I just found out that what I have been believing, that Jesus has only one will, is a heresy called Monothelitism. I know that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and is infallible, and so I am wrong and the Church is right. I do here publicly recant my heresy. I will be going to confession about this as well.
But it’s also not that simple. I need to come to UNDERSTAND orthodoxy, which right now doesn’t make sense to me. It seems to me that if Jesus were to have two wills, it would make him two persons. I just don’t understand. I need help.
Is there anyone here who will with patience and love help me come fully back to orthodox belief? I may ask a lot of questions.
St. Alphonsus Liguori answers two similar objections on pages 207 and 208 of his book “The History of Heresies and Their Refutation,” Volume 2.
Before I quote him, I’m going to try to put the same arguments he uses in modern language, because he uses 1700s language and it sounds a bit weird to people like me. So here is my attempt to use St. Alphonsus’s exact same arguments but write them in modern english:
Free will is one of the powers of human nature. It is also one of the powers of the divine nature. There is a divine nature And a human nature in Jesus. Now, the above three statements logically imply that there must be two wills in Jesus. That’s just basic logic: human nature has a free will, the divine nature has a free will, Jesus has both natures, therefore Jesus has two free wills.
Now, when you said in your opening post that having two wills would seem to make Jesus two persons, you seem to misunderstand what a person is. A person is just the user of an object. If I using two things, that doesn’t make me two persons. Philosophers say the person is the Subject and the nature is the Object which the subject uses, or wields. Our bodies, for example, are objects, and they are used or wielded by a person, us, the subjects. Now, just as a person can theoretically use two objects at once, for example two hammers, so a person can theoretically use two free wills at once. Those are just different objects, and the same principle applies.
A free will is just a power, like intellect and like breathing. There’s no need for two wills to have two different people wielding them. The Trinity is proof that there is not a 1-to-1 ration between wills and people, because the Trinity has one will and they are three Persons. Since there is no 1-to-1 ratio between wills and people, it is just as possible for one Person to wield two wills as it is for three Persons to wield one will.
Okay, so here is what St. Alphonsus says, referring to the arguments of the monothelites: They say…that there being only one Person there must be only one will, because, the Mover being but one, the faculty by which he moves the inferior powers must be but one likewise. We answer, that where there is but one Person and one Nature there can be only one will and one operation, but where there is one Person and two Natures, as the Divine and human nature in Christ, we must admit two wills and two distinct operations, corresponding to the two Natures.
… [The] will and the operations are not multiplied according as the Persons are multiplied, for in the case where one Nature is the term of several Persons, as is the case in the Most Holy Trinity, then in this Nature there is only one will and one operation alone, common to all the Persons included in the term of the Nature. … But it is quite otherwise when the Person is one of the two Natures, for then the Mover, although but one, has to move two Natures, by which he operates, and, consequently, he must have two wills and two operations.
… They make a third objection. [Two wills], they say, belong to two Persons, and, consequently, when the Person is but one, the [will] must be but one likewise. We answer, that it is not always the case that when there is but one Person that there is but one [will]… [Nor,] when there are more Persons than one, [must] there [be]…more than one [will]. There are three Persons in God, but only one [will] common to all three, because the Divine Nature is one and indivisible in God. But as in Jesus Christ there are two distinct Natures, there are, therefore, two wills, by which he operates, and two operations corresponding to each Nature; and, although all the operations, both of the Divine and human Nature are attributed to the Word, which terminates and sustains the two Natures, still the will and operations of the Divine Nature should not be confounded with those of the human nature; neither are the two Natures confused because the Person is one.
source I hope that makes sense. Please let me know. God bless!
