The Grace of Christ as a Man

That the human soul of Christ had sanctifying grace, is certain. For: (a) this soul was in union with the Word of God; (b)this soul was dignified above all human souls, and was to know and love God more perfectly than any other; for such operationssanctifying or habitual grace is necessary; (c) the grace of this soul was to overflow upon others, according to scripture (John1:10): “Of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”

Grace touches the essence of the soul; virtue belongs to the powers of the soul. As powers flow from essence, so virtuesflowfrom grace. From the most perfect grace of Christ’shuman soul the virtues flowed most perfectly. Thus, Christ had allthe virtues in his human soul.

Christ as man, from the first moment of his conception,beheld fully the very essence of God. There was, therefore, neither need nor possibility of faith in our Lord. For faith is of divine things unseen, and Christ saw all divine things perfectly.

From the beginning of Christ’s human existence, hewas in full possession and enjoyment of God, and this is the object of hope. Hence, there was neither need nor possibility of the theological virtue of hope in Christ as man. Of course,our Lord could look forward humanly to the future events of his human life: his Resurrection, for instance, and his Ascension.

The gifts of the Holy Ghost are perfections of the soul’s powers, which make these powers respond readily and consistently to the inspirations of God. All the gifts were mostexcellently present in the human soul of Christ.

Even the gift of fear was there, but it was neither the fear of God’s punishments for sin, nor the fear of offending God by sinning. It was the deep reverence for God in the perfect human soul of Christ.

The gratuitous graces (such as miracles, prophecy,tongues) which are given to a man for the conversion andsanctification of others, rather than for his own sanctification,were all in Christ in the most perfect degree. Christ came to redeem us, but also to teach us essential divine truth;gratuitous graces are such a teacher’s credentials, and they confirm his teaching. All the gratuitous graces exist most perfectly in the most perfect teacher of divine truth.

A prophecy is the certain proclaiming of a future or distant event; the prophet who proclaims the event must be one ofthe race to whom he speaks. Now, Christ is true man, and what he knows as man the comprehensor (that is, as one who beholds thebeatific vision) he proclaims as man the wayfarer (that is, as one yet living in this world). Hence, in Christ is the gift of prophecy.

In Christ as man there is the fullness of grace in intensity because of his substantial union with the source ofall grace. In Christ as man there is also the fullness of grace in power, for from him grace flows out to all others who receive it, and extends in them to its proper effects, such as virtues and gifts.

Among rational creatures, Christ alone (as man) has the perfect fullness of grace, in the sense that he possesses grace in its greatest excellence, its complete extent, and all theexcellences of its effects. The Blessed Mother is called”full of grace” (Luke 1:28), and St. Stephen, the first martyr, had fullness of grace (Acts 6:8). Now, the fullness of grace in all rational creatures except Christ is fullness accordingto capacity to receive and possess; it is fullness in receivers; the first and greatest of receivers, in the capacity for grace and the full dower of grace, is the Mother of God. But in Christ the fullness of grace is on the part of grace itself. Others with fullness of grace have all the grace they can receive; Christ has all the grace that can be received.

The grace of God in a human soul is a creature of God,and therefore is not infinite. Even the grace in Christ’s human soul is not infinite, for that human soul is a creature, and grace itself is a creature. Of course, the grace of union is infinite, but this grace is the divine Person subsisting with twonatures. We are speaking here of the humanity of Christ, and of his human soul with its grace; we are not speaking of the grace of union.

Since the fullness of grace itself is in the human soul of Christ, this grace cannot be increased. The end of grace isthe uniting of a rational creature with God; Christ as man is a rational creature always perfectly united with God; he, therefore,can have no accession of grace to give him what he already possesses.

The habitual or sanctifying grace in the human soul of Christ follows the union effected by God’s assuming of human nature. This is our way of understanding the matter: first, the union; then, grace in Christ’s human soul. But this is no case of before and after, in the sense of time. The sanctifyinggrace of Christ’s human soul follows the union as light follows the sun; there is no interval of time between the appearance of thesun and the luminosity of the sun.