Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Beatific Vision

As is obvious to all who haven't been held in solitary confinement recently, the last month has been that time of year known as the Christmas season. I did want to make this post earlier but it's better late than never.

At this time of year questions and doubts are occasionally raised as to whether Jesus Christ knew that he was God when he was only a tiny little baby. To give you some food for thought or in case you have unfortunately heard otherwise here is a snippet from Pius XII's great encyclical letter "Mystici Corporis Christi."

"But the knowledge and love of our Divine Redeemer, of which we were the object from the first moment of His Incarnation, exceed all that the human intellect can hope to grasp. For hardly was He conceived in the womb of the Mother of God, when He began to enjoy the Beatific Vision, and in that vision all the members of His Mystical Body were continually and unceasingly present to Him, and He embraced them with His redeeming love. O marvelous condescension of divine love for us! O inestimable dispensation of boundless charity! In the crib, on the Cross, in the unending glory of the Father, Christ has all the members of the Church present before Him and united to Him in a much clearer and more loving manner than that of a mother who clasps her child to her breast, or than that with which a man knows and loves himself."

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