treatment or injustice; practise mortification, and surrender some of your comforts and rights in union with Our Lord.

II. Some persons might be inclined to think that the Divinity would have communicated to the human soul of Our Lord its own infinite knowledge, immutability, impassibility. But this could not be. Our Lord assumed human nature with all its limitations and liabilities, including mental suffering and certain other infirmities. The ignorance, darkness, propulsion to evil which belong to the actual state of sin, Jesus did not take on Himself. But He had all our susceptibility to influences from the senses and imagination. His soul was affected by the depression from bodily privations, by the loss of His friends, as Lazarus, for instance, by separation from His beloved Mother, by the sight of her afflictions, by the ingratitude of those He came to save, by repugnance to suffering and death, by the hatred of the priests and Pharisees, the unbelief and thoughtlessness of His Apostles. He suffered the emotions of love and sorrow, fear and aversion, pity, and even anger. But these were not like our passions: they did not tend to excess and sin, they were not rebellious against reason and law. Think how much Our Lord must have thus suffered beyond what has been recorded. When you suffer such things remember that He endured them too, and unite yourself with Him.

III. Thus Our Redeemer resigned for us as much as He could of the advantages which His Divinity might have conferred upon Him. He appears on the cross to have allowed His human nature to be deprived of the tranquility and happiness accruing from the Beatific Vision. So we may judge from the words, “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. xxvii. 46). All this He did: 

1. To compensate for our sins of pride, insatiable selfishness, excessive indulgence, insistence on our supposed rights. 

2. To complete the reality of His human nature in every detail, so that we may know Him to be with us in all our troubles. 

3. That He may “feel compassion on them that are ignorant and err, because He also is encompassed with infirmities” (Heb. v. 2). 

4. To give us an example of the practice of virtue in despite of suffering. Whatever you suffer, Jesus suffered infinitely more. Imitate Him in these details.

11. THE POWER OF CHRIST

 

I. “All power is given Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18). Power is a characteristic of great men, and especially of God’s servants. Our Lord, in His Humanity, necessarily possessed a supernatural power of doing great works and miracles. It belonged to Him as the greatest of mankind and the Father of the supernatural life in them; also because in Him the supernatural and the natural were united perfectly; also because it was the necessary means of manifesting to men His supernatural and divine office. This power, as exercised by the Sacred Humanity, was not divine omnipotence; still, He was able as man to do all that He desired. Either He had an inherent power from the Divinity to raise the dead, cure diseases, etc., or it may be that the power was granted by the Divinity in answer to the prayers and merits of the Humanity. This latter seems to be implied in Christ’s words: “Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me; and I knew that Thou hearest Me always” (John xi. 41, 42). In any case it was a permanent power in Our Lord on account of the Divine Person of the Word which was united with His human nature; it was not like the miraculous powers of Moses, Elias and the saints, which were given to them occasionally for some special action which God moved them to do. Jesus is present always in His Church, and with you personally when in the state of grace. His power is communicated to you according to your needs. “He that believeth in Me, the works that I do he shall do also” (John xiv. 12). What perfect confidence and fearlessness this should give you!

II. Consider how Jesus Christ uses His power. 

1. With great modesty. He concealed it often, forbade men to speak of it, and accompanied it with special humiliations, such as those which surrounded His birth and His death. We, on the other hand, value our talents and powers as the means of asserting ourselves and impressing others with our superiority. 

2. With benevolence towards men, gentleness, and utility. So Our Lord never used His power for punishment or destruction, except for the sake of the lesson of the barren fig tree. He would not destroy with fire from heaven the city that hardened its face against Him (Luke ix. 55). He would not use His power to gratify curiosity, by working wonders in the heavens or before Herod; nor for His own advantage by changing stones into bread, or descending from the cross. We always misuse our powers, from savage kings who must “wash their spears” periodically, to great nations with a “civilizing mission.” 

3. In submission to God and for His glory. “The Father who abideth in Me, He doth the works” (John xiv. 10). You have power of some sort: see that you use it for proper objects and motives like your divine model.

III. “Have confidence; I have overcome the world” (John xvi. 33). Power is not complete unless it crushes opposition and becomes predominant. Consider how Jesus Christ gained His victories. 

1. By enduring without resistance all the misrepresentations and violence of His enemies, and emerging glorious and stronger than before. This is a greater manifestation of power than crushing violence by violence. 

2. By converting His enemies, sinners. Every holy life, every soul saved, every act of virtue, is a triumph of Christ’s power, for it proceeds from Him alone: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John xv. 5). 

3. By judging. Having died for us and done all that was possible for us, Our Lord “hath been appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead” (Acts x. 42). This will be the final triumph of the power of Christ over obstinate sin, unbelief, blasphemy, immorality. In one mode or another “He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. xv. 25). All opposition will be reduced to eternal impotence, and those who ignored the power of Christ as Saviour will not escape from it in judgment. Seek for yourself and for the Church no other triumph but that of Christ. 

10. THE INTELLECT OF CHRIST

I. Intellectual power is the most efficient force on earth, and the advantage most esteemed. It raises men more surely than anything else, and gives them command of the minds, and thereby of the services of other men. In the world it is rated more highly than moral excellence, and still more so than spiritual. Our Lord possessed the most perfect and powerful of created minds, but He concealed its brilliance, and He employed it solely for religious ends. Still, glimpses of its power appeared at times; as when He discoursed at the age of twelve with the sages in the temple; when His enemies confessed that never had man so spoken before; when, with a single word, He eluded snares devised by the most acute and unscrupulous minds; when He laid down the laws that should govern human life; and when He organized the Church which was to defy the ravages of time, the assaults of vindictiveness, and, worse still, the tepidity and neglect of its own members. If Our Lord had not been God, His human intellect would have dominated all the affairs of men, and His law would have been accepted as a masterpiece of insight and prudence. But, because He is divine, the spirit of evil has induced so many of mankind to reject the only system which is capable of meeting their needs. The great bulk of men pin their faith on some eminent intellect, and follow its guidance implicitly. Take Jesus Christ as your master and guide; study to know His mind, and carry out His will with thorough trust and obedience.

II. “Christ Jesus in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. ii. 3). There was a double intellectual operation in Our Lord, of the divine and of the human intelligence. As God, He possessed “all the fulness of the Godhead corporally” (Col. ii. 9), including its infinite knowledge. As man, He possessed all the knowledge of the blessed in heaven, enjoying as He did in His Humanity the full sight of the Beatific Vision. He had an infused or innate supernatural and natural knowledge of all things, so that it was not necessary for Him to learn them in the ordinary way. He had also acquired knowledge, for it is said of Him as a child that He “advanced in wisdom” (Luke ii. 52); not that He really learnt anything that He was ignorant of, but His faculties apprehended different things in succession, and manifested this progressively. “He knew what was in man” (John ii. 25) and what is best for man. What folly it is to think that we can advance our best interests by our futile prudence, when it is opposed to the dictates of Christ’s wisdom!

III. The knowledge possessed by Christ was practical and efficient; it was not that vain science which puffeth up (1 Cor. viii. 1). It guided all His operations with consummate prudence, to the glory of God and the advantage of men; and was not merely an ornament or a personal gratification, or a source of pride, or of false inferences, as with men. His universal knowledge was also the basis upon which was built up His love for His Father and for us; for He knew both the perfections of God and the miseries of man, and He was moved to adoration or to pity accordingly. You have received much wonderful knowledge both spiritual and temporal; and all knowledge is in some way the knowledge of God. Yet there are many who have such knowledge of God and yet will not recognize Him. The Scripture describes them as having eyes and seeing not, ears and hearing not, hands and working not, mouths and speaking not; for they will not use their faculties for the only purpose which is ultimately profitable to God, and men, and themselves. Seek for all knowledge, and use it for God’s service and your own salvation; but, above all, seek for the knowledge of God and let it lead you to His love.

9. THE GRACES AND VIRTUES OF CHRIST

I. The graces of Jesus Christ are innumerable and splendid as the stars of heaven. He is “full of grace and truth” (John i. 14). “In Him it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell” (Col. i. 19). The basis of all His graces was the supereminent one of the hypostatic union, the union of the divine and human natures. This makes Him the Holy of Holies, and involves all divine and human perfections and graces; it excludes the possibility of sin or deficiency, just as the fulness of light is the exclusion of darkness; it makes Our Lord the supreme object of divine love. This grace, as being infinite, was not susceptible of increase. Neither could the blessedness and happiness of Our Lord be increased, as He always enjoyed the full vision of the Divinity. Our Lord therefore required no further impulse of grace to help Him in His miracles and works of virtue. This completeness of Our Lord’s graces is the source of all the graces bestowed on mankind. He is the head in which they all centre, and from thence they are transmitted to all parts of the mystical body, to His Blessed Mother first, who was full of grace, and thence to us. “Of His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John i. 16). Address Our Lord with the Psalmist: “Thou art beautiful above the sons of men; grace is poured forth on Thy lips; therefore hath God blessed Thee for ever” (Ps. xliv. 3). He will communicate His graces to you according to your love for Him.

II. Virtues are as streams which flow in different directions from their source, which is sanctifying grace. All the virtues we can conceive existed in Our Lord in supreme perfection, except such as were incompatible with the Divinity, like faith, and repentance for personal sin. Isaias tells us of the seven gifts of the Spirit in Him. Elsewhere we read of such virtues as poverty, lowliness, and obedience, which seem to be almost unworthy of an Infinite Being. He practised the virtue of religion with all the subsidiary virtues which have God for their object. Next He had those virtues which regard our brethren; all the virtues of a son towards His Holy Mother, of a citizen, a workman, a ruler of men, a teacher, a priest; generosity, fidelity, justice, sobriety, courage, modesty, prudence, benevolence. These virtues make Jesus your perfect model. Whatever your state of life, you will find its virtues in Him. Whenever you are in doubt as to the course of action to be followed, consider Our Lord’s life, and see how He would have acted. Such will be not only the most virtuous, but the most prudent and beneficial course.

III. “He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John viii. 12). This is the fulness of human perfection. Our Lord’s work was not only to expiate our sins, but to restore in us the supernatural likeness of God. All aspire in some way to the qualities of God; but many seek it unduly and rebelliously, like Satan in Paradise, and Adam in Eden. Our Blessed Lord satisfies that desire legitimately, and shows us in Himself the different ways in which it is possible for men to be like the infinite and all-holy God. The grandeur and holiness of the Old Testament saints attach to them as being figures of the Messias yet to come; they represented His death like Abel, His priesthood like Aaron, His peacefulness like Moses, or His obedience, or gentleness, or prayer. So too the saints of the New Testament are great in proportion as they are formed on Our Lord’s model and represent Him to us. There is some special aspect of Our Lord’s life, which you are called upon to represent, some particular virtue for which you have a facility, some work corresponding to one of His. He will point it out to you if you beseech Him, and will give you strength to follow in His footsteps.

8. DIVINE LOVE IN THE INCARNATION

I. The Incarnation is the chief exhibition of God’s wonderful love for men; and thus it is that Holy Scripture sets it forth: “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son” (John iii. 16). As the infinite love of the Divinity within itself produces a third Divine Person within its Unity, so has this love produced a Divine Person among creatures, viz. God the Son made man. Consider the Father’s love for us in four aspects. 1. It is the love of an infinite Being, and so is great in proportion to His mighty nature. 2. It is exhibited towards insignificant, ungrateful, and yet arrogant creatures, who deserve only to be cast off for their repeated treasons. 3. It communicates to us as its gift, not some created production of God’s hand, but something greater than the whole universe, an infinite gift—the Divinity itself in Jesus Christ. 4. Its last result for us is eternal life, full of all glory and delight, and exceeding our imagination and even our natural capacities. Consider each point separately and apply it to yourself. No comfort can be so great as to know with certainty that you are the object of such a love, and that you will, at a day not far distant, taste of its fulness. How blessed you are in this!

II. Consider the love of God the Son as shown by His becoming man for us; “the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me” (Gal. ii. 20). This was the share that fell to Him in the working out of our redemption. Foreseeing from all eternity what would happen on earth, He had decreed to restore us by the sacrifice of Himself. As He is the Image of the Godhead, He came to renew in us the image of God which had been defaced. As He is the Son, He came to communicate to us the quality of sons of God, becoming like to us so as to make us like to Him. He came in the flesh so as to conquer Satan in the same element in which we had been deceived and conquered. In doing this He assumed the lowest form in which intelligent beings are made, and concealed the splendour of His Divinity, subjecting Himself to all the liabilities of human nature. He worked out our salvation with an infinite prodigality of labour and suffering, doing, not the least that would suffice for the purpose, but the maximum that His love dictated, enough for the salvation of ten thousand worlds. Yet there are many who reject and outrage this love, and requite it with carelessness, disobedience, and even hatred. You are ready to lavish your love on human beings, or dumb animals even; will you be like so many, excluding but one from your heart, and that one your Lord and Saviour?

III. The love of the Holy Ghost is shown by His co-operation in the Incarnation. It was He that inspired the prayers that hastened it. “The Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings” (Rom. viii. 26). He prepared the Holy Virgin and filled her with grace, that she might be a fit mother for the All-Holy Son of God; He was also the source of the numerous miracles in the Incarnation. The Holy Ghost, as proceeding from Father and Son, had received from the Son the communication of the Divine Nature, and now, in this mystery, He bestows a human nature on the Son. He came upon the Blessed Virgin and overshadowed her with His power. He was poured forth on Our Lord, and adorned His Humanity with every grace. He guided Him and worked in His miraculous works, and He appeared visibly to declare Our Lord’s Divinity. He came down on the infant Church, and abides with it for ever, to protect and carry on what Christ commenced. As in the Trinity the Holy Ghost is the bond of union between the Father and Son, so in the Incarnation He is the bond of the Son with humanity. Ask the Divine Spirit to increase your knowledge and love of this great mystery.

7. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE INCARNATION

I. Consider the time when the Incarnation took place. The prophet said: “O Lord, Thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life: in the midst of the years Thou shalt make it known” (Hab. iii. 2). On the day when Adam fell, God gave the promise of redemption, so that thenceforth all men might look forward to it, and be saved by virtue of their faith and trust in their Saviour. But the accomplishment of the promise was long deferred; the time was not ripe for it. A season of preparation, desire, and prayer, had to precede the granting of the great gift. It had to be merited by the just, and it took place as an answer to their prayers. It depended too on the sinfulness of mankind. They were allowed to go on during thousands of years by the light of their own reason and certain instalments of revelation. At last, when it seemed that the early impulses of truth and moral principle were exhausted, when mankind were falling into disorganization and deep degradation, when all perceived that nothing short of a messenger from heaven and a new revelation could renew the face of the earth, God came as man. The time of His appearance was adapted to the varying stages of human development, to the spiritual condition, and to the moral deterioration of the world. It was “in the midst of the years”; early ages lived by their expectation of it, succeeding generations have lived by their knowledge of it. Consider how fortunate you are in seeing and hearing things that so many prophets and kings desired, but never saw or heard. Give thanks to God.

II. Picture to yourself the place where this mystery occurred. Go in spiritual pilgrimage to the lowly village among the hills of Galilee. Imagine its narrow, winding, unpaved streets, the humble whitewashed cottages with their flat roofs, the gardens beside, the wide view taking in Mount Carmel, Hermon, and the broad rich plain of Esdraelon. It is one of the holiest spots on earth. Before the time of Our Lord it was never mentioned; it was not only obscure, but a proverb of contempt among the Jews. God alone and His angels knew that this was a village of election, and that in it was to be accomplished the promise made to Adam, renewed to Abraham and Jacob and David, and expected by all mankind. The Holy House had perhaps existed for years and years before; the angels watched it and venerated it, but none among men suspected the great event which was to sanctify it. So does God select the humble, retired, obscure soul as His dwelling place. His presence there is unsuspected. The world ignores and despises; His glory which is there concealed, but the angels keep watch and adore Him in His abode.

III. Consider the causes that brought about the accomplishment of the Incarnation. The chief was the Father’s love for His erring helpless creatures, and the desire of God the Son to give Himself for their redemption. On earth there was the misery, the sin, and the hopelessness of the Jews and Gentiles. Another important element was the continual aspiration and prayer for the coming of the Messias, rising from the hearts of the faithful. This was kept alive, and was shown in figure by the ceremonial temple, the sacrifices, the festivals, and by the chief events of Jewish history. Isaias gave words to it when he said: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above; and let the clouds rain down the Just One: let the earth be opened and bud forth the Saviour . . . Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down: the mountains would melt away at Thy presence” (Isa. xlv. 8, lxiv. 1). This continual prayer availed much in Adam, Abraham, Moses and David, and at length it prevailed when offered by the last of the long line, the Holy Virgin of Nazareth. If your works be little, you can still do much by desires and prayers.