Christ, Truth Incarnated
By scientist and priest Emmanuel M. Carreira, S.J.

Emmanuel M. Carreira, S.J.

We probably have read many times these statements in St. John's Gospel Prologue without paying particular attention to their meaning or to their relationship to the themes of Light and Life, central to that Gospel. It will be worthwhile to deepen, with reasoning and prayer, the understanding of what Theology teaches about Christ as the truthful, complete and unchanging manifestation of everything we can know regarding the supernatural order.

A necessary consequence of human rationality is the desire to know, the search for truth in every possible way. A child constantly asks the what, the why, and the what for about everything found in daily life, to the point of embarrassing parents and teachers who can't answer admitting ignorance or -still less- lying to the trusting little one who expects from them knowledge and love. Nothing makes children so proud as to be able to show off some new bit of learning, no matter how limited, and nothing seems as painful to them as a lie, that undermines their trust on the adults that is needed even to know their proper identity and the reality of being loved.

Human history is, above all else, the history of the intellectual development of each people, since from the common knowledge will flow the activities of each individual and, finally, the evolution of society. It has been said that there is nothing as powerful as an idea, and great ideas determine the direction in which a people develops, for good or for evil, depending upon an idea that is true and noble or rather superficially attractive but false. Both for individuals and for nations, in all places and at all times, the Gospel statement "Truth will make you free" is fully relevant.1

What is Truth? That question, posed by Pilate from a position of disdainful skepticism, is now almost a proud profession of relativism, or of lack of interest, basically irrational: we cease to act according to our nature when we deny, at least at the practical level, the need to know reality as it actually "is". Because that is the meaning of the word "truth": the expression of my knowledge as an correct reflection -even if partial and imperfect- of some aspect of what "is".

From the most elementary data furnished by the senses to the deepest and least comprehensible contents of Science or Faith, every assertion has to be checked against a reality that is previous and independent of my preferences, prejudices or conditionings of any kind. It is in this process where truth or error appear, both mutually incompatible, as imposed by the norm of rationality: the Principle of non-contradiction. Nothing can be and not be at the same time and from the same viewpoint; God himself cannot do something absurd.

Even if we have partial knowledge and partial truths, this does not deny objectivity as long as they are not considered as the full truth. We might realize that even a humble stone is not totally known, but it isn't wrong to state its physical properties, its chemical composition, its origin: in all those points we search for and find truth.

In a similar way, whatever we say about God will always be very incomplete, since it will be limited by our way of knowing and even by our language, but we can assert his infinite perfection, his immanence, his spiritual nature, his essential and necessary existence, without fear that our limitations will render false those concepts. It would be illogical to deny this power to those He has created as rational in his Image and Likeness.

The perfect and total expression of what God is, the eternal Image of the Father, is the Son, one in essence with the Father. Due to this unique relationship, the Son is essential Truth: when Christ said "I am the Truth" -a statement that might sound incomprehensible to us- he is not simply referring to himself as a Master of true knowledge, but to his intimate nature as a divine Person. His coming into the world is the mission of communicate and clarify the eternal Truth: "I came for that purpose, to testify to the Truth".

Because "nobody knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom He gives that knowledge" "Nobody has ever seen God: the only begotten Son, always in the Father's bosom, has manifested Him". This revelation in the Person of Christ is so perfect that, when Philip asks -at the Last Supper- that Christ will show him the Father, the answer is "he who sees me, sees the Father".

For the same reason, the coming of the Spirit, who receives from Christ the truth to be given to the Apostles, has as its purpose to teach them "the full Truth" contained in the teachings and life of the Master. There will never be a new revelation that will replace or enlarge the Christian message just as this message surpassed the revelation of the Old Testament.

The opposite of Truth, a Lie that is lived as a defiance of God and the anti-thesis of the Son, is sin. If the idea of truth leads to the metaphorical description of Christ as Light -in our common language "to see" becomes the synonym of "to understand"- we are presented not with an abstract intellectual clarity of concepts, but with life and love as opposed to the darkness of error, hatred, sin and death, a theme developed by John in his first letter. The error about Christ's nature is the hallmark of the anti-Christ, while the acceptance of his divine sonship places us in the realm of salvation and life.

Christ is "the true Light that shines upon all men with his coming into the world". He is the only source of Truth about God, Man`s nature and destiny, society and the whole of creation. Our search for truth has its full answer in Him and in his teaching, through which we can know everything with the infallible mind of God: To know reality as God sees it is the absolute warranty of objectivity, since there is no room for error, prejudice or any limitation. We thus acquire a certainty that surpass every human reasoning and that is independent of any school or cultural conditioning.

Christ's Truth in the Church

It might seem logical to apply the previous reasoning only to Christ's teaching received directly from his lips and explained by Him, but not to what today is presented to our Faith after twenty centuries. The fact that we have books that preserved his teachings is not a full warranty of their authenticity either, because a book might present a twisted account of historical facts or a wrong interpretation of any doctrine, especially when the writings are not necessarily a faithful record of memories from his immediate disciples, but are perhaps written by later authors.

For these reasons it might appear as difficult or impossible to ever recover the pure original teachings of the Master, even if we admit that in his words we would find a perfect Truth. These objections would be applicable in every purely human context, leading to doubts, varied interpretations, exegetical controversies. But the Church is not to be explained just in terms of cultural categories or with human means of knowing and delivering the message received from Christ.

When the disciples were given by their Lord the mandate to go to the limits of the Earth and to teach all peoples, they also received the promise of a constant assistance of the same Lord -"I will be with you until the end of time"-- and the promise of the Spirit of Truth who would teach them the complete Truth, so that the powers of hell will not prevail over them in their mission.

Only by this divine warranty do we have the assurance that the doctrine transmitted by the Apostles and their successors is found without error and in its entirety, through all time, in the church's teaching, be it by the spoken or the written word. More explicitly: only the authoritative backing of the Church allows us to distinguish the books to be accepted as God's word from those that distort it with apocryphal messages.

It is to be noted that the Pope, writing the encyclical "Splendor Veritatis", addressed it not to theologians, but to Bishops: the only ones who received from Christ the task of teaching, in union with the Pope. It is clearly stated: "Theological opinions do not constitute the rule or norm of our teaching. Its authority derives, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and in communion 'cum Petro and sub Petro' -with Peter and under Peter- from our fidelity to the catholic faith received from the Apostles".

The teachings of our Faith are due to a Revelation, not to philosophical or theological reasoning; this is why the Church cannot change the teachings of dogmas nor the consequences of the Faith throughout the centuries.

Quoting the Vatican II Council: "the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, spoken or written, was entrusted only to the Magisterium of the Church, that performs it in the name of Christ" for the good of all its members, since "the good of each person consists in remaining in the Truth and acting according to the Truth".

Dealing explicitly with moral norms, it is said that "the motherly role of the Church can never be separated from its teaching mission… The Church is certainly neither the author nor the arbiter of that norm". And Paul VI is quoted: "Never to diminish in any way the saving doctrine of Christ is an eminent form of charity towards the souls". The Church can only transmit and hold the Truth received from Christ, and in this Truth is found the root and support of the freedom of the human person as Image of God.

History shows that the denial of a teaching authority in Protestantism has destroyed any coherence of doctrine and even the logical basis to accept Scripture. Faith ceases to be a "rational offering" to God, becoming instead something of an emotional order: it is assigned to the realm of the will or even of the "feelings", not to the knowledge of God.

Its only basis is found in the blind acceptance of some written texts -impossible to be rationally distinguished from others that are considered apocryphal- and of some interpretation given by somebody who is not representative of the community of the faithful or of the constant apostolic tradition from Christ up to the present.

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" clearly states (no. 108): "Christian Faith is not 'a religion of a book' " but rather of the "Word of God", not written and mute, but made Flesh and still living. With an exclusive trust in some written pages, one falls into relativism, not finding Truth, but opposing ways of presenting the faith, all valid if they lead to a sincere search for God, implicitly confusing knowledge and ethics.

This relativistic viewpoint, carried to a logical extreme, would imply that Christ's coming, teaching and dying, was a wasted effort: even an atheist can be a very good neighbor.

Jesus Christ, the center of our Faith

The profession of Trinitarian Faith -in One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit- as found in the Creed (Apostolic and later, in more detail, Nicene) is centered upon the Person of Christ: his eternal existence and generation by the Father, his Incarnation and Birth from the Virgin Mary, his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. This is then completed with the teaching regarding the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ; the Church -Mystical Body of Christ- and the fulfillment of God's plan in the Parousia -the final coming of Christ- and our own resurrection as members of Christ, called to partake of his eternal life.

We have in synthesis the Faith that every Christian must accept and profess in order to be baptized, and any deviation from this doctrine would be an error that breaks the unity of the Church and cuts the guilty person from the living flow and the communion with apostolic tradition and revealed teaching.

In some apostolic letters we find already the first mentions of errors proposed by teachers who considered themselves in possession of a "hidden wisdom", independent of the truth received from the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles and their disciples. The hardest terms found in the letters of St. John and St. Paul are used to denounce those who would change the contents of the Faith, to the point of saying that they should not receive a greeting, and declaring as accursed those deceiving teachers even if they were angels.

The changes, as found at different times in tenets of the heretics, and in the writings of Fathers and Councils that opposed them, were basically errors concerning the dogmas about Christ: a denial of his divinity, or of his complete and perfect humanity, or of his death and resurrection. If any of those truths is missing or misunderstood, the Incarnation and Redemption become worthless, and Christianity is left as a useless continuation of Judaism. We would then be "the most miserable of men", rejected and persecuted by Jews and pagans, and deceived regarding our hope for a future that is only intelligible by the incorporation to the God-Man who died and rose again for our salvation.

The role of Mary, true Mother of God because "the Word became Flesh" in her and from her, is a key to underline the unity in one Person of the two natures we profess are present in Christ. This is why it was said of Mary that "she destroys all heresies" since her dignity as Mother has no meaning unless we properly understand her Son. It is Christ the center of our faith, and this leads us to embrace not a philosophical system but a divine brother; in Him we approach the Father and from Him we receive the Light that no purely human teacher could ever give.

Christ, the fullness of Truth

The Truth that God reveals in the Person and teaching of Christ is not of a scientific order, dealing with the properties and activities of matter; it isn't either mathematical or philosophical. It is about God, Man, eternal destiny: all of it appearing as a living reality, model and source of new life, in the God-Man. We get to know God as Father, infinite Love, source and destiny of our existence. We know Him in his Trinitarian life, never even dreamed by any effort of human intelligence.

In Christ we see God's plan to raise mankind to the level of divine life, and in the Incarnation this plan becomes visible when He partakes of our humanity in order to make it possible for us to partake of His divinity. He shows the marvelous destiny of a human life where even the body is freed from its corruption to exist -like God himself- outside every limit of space and time.

Christ sheds light upon our human nature, Image of God, image of the Son who is the eternal and true Word of the Father. This dignity, received from the Creator, is the basis to seek justice, for mutual love, for selfless behavior: we can then understand that society must provide a suitable environment for the individual development of all its members, even the weakest ones. No human structure of peoples, races or nations has an absolute value or an eternal destiny. Only the rational individual is an Image of God and is destined for that union of love and happiness with Him. No law or common consent of any majority can justify before God an attempt to deny or curtail what He has given to each of us.

These truths, alive in Christ, must be proclaimed by the Church to all peoples at all times. If a way of thinking incompatible with them is the basis of a "culture" that gives a structure to a particular society, Christianity must change that culture at its roots and at the consequences that deny the dignity of God's children. Compromise cannot apply to Truth and error; with Christ's own words, "whoever is not with Me, is against Me".

Even a supposed neutrality of disinterest or skepticism is unacceptable: "If there is the right to be respected in each private effort to seek Truth, even before there is the grave moral duty for each individual of seeking the truth and following it once it is known", as stated in the Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, no. 34.

The Church does not present itself to all peoples as the holder of Truth to imply any kind of intellectual superiority of its members: this Truth was given to us with the clear duty of sharing this treasure with everybody. Missionary activity is essential in the Church, not to engage in any type or sociopolitical or cultural imperialism with respect to the possible ways of expressing the Faith or of praying, but to convey God's unchanging plan manifested in Christ. We are His witnesses to the limits of the world and until the end of time, to make possible for all to know the One sent by the Father.

We proclaim a Wisdom that was considered as "blasphemy by the Jews and madness by the gentiles" but who shows that the crucified Christ is "God's power for all believers, Jews and gentiles". Those who adore the Father must do so in spirit and Truth, in the Son who manifests the Father and leads to Him.

This is our source of happiness: "Happy are we who know what pleases God", wrote Baruch, the prophet. More clearly, Christ himself said: "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the Truth, and Truth will make you free".

HISTORICAL-THEOLOGICAL APPENDIX: CHRISTOLOGICAL ERRORS

Since Christ is the Son of God made Man his Person and activities can be understood in the wrong way if there is an error regarding his divinity, his humanity, or the relationship between both natures. We can present the different errors as follows:

A - Errors regarding the Divinity:

1 -Considering the three Persons only as conceptual modes of expressing the activity of a God who is not really a Trinity:
" Modalism (Paul of Samosata, 3rd cent.). In God there is only one Person.
" Sabelianism (Sabelius, 3rd cent.). "Patripassian": The Father dies on the cross.
" Pastor of Hermas (2nd-3rd cent.). The Son and the Spirit are the same Person.
2 - Considering the Son as raised to the divine rank after the Incarnation:
" Hipolitus (3rd cent.). Only the Father is always God.
" Marcellus (4th cent.).The Incarnate Son is Supreme King, but not forever.
3 - Denying the Word's divinity:
" Eunomius (4th cent.). The Son is not like the Father, but a creature.
" Basil of Ancira, Eusebius (4th cent.). The Son and the Spirit are of inferior rank.
" Justin, Tertullian? (2nd-3rd cent.).The Word is between God and the world.

B - Errors about the Humanity:

1- Totally denying it:
" Docetism (Gnostics, Marcion, 1st cent.). Xt's humanity was merely apparent.
2- Denying a perfect human nature
" Apolinarism and Arrianism (4th cent.). Christ had only animal soul, not rational.
" Monothelites (7th cent.) Christ had no human will.
4 - Asserting an existence previous to the Incarnation:
" The body of Christ, first formed in Mary's womb, received the Word.
" Origen (2nd-3rd cent.). Created with the angels, only Christ's soul did not sin.
3 - Suggesting a body not really human:
" Julian of Halicarnasus (6th cent.). His Flesh was always incorruptible.
" Apeles (1st-2nd cent.). His body was made of superior, sidereal matter.
" Valentine (Gnostic, 2nd cent.). Christ had a spiritual body.

C - Errors about the relationship Word-Humanity:

1 - Duality of Persons:
" Adoptionism (Theodotus, 2nd cent.). The Word "adopted and controlled Christ.
" Nestorians (5th cent.). Two distinct Persons from the Incarnation on.
2 - Only one mixed nature:
" Dioscorus, Eutiques (4th -5th cent.). Monophisites: one Person, one nature.
" Apolinarism and Arrianism (4th cent.). The Word took the place of the soul.

Manichaean doctrines that consider matter as evil were found in the first 2 centuries.