How Valuable is Humanity?
Aquinas' Summa is quite clear that as a person of the Trinity, Jesus is fully God. And He was fully man. Jesus was God made man. So this isn't news - every Christian believes this. But what struck me as amazing was that Almighty God was (is? Yes, we believe that Jesus is still in His resurrected flesh.) man. What is inescapable is that we are of the same stuff.
I suppose that is what St. Paul meant in Heb 2:6: "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?" Man appears to be a worthy vessel. And our souls must be of similar character. Our souls must be of the same type of substance of almighty God, and our bodies fitting physical "containers". Our dignity is, or perhaps more accurately, was, almost divine.
Now, before you get cocky with your new found worth, just look what you've done with what you are. You have made your own dreams (and for most of us, that means our pleasures, for others, pride in self control) our God, rather than our creator.
Some of this may sound heretical, so in the interest of not being burned at the stake, or at least keeping a millstone off my neck, let me clarify a few details. If indeed our souls are of the same substance as God, our substance was created, not "chipped-off" as it were. As the creed makes clear, Jesus is consubstantial with the Father - not just the same type, but the same very stuff. Also, my writing skills are not really up to this topic. If I have accidentally or foolishly expressed something here that actually is heretical, then is was accidental or foolish. Read the Summa yourself, and draw your own conclusion.
I suppose that is what St. Paul meant in Heb 2:6: "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?" Man appears to be a worthy vessel. And our souls must be of similar character. Our souls must be of the same type of substance of almighty God, and our bodies fitting physical "containers". Our dignity is, or perhaps more accurately, was, almost divine.
Now, before you get cocky with your new found worth, just look what you've done with what you are. You have made your own dreams (and for most of us, that means our pleasures, for others, pride in self control) our God, rather than our creator.
Some of this may sound heretical, so in the interest of not being burned at the stake, or at least keeping a millstone off my neck, let me clarify a few details. If indeed our souls are of the same substance as God, our substance was created, not "chipped-off" as it were. As the creed makes clear, Jesus is consubstantial with the Father - not just the same type, but the same very stuff. Also, my writing skills are not really up to this topic. If I have accidentally or foolishly expressed something here that actually is heretical, then is was accidental or foolish. Read the Summa yourself, and draw your own conclusion.
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