Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

Most rationalists, just as, having denied the messianic office and divinity of Jesus, they celebrate His human wisdom, so too do they extol His moral holiness. But this is illogical. For a man who is wise, or even simply of sound mind, who falsely professes himself to be the Messiah and God, is not holy but perverse — indeed, an unheard-of portent of perversity. Hence many unbelievers of recent times, lest they be compelled to acknowledge Him as Messiah and God, attempt with as much insolence as madness to disparage the moral dignity of Jesus. For sound criticism proves most clearly that Jesus was free from every sin — nay more, that He was distinguished by the highest virtue.

¹

Christ's immunity from sin is proved by the authority of Jesus' deeds, by the authority of Jesus' contemporaries, and by the authority of Jesus' own testimony.

1. The authority of Jesus' deeds.

The life of Jesus as narrated in the Gospels shines with a marvelous splendor of moral purity. Nevertheless, certain hypercritics find shadows even in this sun. With eyes darkened by preconceived ideas, they discover three things in Jesus' deeds to be censured: sins committed, duties omitted, offenses perpetrated.

a) Sins committed. They conclude that Jesus suffered certain moral defects from His baptism and temptation.² For they maintain that Jesus wished to be baptized in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins, and that He underwent temptation inasmuch as He was inclined to sin.

On the contrary, however, Jesus approached John's baptism not as a sinner, but as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"³⁴ For by His baptism He publicly assumed the messianic mission of doing penance and making satisfaction for the sins of the human race. Likewise, the temptation of Jesus was not an internal struggle with sin, but an external combat with the devil enticing Him to sin.⁵ By His temptation, namely, Jesus entered upon His first messianic contest with the prince of sinners and carried off the first victory over the kingdom of sin.

b) Duties omitted. The pseudo-critics reproach Jesus with having neglected the duties of man and of citizen by withdrawing Himself from marriage and from public affairs.⁶ And yet Jesus' own, that is, essential office was the messianic office. Others are called to govern public affairs; He came as a spiritual king to found and govern the kingdom of heaven: "My kingdom is not of this world."⁷ Others are called to beget and educate carnal offspring; He came for the spiritual regeneration and redemption of all men, to which the care of wife, children, and household affairs was altogether hostile: "I came that they may have (eternal) life and may have it more abundantly."⁸

c) Offenses perpetrated. Finally, the pseudo-critics maintain that Jesus offended by harshness toward His parents and relatives, His disciples, and the Pharisees.⁹

Truly, in His public life Jesus devotes His energies to the sole messianic office enjoined upon Him by the Father, and in the perfect discharge of this office He suffers Himself to be hindered by no one. Hence, when His mother desires an untimely miracle from Him, He rightly answers: "Woman, what is that to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come,"¹⁰ when, while He is preaching, His mother and brethren (namely, relatives) are reported to be present, stretching out His hand over His disciples and preferring spiritual kindred to carnal, He justly says: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother;"¹¹ when Peter tries to turn Him away from the messianic Passion, He most fittingly warns the apostle, saying: "Get thee behind me, Satan, because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men;"¹² finally, when the Pharisees seduce the people with hypocrisy, vices, and words and keep them back from the kingdom of God, He rebukes them sharply with just zeal: "Woe to you, hypocrites, blind guides, whited sepulchres! Serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?"¹³

Therefore, in the deeds of Jesus recorded by the evangelists, there is nothing to be censured.

2. The authority of Jesus' contemporaries.

The evangelists do not narrate all the things done by Jesus and known to His contemporaries. Hence we must inquire what Christ's contemporaries, both enemies and friends, thought, as experience testifies, of His moral conduct.

a) The enemies of Jesus, and above all the Pharisees and scribes, left nothing untried in order to catch Him in word or in deed. Hence they scrutinized His whole manner of life with lynx-like eyes.

And that they might be able to judge all things the more perfectly, Jesus lived and spoke openly.¹⁴ Yet His enemies find no sin in Him. Many things indeed they reproach Christ with: namely, that He received sinners and publicans, forgave sins, healed on the sabbaths, cast out devils by Beelzebub, ate with unwashed hands, threatened the destruction of the temple, disparaged Caesar by stirring up the people, by forbidding the payment of the tribute, by professing Himself king. But these accusations were either futile or certainly false. For: "The chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus ... and they found none, although many false witnesses had come forward."¹⁵ Pilate agrees, who, after instituting a juridical examination of Jesus' deeds, declares: "I find no cause in this man."¹⁶ And even Judas the traitor himself, intimately acquainted with the life of his Master, cries out: "I have sinned, betraying innocent blood."¹⁷ A fortiori:

b) The friends of Christ, namely the faithful apostles, testify to Jesus' immunity from sin. And this both implicitly, by acknowledging Him as the Savior of sinners and the true God, and in explicit words. James accuses the Jewish people: "You have condemned and put to death the just one."¹⁸ Peter insists: "You denied the Holy One and the Just ... who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth ... who himself bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live to justice ... You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled."¹⁹ John exhorts: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just ... because he appeared to take away our sins: and in him there is no sin."²⁰ Paul teaches: "Him, who knew no sin, (God) hath made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in him... For we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things by way of likeness, without sin... For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."²¹

3. The authority of Jesus' own testimony.

Even if some evil deeds of Christ had escaped His contemporaries, certainly they would not have escaped Christ Himself, who knew not only His own acts but also the movements and thoughts of His soul most intimately. And in view of His supreme humility and truthfulness, the Lord would not have declared Himself immune from sins if He had been implicated in sins. In fact, however, He excludes from Himself the confession, the consciousness, and the possession of sin.

Jesus nowhere elicits the confession of His own sin. He does indeed accuse others of sin, obliging them to repentance²² and exhorting them to ask forgiveness of sins.²³ But He Himself never humbles Himself before God the Father on account of His own sins; He never prays to the Father in order to obtain pardon; He never shows even the slightest sign of penitence or contrition. Nay more:

He expressly repudiates the consciousness of His own sin. For He provokes His most hostile adversaries: "Which of you shall convince me of sin?"²⁴ He contends that He always perfectly does the will of the Father.²⁵ He affirms that in Him there is no injustice²⁶ and that Satan has nothing in Him.²⁷ Nay, even more:

He excludes from Himself the possession of His own sin. For His are the remission of sins, the redemption of sinners, and the judgment of sinners — these three things opposed to sin. Jesus remits sins by His own authority²⁸ and grants this power of remitting even to His disciples;²⁹ Jesus came that by His life, death, and blood He might blot out the sins of all sinners and redeem all men from sin;³⁰ finally, at the end of time Jesus will judge all sinners by His own right, and by His power He will award to all eternal life or punishment.³¹ All these things, as is evident, exclude the very possession of sin committed or to be committed by Jesus as necessarily as light excludes darkness; nay more, they require the supreme sanctity and virtue of Jesus.

¹

Jesus was preeminent in the highest virtues toward himself, toward his neighbor, toward God.

1. The virtues of Jesus toward himself.

Jesus abundantly fulfilled his moral duties toward himself by cultivating especially truthfulness, chastity, fortitude, and humility.

a) Truthfulness. With what ardor Jesus cultivated truthfulness and truth, the apostle Peter declares: "He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth."² Even the Pharisees admit: "Master, we know that thou art truthful and teachest the way of God in truth."³ Indeed Jesus himself testifies of himself: "I have spoken to you the truth, which I have heard from God ... If you abide in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free ... For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice ... I am the truth."⁴

b) Chastity. Jesus so ardently loved chastity and kept it so unsullied, that his adversaries, the Jews, however much they slandered him, never dared to call this virtue of his into question. This was reserved for certain modern fabulists, who, foaming out their own disgrace, imagined Jesus to be sensual, like themselves.⁵

c) Fortitude. Through his whole life Jesus endured with admirable fortitude labors and fatigues, hostilities and reproaches, for the sake of the Gospel of the kingdom of God. Never losing sight of his future Passion and death, he longed for them with unconquered spirit: "I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?"⁶ At length, when the end drew near, with divine virtue he conquered human frailty, crying out: "My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."⁷ Then he bore the martyrdom of body and soul with heroic patience and magnanimity, even to his last words: "It is consummated! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"⁸

d) Humility. Jesus so loved a condition of life so humble and so destitute of earthly goods, that he could say: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."⁹ Abhorring the pride and ostentation of the rabbis, he preferred the most humble manner of teaching and acting. He chose poor fishermen as his companions; and he lived among them as a servant and washed their feet, as though he were the servant of all.¹⁰ Finally he endured being condemned by the impious as an impious man; in silence he suffered himself to be scourged by the soldiers, crowned with thorns, mocked, spat upon, struck with blows; and at last, hanging between two thieves, laden with insults and contumely, he suffered the most ignominious death of the cross.

2. The virtues of Jesus toward his neighbor.

Jesus most fully performed his duties toward his neighbor through the exercise of meekness, mercy, and love.

a) Meekness. Meekness is nothing other than humility toward one's neighbor. Therefore Jesus, joining meekness to humility, says: "Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart."¹¹ Jesus beatifies the meek.¹² He calms the angry.¹³ He patiently instructs and tolerates disciples who are slow to learn and incredulous.¹⁴ He kindly receives the traitor Judas.¹⁵ By his most gentle look he moves and converts Peter after his denial.¹⁶ By the meekness he preserves in the midst of calumnies he astonishes Caiphas and Pilate.¹⁷ The most meek lamb endures the Roman cohort and the Jewish populace inflicting savage torments. Dying, he even prays for his persecutors: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."¹⁸

b) Mercy. Mercy fills the whole Gospel and the whole life of Jesus: "He went about doing good."¹⁹ In affection, word, and deed he has mercy on all who, pressed by necessity, come to him: "Seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them: because they were distressed, and lying like sheep that have no shepherd."²⁰ He has mercy above all on the sad and the weeping, the sick and the poor, sinners and the despised. He comforts all, raises up all, helps all, exhorts all: "Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you."²¹ He also commands his own disciples: "Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful."²² To the precept of mercy he adds an absolute sanction: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy ... Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me."²³

c) Love. Jesus' mercy welled up from his ineffable charity. That new commandment which he gave us, that we love one another as brothers and sons of God,²⁴ he himself consecrated by his example. Paul embraces, as it were, the whole life of Jesus in a single word, saying: "The goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared"²⁵ and desiring "to know the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge."²⁶ Jesus loved friends and enemies, kinsmen and strangers, Jews and Gentiles with the same bowels of fraternal, paternal, nay maternal charity.²⁷ Finally, "Jesus, knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end,"²⁸ instituting the Eucharistic mystery of love and delivering himself for us as a holocaust upon the altar of the cross. How justly, therefore, does he liken his charity toward us to the divine charity by which he himself is loved by the heavenly Father, and by which he himself loves the heavenly Father: "As the Father hath loved me ... as I abide in his love ... and I have loved you ... Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."²⁹

3. The virtues of Jesus toward God.

Jesus worshiped the heavenly Father most religiously through the duties of love, obedience, and prayer.

a) Love. Jesus not only gave men the precept of the love of God, but even more inculcated that we should embrace God as Father with filial love. Of this filial love toward the heavenly Father Jesus himself was the absolute exemplar, loving the Father in all things and above all things. In all the things and vicissitudes of the world and of life³⁰ he beholds and reveals tokens of paternal love: the Father loves us all;³¹ the Father provides for all;³² the Father hears the prayers of all;³³ the Father rewards even a particle of good work;³⁴ the Father gives his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting;³⁵ the Father will send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love and truth, that he may abide with us.³⁶ In the whole world Jesus everywhere and always sees, marvels at, and proclaims the traces of paternal love. Hence he loves the Father in return above all things.³⁷ In prosperity and adversity the only joy and the only consolation of Jesus is to converse with the Father. He promotes the glory of the Father most ardently and solely.³⁸ He continually aspires to union with the Father.³⁹ When at last his return to the Father draws near, trembling with joy he exults: "Because I go to the Father ... Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son ... And now I am not in the world, and I come to thee ... But now I come to thee."⁴⁰ The last word of the dying Jesus is a sigh of love: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"⁴¹

b) Obedience. Obedience toward the Father was the supreme and sole law of Jesus' acting and living. He fulfills the will of the Father in deed most strenuously. Everywhere and always and with all his strength he strives to enlarge the kingdom of God and to perfect the messianic work entrusted to him by the Father, so indeed that he can say: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work ... I do always the things that please him ... I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day."⁴² He conforms himself to the will of the Father with a most humble heart. He never follows his own will: "I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me, the Father."⁴³ He does and seeks nothing beyond the will of the Father: "I cannot of myself do anything ... because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me."⁴⁴ In things alien to human counsel he exclaims: "Even so, Father: for so hath it seemed good in thy sight."⁴⁵ The very chalice of Passion and death offered him by the Father he drinks most willingly: "Father, not as I will, but as thou wilt ... Not my will, but thine be done!"⁴⁶ Dying, he bows his head only then at last, when the will of the Father had been accomplished to the last iota.⁴⁷

c) Prayer. The virtues of Jesus toward himself, his neighbor, and God are consummated and unfolded in this, that Jesus passed his life, as it were, in prayer, praying much and praying perfectly. Jesus prays much. Through his whole life he prays: he prays entering the world,⁴⁸ as a boy on pilgrimage, as a master teaching, as a victim dying on the cross, triumphant in the resurrection and ascension.⁴⁹ He prays in all places: in his chamber with the door shut,⁵⁰ in the temple and in the synagogues, in the desert, in lonely gardens, on the mountains of Galilee and Judaea. He prays at every hour: early in the morning and late in the day,⁵¹ and after his daily labors he often spends the night in prayer to God.⁵² He prays for all: for little children,⁵³ for the sick,⁵⁴ for his disciples and for the faithful of all places and times,⁵⁵ even for his very murderers.⁵⁶ And thus he most fully fulfills the command: "We ought always to pray, and not to faint."⁵⁷ Jesus prays perfectly. That the disciples were taught by him to invoke and adore the Father in heaven with filial prayer, we have already said.⁵⁸ This perfect prayer he himself cultivated in the most perfect manner. Whether he praises the Father with a hymn of exultation;⁵⁹ whether he gives thanks to the Father;⁶⁰ whether as a suppliant he entreats and invokes the Father;⁶¹ whether in prayer he demands the glory of the Father⁶² or, dying, commends his soul to the Father:⁶³ his prayer is never lacking in filial love, trust, admiration, and humility toward the Father. Recall the sacerdotal prayer of Jesus.⁶⁴

Jesus therefore was preeminent in holiness both negative and positive in a marvelous way: in negative holiness, since he was immune from every sin; in positive, since he was distinguished by every virtue. So admirable and so astounding is this moral character of Jesus, that no man can be compared with him, that no one can conceive a greater holiness, that we cannot think of God himself walking among men as living more perfectly than Jesus lived.

Therefore, briefly recapitulating the sum of the matters which have been said concerning the intellectual and moral character of Jesus, we necessarily conclude: Jesus, asserting his messianity and divinity, was neither deceived nor a deceiver. For he could not be deceived, unless he was a prodigy of madness; but in fact he was a prodigy of the highest wisdom. He could not deceive, unless he was a prodigy of malice; but on the contrary he was a prodigy of the highest holiness. Therefore his testimony concerning himself is true, and he himself is the Messiah, God.