Dist. 3, Part 2, Art. 3, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/3/q/bon-sent-III-d3-p2-a3-q1
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### Article III. *On the perfection of the Lord's body.*

It is asked next concerning the perfection of the Lord's body. And about this two things are asked. First, concerning the perfection of the Lord's body with respect to its mass. Second, concerning its perfection with respect to the distinction of its members.

### Question I. *Whether the body of Christ was brought to its perfect mass suddenly or successively.*

It is therefore asked first whether the body of Christ was brought to its perfect mass suddenly or successively. And that it was successively is shown:

1. *Luke* chapter two: *This child grew in age;* but to growth in age there follows growth in mass: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, as is plain from the gospel history, Christ had the needs of infancy, whence also He was nursed by His Mother; but this would not be so, unless He had been small in quantity: therefore it seems that He was prior in time in a modest quantity than in a perfect one.

3. Likewise, increase follows nourishment; but the body of Christ was nourished, like the body of any other man, successively: therefore likewise it seems that it was increased gradually and successively.

4. Likewise, Christ assumed a passible and mortal nature; but such is mortal nature, that it either grows or diminishes; either advances or declines — for scarcely ever does it remain in the same state, as is said in *Job* — therefore if it did not befit Christ to diminish, it seems that He assumed such a nature that throughout this life He always advanced with respect to the body: therefore

through the succession of times He arrived at perfect quantity.

**Sed contra:** 1. *Jeremiah* chapter thirty-one: *A woman shall encompass a man;* this is understood of Christ and the blessed Virgin; but *for a man to be encompassed in the womb* is to be contained in the womb, while it belongs to a man to have a body of perfect quantity: therefore it seems that the body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin was according to the quantity of its mass: therefore it did not come to perfection through the succession of time.

2. Likewise, this same thing is seen through what follows in the same authority: *The Lord shall make a new thing upon the earth;* but a new thing is one whose like has not preceded; but that a woman should have in her womb a child of small quantity, this is not new: therefore it seems that Christ was produced to the perfection of quantity at once, from the moment He was conceived of the Virgin.

3. Likewise, the divine power is *supreme* and *perfect;* because it is *supreme,* it is fitted to operate suddenly and in an instant; because it is *perfect,* it is fitted to bring forth a perfect operation: if then the formation of the body of Christ was by an uncreated power, it seems that from the instant of conception that body was brought forth in perfect quantity.

4. Likewise, just as the soul is joined to the Word in the unity of the person immediately, so too is the body; but the soul at once, when it was united to the Word of God, was perfect in power and knowledge, therefore by parity of reasoning so too the body in quantity and figure: therefore it does not seem that the quantity of the body of Christ was brought to perfection through the succession of time.

### Conclusio

> The body of Christ, as to the quantity of its mass, was brought to perfection through the succession of time, which was most fitting.

**Respondeo:** It must be said that the body of Christ, with respect to the quantity of its mass, was brought to perfection through the succession of time. — And the reason for this is that the perfection of the quantity of that body was by the operation of nature, whose property is to operate according to the succession of time.

But if it be asked: whence is this, that God willed that body to be brought to perfection by the mediation of nature's operation? it must be said that God did this most fittingly. For although He could do it in another way, He did it thus for the confirming of the truth of the faith, for the commending of the virtue of humility, for the conserving of the law of the universe. — For in this the truth of the faith is confirmed, while it is manifestly shown, through a prolonged manner of life and a similar mode of advancing in age, that Christ assumed not a phantasmal but a true flesh. And this indeed was most opportune, because without the truth of the faith there is no fruit of the Incarnation. — The virtue of humility also is commended in this, while the Son of God, who is *King of kings and Lord of lords*, became a little child; and He who before needed nothing was fed, like other little children, with His Mother's milk, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and did many other things in which the usefulness of humility is commended. And this was most opportune, because chiefly for this God came down from heaven, that He might root out pride. — The law and order of the universe also is conserved, because God granted to each nature its proper operation, nor does He use miracles where nature can sufficiently operate by itself. And because nature in Christ could sufficiently bring the body of Christ to perfect quantity, in such a way that nothing was detracted from His dignity; therefore God did not will to anticipate time, so that, as the just administrator of the universe, He might let each thing operate according to the power befitting it. And this indeed was fitting, because He did not wish to destroy nature but to repair it. — And in this He intimates that a greater power ought not without cause to deprive a lesser power of its use.

And thus it is plain that most reasonably God brought the body of Christ to the perfect quantity of its mass through the succession of time. Whence also the reasons proving this are to be conceded.

*Ad 1.* To that, then, which is objected first to the contrary from the authority of Jeremiah, it must be said that there a man is called Christ not from the age of the body, but from the vigor of the mind, because He was full of virtues and knowledge from the instant of conception.

*Ad 2.* To that which is objected, that it was new; it must be said that the novelty is regarded in this, that He was God and man, whose like had never preceded; and in this, that from the instant of conception the man had been so perfect that He could never advance, and the like of this never was. And thus it is plain that it was not necessary that He should be of perfect quantity in order that something new should be. Whence that reason errs *according to the consequent*.

*Ad 3.* To that which is objected, that an infinite power operates in an instant; it must be said that this is true when an infinite power operates according to the totality of its power and operates by itself. But in the perfecting of the Lord's body not only the divine power operates, but also a created one, whose property is to operate successively, as was shown above; and the property of the latter is to operate successively, since it is a finite power.

*Ad 4.* To that which is objected, that from the instant of conception He was perfect in power and knowledge; it must be said that it is not alike, because, although it befitted God to assume some penalties for our redemption, yet it did not befit Him to assume fault or ignorance; therefore He rather had the opposites of these, namely power and knowledge, than to be brought in an instant to the perfect quantity of the body.