St Thomas Into The Incarnation Summary

The main goal of this exercise is to explore some of St. Thomas’s insights into the Incarnation that would be helpful in teaching, explaining, and clarifying the mystery of the Incarnation as presented in the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 456- 478. The main sources that will be used will be the Summa Theologica and Davies work on the Thomas’s thought. First we will briefly summarize the teachings found in those paragraphs of the Catechism. Next we enter the first part of the essay, in which we will delve into Thomas’s understanding of nature for insights focusing on the definition of the Incarnation proclaimed at Chalcedon. Then we will examine what Thomas has to say about the personhood of Jesus for similar insights.
The Son of God became the son of Man so that men might know how much the Father loves them, reconcile with the Father, and imitate the Son, through partaking of His very life (CCC 456-460). God the Son became man for our salvation (CCC 461-462). Belief in this bold mystery is what makes the Christian faith distinct ( CCC 463). In the early Church, there were many misunderstandings about the nature of this mystery. After many centuries of heretics and heroes battling over the identity of their mutual love, Jesus Christ, the councils of the Church, guided by the Spirit of the Father proclaimed this mystery with greater precision. God the Son assumed human nature without change, confusion, separation, or division. One person, with a fully Divine nature and fully human nature without sin (CCC 464-469). Humanity is assumed by Divinity. Jesus has a human soul, with a human intellect, a human will, a human body, the Divine intellect, and the Divine will. Yet, everything that occurs to His human body occurs to His Divine person. His actions are actions of one of the Trinity. Christ’s actions through His humanity are Divine actions. He is truly God and truly man in every way except sin. (CCC 470) He knows and grew in knowledge in His humanity, while at the same time knowing everything that pertains to God, and what He was to reveal through His humanity, through
Divinity is by definition unchanging. Thomas addresses this much earlier in the summa where he argues for the simplicity of God. Stating that God cannot exist in part, for parts must have a cause for them to come together. God is the first cause and therefore cannot have a cause. Given that He is not composite this also means that He cannot change. He has no capacity to change, or potency, and is pure act. Therefore, to be Divine is to be without change. It simply is impossible for anything to mix with divinity and turn out a new nature. This does not mean however that the humanity of Christ is eternal, rather it is created, if it were not, it would not be human. Thus, the personhood of Christ is Divine rather than human, the humanity is united to the Divine Person of the Son. (Davies