As my readers may have already deduced from previous issues of this article, I have been presenting information on how the Fathers of the Church, after great debate, finally came to the formation of a dogmatic statement about Who the Church believes Jesus is. The theology of the Fathers and of the Ecumenical Councils came to this: the possibility of two different natures being united in one single existence is possible in regard to God and man since both divinity and the humanity have a common mode of existence, the person. They argued that the Person precedes the Essence and informs the Essence, making it a concrete existence. They also asserted that the image of this divine mode of     existence has been imprinted on human nature. Man was formed not only in the image of God but also in His likeness. His personal existence constitutes the possibility of man’s attaining, at some time, the freedom of life which characterizes God Himself. Eternal life which is not bound by natural limitations.

While I will admit that this is fairly dense and philosophical, it does tell us that all the efforts of the Fathers in coming to some understanding of how God could take on human nature and still be fully God and fully man, is also the basis of the Fathers’ understanding of who we are as human beings. We are both human and divine because we share in God’s own life. We, ourselves, are a mystery. The Fathers also argued that the first man, Adam, refused to realize this potential. God, then, intervened, not in order to compel man to be like Him, but in order to be Himself like man, by guiding the personal potential of human nature to the accomplishment unattainable before He became incarnate and then showed man this potential.

It is important to note, I believe, that the dogmas of the Church are not meant to be abstract statements that are philosophical/theological but rather statements that can help us understand who we are in God’s creation and Who God is.

When you think about the history of Christianity, three things become immediately evident as break-troughs in human thought: (1) God is a Triune Being, that is Three Persons in One; (2) God became Incarnate in human history as a human being; and (3) human beings were created with the potential to become like God Himself. There are no other religions that have proposed this type of thinking about God and man. I sense the truth about these three concepts because they are beyond human conceptualization and appear to be divinely inspired and proven by the life of the Person of Jesus.

I don’t know if my readers appreciate the profoundness of the Christian faith, at least as it is expressed by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Let us be thankful for our faith and religion.