The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
116 The Son's Descent
Christ allows us to see God, to fall on God, and thus be raised back from whence he himself came. The lowly flesh of the one mediator Jesus Christ proved to be the missing factor in those books of the Platonists. God's downward participation enables humanity to experience a new level of upward participation: "He descended for us; let us ascend to him."81 The entire purpose of this exchange is to elevate the whole of the human person to God: "God is with us in order that we may be with him; he who came down to us in order to be with us is at work now to draw us up to himself."82
The second factor in Augustine's "great exchange" doctrine is God's assuming "smallness" for humanity's greatness. That is, the worth of men and women and the lowliness of God are joined in this great exchange. Accordingly, the Son of God: was made so small that he could be born of a woman; but he [was not separated from] the Father. . . . O man, on whose account God became man, you ought to consider yourself to be something great; but first come down low in order to go up high; because God too came down low when he became man. Stick close to your cure, imitate your master, acknowledge your Lord, embrace your brother, understand your God. That's what he is, this one so great and so small. . . .83
The paruitas of God brings about the magnitudo of men and women. While divine in himself, the Son has become small in order to redeem humanity and is thus wonderfully portrayed as both tantus and tantillus, so great and yet so small.
81. Jo. eu. tr. 12.8; Rettig, Tractates, 2.36. This is a popular contrast within Augustine's preaching: e.g., "Nos cecidimus, ille descendit," en. Ps. 26, exp. 2.8; CCL 38.158; see also en. Ps. 125.15.
82. en. Ps. 145.1; Boulding, Expositions (III/20), 400. 83. s. 380.2; Hill, Sermons (III/10), 361–62; slightly adjusted; "factus est tam paruus, ut de femina nasceretur; sed mansit tam magnus, ut a Patre non separaretur. . . . O homo, propter quem Deus factus est homo, aliquid magnum te credere debes: sed descende, ut ascendas; quia et Deus descendendo factus est homo. Adhaeresce medicamento tuo, imitare magistrum tuum, agnosce Dominum tuum, amplectere fratrem tuum, intellege Deum tuum. Hoc ille tantus et tantillus"; s. 371 follows the same line of thought here with very much the same rhetoric but the Maurists have been hesitant to ascribe this piece to Augustine, preferring Caesarius of Arles; cf., Hill, Sermons (III/10), 315, n. 1.