CHRISTOLOGICAL COUNCILS

The various ways in which the question Who do you say that I am? is asked and answered
show the development of the Christological doctrine which involves elements of both the old and
the new. It is a question that is not purely academic but one that arises from the experience of
salvation and is ultimately answered in the living of faith.
Council of Nicea (325)
Ambiguity brought about by Arius put the dogma of Jesus divinity at stake
o Close of the New Testament period (Double-task)
Cultural
Christianity began in the Jewish sect
Use of titles like Messiah Christological patterns that
functioned effectively to convey Jesus significance
To non-Jews, the apocalyptic pattern or title of Messiah did not
mean anything
How was the practice of honoring Jesus as divine compatible with the
prayerful conviction of their Jewish heritage that there is but one God?
How could the Father be one, the Son be another, both divine, and
yet only one God?
o Trial and error process
Adoptionists
Denied the real divinity of Jesus, viewed him as a human being
whom God favored with an exceptionally rich outpouring of Gods
spirit
Psilanthropism merely human
Monarchians
Denied that the Son was distinct from the Father
Gods self-revelation in history in successive modes w/ different
names
Image of Jesus as Gods logos
Bridge of Jewish and Hellenistic worlds
Jewish side translated as Word, logos resonated with the
medium through which God created and interacted with history
o Genesis: God creates by speaking
o God guides Israels history by sending Gods word to the
prophets
Hellenistic side translated as Reason
o Designates the principle of order immanent to the universe,
the principle of rationality that made the universe an
ordered cosmos rather than chaos
Justin
o Proposed Christianity as the true philosophy
o Christ as the logos
Terilullian

o Takes up the question that the Christian practice of

honoring Christ with divine worship
What defines God is power, which belongs properly
to the Father
The Father is one, the Son is another, both are
divine by exercising the divine monarchia, and yet
that divine power remains one and undivided
o Origin of the Son created through Logos, not as divine
as the Father
The divine power belongs properly to the Father,
while the Son receives a share in its exercise and
only the Father is eternal
Origen
o Recognizes that as well that God is spirit, not matter, and
that if both Father and Son are divine, then the Son must be
eternal
o Son is the wisdom himself, but the Father is beyond
wisdom
Subordinationism
o The divinity of the Son is subordinate to that of the Father

o Arius claim
If the Son or logos was not fully divine, then it was really not divine at all
Jesus was not divine
Definition of divinity: incapable of changing, while Jesus clearly
moved in the realm of this changeable world and indeed showed us
how to live in such a world
Jesus was not fully human
Logos functioned in him, in place of a human soul
Jesus as a mythical figure, a cosmological first principle who has taken on
a body, but is not divine nor human
o Arius solution
A non-divine Jesus might be considered one whom others might more
confidently seek to imitate
o Structure of Christian religious experience
Encounter with Jesus as a human being metanoia or conversion
reality of one true God
Reflection of what they have experienced communicating, revealing,
giving, expressing Gods own self to them
Proceeding to say that Jesus himself, this human being is Gods selfcommunication, self-expression, self-revelation, own Word
If God really is as God reveals Gods own self to be, then Jesus is identical
with Gods eternal self-communication, self-expression and Word

Ontological (Who is Jesus?)

o The Son of God

o The only begotten generated from the Father, that is, from being of the Father
o God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten; not made,
one in being with the Father
o One in being with the Father homoousios (being made of the same substance)
Athanasius on homoousios
Whatever you could say about the Father, you could say about the
Son and vice-versa, except what is proper to being Father or to
being Son
o Affirmed the Sonship of God
o Gods self-expression
Functional
o For us and for our salvation, He came down and became flesh, was made man,
suffered, and rose again on the third day
o Ascended to the heavens and shall come again to judge the living and the dead
Effects of Nicea
o Equal in divinity
o Continuity
o Sonship of God
o Jesus as Gods self-expression
Perfect revelation
To know about God, one must look at Jesus
o Value of reason, our capacity to think, one must be able to explain, importance of
asking questions
o Inculturation dialogue between faith and culture
Declare faith in terms of the culture of people, viewed in the context of
other people

Council of Constantinople (381)

Claims
o Apollinaris
In Jesus, the logos replaced the human soul
Jesus was not fully human
o Antiochene thinkers
Focused on Jesus full humanity
The completeness of our salvation depends on the completeness of Jesus
humanity
Difficulty maintaining Jesus unity as a single person
Jesus as the authentic human being
o Touched the untouchables, exorcised demons, placed importance on people rather
than the legalistic interpretation of the law
o His capacity to love
o By embracing everything we experienced, except sin, he elevated and divinized
us to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father Marvelous Exchange

o Rational soul and body

Council of Ephesus (431)
Nestorius
o Call Mary Christotokos Mother of Christ
o Cyril: if Nestorius denied that Mary was the Mother of God and recognized her
only as the Mother of Christ, he must be dividing Jesus into two persons, the
divine Son of God and a human Christ
Not that an ordinary man was born first of the holy Virgin, on whom afterwards the Word
descended
Being united with the flesh from the womb (the Word) has undergone birth in the flesh,
making the birth in the flesh His own
Holy Virgin Mother of God Theotokos
Does not mean that the nature of the Word of His divinity was received from the virgin
Mother
Rather, the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word united to Himself
according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word born according to the flesh
Word united with flesh through Marys womb
Mary gave Jesus His humanity and human nature
Hypostasis one subsistent reality
Council of Chalcedon (451)
Eutyches
o After the union, one incarnate nature slippery in both meaning and history
Nature concrete being
After the coming together of the divine with the human at incarnation,
Jesus exists as a single, concrete individual
First definition
o The same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity
o The same truly God and truly man composed of a rational soul and body
Constantinople
o The same one in being with the Father as to the divinity and one in being with us
as to the humanity, like unto us in all things but sin Nicea (homoousios)
o The same begotten from the Father before ages as to the divinity and in the latter
days for us, and our salvation was born as to His humanity from Mary the Virgin
Mother of God Ephesus (Theotokos)
Second definition
o Jesus must be acknowledged in two natures without confusion or change, without
division or separation
o The distinction between the two natures was never abolished by their union, but
rather the character proper to each was preserved as they came together in one
person and hypostasis

o Analogy: salt + water when salt is dissolved in water, it loses its character
(This is not the case with hypostasis)
o Jesus is not a hybrid, a third kind of being that would result from blending the
divine and the human together
Conclusion
o Chalcedon clearly teaches that Jesus is fully and completely human
o Chalcedon strongly rejects any notion that Jesus is party human and party divine
o Chalcedon affirms that the human being, Jesus, is nothing less than the
Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Hypostatic union as a restatement of the mystery of Gods graciousness
brought about and made known through Jesus

Vatican Council: Gaudium et Spes (GS) 22 (1965)

It is only in the mystery of the Word incarnate that the human mystery becomes clear
Christ fully reveals human beings to themselves in the very revelation of the Father
and His love, and discloses to them their sublime calling
Christ is the image of the invisible God in Him, human nature was assumed, not
absorbed, it was, by the very fact, raised to a sublime dignity in us also
He worked with human hands, taught with human mind, acted with human hands and
loved with a human heart

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

Chalcedon confessed that the identity of Jesus Christ was to be understood as
comprised of two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, which came together in
the unity of one person
o Problem: the way this dogma had come to be taught and understood
Two natures in Jesus Christ
Misconception: two varieties of the same basic thing, two species
of one genus (apple and oranges are two kinds of the one category
fruit)
Misconception: 50/50, partly divine and partly human, or totally
divine and partly human, but not truly divine and truly human
One person
What is a person?
o Today: connotes a physical psychological entity, an
individual center of consciousness and freedom, constituted
in relation to other persons in a community
o Hypostasis: subsistence, or the metaphysical root of a thing,
or the firm ground from out of which an existing individual
stands forth and exists
o Transcendental theology they seek to make dogma meaningful by connecting it
with anthropology, with human existence analyzed by transcendental methods
Human Nature
o Asking questions/seeking the truth

It shows that we do not know something and yet we want to know it: we
have a desire for this truth, whatever the answer will be
Reveals that we are in touch with a known unknown
Infinite thirst for truth and an infinite capacity for truth, an infinite
dynamism toward truth
Will we ever be fulfilled?
The only reality that will quench this quest of ours is Gods own
being which is infinite truth, Truth itself God
Sartre: there is no fulfillment ever to be had, while we are
structured toward the infinite, we are destined to eternal frustration

o Loving
When we love someone, and are loved, it reveals a dynamism of our spirit
which is boundless
Is this human thirst for love ever satisfied in life?
Ultimately only infinite love can satisfy this thirst of ours infinite
Love God
o Hoping
The capacity to believe in a better future and to hope against hope for it
The imaginative ability to hope against hope reveals that we have an
infinite capacity for life, which ultimately can be filled only by the source
of life, God, Life itself
o Rational Animals
Beyond this, we are made that we are dynamically structured toward the
infinite and will only be satisfied by the infinite God
o It is the finite reality with a capacity for the infinite, and a thirst for the
infinite
Divine Nature
o Gods own being (divine nature) is utterly incomprehensible to us
o Neither can you fit the mystery of the Trinity into your finite mind
o If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God
o God is love
God would not be God without being love
o Three persons
God is God first of all in the divine self the unoriginate and source of all
(Father)
God is always self-expressing, self-uttering, always going out (Son, the
Word)
God is the power of unifying love, always bringing the divine selfexpression back into the primordial unity (Holy Spirit)
o Trinity safeguards the understanding of divine nature as a mystery of selfcommunicating and self-giving love
One Person
o Misconception: divine nature has been thought to overshadow human nature, to
diminish it, or even to swallow it up

o Misconception: God and humanity are somehow opposed to each other, or made
in competition with each other, so that a choice has to be made for one of the
other
o Given the way God has created and redeemed us, we are not in competition with
God but rather made for God
From our side, we are structured toward the infinite with the capacity for
truth, love and life that knows no bounds. The nearer we get to the Truth,
Love and Life or God the more fulfilled we are going to be
As for God, who creates and redeems out of love, God is glorified not by
the diminishment but by the enhancement and growth of the beloved
creature
The more human we become, the more God is pleased
The glory of God is the human being fully alive!
o Parents love, good married love, love of friendship
o The closer we become to God, then the more fully our own selves we become,
rather than less ourselves
o Nearness to God and genuine human autonomy grow in direct and not inverse
proportions
o Jesus profoundly united to God, therefore, he is genuinely human, and in fact
more human, more free, more alive, more his own person than any of us, because
his union with God is more profound
o Jesus is like us in all things, tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin.
o Kenosis self-emptying
o God as the triune mystery of self-giving love, then it becomes possible to see
Jesus existing as the Word of God in time who, in his humanness, embodies the
self-emptying of the God of love
o As this human being, Jesus is the Son of God. Precisely as this human being he
is God in time. He is fully human, fully free, fully personal and as such he is God
who has self-emptied into our history.
Gaudium et Spes, 22
o Human nature as he assumed it was not annulled He worked with human hands,
thought with a human mind, acted by human choice, and loved with a human
heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all
things except sin
o Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him has been
raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare
A SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY
Trinity
o Heart of the Christian faith
o What makes the gospel what it is, the kind of good news that it is
That we are forgiven, that our sins have been blotted out, redeemed
through no merit of our own
Beyond this, the gospel is not just that we are saved from sin, but that we
are taken up into the life of God himself, that we are raised beyond simple

humanity, even beyond sinless humanity, beyond even creaturehood to

have a share in divinity itself.
Salvation history
o Abraham and Moses
God of human liberation from the slavery and idolatry of injustice
He is not the local god of this nation, He is the Lord of the whole world,
He is Righteousness and Justice everywhere and anywhere
God as the Creator of the universe
o Even when we sin, it is the Lord who is keeping you in existence while you are
doing this
o We are his creatures, and we are dependent on him
o Sin
Self-delusion that we can stand over against God, that we are not a
creature
Declaration of independence from God
o The gift of God is to receive divinity, and to be taken beyond creaturehood
God giving us His grace
o Through Christ and the Holy Spirit
o Needs our cooperation and participation
o Grace self-gift
God is the Father who loves
o Not the love between God and Israel (a love between a Master and a Servant)
o The Father loves the Son, and the love is the Holy Spirit
Equality
o Jesus is the perfect image of the Father: He who has seen me has seen the
Father
o The Son owes his being to the Father, proceeds from the Father, not being made
by him, not as a creature: he is an equal whom the Father can love
Even beyond creating, there is loving
Gods love is not confined to the eternal love between the Father and Son, but God
extends this same love not just his kindly creative power but his love to us human
creatures
Because of the Son of man, we are taken up to share into the love between Father and son
We are taken up into the uncreated Holy Spirit: out life becomes divine
God became man so that man might become God
By giving himself to us in his love, we are not just creatures, we are taken up into the
divine Trinitarian life
When we call God our Father, we are making a fantastic claim:
o We are joining in the eternal dialogue of Son and Father which is the Holy Spirit
Wherever there is charity and love, there is God
Good News
o The love between the Father and the Son is given to us

o We have been divinized and elevated to become adopted sons and daughters of
the Father
Trinity
o Three distinct persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit
God is relational
We are created in the image and likeness of God
Cannot define one without the other
Relational because it is based on love
o One God, in three distinct and equal persons

FAITH: OUR RESPONSE/CHURCH

The Church, the People of God, comes from the Trinity and is called together to personal
communion with one another and united with Jesus Christ and the Father in the bond of love in
the Spirit

HAPPINESS
Misconception: accumulation of fame, sex, power and money
Misconception: being unbothered, carefree, blissful life of a child
Genuine happiness resided not in the feelings at all, nor in our accumulations, but rather
in the soul
Eudaimonia having a good soul
Happiness was holiness being whole which we can understand from the many
synonyms of holy: all-together, unfragmented, consistent, focused, integrated,
harmonious, and fully alive
Happiness, then, independent of feelings, means being serene in the face of the
unchangeable, courageous before the changeable, and wise enough to know which is
which
Rational Animals Plus
o Exclusively human activities that exceed the scope of the body and brain: honor,
forgiveness, guilt, wonder, humor, patriotism, wisdom
o Go beyond the humdrum, beyond mere survival
o The pleasure principle
Eros (life-wish) crave for challenge, striving, even if one doesnt
achieve
Thanatos (death-wish) crave for the passive security of the womb, the
maximum return from the minimum input
Evolving a soul
o Soul reflection of the entire core of ones personal existence: the whole living
being of an individual and that selfs reason for living, a unique storyline, a
lifeline
o The secret to happiness: learning, loving, growing more intensely human
o How to evolve a soul

Own ones soul acknowledging that my soul is the self beneath my

surface image, and that the soul-self makes the difference between me and
an animal
Challenge ones soul realizing that soul-self is only a potential; it wont
evolve itself without effort
Peace and covenant accepting the fact that a great deal of my
personality has been foisted on me by others, but from now on, I take
responsibility for what happens to what I have, for what I build from the
rubble
The Real World
o Happiness is the active engagement in the betterment of others
o Happiness comes from surrendering to God and ones neighbors
o Happiness is a realization to be experienced
o Our source and our end is love
o Sabbath time to find genuine peace and happiness, there has to be a time for
it, during which we let go of analyzing and coping, surrender mastery for mystery,
become willing to be taken in
Our purpose: to keep becoming more human, cracking the horizons of our knowing and
loving. And in the going, were already there.

WHY GO TO MASS?
Faith the things that last
o Faith is not a pacifier or just a feeling, its an instrument of knowledge
o Faith is an experience between persons, one person in communication with
another, one person sharing life with another
Knowledge to know Jesus
o Understanding the reasons why we do things
Mercy and redemption
o Knowledge of yourself as a sinner, acknowledging the need of Gods love, mercy
and redemption
The sacred in our lives
o An encounter-experience with the Lord to meet Christ, to be with him, to share
our lives with him and to thank him for saving us from our sinful situation
Community of believers
o The life of the believing community