Christs Two Natures

[Montie_Claunch]

I was wondering if someone could help me understand the Hypostatic union? First, What is exactly meant by Nature? HOw can Christ have two? How can the both be in perfect accord with eachother? Could they either be in disharmony with the other? ect. ect. Thanks and God bless.

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

I was wondering if someone could help me understand the Hypostatic union? First, What is exactly meant by Nature? HOw can Christ have two? How can the both be in perfect accord with eachother? Could they either be in disharmony with the other? ect. ect. Thanks and God bless.

It’s a good set of questions. I will interested in reading some of the responses.

 

[thistle]

I was wondering if someone could help me understand the Hypostatic union? First, What is exactly meant by Nature? HOw can Christ have two? How can the both be in perfect accord with eachother? Could they either be in disharmony with the other? ect. ect. Thanks and God bless.

You really should get the book I and others have recommended in your other threads.

Theology For Beginners by F.J. Sheed. The book is a paperback and fairly cheap (USD 11 from EWTN).

In this case the Chapter headed The Redeemer on pages 85-98 cover this particular topic very well.

 

[Truthstalker]

I’m reading through Theodoret, who wrote when all this was a hot subject of dispute in the church. He has a LOT of good information on it.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Montie,

Our nature is what makes us what we are. Humans are intelligent animals. That is our nature.

God’s nature is to be. He is the One Who Is.

God is said to have “assumed” our nature. There is no confusion of the two; they remain distinct, but united in the Divine Person of the Second Trinity. Christ is one person and that person is divine. Jesus’ actions, human though they truly are, are the actions of a divine person and can therefore be attributed to God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church talks about all that starting with paragraph 456.

Verbum

 

[Fidelis]

I was wondering if someone could help me understand the Hypostatic union? First, What is exactly meant by Nature? HOw can Christ have two? **How **can the both be in perfect accord with eachother? Could they either be in disharmony with the other? ect. ect. Thanks and God bless.

When dealing with the internal life of the Trinity and with the Incarnation, HOW is a somewhat futile question to ask. God’s nature is so much above ours that presuming we could explain the HOW would be like presuming a sea slug could explain human nature.

Not that the question is a bad one, but I would caution someone who’s faith would hang on complete understanding rather than faith and in humility in our limited human understanding of certain ineffable matters.

 

[Epistemes]

Hi Montie,

Our nature is what makes us what we are. Humans are intelligent animals. That is our nature.

God’s nature is to be. He is the One Who Is.

Like Verbum is saying, our nature makes us what we are and able to do what we can do. For instance, my human nature allows me to think rationally but I’m not omniscient (because I don’t have divine nature); my human nature also allows me to walk on two legs, use languages, etc. However, I cannot lay an egg, nor stay under water for prolonged periods of time, nor fly because these are not qualities of my human nature.

God’s nature allows Him to be simple, perfect, the paragon of goodness, omniscient, omnipotent, etc.

The “person” is who performs the actions attributed by one’s nature. So, in Christ, there were two natures in one person: one person who acted both as fully man and as fully God.

As Christ grew up and developed, his divine nature gradually informed his human nature of who he was and what his purpose was, and by the time of his ministry, Christ was fully aware of his two natures and his purpose - but Christ’s human nature knew nothing which his divine nature nature did not reveal to him.

 

[cathsem]

This is such a profound question! Yes, the question of HOW is futile because the ways of God are so much higher than the ways of men. However, theology seeks to explain the claims of faith in an intellectually satisfying manner.

The dogma on the Person of Christ as stated at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) is that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, who exists without a beginning, in a profound act of obedience and humility for “us men and for our salvation”, became incarnate, and assumed a full human nature without losing one snipit of his divinity. Thus, he is true God and true man, like us in all things but sin. Therefore, Jesus Christ is a Divine Person (2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity) who has assumed a full human nature. Therefore, 1 person and 2 natures (divine and human). These natures are unconfused and unmixed, yet at the same time undivided and inseparable. Hence, at Mass, when the priest (at the Offertory) mixes the wine with a little bit of water, he says “By mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” The wine symbolozes the divinity, and the water symbolizes the humanity. They come together to become one drink which, a few minutes later, is transubstantiated into Jesus Christ.

As the Easter Vigil’s Exsultet proclaims, “Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave, you gave away your Son.”

This is a sublime mystery. It means that to ransom us from our slavery to sin and death, the Father sent his Son, and his Son obeyed, becoming a helpless little baby who cried, pooped, and burped. Still more, that baby grew up, became a peasant preacher to teach us how to live, and eventually died a horrible death on a cross. Yet, even still more, we Catholics believe that he, though risen and exalted in glory, comes to us under the mere appearances of bread and wine, completely vulnerable to the hands of human beings. What sublime humility! Let us thank God for this inestimable treasure!