[Divinity of Christ]
Dear Donagh,
A line of the gospel caught my attention a while ago when I heard someone reading it. Jesus said “The Father is greater than I.” I always thought we were supposed to say they were equal. If he’s less than the first person of the Trinity how can he be God? I talked about this to someone in the prayer group and she said that Jesus also said, “The Father and I are one.” But she couldn’t square the two statements. Is Jesus contradicting himself? How could that be the case? I’d be very grateful if you could throw light on this for me. It bothers me a bit. Thanks. Dolores
Dear Dolores,
I’ll put you in touch straight away with St Thomas Aquinas (+ 1274), noted for the clarity of his mind and the conciseness of his responses. This is what he said about that first verse in his Commentary on the Gospel of John: “When Jesus says, ‘The Father is greater than I’, he does not mean I, as Son of God, but I as Son of man; for as Son of man he is not only inferior to the Father and the Holy Spirit, but even to the angels: ‘We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels’ (Hebrews 2:9). Again, in some things he was subject even to human beings, such as his parents (Luke 2:51). And so, he is inferior to the Father because of his human nature, but equal because of his divine nature.”
In writing this, St Thomas was following in detail the traditional understanding of the matter. Many centuries earlier St Augustine (+430) had written: “The divinity of Christ, which was not lost [in the Incarnation], is greater than the humanity which was acquired [in the Incarnation]. In his humanity the Son of God is inferior not only to the Father, but to the Holy Spirit. The child Jesus was inferior even to his parents; we read that he was subject to them. Let us acknowledge therefore the twofold substance of Christ: the divine, which is equal to the Father, and the human, which is less than the Father. But Christ is both together, not two, but one Christ.”
St Augustine went a little further, remarking that it was not Jesus’ obedience to the Father (“I do as the Father has commanded me,” John 14:31) that made him less than the Father. He wrote: “That the Son is obedient to the will and commandment of the Father, no more shows a difference in the two, than it would in a human father and son.” It is good to see that not all the ancients saw authority as an expression of superiority, nor obedience as an expression of inferiority.
Aquinas added an esoteric point about the internal relationships between the divine Persons (that is, before consideration of the Incarnation). Even there, he says, it can be said that the Father is greater than the Son, because the Father is the source, and the Son “proceeds from the Father,” and not vice versa, though all are equal. But that, as I said, is an esoteric point, and the earlier paragraphs are much easier to take on board.
I hope, Dolores, that this clarifies the question your friend asked. I rather enjoy the fact that it was those two Doctors of the Church, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, who came to your aid. I said nothing from myself, but only directed them to you! We Christians are an old family, and a big one!
Donagh