Ver. 52.—And Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. For stature the Greek has ἡλικίᾳ, “age,”
or “proficiency.” See also chap.
12:25. Both renderings are true and apposite.
To the question whether Jesus really progressed in wisdom and grace,
as He did in age and stature, S. Athanasius (Serm. 4 Contra Arianos)
and S. Cyril (Thesaurus, 1. x.) seem
to answer in the affirmative; for they seem to say that the humanity of Christ
drew greater wisdom from the Word by degrees, just as the Blessed Virgin and
other men and women did.
But the rest of the fathers teach differently. For, from the first
instant of His conception, Jesus was, as has been said at v. 40, full of wisdom
and grace, this being due to that humanity on account of its hypostatic union
with the Word. S. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat.
20 in laudem Basilii) says, “He
progressed in wisdom before God and men, not that He received any increase,
since He was, from the beginning, absolute in grace and wisdom, but these
gradually became apparent to men [hitherto] unaware of them.” For, as
Theophylact says, “the shining forth of His wisdom is this very progress;” just
as the sun, though it always gives the same degree of light, yet is said to
increase in light as it unfolds it more and more from morning until midday. It
is to be noted that there were in the soul of Christ three kinds of
knowledge—(1) beatific, by which He
saw God, and all things in God, and so was rendered blessed; (2) knowledge infused by God; (3) experimental knowledge guided by daily use. The two former were
implanted in Christ in so perfect a degree from the first moment of His
conception that He could not increase them. I assert the same with respect to
His habitual grace and glory. So say S. Augustine (De peccat. mor. et rem., l. iii. c. xxix.), S. Jerome (on the words
of Jer. 31:22, “A woman shall compass a man”), S. Athanasius, Cyril, S. Gregory
Nazianzen, Bede, and others, S. Thomas and the schoolmen everywhere—for this is
required by the hypostatic union.
Christ, therefore, is said to have progressed in wisdom and grace as
He progressed in years—1. In the estimation of men, and in outward seeming. For
sometimes Scripture speaks according to what is seen outwardly, and the
judgment formed by men. So Origen, Theophylact, Nazianzen, S. Athanasius, and
Cyril.
2. Christ did really increase in experimental
wisdom, for from mere use He acquired experience—“He learned obedience by the
things which He suffered” Heb. 5:8.
3. Though Christ did not increase in habitual, yet He did increase in
actual and practical wisdom and grace. For, even while yet a child, He daily
exerted more and more of the strength of mind and heavenly wisdom that lay
hidden in His soul; so that in face and manner, in word and deed, He ever acted
with greater and greater modesty, gravity, prudence, sweetness, and piety.
To the objection that Christ is said to have increased in grace before God, S. Thomas (p. iii. Quæst.
vii.), answers that Christ increased in grace in Himself, not as regards the
habit, but as regards the acts and effects produced by it.
Among other differences between the grace which Christ had, and that
which we have, there are the four following:—
1. Christ had grace, as it were, naturally by virtue both of the
hypostatic union and of His conception of the Holy Ghost; but with us all grace
is undue, gratuitous, adventitious, and supernatural.
2. In us grace (1) wipes out original sin, and whatever actual sins
there may be, and so (2) makes us pleasing to God; but in Christ grace existed
not only previously to sin, but actually without it, sanctifying Him per Se primo, for from the grace of the
union with the Word emanated habitual grace, as rays from the sun, immediately
and naturally. So that we are adopted and are called sons of God, but Christ is
truly and naturally the Son of God, as S. Hilary (De Trinit., l. xii.), and Cyril (In Joannem, l. iii. c. xii.), teach.
3. In us grace is peculiar to the individual, justifying the man in
whom it resides; but the grace of Christ is the grace of the Head, and so
sanctifying us. For “of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace”
S. John 1:16.
4. Grace increases in us (even in the case of the Blessed Virgin) by
good works; but in Christ it did not increase, because, proceeding from the
union with the Word, which from the beginning was full and perfect, this
fulness of grace, which could not be increased, was given Him at the moment of
that union.
Tropologically, Damascene (De
fide, l. iii. c. xxii.) says that Christ progresses in wisdom and grace,
not in Himself, but in His members, that is, in Christians. For He went on
producing greater acts of virtue day by day that He might teach us to do the
same. All our life is without ceasing either a progress or a falling off; when
it is not becoming better it is becoming worse, as S. Bernard tells us. Ep. 25.
With God and man. “For,” says Theophylact, “it behoves us
to please God first and then man.” If we please God He will make us pleasing to
men. It is not enough to please man, for this is often false and feigned, nor
to please God only, for this is peculiar to oneself and unseen, but we must
please “God and man,” that we may show to men that grace by which we are
pleasing to God, and so attract them to it. “To God,” says S. Bernard, “we owe
our conscience, to our neighbours our good reputation.” (Cornelius
à Lapide, The Great Commentary of
Cornelius À Lapide: S. Luke’s Gospel,
4 vols. [4th ed.; trans. Thomas W. Mossman; Edinburgh: John
Grant, 1908], 4:137-40)
