Whether the Soul of Christ Comprehended the Word or the Divine
Essence?
Objection 1: It would seem that the soul of Christ comprehended and
comprehends the Word or Divine Essence. For Isidore says (De Summo
Bono i, 3) that "the Trinity is known only to Itself and to the Man
assumed." Therefore the Man assumed communicates with the Holy
Trinity in that knowledge of Itself which is proper to the Trinity.
Now this is the knowledge of comprehension. Therefore the soul of
Christ comprehends the Divine Essence.
Obj. 2: Further, to be united to God in personal being is greater
than to be united by vision. But as Damascene says (De Fide Orth.
iii, 6), "the whole Godhead in one Person is united to the human
nature in Christ." Therefore much more is the whole Divine Nature
seen by the soul of Christ; and hence it would seem that the soul of
Christ comprehended the Divine Essence.
Obj. 3: Further, what belongs by nature to the Son of God belongs by
grace to the Son of Man, as Augustine says (De Trin. i, 13). But to
comprehend the Divine Essence belongs by nature to the Son of God.
Therefore it belongs by grace to the Son of Man; and thus it seems
that the soul of Christ comprehended the Divine Essence by grace.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Qq. lxxxiii, qu. 14): "Whatsoever
comprehends itself is finite to itself." But the Divine Essence is
not finite with respect to the soul of Christ, since It infinitely
exceeds it. Therefore the soul of Christ does not comprehend the Word.
_I answer that,_ As is plain from Q. 2, AA. 1, 6, the union of the
two natures in the Person of Christ took place in such a way that the
properties of both natures remained unconfused, i.e. "the uncreated
remained uncreated, and the created remained within the limits of the
creature," as Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 3, 4). Now it is
impossible for any creature to comprehend the Divine Essence, as was
shown in the First Part (Q. 12, AA. 1, 4, 7), seeing that the
infinite is not comprehended by the finite. And hence it must be said
that the soul of Christ nowise comprehends the Divine Essence.
Reply Obj. 1: The Man assumed is reckoned with the Divine Trinity in
the knowledge of Itself, not indeed as regards comprehension, but by
reason of a certain most excellent knowledge above the rest of
creatures.
Reply Obj. 2: Not even in the union by personal being does the human
nature comprehend the Word of God or the Divine Nature, for although
it was wholly united to the human nature in the one Person of the
Son, yet the whole power of the Godhead was not circumscribed by the
human nature. Hence Augustine says (Ep. ad Volusian. cxxxvii): "I
would have you know that it is not the Christian doctrine that God
was united to flesh in such a manner as to quit or lose the care of
the world's government, neither did He narrow or reduce it when He
transferred it to that little body." So likewise the soul of Christ
sees the whole Essence of God, yet does not comprehend It; since it
does not see It totally, i.e. not as perfectly as It is knowable, as
was said in the First Part (Q. 12, A. 7).
Reply Obj. 3: This saying of Augustine is to be understood of the
grace of union, by reason of which all that is said of the Son of God
in His Divine Nature is also said of the Son of Man on account of the
identity of suppositum. And in this way it may be said that the Son
of Man is a comprehensor of the Divine Essence, not indeed by His
soul, but in His Divine Nature; even as we may also say that the Son
of Man is the Creator.
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