Day Sixteen: Hypostatic Union, Part Two

                It’s easy to list evidence from the Bible of how Jesus is “human”. He sleeps, he drinks water and wine. He eats. He is even tempted to sin. He dies. My students know enough about Jesus to be able to list these proofs of Jesus’ humanity. I ask them to work in groups to come up with a list and to write on the whiteboard these proofs. But I also want them to look for evidence of Jesus as being divine. This seems just as easy; He performs miracles, of course. That is a good detail, but I wonder if my students can come up with more.

Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland. Stained-glass windows often depict the very "human" reality of Jesus and are a reminder that Jesus was a person in flesh and blood. (photo: P. Smith)

                They take about ten minutes to talk, check the Bible, and look in their textbook for possible responses. Some of the less motivated students may just look it up online. It doesn’t matter. I just want them thinking about it for a few minutes.

                I reveal to them the teaching that Jesus is “fully human” and I remind them of the Paschal Mystery. I reveal to them that Jesus is “fully divine”. We will do more formal notes on this in the next part of class, but I challenge them to consider why Catholic theology says Jesus is both human and divine. After they have written all their responses on the whiteboard, I literally ask them, directly, “Why does Jesus have to be human and divine?” This is difficult, but this is going to be the Assignment question for the night, so we start considering it early. There is logic to this concept of Hypostatic Union. We can either assume His Hypostatic Union first or we can assume He is the path to salvation. Either way, we can use logic to show the necessity of his dual nature. At the heart of this Doctrine is our need to know that we, as humans, 1) are Loved perfectly by God and 2), can be saved. I hold off for a minute and let my students gather consider this.