Is the Christ the self-image of the Father?

[Duke_of_St_Paul]

According to Catholicism, could it be said that Christ is the self-image of the Father; that he is what the Father imagined himself to be?

CCC paragraphs would be appreciated.

 

[Jomann]

Yes, but not through imagination but through intellect from God’s nature. This procession is called generation. Even the human intellect make an internal image of everything inside the human mind. You only understand something after you make a very good mental representation and simulation of it inside your mind. That includes a representation of you. God make a perfect image of Himself.

There are two processions (generation and spiration) because God’s nature has 2 immanent qualities: intellect and will.

This 2 processions is the source of the Three Divine Persons. It’s something that “happens” outside spacetime and outside creation. It’s something that happens inside the very Divinity. So no Divine Person is older or created. These processions are eternally.

This is practically all what is known but at the same time it’s a mystery because is something incomprehensible to creatures on earth and in Heaven too.

“When” the Father and the Son “see” one each other they necessarily falls in love for one another and sigh. This sigh is done by the will from God’s nature and is called spiration and is the procession of the Holy Spirit.

So inside the Divinity there are three wills perfectly aligned with each other.

The Son has a human body. Even though Jesus was born in our spacetime when He ascended His human body was eternally present in Divinity too.

My doubt is if there are actually five wills. The fourth being the will of God’s nature and the fifth the will from human’s nature of Jesus.

 

[Vico]

According to Catholicism, could it be said that Christ is the self-image of the Father; that he is what the Father imagined himself to be?

CCC paragraphs would be appreciated.

No. “Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.” 91 [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331] - Catechism 255

 

[CHRISTINE77]

Yes, because God made man in the image of Him, and Jesus Christ was the perfect man.

 

[porthos11]

According to Catholicism, could it be said that Christ is the self-image of the Father; that he is what the Father imagined himself to be?

CCC paragraphs would be appreciated.

Where we talk about God, we need to be precise and careful.

Christ is the image of God. This is scriptural (cf. Colossians 1:15). I would be cautious about calling him the image of the Father lest we fall into modalism, and I would also be leery of saying “self”-image because Christ is the second Person of the Trinity, so the use of the word “self” with regards to the Father generating the Son is potentially troublesome.

That Christ is the image of God is an idea that is tied closely with the Incarnation, that is, the man Jesus is the image of God. The Second Person of the Trinity is not an image of God but the Word (or, the Idea of God, who must be God since God’s Idea of himself cannot be inadequate, and nothing is perfectly adequate but God himself), and therefore God himself. That is not imagery, but generation.

The Incarnation brought the Person of God into visible form, something we can see with our eyes, so in that, he is the Icon of God. It is from this that the Eastern traditions developed the theology of the icon, and this is why icons are an essential part of Eastern worship, and why Iconoclasm was declared a heresy at the Ecumenical Council level.

 

[Jomann]

Where we talk about God, we need to be precise and careful.

Christ is the image of God. This is scriptural (cf. Colossians 1:15). I would be cautious about calling him the image of the Father lest we fall into modalism, and I would also be leery of saying “self”-image because Christ is the second Person of the Trinity, so the use of the word “self” with regards to the Father generating the Son is potentially troublesome.

That Christ is the image of God is an idea that is tied closely with the Incarnation, that is, the man Jesus is the image of God. The Second Person of the Trinity is not an image of God but the Word (or, the Idea of God, who must be God since God’s Idea of himself cannot be inadequate, and nothing is perfectly adequate but God himself), and therefore God himself. That is not imagery, but generation.

The Incarnation brought the Person of God into visible form, something we can see with our eyes, so in that, he is the Icon of God. It is from this that the Eastern traditions developed the theology of the icon, and this is why icons are an essential part of Eastern worship, and why Iconoclasm was declared a heresy at the Ecumenical Council level.

Yes, the term “self-image” it’s not the best term. But can be used as a first approach to the concept of generation and procession.