The Fathers highlight another mystery concerning the Life of Christ on earth as a model and pattern for our own Life in Christ. This is revealed in the fact that even with the human nature of Christ we may observe a certain growth or dynamism, or, as Holy Scripture puts it, a certain increase: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. The Fathers highlighted this aspect of Christ’s life in order to assert that Jesus was truly Man and truly God. Thus, before all things had been fulfilled, even after the hypostatic union of human nature to the divine Person of the Word – even Christ, in His human aspect, appears as increasing in perfection and knowledge. Hence, He also undergoes temptations; and He even reached point of agony. This, the Fathers tell us, is due principally to a certain division which may be observed in Christ before His glorious Ascension, owing to the asymmetry of His natures. Following His Ascension and the sitting of Christ the Son of Man on the right hand of God the Father, we have the new vision of the Christ-Man as equal to God, not of course according to His nature but according to His energy.

This is language which, I know, we may find difficult to understand. It is a concept of God that has not become very prevalent in our Western world. The Greek Fathers, in attempting to understand God, thought in terms of energy. When you think about it, Divine Life is an energy force and source. God’s energy brings all things into existence and sustains all things in existence.

So Christ shares the same energy with the Father and the Spirit. This does not, however, refer to Christ’s hypostatic aspect, for the pre-eternal and uncreated Word remained such even after His Incarnation. Nevertheless, in the human aspect of His union and existence, we find once again the model and pattern for our own Life in Christ, for, as the Fathers suggest: Christ is truly the unshakable foundation and the ultimate criterion for the anthropological teaching of the Church. Whatever we confess concerning the humanity of Christ is also an indication of the eternal divine plan for man in general. The fact that in the Christ-Man His hypostasis is God, in no way diminishes the possibility for us humans to follow His example, after which “in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren”.

The Fathers, as you can tell, went to great lengths to find a way to express the fact that Christ is truly and completely God-and-Man.

This mystery we believe!