209. How the Incarnation completes the purpose of the creation
209. HOW THE INCARNATION COMPLETES THE PURPOSE OF THE CREATION
Although he clearly labeled this a mere theological opinion or probability (what the Greeks call a “theologoumenon”), St. Thomas thought that if Adam had not fallen Christ would not have become incarnate. (See #211.) If he was wrong in this “theologoumenon,” would that have skewered his understanding of the fittingness of the Incarnation? Why didn’t it mean that he thought of the Incarnation as a kind of desperate emergency afterthought?
Whether it was fitting that God should become incarnate?
It would seem most fitting that by visible things the invisible things of God should be made known; for to this end was the whole world made, as is clear from the word of the Apostle (Rom 1:20): For the invisible things of God . . . are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. But, as Damascene says, by the mystery of the Incarnation are made known at once the goodness, the wisdom, the justice, and the power or might of God—His goodness, for He did not despise the weakness of His own handiwork; His justice, since, on man’s defeat, He caused the tyrant to be overcome by none other than man, and yet He did not snatch men forcibly from death; His wisdom, for He found a suitable discharge for a most heavy debt; His power or infinite might, for there is nothing greater than for God to become incarnate. . . .
To each thing, that is befitting which belongs to it by reason of its very nature; thus, to reason befits man since this belongs to him because he is of a rational nature. But the very nature of God is goodness. Hence what belongs to the essence of goodness befits God. But it belongs to the essence of goodness to communicate itself in the highest manner to the creature, and this is brought about chiefly by His so joining created nature to Himself that one Person is made up of these three, the Word, a soul and flesh, as Augustine says. Hence it is manifest that it was fitting that God should become incarnate. . . .
As Augustine replies, The Christian doctrine nowhere holds that God was so joined to human flesh as either to desert or lose or to transfer and as it were contract within this frail body, the care of governing the universe. . . . God is great not in mass, but in might. Hence the greatness of His might feels no straits in narrow surroundings. Nor, if the passing word of a man is heard at once by many, and wholly by each, it is incredible that the abiding Word of God should be everywhere at once (III,1,1).
The most important event that ever happened was not the creation but the Incarnation, in which divinity and humanity united forever. In fact, St. Thomas says (first sentence) that it was the reason for the creation in the first place! God created matter, as Pope St. John Paul II says in his “Theology of the Body”, to make the invisible visible, to express eternal spirit in temporal matter.
What was expressed was His goodness, and, correlatively, His freedom; for ultimate goodness is love, and love is free. Since love’s effects resemble their cause, and since love is free, love respects and enhances the freedom of the beloved rather than suppressing it and using force. In St. Thomas’ words, “He did not snatch men forcibly from death” but assumed man’s nature so that man’s sin could be overcome by the free choice of man himself (i.e., by Christ, the new Adam).
What the Incarnation showed about God was simultaneously His goodness, justice, wisdom, and power (see Augustine’s quotation above). Notice how many abstract truths (at least four here) can be understood by right reason from a single concrete event! Notice also that “understanding” here is part of “reason”, but it is not logical proof, deductive demonstration—a typically modern confusion. As Augustine points out in the last line, it was rationally as well as morally fitting.
The Incarnation was not “necessary” rather than free (see the next quotation); but it was “necessary” in the sense of “needed” and “fitting”, not arbitrary. It flowed from and revealed God’s essential nature as measurelessly self-giving love (see #208 above).