Verbo se, quia unus Christus Verbum et homo, sanctificans hominem in Verbo. (continued)
Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life 205 sanctifying the human in the Word (. . . sanctificauit se in se, hoc est, hominem se in Verbo se . . . sanctificans hominem in Verbo). He does this, Augustine argues, because he has come to identify himself with the human race and therefore longs to sanctify all in himself. This is why Christ says, "And for them," because in sanctifying himself, he heals all, "because in me they are also I" (quoniam in me etiam ipsi sunt ego).48 Augustine here commits himself to the view that the historical Christ also reveals himself as the mystical Christ and thus able to include all who truly bear his name. Christ has chosen to involve each human person in his own birth, toil, persecutions, and his final victory over death. This kenotic movement from the sole son of Mary to the co-inherence of all her children is, in the words of van Bavel, the seconde pauvreté of Christ's initial descent into the human condition.49 This humiliation thus becomes not only God's participation in humanity, but simultaneously humanity's participation in the lowliness of God. The Spirit's uniting of the human person to the humanity of Christ grants creatures a share in the head: "He must add to poverty a yet deeper poverty and transfigure our lowly body into himself; he must be our head and we his members; let us be two in one flesh."50 This is obviously no mere moral union but a union of persons through an opening of the humanity of Christ toward all.
Phrases such as nos ipse est or ipsi sunt ego invite us to think of Christ as including ourselves. His sanctity is our sanctifica-
48. Jo. eu. tr. 108.5: "Tunc ergo sanctificauit se in se, hoc est, hominem se in Verbo se, quia unus Christus Verbum et homo, sanctificans hominem in Verbo. Propter sua uero membra, Et pro eis, inquit, ego, id est, quod prosit etiam ipsis, quia et ipsi sunt ego, sicut mihi profuit in me, quia homo sum sine ipsis: Et ego sanctifico meipsum, hoc est, ipsos in me tamquam meipsum sanctifico ego, quoniam in me etiam ipsi sunt ego."; CCL 36.618.
49. van Bavel, Recherches sur la Christologie de Saint Augustin, 113: "L'Incarnation constitue le premier mode de notre inclusion dans le Christ et cette inclusion est plutôt physique, car elle a pour base l'unité de la nature humaine du Christ avec la nôtre. Mais voilà que le Christ a voulu ajouter une seconde pauvreté à son premier abaissement."
50. en. Ps. 101, exp. 1.2; Boulding, Expositions (III/19), 47.