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The Incarnation and the Fully Human Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Anthony Fisher OP
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Søren Kierkegaard told a story about a powerful king who truly loved a humble maiden. The king’s problem was: how was he to elicit from her a true love not based on mere homage or less genuine motives? He could make her a princess—but that would be an artificial and external act, testifying more to his power than his love. He could, as in the fairytales, disguise himself as a beggar and win her love as such—but true love cannot be based on deception. After much thought he realized that if the union could not be brought about by the elevation of the maiden or by his own pretence, there was only one possibility: he must resign his kingdom, and humbling himself to her station, become a slave. And this he did. God became man. No mere jest. No mere outer garment humanity. God must suffer all things, endure all things, experience all things—because God’s love is genuine.

We do not know much about Jesus’ particular temperament. We can glean from the Gospels that he liked periods of solitude, was prayerful, and had a strong sense of mission. He hated hypocrisy and had a special affection for the down-and-outs. One aspect of his personality that has not received much attention in traditional spiritual writing is that Jesus was a great party-goer.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 73 , Issue 862 , July 1992 , pp. 396 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Philosophical Fragments (Princeton, 1936), pp.24–25Google Scholar.

2 Mt 8:14f par.; Mk 3:20f;5:35ff; Lk 10:36ff; Jn 4:31;12:1ff.

3 Mt 9:17 par, 20:1ff par; Lk 10:34; 20:9ff; Jn 15:1ff.

4 Mt 13:3ff par; 13:33 par.; 16:5ff par.; Lk 11:5ff; Jn 4:35ff; 12:24.

5 Mt 13:28ff; 13:31f par.; 13:47ff; Lk 10:34;11:12;13:6ff; 15:23ff; 16:5ff.

6 This is especially a feature of the Lucan Jesus: Lk 10:7 par.; 11:39 par.; 14:7ff; 14:12ff.

7 Prayer: Ml 6:11 par, Lk 11:5ff. Forgiveness: Lk 15:11ff. Christian life: Mt 7:16 par.; 12:33 par.; 13:23 par.; Lk 3:9; Jn 12:24; 15:5. Preaching: Mt 5:13. Christian leadership: Mt 24:45ff; Jn 21; cf. Lk 16:lff. The kingdom of God: Mt 22:lff; 25:lff; Lk 14:15ff; 22:30.

8 Mt 9:10ff par, 11:19; Mk2:18ff par.; Lk:19:lff.

9 Lavery, Hugh, Reflections on the Creed (St Paul, 1982), p.27Google Scholar.

10 Mt 6:16ff par.; 9:14ff par.

1 l Mt 12:1ffpar.; 15:1ffpar.

12 This section is heavily influenced by: Finnis, John, Natural Law and Natural Rights (OUP, 1980)Google Scholar; Grisez, Germain, The Way of the Lord Jesus (vol. 1, Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983)Google Scholar; May, William, An Introduction to Moral Theology (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 1991)Google Scholar.

13 St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I–II, 57, 4; Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes§27 etc

14 Mt 5:48; 6:33; 19:19 par.

15 Rom 1: 24‐3 2 etc.; Aquinas, op.cit., 91–93; Vatican Council II, Dignitatis humanae§3.

16 Rom 7:14ff.

17 Aquinas, op.cit., III, 1, 2.

18 Lavery, op.cit., p.32; Ps 8:5. I prescind from treating here of the special case of Mary.

19 Heb 2:17; 4:15 etc.; Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes§22.

20 Mt 4:2ff par.; 10:42ff par.; 21:18ff par.; Jn 4:7; 19:28.

21 Jn 11:35.

22 Mt 25:31ff; Lk 6:20ff.

23 Rom 8:14ff, 29; Gal 3:26, 29; 4:5ff; 2 Cor 13:14; Col 1:3ff; Eph 1:5f; 1 Jn 3:1; 4:7ff, 19; 5:1 etc.

24 Also Mk 1:41; 6:34ff par.; 9:22; Mt 18:23ff; 20:34; Lk 10:33ff; 15:11ff.

25 Mt 14:13ff par.; Lk 6:36; Eph 4:1ff etc.

26 See John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and Centisimus Annus.

27 Gen 1:27; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21; Vatican Council II, Dignitatis humanae§14; etc.

28 1 Cor 6:12ff; Rom 6:12ff.

29 Amos 9:11ff; Joel 4:18; Isa 25:6ff; 55:1f.

30 Mt 5:43ff par.; 7:21ff; 10:42; 12:36f; 22:35ff par.; Lk 6:35; 12:37; 17:7f; Jn 13:34; 14:15ff; 15:12ff, 17; 16:26f; 1 Jn 3; 2 Jn 1:5f etc.; St Aelred of Rievaulx, Speculum Caritatis; Aquinas, op.cit., II‐II, 27–33.

31 Doxology (London: Epworth, 1980), p.434Google Scholar.