 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS Taken from Our Savior
and His Love for Us IF WE would fathom the interior life of our Lord, we must first hear the testimony He has given of Himself, of His Divine Sonship, and of His mission as Redeemer. We shall begin by examining this testimony as it is presented in the first three Gospels, written between A.D. So and A.D. 70. Next we shall observe in the Acts of the Apostles, composed around A.D. 63-64, how St. Peter in his first sermons proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of God. In the third place we shall note St. Paul's testimony on the Divinity of Christ as expressed in the first epistles, written between 48 and 59. Finally we shall study on this point the Gospel of St. John, written between A.D. 80 and A.D. 100 precisely to defend Christ's Divinity against the denials of the first heretics. The historical study of the
Gospels has
its use, especially from the point of view of apologetics, as a means
of
enlightening unbelievers and of answering their objections. However,
such
a study is not altogether indispensable. For, even if primitive
documents
were lost, the living tradition and the living magisterium of the
Church
would suffice. This oral tradition preceded Scripture, and through it
in
the first place the word of God was transmitted by our Lord and by the
Apostles. We know that many liberal Protestants, and after them the modernists, have maintained that the Divinity of Jesus is not expressed in the Gospels, but that it is a dogma deduced by Christian thought from the notion of the Messiah. [Cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion, nos. 2027-2038] They further hold that in all the Gospel texts the name "Son of God" is equivalent only to "Messiah" and does not signify that Jesus is in reality and by nature the Son of God. Several rationalists, among them Renan, B. Weiss, H. Wendt and A. Harnack, have recognized in Christ a certain Divine Sonship superior to Messiahship. Yet they deny that by reason of this Sonship Jesus is truly God. Renan, concluding his Life of Jesus, writes: "Rest now in Thy glory, noble pioneer! Thy work is done; Thy Divinity founded . . . Henceforth, beyond frailty, Thou shalt behold from the heights of Divine peace the infinite results of Thy acts . . . Between thee and God men will no longer distinguish." [Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus (Everyman's Library, 1934), p. 227.] A little further on, Renan adds: "In order to make himself adored to this degree, he must have been adorable . . . The faith, the enthusiasm, the constancy of the first Christian generation is not explicable, except by supposing, at the origin of the whole movement, a man of surpassing greatness. [Ibid. pp. 237 f.] . . . This sublime person, who each day still presides over the destiny of the world, we may call divine, not in the sense that Jesus has absorbed all the divine, or has been adequate to it [to employ the expression of the schoolmen], but in the sense that Jesus is the one who caused his fellowmen to make the greatest step toward the Divine." [Ibid. p. 243.] Among conservative Protestants, F. Godet in Switzerland, Stevens, Gore, Ottley, and Sanday in England have in recent years defended the Divinity of Jesus as expressed not only in the Fourth Gospel and in the epistles of St. Paul but in the Synoptics as well. [See the account of their teaching in Rev. Marius Lepin's work, Jesus Messie et Fils de Dieu, p. 237.] To rightly understand the testimony of the Gospels, we must remember that they contain over fifty passages in which Jesus is called the "Son of God." It is important also that we grasp the sense in which these words, "Son of God," must be taken. In Scripture the word "son" is used with reference to another man either in the strict sense to denote one who is born of another, or in the broader sense to designate a disciple or an adopted heir. Likewise the word "son" is used with respect to God, either in the broad sense that Christians are the children of God and live by His Spirit, or in the strict and exact sense reserved to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who in the Prologue of St. John's Gospel, is called "the only-begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father." [John 1:18.] We shall see that even in the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is called the Son of God in the strict and exact and most elevated sense, inasmuch as He has declared that He not only participates in the Divine nature through grace, as we do, but that He possesses the Divine nature with all its properties and rights. Jesus' Reserve in Manifesting His Divinity It should be noted that Jesus manifested His Divine Sonship only by degrees. More important still, when in Caesarea St. Peter said to our Lord in the name of the Apostles: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," St. Matthew reports: "Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ." [Matt.16:20.] Likewise one day when He was casting out unclean spirits, the latter cried out: "Thou art the Son of God," and St. Mark tells us: "He strictly charged them that they should not make Him known." [Mark 3:12.] Again, after the Transfiguration, our Lord said to the three Apostles whom He had taken with Him to Tabor: "Tell the vision to no man." [Matt. 17:9; Mark 9:8.] Why this reserve? Because men's
souls were
not yet prepared to receive such an exalted revelation and they could
not
have borne it. In fact, Jesus saw that many Jews understood the
prophecies
only in a material sense, that they were awaiting a temporal Messiah
Who
would restore the kingdom of Israel and set them over the other
peoples.
Thus, if from the start of His ministry Jesus had declared Himself to
be
the Messiah, the Son of God, He would have aroused "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now." [John 16:1.] The sublime truth of the mystery of the Incarnation had to be unveiled slowly in the subdued light of the parables, so that little by little souls might grow and become capable of hearing the Divine message. We have here an example of Christ's humility: although He had infinite treasures of light, love, and power, He remained hidden, never seeking to astonish or arouse admiration. He wished to save souls by working secretly deep within men's hearts. Far from declaring His Divine Sonship, as He did at the end of His ministry before His death, He at first tended to conceal it so that those whom He wished to enlighten and mold would not be dazzled or blinded by a light that was too powerful. He disposed them progressively to receive greater light: How totally differently are His ways from those of false wonder-workers who would astound and deceive! There is a great lesson here for us: souls must be taught the truth gradually, as much of it as they can bear at a time. But Christ's testimony, very reserved at first, became more and more articulate until, during the last days of His ministry, it became clear and luminous to all who had ears to hear. As recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus first manifested His Divinity by claiming certain privileges, and He then affirmed with ever-increasing clarity that He was the Son of God. Let us follow this ascending progression, for it is the accomplishment of all the Old Testament prophecies, the fullness of revelation bearing the authentic mark of God's works, fortiter et suaviter, power and gentleness. The Divine Rights Claimed by Jesus Jesus has claimed seven major privileges that can belong to God alone. According to St. Matthew and St. Mark, Jesus proclaimed Himself to be greater than the prophet Jonas, greater than Solomon, [Matt. 12:41 ff.] greater than David, who called Him his Lord in Psalm 109: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool." With respect to this prophecy Jesus said to the Pharisees: "If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" St. Matthew adds: "And no man was able to answer Him a word." [Matt. 22:45; Mark 12:36.] Jesus has also shown Himself to be greater than Moses and Elias, who appeared at His side at the Transfiguration. [Matt. 17:3.] He is greater than John the Baptist, as we see by His answer to the precursor's disciples who had been sent to ask Him: "Art Thou He that art to come, or look we for another?" [Matt. 11:3, 11.] He stands forth even greater than the Angels, for we find in St. Mark 15 and in St. Matthew 18 that, after His victory over Satan, "the Angels ministered to Him." And He Himself said: "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His Angels: and then will He render to every man according to his works." [Matt. 16: 27.] "And He shall send His Angels . . . and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them." [Matt. 24:31.] Neither Isaias nor any other prophet ever spoke of sending his Angels. Now, He Who is superior to all the prophets and to the Angels is superior to all creatures. Moreover, Jesus demands with regard to Himself faith, obedience, and love, even to the abnegation of all contrary affections and to the sacrifice of one's life. In foretelling the persecutions of the first three centuries, He said: "A man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it." [Matt. 10:36 ff.; Luke 14:26.] Jesus knew, when He spoke thus to His Apostles, that they would suffer Martyrdom. These words, which were to be fulfilled especially during the persecutions, would bespeak intolerable arrogance if Jesus were not God. What prophet ever dared to say: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me?" As for the Saints, the higher they rise the less they speak of themselves; their ego tends to be obliterated before God. How is it, then, that Jesus spoke with such majesty of Himself, He who was so humble that He accepted the deepest humiliations for our salvation? Again, after the rich young man had refused His call to perfection, He said: "Amen I say to you, there is no man who hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My sake and for the Gospel, who shall not receive a hundred times as much now in this time . . . with persecutions: and in the world to come life everlasting." [Mark 10:29 ff.] "He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth." [Matt. 12:30.] St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Commentary on St. Matthew, 12:30, sees in these last words a manifestation of Christ's Divinity. God alone, he remarks, is the final end toward which every man must tend, and that is why he who is not with God [who does not tend toward Him] is separated [or turned away] from Him. That is why Elias said: "How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him." [3 Kings 18:21] But, St. Thomas continues, a mere man could not say: "He that is not with Me is against Me." While it is permissible to remain neutral or indifferent with regard to a man who is a man and no more, one cannot remain neutral or indifferent with respect to God, our final end. Therefore, since Jesus has spoken these words, it must mean that He is superior to all creatures. About the very beginning of His ministry, Christ also declared in His Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake." [Matt. 5:11.] "For My sake" means to suffer persecution for justice' sake and for the noblest of all causes, an act that will be richly rewarded in Heaven. Jesus calls for obedience and
perfect abnegation.
He also speaks as the supreme Lawgiver, equal to the Lawgiver of Sinai
Who gave Moses the ancient law for the chosen people. Since Christ came
to complete this Divine law and to purge from it the false
interpretations
of the rabbis, He expressed Himself several times in the following
manner:
"You have heard it was said to them of old . . . But I say to you . .
."
[Matt. 5:21-48.] Thus He forbade divorce, which Moses In addition, He performed
miracles in His
Own name, using the form of a command. To the paralytic He said:
"Arise,
. . . and go into thy house." [Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:9.] He
raised Jairus' daughter by saying to her: "Talitha
cumi," that is to say: "Damsel [I say to thee], arise." [Mark
5:41.] He also brought back to life the son of the widow of Naim,
saying to him: "Young man, I say to thee, arise." [Luke
7:14.] He commanded the sea swollen by the storm: "Peace, be still."
And St. Mark tells us, "the wind ceased; and there was made a great
calm."
[Mark 4:39.] And they feared exceedingly: and they said to one
another: "Who is this [thinkest thou] that both wind and sea obey Him?"
The Apostles, on the contrary, performed miracles in the name of Jesus. [Matt. 7:22.] Peter said: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise, and walk . . . By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth . . . this man standeth here before you whole." [Acts 3:61; 4:10.] In addition, Jesus claims the power to remit sins, to make souls over, to fill them once again with divine life, a power which, the Pharisees recognized, can belong only to God. This calls to mind the scene described in St. Matthew: "And behold they brought to Him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins [then said He to the man sick of the palsy], Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house." [Matt. 9:2-8.] St. Matthew adds, "And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men." Likewise He said: "Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you." [Matt. 11:28.] Beyond this, He claimed the right to communicate to others the power to remit sins: He said to His Apostles: "Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in Heaven." [Matt. 18:18; 16:19.] Jesus has claimed not only the
power to
remit sins, but also the power of judging the living and the dead. He
answered
Caiphas: "And you shalL see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
God, and coming with the clouds of Heaven." [Mark 14:62;
8:38; 13:26.] "And He shall send His Angels with a trumpet, and
a great voice: and they shall gather together His elect . . ." He also promised to send the Holy Ghost, saying to the disciples before the Ascension: "And I send the promise of My Father upon you: but stay you in the city, till you be endued with power from on high." [Luke 24:49.] Therefore He is not inferior to the Holy Ghost whom He promised to send. Finally, Jesus accepted
adoration, [Matt.
8: 21; 8:9, 17; Mark 5: 6.] of which Peter, Paul, and
Barnabas-----and
even the Angels, in the Apocalypse-----declared
themselves unworthy. Thus it is clear that Jesus, according to the Synoptic Gospels, claimed for Himself seven major privileges which can belong to God alone, namely: I. He is superior to all creatures: greater than Jonas, than Solomon, than David, than Moses, than Elias, than John the Baptist; and He is superior to the Angels, who are "His Angels." 2. He demands with regard to Himself, faith, obedience, and love, even to the abnegation of any contrary affection and to the sacrifice of one's life. 3. He spoke as the supreme Lawgiver, in the Sermon on the Mount. 4. He performed miracles in His Own name. 5. He claimed the power to remit sins and has conferred this power on others. 6. He claimed the power to judge the living and the dead of all human generations. 7. He promised to send the Holy Ghost, and His promise was accomplished on Pentecost. Jesus can claim these rights and powers only if He is not merely God's envoy, the Messiah, but God Himself. He affirmed His Godhead only in a veiled manner in order to prepare souls little by little to receive a more explicit affirmation, which was to become increasingly clear and powerful up to the moment of His condemnation to death. The Divine Sonship of Jesus according to the Synoptic Gospels In the first three Gospels our Lord not only claims privileges and rights that belong to God alone, but on several occasions He declared that He is the Son of God in the strict and proper sense, which is totally different from the meaning of the term applicable to the souls of the just as a whole. First of all He declared Himself to be the Son of God when speaking of the happiness in store for the humble who answer the Divine call. In St. Matthew we read: "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me by My Father. [He does not say merely 'our Father' as we do, but 'My Father.'] And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him." [Matt. 11:25 ff.] These words are also recorded in St. Luke, [Luke 10:21.] and the authenticity of this text is admitted not only by Catholic exegetes but by the majority of Protestant critics as well. What is here affirmed is the equality of the Father and the Son with regard to knowledge and cognoscibility: "No one knoweth the Son but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son." The Father is by nature unknowable, for He is beyond the reach of natural knowledge. The same is true of the Son. Yet they know each other perfectly. This equality in knowledge, as St. Thomas teaches, presupposes consubstantiality, or the possession of the same Divine substance. In other words, it is the common substance of the Father and of the Son which is said to be unknowable inasmuch as it is beyond natural cognition. If no one knoweth the Son but the Father, it is because, like the Father, the Son is inaccessible to any created natural knowledge; therefore, it is because He is God. Loisy, among the Modernists, has conceded this traditional explanation of the text. He even goes on to remark that its meaning is substantially the same as the following words of St. John: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." [John 1:18. Cf. Alfred Firmin Loisy, The Gospel and the Church, trans. by Christopher Home, 1903.] That these texts of St. John and St. Matthew are equal in sublimity, Loisy recognizes. Yet he adds without any basis whatever, and against almost all other critics including the liberal Protestants, that, while this affirmation is contained in St. Matthew and St. Luke, Jesus did not make it Himself, it having merely been attributed to Him by Christian tradition. [Against this opinion of Loisy's, cf. Father Lagrange, Revue biblique, April, 1903, p. 304; also Lepin, op. cit., p. 323.] Jesus made a similar declaration in His response to Peter's confession at Caesarea: "Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven." [Matt. 16:16.] Some critics say that it cannot be proved historically that in this confession Peter affirmed anything more than the Messiahship. For Peter's words are reported by St. Mark [8:29] as: "Thou art the Christ;" and by St. Luke [9:20] as: "The Christ of God." It is only St. Matthew who records the words: "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God." As a matter of fact, on the basis of Peter's words alone it would be difficult to prove that they affirm anything beyond the Messiahship. But we also have Jesus' answer: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven." By these words Jesus showed that Peter had affirmed more than the Messiahship, for the signs of the Messiahship had already been manifest since the beginning of the Savior's ministry, and several of the apostles had already recognized Him to be the Messiah. Thus Andrew, Philip, and Nathaniel [John 1:41, 49.] had already recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and for this reason followed Him. Jesus had already clearly enumerated the signs of His Messiahship to the disciples of St. John the Baptist. [Matt. 11:4.] Thus the Messiahship in itself did not require any such revelation as that spoken of by our Lord in His answer to Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven." These words are equivalent in meaning to the preceding text of St. Matthew: "And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father." [Matt. 11:27.] Therefore it can be said: If Peter could know only through the Father what he affirmed concerning Jesus, he must have affirmed His Divine Sonship. It does not, however, follow that Peter was given to know through faith at that moment the nature of this Divine Sonship as explicitly as it would later be defined by the Church. [Cf. Lepin, op. cit., p. 332.] In the parable of the vineyard and the wicked husbandmen, there is a third affirmation of Christ's Divine Sonship. It is recorded by all Synoptics. [Matt. 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20: 1-19.] The authenticity of these texts is conceded by most critics, even by many liberal Protestants. St. Mark tells us: "And He [Jesus in the presence of the scribes and chief priests] began to speak to them in parables: A certain man planted a vineyard . . . and let it to husbandmen; and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant to receive of the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. Who having laid hands on him, beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and used him reproachfully. And again he sent another, and him they killed: and many others, of whom some they beat, and others they killed. Therefore having yet one son, most dear to him; he also sent him unto them last of all, saying: They will reverence my son. But the husbandmen said one to another: This is the heir; come let us kill him; and the inheritance shall be ours. And laying hold on him, they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those husbandmen; and will give the vineyard to others." [Mark 12:1 ff.] At the conclusion of this parable, Jesus at once added: "And have you not read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner. By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.' " [Ps. 117:22.] St. Mark reports that thereupon Jesus' enemies "sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people. For they knew that He spoke this parable to them. And leaving Him, they went their way." The application of this parable of the wicked husbandmen is in fact evident. The servants of the lord of the vineyard, whom he sent to the husbandmen, were the prophets. A little later, Jesus tells the Pharisees unequivocally: "You are the sons of them that killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of Hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge . . . That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth . . . Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children . . . and thou wouldest not?" [Matt. 23:31-37.] Therefore, if the servants of the Lord of the vineyard are the prophets, His dearly beloved Son is more than a prophet and Messiah, He is truly His Son. This parable describes exactly the same mystery as that spoken of at the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the world. Who being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high." [Heb. 1:1-3.] What is more striking about the application of the parable of the wicked husbandmen is that the priests of the synagogue who heard and understood it were the men who by very reason of their function were supposed to know the Scriptures and the signs of the Messiahship best. Therefore they should have been the first to welcome the Messiah. Yet it was they who resisted Him most obstinately. God offered them the fullness of revelation and great glory: participation in Christ's work and entrance with Him into eternal life. They preferred a merely human glory to one that was wholly divine: "to sit in the first chairs in the synagogues" and to remain there. [Mark 11:39.] It follows that in trying to resist the majesty of God they were overwhelmed by His glory, which was to have become theirs. As they were too deeply attached to things of least value-----their human traditions and their status, to which they clung jealously-----their souls did not open up to receive the great gift of salvation that God wished to give them. Thus the apostate priest was crushed beneath the grandeur of his priesthood because he did not receive with humility the immense grace it bestowed on him. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble." [Luke I:51.] Zaccheus' eyes were opened, whereas the priests of the synagogue were blinded. There is a fourth affirmation of Jesus' Divine Sonship in His question to the Pharisees: "What think you of Christ; whose son is He? They say to Him: David's. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" [Matt. 22:42-45.] St. Matthew adds, "And no man was able to answer Him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions." [Cf. also Luke 10:44; Mark 11:37.] The authenticity of this text is admitted by the principal liberal critics. The Lord referred to in the Psalm which Jesus quotes is superior to David, and equal to the highest Lord, God the Father. A fifth affirmation of the Divinity of Jesus is to be found in His answer to Caiphas during the Passion. In St. Matthew we read: "And the high priest said to Him: I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ the Son of God. Jesus saith to him : Thou hast said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of Heaven. Then the high priest rent his garments, saying: He hath blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold now you have heard the blasphemy." [Matt. 26:63 ff.] It was not merely His Messiahship that Jesus affirmed in His answer to the high priest. For Divine Sonship and the privilege of being seated at the right hand of the Almighty as well as of exercising sovereign power are not attributes of the Messiah as such. That is why Caiphas tore his garments and cried out "He hath blasphemed," as is recorded in the first three Gospels. The Gospel of St. John throws light on the other three. In St. John we find that after the paralytic's cure " . . . the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He did not only break the Sabbath, but also said God was His Father, making Himself equal to God." [John 5:18.] Again in St. John, after Jesus had said "I and the Father are one," we read: "The Jews then took up stones to stone Him." [John 10:31.] This is the explanation of Caiphas' question to Jesus, for the high priest was aware of Christ's earlier declarations: "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ the Son of God." Finally, in St. John there is another text that throws light on the Synoptics: "The Jews answered him: We have a law; and according to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." [John 19:7.] Certainly it would not have been considered a crime for our Lord to affirm His Messiahship, for everybody was at that time expecting the Messiah, the anointed one, God's envoy. Thus He must have affirmed that He was superior to the Messiah. In St. Matthew there is a sixth affirmation of Jesus' Divinity. It appears after the recital of the Savior's resurrection in the formula of Baptism: "And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." [Matt. 28:18 ff.] Thus ends the Gospel of St. Matthew. Loisy denies without valid reason the authenticity of the Baptismal formula, as having been pronounced by Jesus Himself. But he at least recognizes that the use of this formula is attested to in Didache 7:1, and it is probable that it was universally accepted by the Churches at the beginning of the second century. [Loisy, Les Evangiles Synoptiques, II, 751.] Now in this formula of Baptism the Son is equal to the Father and to the Holy Ghost. But if He were not God He would be infinitely inferior to Them. As to the closing words, "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world," they give promise of Divine assistance which is a fulfillment of Isaias' prophecy: "And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." [lsa. 7:141; Matt.1:23.] What are we to infer from these six affirmations? We must conclude, in opposition to the Modernists, that in the Synoptic Gospels the declarations of Jesus regarding His eminent dignity proclaim far more than His Messiahship and announce the Divine Sonship which is His alone. Moreover, this Divine Sonship is superior to Messiahship, not only in the sense conceded by such rationalists as Harnack, but in the sense that it places Christ above all creatures, equal to God and Himself God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. That is the meaning of the words quoted above: "No one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son." Equality of knowledge. "Going therefore teach ye all nations: Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." And according to the Synoptics as according to St. John, Jesus was crucified because He had declared He was the Son of God, equal to His Father. It should be added that in St. Luke the Angel Gabriel declared to Mary: "The Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." [Luke 1:23; cf. Matt. 1:20 ff.] Also, in St. Matthew it is recorded that when Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist, the precursor "saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from Heaven, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." [Matt. 3:16 ff.] What is truly remarkable is
that those
who should have been the first to recognize Christ's mission failed to
do so. This throws a searching light on the meaning of a Divine
mission.
Father Clerissac tells us that "The Incarnation is a mission of the Son
of God in the world and is propagated through the multiplicity of
ecclesiastical
ministries in all epochs." Thus the Church carries
on Christ's mission.
She has been sent by Him, and she preserves His spirit. Our task is to
be docile to her voice, which transmits God's word to us and which
leads
us, sometimes amid many snares and errors and ruins, toward eternity. [Ibid.
"The unmistakable sign that we are adhering to the full spirit of the
Church
is never to admit that we can be made to suffer by the Church any
differently
than by God."] www.catholictradition.org/Easter/easter15b.htm |
