Jesus "found himself"?!

[josephnicolas]

So, a few weeks ago during the priests homily at my local parish started talking about how Jesus grew into his ministry and didn’t know it until he was older. I’ve heard similar things taught by some liberal priests before. He also stated that Christ was limited by his humanity. My response was that Christ was fully human and fully divine and this view takes away from Christ’s divinity.

Has the Church ever made a pronoucement saying this view is wrong or conflicts with the Church’s teachings?

(I’ve sent this question to EWTN too but haven’t been answered yet)

Thanks!

 

[GemmaRose]

I saw your question when it was first posted, but did not respond, hoping someone more scholarly than I would.

However, since no one has yet answered you, let me just say that the priest who spoke about Jesus “finding Himself” was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG !!!

I had the exact same debate with a Jesuit a number of years ago after a similar sermon. I put my objections in a letter which contained approximately three pages of Scripture quotes to defend my position (which happens to also be the position of the Church).

Although I was moderately friendly with this priest, he never responded.

I can’t find a copy of the letter, and don’t have time right now to do any research. However, I’ll try to find a little time this weekend to more fully respond, with Scripture verses you might ask that priest to explain in light of his (erroneous) opinion.

 

[Fidelis]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church to the rescue:

**Christ’s soul and his human knowledge **

471 Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the soul or spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed a rational, human soul.

472 This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, “increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man”, and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking “the form of a slave”.

473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God’s Son expressed the divine life of his person. “The human nature of God’s Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.” Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father.The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.

474 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal.108 What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.

 

[myredeemerlives]

I think about Jesus as a little boy in the temple when He said “didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?” (paraphrasing) Meanwhile the Jewish scholars are hanging on His every word.

I think that says it all.

 

[davidv]

I think about Jesus as a little boy in the temple when He said “didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?” (paraphrasing) Meanwhile the Jewish scholars are hanging on His every word.

I think that says it all.

No, it does not say it all. Reading futher to Lk 2:49:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man

 

[Lisdogan]

Our understanding is that Jesus did indeed become gradually aware of his innate divinity. Yes, he was God and man at once and the same time. But his awareness is believed by some to have developed: we see him at his Bar Mitzvah (above) when he was about 12; again at his baptism by John the Baptist; during his temptation in the desert; in his increasing solitude with his divine Father; and finally in Gesthemane and Golgotha, culminating in his final realisation: Eloi, Eloi, Lamasebacthani! Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.

In Christ

 

[josephnicolas]

Thank you for the replies. So another question I asked was did Christ always have the beatific vision?

 

[e-catholic]

This is a very difficult thing to understand. The relation between Christ’s humanity and divinity. He is both, how is this without the two conflicting. Another place where this comes up often is in the discussion of how it is that no one knows the day or the hour of his coming, not even the Son.

 

[Fidelis]

Thank you for the replies. So another question I asked was did Christ always have the beatific vision?

The Catechism section I cited above touches on this when it says:

But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God’s Son expressed the divine life of his person. “The human nature of God’s Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.” Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father.