22. The Predestination of Christ

I. “Jesus Christ, who was predestinated Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead” (Rom. i. 4). All things were foreseen and ordained by God from eternity; so Our Lord, as being man, was predestined like the rest of His race. He was to be the first-born of humanity, the father of all supernatural life, both to the generations following Him and to those preceding Him; and all the rest of mankind were predestined after Him, and with relation to Him. There was a double predestination in Jesus Christ. It was first predestined that the Sacred Humanity should be united personally with the Word of God; and this, not in consequence of its being merited by the works and virtues of Christ, but by the infinite bounty of God. Secondly, it was decreed that He should not remain for ever in the suffering stage of human nature, bearing our afflictions, but that He should be raised from the dead and glorified by the exhibition of divine power, and that He should occupy as man the first place in heaven. This predestination had reference to Christ’s deeds and merits, as the reward earned thereby. Rejoice with Our Lord that His name is the first one written in the Book of Life; pray that yours may be written there after His, and strive to make it so.

II. “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy . . . who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself . . . He made us acceptable through His beloved Son” (Eph. i. 4-6). According to this passage, the predestination of Our Lord is the occasion and the source of ours. As the world in all its evolutions was prepared for the sake of man, so are the elect prepared for Christ, to lead up to Him as the perfection of humanity to glorify Him by multiplying His likeness, and to form a court around His majesty here and hereafter. “All things are yours . . . and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23). Further, we are predestined in Our Lord, and not by ourselves or for ourselves. We have no claim of our own and no merits by ourselves, but only as His brethren, and as members of His body. As all things were created through the Word of God, so it is through the Incarnate Word, the Image of the Father on earth, that all of us are created anew to the life of grace and glory. Recognize that without Him you are nothing, and that in Him you are everything both here and hereafter. Take care that you never allow yourself to be separated from Him by unbelief or sin.

III. The Predestination of Christ is further the exemplar of ours, and explains its method. 1. Our Lord received the grace of the Hypostatic Union in advance of His merits; but His heavenly glory as the reward of the merits operated in that union. So we receive from God the grace of our first enlightenment and vocation without any effort of our own; but the subsequent increase of grace and light, our further progress, and our final glorification depend on the use we make of grace and light, on our own fidelity and exertions in union with God’s assistance. 2. We also learn that our Lord’s merits and glory are closely associated with suffering. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?” (Luke xxiv. 26). So also it must be with us. We are “predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son” (Rom. viii. 29), not only in glory, but in the means by which He entered into it. God requires of you not only action but endurance. Nerve yourself for suffering, and welcome it for the benefits it brings. “Labour the more that by good works you may make sure your vocation and election” (2 Pet. i. 10).

21. The Sonship of Christ

I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, not by adoption, in any sense of the word, but by nature. Adoption is the gratuitous assumption of a person who is not a relative, to bring him into the family and entitle him to an inheritance. This cannot be said of Our Blessed Lord. He has the two natures: the divine, which He possessed from all eternity; the human, which He took so many years ago; the one is of the substance of the Father, the other is of the substance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But it is the one indivisible Person who exists in both these natures, and the same who is Son of God and Himself God, is also Son of Mary. St. Paul draws out for us this divine dignity of Jesus Christ. God, he says, “in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world: who being in the splendour of His glory, and the figure of His substance … sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. i. 2, 3). We adore Our Lord, therefore, with supreme worship as being true God of true God; and we venerate the unparalleled dignity of her who, being Mother of the Son of God, was also Mother of God. Adore Our Lord profoundly, especially when you enter His presence, for the sublime dignity which belongs to Him in His Divinity and His Humanity.




II. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as man, bore Himself with all respect, love and obedience towards His heavenly Father. He manifested God to us in that character, which hitherto had been unknown. God had been, during the old dispensation, the Lord of hosts, mighty and terrible, ready to punish every transgression. Our Lord, as His Son, was able to take a new attitude towards Him and teach it to us. The Infinite Majesty is always Father towards Him; and the same sentiments that He exhibits towards His only-begotten Son He feels also towards us. In return, Jesus shows us how we should comport ourselves towards Our Father in heaven. He showed obedience by carrying out His Father’s will to the death on the cross; He died as an exhibition also of love for the Father, that the world might know and imitate it. Every action of His life had as its object the manifestation and the glory of His Father. These duties are yours. See how you fulfil each one of them. See whether you live always as considering God to be your Father, and yourself to be His son.




III. “God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law … that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. iv. 4, 5). The Son of God became Son of man so as to make all of us sons of God. We were outcasts, criminals under sentence of punishment, absolutely devoid of any claim to supernatural grace or heavenly glory, “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph. ii. 3). Now we have become children of God, not indeed by nature, but by adoption, on account of Jesus Christ being our brother in the flesh. So we are made “sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. viii. 17). By this adoption we acquire the likeness to God which children have to their parents. First, sanctifying grace is poured out in our souls, and God dwells in us, forming in us a preliminary resemblance. Our duty next is to make this more perfect by the exercise of good works, which constitute a practical and active resemblance to God. From these two proceed the final transformation into the image of God by the addition of the life of glory. Then “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John iii. 2). Thus we attain to the final results of the Incarnation. Humanity is inconceivably elevated, first in Jesus Christ, and by Him in us. He accomplishes it; but you must share in His works if you are to have your full share in His dignity.

20. The Royalty of Christ

I. Jesus Christ is not only our Pontiff in spirituals, He is King and supreme ruler of mankind in temporals; because “there is no power but from God” (Rom. xiii. 1); and secondly because He is actually our King; He is “Prince of the Kings of the earth” (Apoc. i. 5). He Himself says, “All power is given Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18), and again, “I am appointed King by Him over Sion, His holy mountain” (Ps. ii. 6). Our Lord has all the qualities which go to the making of kings. He is of noble descent, being Son of God, He is the firstborn of all mankind, He surpasses all in power and in qualities of body and soul, He has conquered His rights by delivering the world from its previous slavery and disorganization, and He is the founder of a new social order and a new civilization. He is also Son of David, the King of the chosen people, which had primacy over all nations, to be their blessing and their salvation. The Father gave Him not only the Jews but all mankind, according to His word: “I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps. ii. 8). His rights, therefore, over us are temporal as well as spiritual, even though many refuse to admit them. The two things cannot be separated; for our internal and external life, although different, constitute one human life; the prosperity of the one is interwoven with that of the other; and the influences of religion and morality penetrate all our actions—domestic, industrial, and political. Honour your King with the service both of body and soul. Let His law rule your whole life in every branch of it.

II. Our Lord’s Kingdom is not indeed of this world, but it is a real kingdom in this world. He has separated the Priestly and the Royal functions and placed them in different hands. In the spiritual order He has Himself appointed His representative, and one universal, unvarying form of administration. But not so in the civil order. Centralization and uniformity would not meet the requirements of human life. Men have to work out their worldly destinies for themselves under God’s direction and assistance, according to their different circumstances, but in accordance with revealed principles of action. They have liberty to obey or disobey these. The human apparatus of compulsion does not belong to Christ’s Kingdom—armies, police, tribunals, prisons. He appeals to the good-will of His subjects, by exhortation, by inward grace, by love, and also by threats of future consequences. His Kingdom is, in the first instance, in the souls of men, and thence it extends to their outward life. Thus He designed to establish on earth a universal kingdom, guided by faith, cemented together with love, abounding, first in spiritual, and then in temporal benediction. In spite of the extensive rejection of the Royalty of Christ, the faithful few still form a world-wide kingdom, and reap many of its benefits.

III. “The nation and the kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish” (Isa. lx. 12). Our King, in giving His law, knew what was best adapted to human life, and necessary for its success. Under His laws the order of humanity would be as perfect and beautiful as the order of the material creation. If we disobey the instructions of the maker of powerful machinery we must expect some great catastrophe, and we deserve it. By disobeying the divine laws of human organization we lose control of the enormous destructive forces of the perverted human will, and our imperfect makeshifts cannot avert the calamitous consequences. Hence, among the highest creatures of God and the best endowed, we find so much failure, retrogression, hopeless degradation. As their capacities are increased, so do their miseries increase. There is one cause of all these evils; it is that men have thrust aside their King, His law and His grace. Your duty is to resist the rising tide of evil, to help the cause of good and happiness, by fidelity to Christ the King, and by promoting His reign.

19. The Priesthood of Christ

 

I. “The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec” (Ps. cix. 4). The priesthood used to be attached to the primogeniture; it belongs, therefore, to Our Lord, the firstborn of mankind; and it is His office to offer supreme worship to the Creator on behalf of all. He was, further, appointed to offer the great sacrifice for sins by the shedding of His blood on Calvary. This priesthood is “for ever,” because the oblation continues for ever in heaven and on earth. The Apostle saw “in the midst of the throne … a lamb standing as it were slain” (Apoc. v. 6); and Christ “offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God” (Heb. x. 12). The eternal sacrifice as it goes on amongst us, is, according to the order of Melchisedec, under the forms of bread and wine. This is the “clean oblation” (of flour), which the prophet said would be offered among the Gentiles in every place, from the rising of the sun to its setting (Mal. i. 11). Venerate Our Lord as the eternal Priest, always offering the sacrifice of the Mass, invisibly but really, and inviting you to be present at it. There is no event so holy or so efficacious on earth; nothing that corresponds so exactly with the actual facts of heaven.

II. Our Lord is also the great High Priest and Pontiff. In fulfilment of the Old Testament type, He offered His sacrifice in the outer court of this world; and then, leaving the priests still ministering at the altar, He has gone within the veil that shrouds the majesty of God in the true Holy of Holies. There, with the blood of sacrifice upon His hands, He continues the same oblation that was commenced and still goes on in the outer court. Jesus is High Priest also in relation to the multitude of consecrated priests of the New Law. They are His ministers and instruments, not of a new sacrifice, for there can be no other; nor of a repetition of the same, “for this He did once, offering Himself” (Heb. vii. 27); but they are appointed to give visible form, in every place, on every day, to the one sacrifice which the High Priest is ever engaged in offering. They act in His name, they speak His words, but He is really the Priest of the sacrifice exerting His supreme power through them. Admire the wisdom and power which God has exercised in so arranging this mystery that you may be able to assist at it as though on Calvary. Thank Him for this.

III. “It was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Heb. vii. 26).

We need such a one that He may be able to stand between us and God as Mediator, and atone for our sins.

We need a Victim also of infinite value for the sacrifice, and such also is our great Pontiff.

We need to have a form of sacrifice always amongst us, in order that the perfect religion may find its expression in that form which is the characteristic ceremony of religion.

We crave to be personally present at such an act, and not merely to know as a matter of history that it once took place.

We need such a form of worship as will bind the systems of the Old Testament and the New into one. The ancient law offered a symbolic sacrifice prophetic of the Crucifixion; we recall it daily in a mystic sacrifice.

We need a form of worship of divine institution, invariable through the ages, the same in all lands, which will express the unity of God and of religion, and bind our souls into one. All this God has given you through the sacred priesthood of Our Lord. What treasures of truth, and beauty, and utility are therein contained! Make full use of your privileges.

18. The Prayer of Christ

 

I. The Gospels remind us continually of the long, frequent, and fervent prayers of Our Lord. This is meant for our example, and we should learn to consider prayer as the most pressing and important of our duties. It was necessary even for the Son of God as man. As being bound by the laws of human life, He had to exercise the virtue of Religion with its different forms of service towards God. Prayer is the ordinary means of securing the blessing of God on our work and graces for ourselves; Our Lord made use of it, therefore, for the promotion of His work of preaching and miracles, just as He made use of food for the support of His life in accordance with natural law. Prayer was also a function of Our Lord’s office as Priest, Pontiff, and Mediator; those offices still continue in heaven, wherefore He is represented to us as “at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. viii. 34). The example of Our Divine Master shows us that prayer is one of the most necessary of our duties; first, as a homage to God; secondly, as the accompaniment of every one of our undertakings, to secure its success, especially if it be of a spiritual nature; thirdly, as a most precious privilege which admits us to intimate communication with God; fourthly, as a source of grace, strength, comfort and guidance under all circumstances.

II. Consider the qualities and virtues exhibited by Our Lord in His prayer. 1. Reverence. “Who in the days of His flesh, offering up prayers and supplications with a strong cry and tears . . . was heard for His reverence” (Heb. v. 7). 2. Fervour, arising from His perfect vision of the Father and knowledge of our necessities, from His burning love of God and men, and His ardent desire to obtain what He petitioned for. 3. Confidence, which He manifested when He said while yet praying, “Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always” (John xi. 41, 42). 4. Perseverance. Jesus continued often the whole night in prayer, and once for forty days, and in Gethsemani He returned three times and used the self-same words. Attend carefully to the manner of your prayer. If one of these qualities is deficient, you are asking amiss, and cannot expect to obtain anything from God. Every effect must have an adequate cause; and as the favour you ask is greater, so must your prayer be more prolonged, more fervent, more confident, more capable of standing the severest test which God often imposes on the faith of petitioners.

III. The prayer of Our Lord was supremely efficacious, according to the foregoing words, “I knew that Thou hearest Me always” (John xi. 42). What He willed and prayed for was also the will of His Father, and was infallibly carried out. He prayed for all mankind, and died to obtain for them the sufficient means of salvation. Every soul, therefore, in some way or other receives those sufficient graces; after that, their actual salvation depends upon their own free-will, which cannot be forced. Our Lord prayed especially for certain persons and objects; for the unbroken unity of His Church, its preservation from the taint of error, its endowment with all truth, its stability, perpetuity, and infallibility. Those prayers were necessarily heard, for they are contained in what God promised: “Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps. ii. 8). Your prayer too, when properly conditioned, will possess infallible efficacy, according to Our Lord’s words, “Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John xvi. 24).

17. THE SUBJECTION OF CHRIST

I. Consider the successive descents and subjections of Je
sus Christ for our sake. His Humanity was a creature of God, and so, of necessity, dependent on the supreme dominion of its Creator. The Divinity is over all, and loses none of its rights over the work of its hand even though it be united to the Humanity. Christ speaking in His human nature says therefore: “the Father is greater than I” (John xiv. 28). Our Lord then was subject to the natural and supernatural, moral and spiritual law. To the ceremonial law of God given by Moses, Christ was not properly subject, as being the Messias, the legislator, and the founder of a new dispensation. He submitted, however, out of respect to a law that had come from God, out of humility concealing His dignity, in order to give us an example. He submitted Himself further to obedience to the death of the cross under the law of His Father’s will, and the law of charity towards us. The subjection of Christ was a lowering of Himself, but it exalted the Divinity in the person of the Father. An infinite Person became in His human nature the first subject of God; and for the first time God received His full due, infinite service of adoration and love. How great are the results of humility! Put off all your self-sufficiency for the sake of God, forego all elevation in your own esteem and in the esteem of others; it is little indeed to offer to God, but it will cost you much, and it will honour Him still more. It is the only way in which you can exalt Him.

II. Our Lord made Himself not merely the subject but the servant of His Father. “He debased Himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil. ii. 7). He descended from the throne of the Divinity, put aside the dignity of Son, covered His glory with our degrading garb, gave up His own will, and devoted Himself to a life of lowliness and obedience. In this He made compensation to the Father for our refusal of service, He took the place of humanity, fulfilled its duties, and saved it from the chastisement of its rebellion. For the first time the fulness of service which God demanded, and which His greatness required from man, was rendered to Him. The offending race, in requital for the service of their head and chief member, are received back by the Father, not merely as servants, but as sons. Our Lord, further, is not content with this abasement, but makes Himself our servant, enduring our humours, waiting on our pleasure, allowing us to dictate terms to Him. As for His faithful followers, “He will gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing, will minister to them” (Luke xii. 37); for obstinate sinners He is ready to do much more in order to gain them. Put off that pride which revolts against all subjection even to God. Offer yourself to be the lowliest in the house of God; be ready to serve all others for His sake.

III. “Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins; thou hast wearied Me with thy iniquities” (Isa. xliii. 24). Mankind, refusing honourable service in the house of God, have fallen into a most real and degrading slavery to material nature and to the passions; they have lost their spiritual liberty, and the dignity which ought to belong to free beings, and the beauty of noble life. Our Lord could not enter into this degradation; none are the slaves of sin but those who commit it. But He took on Himself the outward stigma of slavery, to save us from the reality. He was poor and in labour from His youth, and that labour was the ignominious one of cleansing this world from its filthiness. He had no possessions of His own, no home. He was sold for the price of a slave, was clothed as a buffoon and exposed to derision. He was scourged like a slave, and suffered the death of a slave. What He endured ought to have been your lot for ever; you deserved it, and except for Our Lord’s substitution of Himself for you, you would have had to endure it.

16. FOR WHOM CHRIST MERITED

 

I. In accordance with the law of the nature He had assumed, the Son of God, acting as man, merited for Himself. It was to His glory, as it is to ours, to earn the recompense, to win the victory at the point of the sword, to be crowned for striving lawfully (2 Tim. ii. 5). Therefore it is written: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?” (Luke xxiv. 26). There were certain things which were not merited by Our Lord for Himself. The Hypostatic Union, for instance; His essential beatitude, His habitual grace and knowledge were bestowed on Him at first as prerogatives proper to His condition. Christ’s human actions rendered a service of glory to God and merited glory for Him in return. Therefore He says: “I have glorified Thee on earth . . . and now glorify Thou Me, O Father” (John xvii. 4, 5). He glorified the Father by preaching His name, by manifesting Him in His own life, by obeying His commands, by attributing His own great works to His Father’s power. He merited thereby what He received: the glorification of His Humanity in the Resurrection and Ascension, the power of miracles that proved Him to be the Son of God, the faith and adoration of the elect, the office of Judge which He will exercise at the end. Rejoice in the full justice that has been done to your Lord by His Father, and say: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and benediction” (Apoc. v. 12).

II. It is generally held that Our Lord as man merited for the angels the grace and glory bestowed on them, and that He is the Author of their salvation through the Father’s prevision of His merits to come. The words said of mankind are considered to include the angels: “of His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John i. 16). The angels, equally with this world, were created by the Eternal Father through His Divine Word, the Second Person. This Word of God is in His human nature “head of all principality and power” (Col. ii. 10); and, therefore, such things as were superadded to the angelic nature may well be conceived as conferred on it through the merits of the Word made flesh. The same meaning seems to be conveyed by another passage: Thou “hast set Him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He subjected all things to Him, He left nothing not subject to Him” (Heb. ii. 7, 8). What a beautiful harmony of all things! The spiritual and the material universe are brought together in one unity of plan, under the prevalence of one law, by this subjection to Jesus Christ.

III. Our Lord Jesus Christ also merited for mankind all that they possess of supernatural good, and a great deal of their natural advantages. He does this as being the principal member of the great corporate society of humanity, in which the rest of us constitute the smaller and subordinate portion. We share in the advantages which He brings to that society. “Blessed be God . . . who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. i. 3). So we receive through Our Lord the first grace that calls us to faith and repentance, then sanctification and perfection, the strength to persevere to the end, and lastly our reward in glory. He is the beginning and the end of everything for us; “without Me you can do nothing” (John xv. 5). God demands our service; we have to struggle and fight; we must earn and merit our reward; but it is Our Lord who gives us power to do all these things, and He serves, and struggles, and merits in us. Consider how much you individually have received through the merits of Christ, and give Him thanks. Consider the little you have done, and recognize that it was through Him. Consider how much you ought to do, and be certain that you can do it all in Him that strengtheneth you.

15. THE MERITS OF CHRIST

 

I. Every good action has its proper effect towards God and towards ourselves; it makes compensation for our bad deeds, and it obtains favours from God in reward; it is satisfactory and it is meritorious. The human acts of Jesus Christ had all the conditions which give that character to our actions. 

1. He placed Himself in our present stage of trial and preparation for the next life. 

2. He possessed human liberty. 

3. He was in the state of grace. 

4. He had received that which makes merit possible for us, viz., the divine promise of reward. 

“If He shall lay down His life for sin He shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in His hand” (Isa. liii. 10). The divine actions of Our Lord could not remain sterile, but produced an adequate effect. Those actions proceeded from an infinite and most holy Person; they were wrought in a human nature which had been assumed and sanctified by the Divinity; each action received its character and value, not from its visible importance in the mundane order of things, but from the source that produced it, and the intensity of the motives and sentiments that acted through it. And thus a single drop of the Precious Blood, a single action, prayer, or thought of Christ was of infinite value, both satisfactory and meritorious, and was capable of expiating the sins of mankind, and purchasing grace and glory for the whole world. Admire the infinite treasures of Our Lord’s life, and thank Him for placing them at your disposal.

II. Satisfaction and merit are qualities which belong to human actions; they do not belong to the actions of the Divinity. Our Lord, therefore, did not satisfy and merit for us by those actions which proceeded exclusively from His Divine nature, such as the Beatific Vision and the divine love and enjoyment of the Divine Essence. It was His human actions that were meritorious, and they were so in the highest degree, both as regarded Himself and mankind. This is indicated by the Apostle: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore also God hath exalted Him” (Phil. ii. 8, 9). This merit belonged to every one of His virtues, prayers, and sufferings; and also to the commonest actions of His domestic life at Nazareth. But we attribute His satisfaction and merits rather to His Passion and Death, as being the crowning events of His life and the manifestation of Him in His highest office as Priest and Victim of Sacrifice. It is by communication with Our Lord that we receive the power of really satisfying and meriting by our good works. Actually and in themselves they are worthless apart from Him. Make use of this power by offering all your actions to God.

III. Merit and satisfaction belong to the deeds of this present life only, and cease as soon as we enter eternity. Our Lord merited, therefore, by every action, but during the present life only. St. Paul speaks of the beginning of His meritorious works: coming “into the world He saith, Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not, but a body Thou hast fitted to Me . . . then said I, Behold I come” (Heb. x. 5, 7). Our Lord speaks of the ending of His time for meriting: “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work” (John ix. 4). In heaven Our Lord satisfies and merits no longer; He continues only the offering of the inexhaustible satisfaction and merit accomplished by Him on earth. His life-time here was sufficient. Short as it was, it was the fullest and richest epoch in the world’s history, for “being made perfect in a short space He fulfilled a long time” (Wisd. iv. 13). You are able to merit by every action of your life. By fervour and love you can make the smallest things great, and in the sight of God fulfil a long time in a few years.

14. THE WILL OF CHRIST

 

I. Our Lord, being fully human, had amongst other prerogatives that of liberty and freedom of will. This was much more perfect than in us; it had greater range and power; it was not weakened and misdirected by mere physical impulses. 1. Our Lord could not sin. But this was not a restriction of His freedom; it was exemption from slavery to the domination of the body. His sinlessness was His freedom. So it is with us. A man of high principle and sense of honour, who has associated with others of like character, cannot do a foul dishonourable action; and in this he is not the less a free agent, but he has a fuller liberty than the man who is led away by bad company, ignorance and weakness to act basely or fraudulently. 2. Our Lord was necessarily obedient to His heavenly Father and subject to Him; but this again was an exercise of liberty, for it was the result not of compulsion but of deliberate choice. He suffered and died in obedience to His Father; “as the Father hath given Me commandment so I do” (John xiv. 31). But also it is written: “He was offered because it was His own will” (Isa. liii. 7); and again: “I lay down My life . . . and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This commandment I have received from My Father” (John x. 17-18). There is no true freedom without subordination. Your highest liberty consists in willing subjection to the supremacy of God.

II. Our Lord’s human will is admirable for its unswerving conformity to the divine will. For instance in the Garden of Gethsemani Jesus asks that the chalice may be removed from Him if possible, but at once His will conforms itself to the will of His Father (Luke xxii. 42). The will of Christ exercised this virtue of conformity: 1, in eliciting all the acts demanded of it by the Father; 2, in acting upon the same principles and with the same motives as the Divine will; 3, in desiring the same immediate objects as the Father; 4, in seeking the same general end and object in all particulars, viz., the greater glory of God. The same is the rule of perfection for your will. It has two functions, to command and to obey. Like all things else in creation, it has to render and receive service, to rule and to be ruled. It stands between the most perfect will of God, which is above it, and the irregular desires of the sensitive appetites below it. Of these it is written, “the lust thereof shall be beneath Thee, and Thou shalt have dominion over it” (Gen. iv. 7); but in order to have this power, the will must be subject to the supreme will of God. Too often men reverse this order; they revolt against the divine will, and render slavish obedience to degrading lusts.

III. Another important quality of the human will of Jesus Christ is an intense and burning charity, “which surpasseth all knowledge” (Eph. iii. 19), exhibited towards God and men. Love is one of the predominant perfections of God, operating within the Holy Trinity, and externally towards all His creatures, and towards man in particular. In God, love sums up all His goodness towards us; in man, love sums up the observance of all laws regarding God and our fellow-men. This predominated consequently in Our Lord both as God and as man. It inspired all His action, whether for the glory of His Father or for our redemption. We recognize love in its earthly form as the most universal, irresistible, generous and beautiful of emotions. In Jesus Christ it was infinitely more. It moved Him to annihilate Himself, in a manner, for us; to come from heaven, lay aside the glory of the Divinity, and suffer every indignity and cruelty. Love is the perfection of your will also: it ought to be the motive power of your life. But it must be well-ordered and holy. It must take its rise in God, and extend thence to men. We must love them for God’s sake, and as Jesus loved them.

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. 

6. SPECULATIONS ON THE ATONEMENT

I. Which were the sins that necessitated the Atonement by Christ? 1. Chiefly original sin. This had been the axe at the root of the tree; it had cut mankind off from the supernatural life in its source; it had subverted the original design of God; it had broken the final link of the chain that bound the universe to God; it deprived God of the service and glory of the whole human race. The merciful love of God demanded the restitution of mankind no less than did His greatness. Adam’s sin had affected all his descendants without their own concurrence, and God would not allow them to be deprived of their birthright by the act of another. 2. Our own deliberate mortal sins moved God to pity rather than to wrath; they are to a considerable extent the result of an aptitude towards evil for which we are not responsible; their positive penalties are so much more terrible than the mere privations which original sin inflicts on us; and we are absolutely powerless to escape their consequences without aid from God. 3. Our venial sins are not of infinite malice, they do not sever us from God, and probably do not require the atonement of an infinite Person. In fact, however, Our Lord has assumed the burthen of them as well, and has left so much less of their punishment for us to bear. Consider what you would have been without Our Lord, how utterly helpless, and how much you owe to His love. Thank Him, love Him, render Him your best service in return.

II. Would Our Lord have come if Adam had not sinned? Scotus, etc., think He would. They consider that, even apart from sin, He is “the first-born of every creature . . . that in all things He may hold the primacy” (Col. i. 15, 18); and that He was predestined in the original divine plan to be one of mankind. This view accords more with those ideas of progressive development to perfection and of the regularity of law, which are suggested by all God’s works. It shows us the complete cycle of evolution, proceeding originally from God and returning finally to Him in the union of the highest term of creation with the divine nature. It shows us too, that in God’s original design the human race was fully equipped for all contingencies, and able to work out its destinies (through Jesus Christ) without any subsequent interference with the order of things. St. Thomas and others dwell rather on the idea of God’s infinite mercy to sinners. They think it more accordant with His goodness that He should have granted more to men as sinners than to them as just and not needing penance; and that He should turn the supreme evil of sin into an occasion for a greater benefit than was contemplated originally (so to speak). In any case the fact remains that Jesus is manifested to us chiefly as our Redeemer from sin and death. We can glorify Him both for what we know Him actually to have done, and for what we conjecture that He would have done for us.

III. If Adam had not sinned, would Our Lord have atoned for such of us as might have still committed sin? We cannot say; but we may perhaps draw an analogy from the case of the angels. Free-will is the appanage of every man; this involves probation before reward, and therefore the possibility of sin. It may be that the angels, with their fuller knowledge, greater stability and determination of will, would not have taken hold of the opportunity of repentance, and that, for this reason, it was not offered to them. This too might have been the case with men more fully endowed and possessing no inherited propulsion towards evil. Our very instability in good involves instability in evil, and makes us apt for repentance. So our weakness and inherited misery constitute our greatest advantage; and it may be that many of us will be saved under present conditions who would have been lost if Adam had not sinned. The higher gifts of the angels carried with them greater responsibilities and dangers. We too, if not fallen in Adam, might have been too gifted for penance and redemption. Thank God for thus compensating for your disadvantages.

5. The Hypostatic Union and Atonement

I. By the fall of Adam the supernatural career of mankind was abruptly terminated, and grievous offence was offered to God in lieu of service. There was needed a source of restitution for man and of atonement to God. Without this, the end of God’s mighty works would be failure most miserable and the triumph of evil over good. If God simply cancelled and ignored the sin, it would still be a triumph of evil; for it would mean that the universe was not sufficiently equipped to work out its purposes; it would mean that the ordinary law was deficient and had to be supplemented by a quasi afterthought; it would be an extinction of energy without allowing it to work itself out, the intervention of an extrinsic force to remedy the inherent incurable defects in God’s own work. The perfection of God’s work demands that there should be in the human race itself the means of triumphing over evil, of justifying its own existence and the Providence of God. The goodness of God requires that, whatever happens, good should predominate over evil. God’s dignity requires that His great work should not end in a fiasco. Regular order requires that every force should be allowed to work itself out. Equity requires that the offender should suffer the consequences of his offence and should himself make atonement. The only appropriate form of restitution is one in which human energies should neutralize the evil done by men. How helpless you are in the face of such requirements! How hopeless is the case of unaided sinful humanity! 

II. The atonement required is infinite, for it had to be adequate to the evil inflicted; and the restitution of man was to the possession of the Infinite. Sin, though the consequence of a finite act, has a certain infinity of effect, for it is the contradiction of all that is positive in God, and firstly of Being, which is the essential perfection in God; “I am who am” (Ex. iii. 14). In its tendency it is destructive of God (v. p. 50). An equal energy is required to counteract it; viz., one that in tendency shall be, as it were, creative of God, or, actually, productive of God’s presence. No act of ours, however good, has this supreme efficacy. An infinite vital action is required; and that can proceed only from an infinite person. The human race can never supply this. All our action apart from God is worthless and destructive. Without religion all human talent and good intentions are positively noxious. 

III. The Hypostatic Union combines the two necessary conditions; its action is at once human and infinite. As God alone, Jesus Christ could not make atonement; it would be a new violation and not a satisfaction of justice for one to sin and another to bear the burden. But, as man, the Divine Person is one of the offending race. He is not an isolated individual; for human society is not an agglomeration of atoms, but a corporate body with common life and action. As every particle on this earth affects every particle in the whole universe, so each man’s action, good or bad, affects the whole race. The acts of Jesus Christ are the actions of the Son of Humanity; we share in the effects of His, He shares in the effects of ours. The same law which causes us to suffer by the sins of Adam, of our fathers, of our countrymen, causes Jesus to suffer by our sins, and us to profit by His virtues. He, as being the first-born and the greatest portion of humanity, contributes proportionally more (i.e., infinitely more) to the sum of good, and suffers a greater share of the effects of sin. As He, then, is predestined eternally to be Son of Man, the human race contains in itself a vast predominance of good over evil, and the means of atoning for its sins without any violent destruction of natural forces or the intervention of extraneous ones. Thus the Atonement is not only a marvel of mercy but of well-ordered harmony and regular law. Every act of yours has its full effect for good or evil on the whole world.

4. The Hypostatic Union

 

I. Consider the terms, or the elements of the union which took place in the Incarnation. One was the Divinity, the Second adorable Person of the Trinity; the other was the Humanity, composed of real soul and body, with all its powers, senses, and members. The soul is the first of the two sub-elements which compose the human element. The Divinity entered primarily into union with the soul, as being that which completes human nature, and in which the dominant faculties reside. The soul was the chief seat of Adam’s sin, and of the taint of sin in his descendants, and of the consequences or punishment of sin. But God did not abhor even the body; it is the companion of the soul, the instrument of its action, a sufferer by the sin, and it is destined to enter into glory. Therefore the Word is said, not to be made a soul, nor even made man, but to have been made flesh. “Because the children are partakers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same” (Heb. ii. 14). We have here a reflection of the Trinity; with this difference, that in the Godhead there is Unity of Substance with Trinity of Persons, and in Christ there is Unity of Person with a trinity of substances, viz., the Divinity, the spiritual soul, the material body. How complete and thorough is all that Jesus does for you! Let your service of Him be real and complete in every respect.

II. The two natures are so wonderfully combined in Christ that He is God-Man and Man-God. Each nature remains complete; the Godhead remains the Godhead, perfect and unchanged; and yet we can say that, in Christ, God is Man and the Man is God. This hypostatic union is an example of that combination of unity and multiplicity which marks God’s works. In material nature we find a unity of law, of harmony, of order, amongst the enormous multitude of creatures. Higher still there is the union of the material and the spiritual in man; which, however, is dissolved by death. Then comes the union of our souls with God by grace, which, during this life, is liable to be terminated by sin. More perfect than this is the Hypostatic Union of Divinity and Humanity in Christ; even death did not dissolve this, for when it broke the union of His soul and body, the Divinity still remained united to each of the separated elements. Above all, there is the transcendent Unity of God, which does not combine together separate substances, but by its internal action constitutes a triple personality. Rejoice in the great glory and honour and happiness possessed by the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord. Union with Him will be your highest glory, and honour, and happiness, on earth and in heaven.

III. Consider certain singularities of the hypostatic union. Only the single Person of God the Son was united with human nature. Again, the Divinity assumed into this union, not all mankind, nor even the angels; “for nowhere doth He take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold” (Heb. ii. 16); the single created nature that was born of Mary was elevated to this union. Further, Christ had only one parent on earth, His Blessed Mother. He was the only Son of the Eternal Father, and, both as God and as Man, God was His only Father. God will not give His glory to another. Jesus Christ has a glory of His own which is given to no other. The Blessed Virgin Mary has a singular glory too in the Incarnation, which is beyond all that has been granted to human beings. There are certain singularities of God’s Providence in regard to you. You have some special gifts and graces, and in return there are some special services which you have to render to God.

3. The Fact of The Incarnation

I. This most wonderful mystery, were it not a fact and revealed to us, might well be deemed an impossibility. How can it be that the Infinite is united with the finite, the Eternal with a temporal, mortal nature, perfect sanctity with a nature derived from a tainted source? How could the Godhead so descend? How could a portion of this universe be so elevated? How could such contradictory terms be brought together in one person? The imagination of man, in its wildest flights, could not devise such a thing; and the more we know of God and of man, the more remote would such a possibility seem. We might well ask, “How shall this be done?” And the only answer is the angel’s, “No word shall be impossible with God” (Luke i. 34, 37). The Almighty is not limited in His works to such things as we can understand. His action does not need to be seen and approved by us in advance. His wisdom is infinite to devise such a thing, His power is infinite to accomplish it, His goodness and love are infinite to decree it for our advantage. He would allow no obstacle to stand in the way of pardoning and glorifying us. God does more still. He will unite Himself with you. Wisdom, strength, and love are needed for the purpose, not only in God, but in you. Let no seeming impossibility deter you from this consummation.
II. It might further appear to be a degradation unworthy of the Divine Majesty that God should become man. Even the inspired writer describes it as a humbling, an emptying of Himself, an annihilation (Phil. ii. 7-8). Yet there are beautiful harmonies of fitness in it that make it fully worthy of God. The greater the indignity of it, the more does it manifest the infinity of divine love and mercy; as an exhibition of the ingenuities of God’s wisdom and power, it is more overwhelming than all the grandeurs of the universe. Moreover, it is by this that God closes up the whole chain of being, and brings back to Himself in the man Christ Jesus, the long series that was commenced when the first forces of matter were created. God “hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself . . . in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ that are in heaven and on earth, in Him” (Eph. i. 5, 10). The greatest perfection and beauty of a thing is in the fulfilment of its purpose. It depends on each of us whether the Incarnation shall be a success or a failure in our regard. Do your share to make its effects worthy of God, by glorifying Him for it, and bringing forth its fruits in your sanctification.

III. God therefore wrought this wonderful thing, “and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John i. 14). It was the greatest condescension; but it was no degradation, for the Eternal Son did not come into contact with sin, nor into personal union with a sinner. He took a human body, descended from Adam, and going back for its remote origin to the slime of the earth. It had gone through a process of preparation for many ages, and its elements were at last isolated from the universal current of original sin in the Immaculate Virgin-Mother. He had prepared a tabernacle for Himself in her and sanctified it in advance, so that she might communicate to Him a body and blood absolutely free from contamination, and fitted to be the material of the sacrifice which was to neutralize the effects of sin. Thank God for this great work. Admire His power and goodness. Confess and adore the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and say, “Only in Thee is God, and there is no God besides Thee. Verily Thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Saviour” (Isa. xlv. 14, 15).

The Podcast

2. Images of The Incarnation

There is no exact parallel in nature to the Incarnation of the Second Divine Person, but there are some comparisons which partially represent it; and these may be used cautiously, if we remember that they are not adequate images of it. The Incarnation is likened to three persons who invest one among themselves with a new and special robe. The three Divine Persons all operate in investing the Second Person, God the Son, with the additional garment of human nature. Holy Scripture speaks of the Divine Humanity as a garment. “Who is this that cometh up from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful One in His robe, walking in the greatness of His strength? I that speak justice and am a defender to save. Why then is Thy apparel red, and Thy garments like theirs that tread in the wine-press?” (Isa. lxiii. 1, 2). St. John also speaks of the Word of God as having “on His garment and on His thigh written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Apoc. xix. 16). God the Son, on entering this world, assumed human nature as a garment that made Him visible to us while cloaking the glory of His Divinity. It wxas something exterior and different from His divine nature; and when it was rent in the Passion, the personality of the Word still remained undefiled and impassible. Thank Our Lord for thus divesting Himself of the royal garment of His glory, and putting on the lowly apparel that you wear. When you approach Him, divest yourself of your pride and supposed grandeur and merits, and clothe yourself in humility so as to be like to Him.
II. The union of the two natures in the one person of Jesus Christ may also be compared to the union of spirit and matter, of soul and body, in our one nature and person. There is this d
ifference, that in man the two elements form one complex nature, while in Our Lord the two natures remain distinct, and are brought together in the unity of the one Divine Personality. We have in our nature two things of diverse character and origin; the body is of the earth, produced from matter, the soul is breathed into it from without by the direct action of God. The soul is more noble, as having spiritual being, and intelligence, and freedom, than the body with its senses. The body is the instrument of the soul’s action; the brain and organs are the medium by which the soul receives impressions from the outer world and exercises action upon it. The soul elevates the body, and gives it new powers and special position in the universe. Similarly the divine nature of the Second Person elevates the Sacred Humanity. The humanity is the dwelling-place of the Word of God, and is the instrument of its action in teaching us, manifesting the Godhead to us, redeeming us. Give glory to God the Son for so elevating human nature in His own person first, and thereby in all mankind and in you. Endeavour to keep yourself upon the same high level, and make yourself worthy of that honour.
III. The human nature in Our Lord is further compared to those sensible qualities which we attribute to any substance, such as its resistance, extension, form, colour, warmth. The object is vested with these qualities; these are what we perceive, but they have no individuality or separate existence apart from the material substance. So the human nature of Christ has not a separate existence as a person apart from His personality as Word of God. Jesus Christ then is God; He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity endued with a human nature of body and soul, and not united with a different human person capable of existing apart from the Divine Person. Recognize the awful dignity of Jesus when you read of Him or enter His presence, and adore Him accordingly.

1. The Knowledge of The Incarnation

I. The union of the Divinity with humanity is called by St. Paul “the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to His saints” (Col. i. 26). Even in our own sphere we cannot detect the point of union between our body and soul, or the manner of it. Still farther beyond us is this most marvellous operation of the Omnipotent Trinity. It is beyond all our experience, and imagination, and desire. It is indeed “a new thing upon the earth” (Jer. xxxi. 22). The angels even cannot comprehend this novelty beyond all other novelties and without example. In order to grasp it with our intelligence and fathom its profundities of ingenuity (so to speak) and beauty, we should need a full comprehension of the mystery of the Three Persons in Unity. In order to accept it, we need the infused power of faith from God, spiritual vision, and the light of God’s countenance shining upon us. Reason cannot discover it or explain it, but only approve its reasonableness. How many there are from whom even now this mystery is hidden, who apprehend it most imperfectly, or to whom it is anything but a living reality! Be grateful to God for revealing it to you, and ask Him to enlighten your mind in meditating on it.

II. Nothing can profit us more than reflection on the different aspects of the Incarnation. “To know Thee is perfect justice; and to know Thy justice and Thy power is the root of immortality” (Wisd. xv. 3). Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God to man. This is the best book for us to study, the compendium of our perfection in the natural, the intellectual and the spiritual life. It raises us at once out of this feverish, sordid, deceptive sphere into a purer, brighter atmosphere It gives us true and satisfying views about all things, and co-ordinates all the facts of the universe. We find in it the noblest model of human action, strength to endure adversity with courage, the example of the virtues of every state of life. We may learn from it the true nature of sin, its destructive effects, the method of resisting it and doing penance for it; we are assured of redemption from our sins, and are brought into union with supreme goodness. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the divine promise to draw us with the cords of Adam (Osee xi. 4). Mankind have always craved to possess God visibly and tangibly; this great doctrine satisfies that desire. Devote yourself to a serious study of Jesus Christ, and this not intellectually only, but practically and devotionally.

III. The knowledge of the Incarnation is necessary for salvation. “This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John xvii. 3). None can accomplish their necessary development unless they grasp the truth that God became man and died for us; rejecting this, they cannot properly know and serve and love God. Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life (John xiv. 6). Without Him we cannot find the right path, we walk in ignorance of the principal science of all, we tend towards social and spiritual death. But our knowledge must be accompanied by love and complete obedience; otherwise it is a mere theoretical and ineffective knowledge, and will lead Him to say to us one day, “Amen I say to you, I know you not” (Matt. xxv. 12). This doctrine is the corner-stone of Christianity, and on it has been built up all our civilization, progress and happiness. All the evils of life are the result of ignoring Jesus Christ, His law, and His Church. Let it not be said of you that you have been interested in all except the saving knowledge: “the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel hath not known Me, and My people hath not understood” (Isa. i. 3).

27. Principles of The Divine Governance

I. Although God has supreme power and direct authority over all creatures, yet He makes use of secondary causes or subordinate authorities to work out His natural and His spiritual decrees. A being is more admirable when its goodness is diffusive than when its goodness is in itself and for itself only. God completes the likeness to Himself which is in creatures, by making them channels and agents of the bounty which proceeds in the first instance from Himself. Thus the sun is the means of communicating heat, energy, motion, to this earth. Parents are the intermediaries by whom God gives life to new beings, and furnishes them with their daily bread. In like manner, Jesus Christ, as man, has all things committed to Him by the Father, and is the first agent and supreme mediator. But all creatures have functions of utility towards others. The angels are the ministers of God. Men are apostles, teachers, intercessors, mediums of divine grace. The Blessed Virgin has, beyond all others, the office of intercessor for all mankind, and channel of grace from her Divine Son. Parents and civil authorities rule in the name of God, and declare His will in the natural, political or domestic sphere. They should remember that they are His agents and act accordingly. You too have to act on God’s behalf for the natural or spiritual welfare of others, as His agent, mediator, or temporal providence. Endeavour to make yourself an adequate representative of Him, and act in His spirit and for His ends.

II. Another principle of God’s governing action is the harmony of mercy and justice, and the predominance of mercy over all His works. God’s dealings with the angelic world are all full of mercy and love, in creating them in endowing them with grace and glory and happiness, and with virtue and strength to persevere if so they wished. So too it is with man. God anticipates him with the abundance of His mercies. He placed Adam in Paradise, gave him the means of working out his salvation without difficulty in the midst of delights, without having even to pass through the gates of death. Mercy being rejected by man, justice and severity appeared. But how merciful was this severity! The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on Himself to make atonement and bear the punishment, that we might escape almost free from our own deeds. It is only after the obstinate rejection individually of this crowning mercy that God abandons men to the consequence of their sins. How happy you are to be under the rule of such a Lord!

III. Although the will of God is all-powerful, and although events happen according to His decrees, yet His will harmonizes with the nature given to creatures by the same divine will. His agents and secondary causes influence others in accordance with the law of their nature. So God rules all things, but not in an arbitrary or irregular manner. Some beings are so governed that they act constantly and uniformly as if by necessity; others, free beings, are so ruled by grace and by prayer, by angels or men, that they retain full freedom of action. The results depend fully on themselves as well as fully on God. Remember ever to depend on God and to depend on yourself. You cannot succeed without Him; and at the same time, you must not leave all to Him as if He acted alone without you. There is a certain work of God to be done in the world which requires your virtue and energy for its success; and without you it will not be done. Do not say: God is omnipotent, my efforts are of no avail, He can do it without me. He is indeed the source of all good, but you are the natural agent by whom it is to be accomplished, and you are responsible for it. 

Source: Pages 220 & 221