by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
This Sunday I had to walk out of the Mass I was attending, at the Homily, since the priest began to preach that Christ was ignorant of His Mission to save men for most of His earthly life. — I did not remain, so that I might not share in his sin; and I left so that he would have a visible, though silent sign, that he sinned grievously.
That any priest preach such a thing is an absolute heresy and an utter blasphemy, as all true Catholics know, since Christ Jesus is not only the All-Knowing God, but the All-Knowing Messiah.
If your priest does not understand why this is heresy and blasphemy, share with him this scholarly article I wrote while at the Angelicum at Rome, which was published in the Spanish Academic Journal, De Medio Aevo, in 2014.
You did the right thing brother Bugnolo 👏
Nauseating blasphemy!
We can hardly imagine the difference between what was commonly accepted and believed in the 13th century, on the one hand, and what is usually taken for granted in ours, on the other.
When saint Thomas Aquinas gradually elaborates the distinction between beatific vison, infused knowledge and acquired knowledge in Christ, he was considered as revolutionary, and not only by franciscans, but also by many dominicans !
I remember passing my oral exam in Moral Theology with a Brazilian dominican professor who taught that Christ had the virtue of faith. I don’t think I succeeded in making him change his mind, but he gave me 8.5/10 nonetheless. 🙂
Whereas many theologians today ignore the beatific vision of Christ, Balthasar and Malevez and consider Christ to have lived in faith without denying his beatific vision.
Others, pointing out that saint Thomas Aquinas himself only gradually came to admit acquired knowledge in Christ, suppose that he didn’t live long enough to elaborate his doctrine fully, and apply themselves to draw the consequences in further details.
Seeing that St. Bonaaventure wrote his Commentary on Lombard before Saint Thomas did his, and before St. Thomas wrote the Summa, it was St. Bonaventure and not St. Thomas who spoke first so eloquently about the beatific knowledge of Christ. St. Bonaventure’s doctrine in this matter is much more developed, but even he did not invent it. All the doctors and fathers of the Church believed in this, since in Scripture the Apostles say, “Now we know You have no need that we ask you anything,” (John 16:30) referring to the fact that Christ knew what was in the mind of men before they spoke to Him. — The problem with modern clergy and seminarians is that they never read the Gospels before they go to Seminary.
They also do not know Christ at all. They think He is either a God who is also a Man, or a man who is also God. They do not understand or accept the Catholic Doctrine that the Eternal Son of God begins to exist also as a Man, and that the Man and the God belong to the same Person. So they are confused how the Man can know all things as Man, believing that only God knows all things as God. Or they think that when the Man speaks God does not speak. Or worse yet, they dont believe God exists at all. They think God is only a name men give some men, like Jesus, who are exceptional.
Clergy who hold that Jesus Christ had Faith in God His Father are heretics and will be damned forever, since they deny that the Son had seen and sees always His Father face to face, like the Angels God assigns even to little children. They thus make Christ less than the Angels.
Faith is the assent of the mind to a truth which one knows on the basis of the testimony of another, not on facts or evidence one sees for himself. Thus, the Son has no Faith in God the Father, since He knows Him perfectly, thoroughly and face to face always.
I’m not denying that Saint Bonaventure wrote about Christ’s beatific vision before Saint Thomas did. I’m claiming that Saint Thomas was the first to teach that beatific vision was not the only source of knowledge for Christ, and to make the distinction between beatific vision, infused knowledge and acquired knowledge.
Oh, I misunderstood you. But I deny that also, because Bonaventure says Christ had all forms of knowledge that all men and all Christian men have, in addition to His special kinds as Head of the Mystical Body.
Traduction française:
À PROPOS DE LA CONNAISSANCE PARFAITE QUE JÉSUS-CHRIST AVAIT DE TOUTES CHOSES
https://www.homelie.biz/2024/03/a-propos-de-la-connaissance-parfaite-que-jesus-christ-avait-de-toutes-choses.html
Thank you for sharing your paper, Br. Alexis. I have printed it for my own study, that I may better know Our Lord.