Theological Outlines • by • Francis J. Hall

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August 22, 2005

Ch. XX. Q. 115. Of His Public Ministry

CATHOLIC doctrine permits, and Gospel data require, us to believe That our Lord's human knowledge continued to grow during His public ministry. But every pertinent consideration requires us, in interpreting this ministry, to assume that, at its outset—from the time of His Baptism,—His messianic consciousness had become sufficiently mature and articulate to afford secure guidance, and to make Him an infalliable Teacher concerning the mysteries of His Kingdom.1

2. By His Baptism2 Christ (a) sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin; (b) declared Baptism to be a part of Christian righteousness.3 The subsequent descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him (a) formally anointed Him for His ministry;4 (b) foreshadowed the Christian sacrament of Confirmation.5

3. His Temptation in the wilderness6 was external in source, because of His internal perfection,7 and came from the devil. Like the temptation to which our first parents yielded, it was threefold, and appealed to all human appetites that are open to evil assault. He was tempted to (a) lust of the flesh, by being asked to gratify His own hunger by a miracle; (b) lust of the eyes, by being offered immediate success, in His mission to mankind; (c) the pride of life, or vainglorious display of spiritual power over gravitation.8 He won His victory by divine grace, and in our behalf; affording a divine example in terms of human effort which we can gradually imitate, because His moral strength is made sacramentally available to us, under conditions of self-disciplinary practice in its use.9

4. His preaching had a twofold subject-matter —Himself, as the Way, the Truth and the Life,10 and His kingdom, of which He constituted an apostolic Church to be the earthly machinery and organic embodiment.11 His method was (a) absolutely authoritative and final;12 (b) largely parabolic, for the protection of truth from desecration, by the spiritually unready;13 (c) frequently paradoxical, in order to emphasize principles as distinguished from legalistic rules;14 (d) eschatalogical, but symbolical, aiming at the formation of minds adjusted to the future, rather than at predictions of times and seasons; (e) partly esoteric, seeking to educate apostolic pioneers of a propaganda, rather than to take all men at once into His confidence, (f) objective, revealing Himself in His daily life, by significant works, by His passion, and by His victory over death; (g) initiatory, leaving the completion of His illuminative work to the Holy Spirit.15

5. His miracles were primarily natural works, ἔργα,16 i.e., natural to His Person, and to be expected of Him, when once He entered human history. This is preeminently true of His assuming our nature by virgin conception and of His recovering His body from death. It is only in relation to the unassisted resident powers of the nature which He assumed, and through which He worked, that these ἔργα are to be called supernatural. And no natural factors were either nullified or violated by any of them.17 In detail, they are called (a) τέρατα, prodigies, as challenging men's surprise and attention;18 (b) δυνάμεις, powers, as indicating superhuman causation;19 (c) σημεῖα, signs, because of their teaching value.20 This value appears clearly both in His works of healing and in His casting out of devils. But the Virgin Birth and the resurrection are the most rationally significant of all, because they constitute epoch-making stops in the advance of human development under God.21

6. His transfiguration22 (a) revealed by anticipation the effect which the taking of flesh by very God was to display in that flesh, after His earthly humiliation was over; (b) exhibited the future glory of saints triumphant, derived from Him.23

Posted by AKMA at August 22, 2005 06:07 AM

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