Nature of Christ Blog 21

The Holy Body of Christ

Blog 21

The holy body of Christ belongs to God, as St. Cyril of Alexandria said on the Eleventh Anathema, “The flesh of the Lord giveth life and that it pertains to the Word of God the Father as his very own."
[1]

One cannot fully explain the mystery of the unity of the incarnate God, but one can recognize it when He was healing the sick through His holy hand that was sanctified by His divinity. St. Cyril wrote that, “He laid also His hands upon the sick one by one, and freed them from their malady, so demonstrating that the holy flesh, which He had made His own, and endowed with godlike power, possessed the active presence of the might of the Word.” [2]

Gregory Palamas described the dignity that human beings attained through the incarnation, “Our mixed human nature, which was assumed by the Lord, has taken its seat on the right hand of the divine majesty in the heavens, being full of glory not only (like Moses) in the face, but in the whole body.” [3]

St. Cyril of Alexandria commented, “For He remains what he is always, and he is not changed, but instead never would be changed and will not be capable of alteration." [4]

Despite the fact that the body of Christ did not transfer to Godhead’s nature, St. Cyril mentioned that, “Christ's body is divine, because it is also God's body, and resplendent with ineffable glory, incorruptible, holy, life-giving.” [5]

The divinity sanctified the body of Christ and honored Him, while the body did not affect the divinity at all. This union between the divinity and humanity was revealed in the event of the transfiguration through the illuminated body that shone greater than the sun (Mt. 17:1-5).

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[1] Philip Schaff, NPNF2-14: The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, accessed March 28, 2019, 7, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.ix.xiii.html.

[2] Roger Pearse, Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, accessed March 28,2019, http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_02_sermons_12_25.htm

[3] Gregory Palamas, The Triads, http://www.agape-biblia.org/orthodoxy/Gregory_Palamas_The_Triads_Classics_of_Western_Spirituality.pdf

[4] St. Cyril of Alexandria Letters 1-50, The Fathers of the Church, accessed March 28, 2019, 151, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dtl/detail.action?docID=3134862

[5] Roger Pearse, Severus of Antioch: A collection of letters from numerous Syriac manuscripts, http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/severus_coll_2_letters.htm/