CHRISTOLOGY

A SALESIAN PERSPECTIVE
[Lecture: 5&6]

Q: Is Youth ministry working for God or working with God?

Jesus Christ is our love, and our love is the life of our soul. Therefore, our life is hidden in
God with Jesus Christ, and when Jesus Christ who is our love and therefore our spiritual life,
shall appear in the day of judgment, we also shall appear with him in glory. That is, Jesus
Christ, our love, will glorify us by communicating to us his own joy and splendour. 1

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

In every great love story there is an element of tragedy. This is also true of the love story
between God and humanity. God is our God and our heart is His home. Although the
human heart is created by God with a potential to love God and others, the journey towards
true love is often short-circuited. This is because instead of transcending ourselves and
becoming a gift in love, we seek self-gratification and our love becomes self-centered
through sin, disordered desires, and self-love.

The problem remains, however, with our prodigal heart. How do we prevent ourselves from
getting absorbed in the things God has created and end up forgetting God? How can we
move forward? How can the human heart find its true home in God when it is wounded and
‘arrhythmic’, thus beating out of rhythm with the heart of God? God provides the solution in
the person of Christ.

Recall our starting point that the human heart is restless and will not rest until we rest in
God – which reveals our tendency to get lost and remain restless. St Francis de Sales re-
phrases this Augustinian maxim saying: Our hearts are restless until they return to you.
Here we enter the core of Salesian thought which is based on Christian Humanism. What do
we mean by Christian Humanism?

CHRISTIAN HUMANISM DEFINITION

We are made in such a way that reflecting on our human experiences we begin to
appreciate more deeply the mystery of being human. This mystery is a reflection of the God
who made us in his image and likeness. We are never satisfied. As we interrogate our own
human experience, it necessarily leads us to deeper questions about ourselves, who we are
and what is our purpose in life. Such questions ultimately bring us face to face with the God
of mystery. As we enter into relationship with the God of love, revealed by Christ, we not
only come to know the true face of God, but the truth about who we are. We are made
from love, called to love and return to God, the source of love.

God is already present, it is we who do not see. With our imagination we don’t have to
travel far to find God, we only have to notice things (Daniel O’ Leary).

1
OEA V:29.

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 “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who
sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Christian Humanism is an acknowledgment that our pathway to discovering God is in and

through our human experience – our relationships, the things we admire, that fascinate us,
that attract us, that cause the heart to race that bit more, everyone and everything that is
beautiful is a signpost that points to God, the artist, who has composed such beauty and
who gifts Himself to us. In life such experiences never quite satisfy the human heart, we
always want more. According to St Francis de Sales this is because our human heart has
infinite desires. Our heart remains restless because we are seeking infinite goodness, beauty
and truth. God is the fulfilment of our deepest human desires.

By entering into our human nature, Christ has changed it forever so that it reaches its
fulfillment in Him. In our natural condition God creates us with a natural inclination to love
God above all things, but we don’t have the power to do so. We fall short. By the Word of
God becoming flesh (Jn.1: 14), human nature receives the power to love God above all
things through the person of Christ. Without Him, we cannot do it, but through Him, we are
empowered to love God above all things. Christ enters into creation, takes its sinfulness
unto Himself, restores creation and returns it to the Father. By entering into the human
heart, Christ returns our hearts to the Father.

CREATION IS FOR CHRIST

If creation is the first visitation of God’s love, then, the incarnation is the second visitation
of God’s love. The incarnation means God becomes human in Christ. Emmanuel, God is with
us. This is the supreme communication of God’s ecstatic love, becoming one of us. In the
light of the incarnation, the purpose of our humanity is revealed. Creation is for Christ. We
are created for Christ. All of Creation, all of humanity, you and me, our purpose is to be in
Christ. The Father sends the Son into the world who, by embracing our human nature,
makes us an everlasting gift to the Father. Here we come face to face with the great mystery
that had been hidden for all ages and is now revealed in Christ.

St Paul states: He has made known to us His secret purpose, in accordance with the plan
which he determined beforehand in Christ, to be put into effect when the time was ripe:
namely that the universe, everything in heaven and on earth, might be brought into a unity
in Christ (Eph. 1:9-10).

In his last Christmas sermon, and therefore expressive of his mature thinking, he declares:
The heavenly Father planned the creation of this world for the incarnation of His Son. The
end of His work was also the beginning. Divine wisdom saw from all eternity that the
eternal Word should assume our nature and come into this world.2

The Franciscan influence on St Francis’s thinking is quite evident. 3 Even without original sin,
God would have become incarnate in Jesus. The Fall only modifies how God comes to us in

2
Last Christmas Sermon, 1622. OEA X:413.
3
The Scotists, argue, God loves us and then redeems us. Redemption is an act of love first and foremost, not
an act of saving us from sin, and the first act of redemption is the Incarnation..

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Jesus.4 “The Son of God comes into the world not as a man of glory, but as a sufferer, a man
of sorrows.”5 Moreover, not only does supernatural providence reveal in a new way the
incredible love of God for us through the incarnation, but it also reveals the real purpose of
creation. Creation was always for Christ.6 From all of this emerges the priority of the
incarnation of the son as being wished from eternity and before all things by divine
Providence, for to express outside of himself his essential need to give of himself and thus,
make human nature participate in this movement of Trinitarian love.7

Although creation comes first, with the incarnation we begin to understand the purpose of
Creation. Creation is for Christ. For St Francis, the incarnation has a theological priority over
creation. He explains it simply through the following image. When you plant a vine you do
so because of the grapes you hope to harvest. Thus, creation is the vine, and the
incarnation is the fruit of the vine. The destiny of all of Creation is to be in Christ. This plan
is fulfilled through the Word of God becoming flesh, becoming one of us. Thus, we can
participate in His life. This is what we mean by grace, to share in the Divine life through
Christ. He gave Himself as the vine to us the branches and we cannot have life apart from
Him (St Augustine). In line with Franciscan theology, St Francis de Sales’s concludes that the
second person of the Trinity would have become incarnate even if man had not sinned.
Intended as God’s “first-born of creatures,” Christ represents the alpha and omega not only
of human society but of all creation.”8

Let us recall that the motivation for the incarnation is not sin because even if we hadn’t
sinned, humanity would still be outside God.9 By uniting our nature to the divine nature,
Jesus Christ has made us so like himself, that we can say with assurance that we resemble
God. In becoming man, he has taken on our likeness and given us his own. We must
therefore encourage ourselves to live in accordance with what we are and to imitate him
even more pefectly who came to teach us what we must do, so as to preserve this beauty
and divine likeness that he has completely restored and embellished in us!10

We arrive at a central Salesian thesis: God disposed creation for its elevation. 11 The primary
goal of creation was then, proposed by the Creator, to know, and participate in his divine
bonté through a supernatural communication of his bonté. As St Francis expresses it
succinctly, “God decreed that he would not restrict his loving-goodness (bonté) only to the
person of his beloved Son, but for that Son’s sake he would diffuse it among many other

4
See Fiorelli, ‘The Holy Spirit in the thought of Saint Francis of Sales’, 332.
5
Mueller, St Francis de Sales, 30. The incarnate son becomes the Redeemer God: His incarnation will no longer
be only a gift of infinite love and goodness, but pardon offered by Him who, far from finding Himself
“overwhelmed” by the sin, finds himself “aroused and called forth by it.” OEA IV:104.
6
For St Francis de Sales, the human nature of Christ was the first object of creation. See, OEA IV:103..
7
OEA IV:99-102.
8
A. B. Wolter, The Philosophical Theology of John Duns Scotus (London: Cornell University Press, 1990), 22.
9
D’Amico, Armonia y Conveniencia, 35. The elevation to the supernatural ought not to be considered as an
‘afterthought’ something that is independent of creation, but something that was always in the mind of God,
that we would participate in the divine life through grace. See, OEA IV:96-97.
10
OEA X:273-274. Marceau notes that Salesian theology views the sacraments as “continuing the redeeming
Incarnation whose goal is to bring us to a participation in the divine nature.” Marceau, ‘St Francis de Sales’
Theology of Eucharist’, 414.
11
From his earliest sermons, we note that St Francis de Sales highlights the unity between God as Creator and
Redeemer. Sermon for the Feast of St Peter, 29th June, 1593. OEA VII :33.

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creatures.”12 Supernatural providence, then, has decreed that not only should we be
redeemed, but that we should be given an even greater dignity as brothers and sisters of
Christ, “participating in his divine nature, as St Leo says.” 13 We are made for Christ and can
find our ultimate self-definition only in and through Christ. 14 Here, we enter into what
Lajeunie describes as Salesian “cosmic Christocentrism”.15

A Kenotic self-emptying love

We are invited as children of God to remain little so as to enter into the kingdom of God by
lowering ourselves. We see this evidenced in the life of Don Bosco who opens his heart to
Christ in the young responding to material and spiritual needs. He enters into the humility of
Christ by lowering himself to become little with the little ones. This self-emptying or kenosis
is described as a “descending charity” 16 by St Francis de Sales. It is the movement of love
that knows how to lower itself in order to be on the same level as those who are in need.
However, it lowers so as to raise up. In this way, Don Bosco enters into the kenotic and
salvific love of God revealed in Jesus: ‘He poured himself completely into us and, so to
speak, dissolved his grandeur so as to reduce it to the form and figure of our littleness.
Because of this he is called the fountain of living water, dew or rain come down from
heaven.17 He divested himself of his grandeur, his glory... He annihilated himself to fill us
with his divinity, to fulfill us with his goodness, to raise us up to his dignity and give us the
divine being of children of God.18

This Salesian variation of the Pauline Hymn (Phil.2:7) attests to the downward movement
and kenosis of the gentle and humble Jesus supremely expressed on the cross. However, it
is equally expressed in the incarnation, reminding us that God becomes a child. It is the
same divine logic of self-emptying love that humbles so as to exalt us and raise us up to the
dignity of the children of God.19

THE MYSTERION
God’s plan for creation, His secret purpose is revealed in Christ. In Greek this is called the
Mysterion (mystery) and translated in latin as Sacramentum, from which is derived our
understanding of sacraments. This mystery of God’s hidden presence is perpetuated in the
sacraments where we encounter the Risen Lord. The sacraments insert us into Christ,
nourish us in Christ and heal us through Christ. Through the sacraments, God’s plan that we
be in Christ, is fulfilled. Quoting the Song of Songs (2:6), St Francis de Sales states: In the
sacraments His right arm upholds me and His left embraces me. Through the sacraments,
therefore, we are personally embraced by God.

12
OEA IV:100. See also, OEA III:36.
13
OEA V:204. See also OEA XXV:293.
14
This Christocentric dimension of the imago Dei is in keeping with renaissance thinking with its emphasis on
Christ’s incarnation as the fulfilment of the destiny given humankind at creation. It entailed a dynamic view of
the divine image. Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness, 506, 517, 738-41.
15
See Lajeunie, St François de Sales et L’ésprit Salésien, 159.
16
OEA III:162.
17
OEA. V:230
18
Ibid.
19
OEA IV:99.

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This happens in a unique way in the Eucharist. St Francis de Sales preaches. In like fashion,
the hearts of the first Christians, were only one wine though made from many hearts as
from so many grapes. What built that great union among them was none other than the
most Holy communion (Acts 2:42; 1Cor.10:17).

St Francis de Sales comments that even if we had not sinned, the Word would still have
become flesh, since otherwise; humanity would still be outside God. It was always in the
mind of God that we would enter into companionship with His Son. We enjoy this
companionship in a special way in the Eucharist. Companionship, (com=with;
panem=bread), means someone you share bread with. In the Eucharist, Jesus shares the
bread which is His body with us. We are created for Christ. It was always in the mind of the
Father that all of creation would find its destiny in Christ. God always wanted us to enjoy
communion with Him in and through Christ. It is true because of sin God adjusts His plan so
that Christ enters as the suffering servant, but he will return again as the Lord of Glory.

On the cross, the heart of Jesus is pierced and blood and water flow out from His side. Just
as Eve was born from Adam, so too, the Church, the bride of Christ is born from the
wounded side of Jesus. When the Lord is glorified, the Father and Son send the Spirit, who is
poured into our hearts. At Baptism we receive this life in the Spirit. Each human being has
the gift of natural life, but at baptism, we receive a gift of supernatural life, that is, our life in
Christ. We are reborn in the image of the Son. We participate in His life. He is our clothing.
In His love he wraps and holds us. He enfolds us for love, and he will never let us go (Julian
of Norwich).

The white robe of Baptism signifies our new life in Christ. Pope John Paul reminds us that
our union with Christ makes it possible for us to share in the unity of His body which is the
Church. The Eucharist reinforces the incorporation into Christ which took place in Baptism
through the gift of the Spirit.

Between the Eucharistic Lord and His beloved spouse the Church, there is intimacy, warmth,
and mutual self-gift. In Ecclesia de Eucharistia (n.22), Pope John Paul II states: we can say
not only that each of us receives Christ, but also that Christ receives each of us. He enters
into friendship with us: “You are my friends” (Jn 15:14). Indeed, it is because of Him that
we have life: “He who eats me will live because of me” (Jn 6:57). Eucharistic communion
brings about in a sublime way the mutual “abiding” of Christ and each of His followers:
“Abide in me, and I in you” (Jn 15:4). Who benefits from the total self-gift of Jesus? The two
persons that were all along the real obsession of His life: His Father and His Church. At the
Last Supper, Jesus gave thanks to His Father for the True Bread, His Body, which would be
broken for us. He thanked the Father that He was able to offer Himself for our redemption!
This is why it is called Eucharist (The Greek Word for Thanksgiving). By celebrating the
Eucharist in memory of Him, we make a profound statement. We enter into his prayer of
thanksgiving to the Father where ‘He makes of us an eternal offering to the Father’
(Eucharistic prayer III). Like Jesus, we have received all from the Father and in the Eucharist
we enter into the Son’s movement back to the Father, offering ourselves with him in
thanksgiving and love. This is why the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian
life.”

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It is no wonder that we can describe the Eucharist as the sacrament of friendship because as
we receive Christ, he also receives us, revealing the mutuality of the Eucharist. The self-gift
of Jesus invites us to gift ourselves to Him and His body the church. Just as Our Lord
embraces us out of love in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, so too, he wishes all
to love one another with that same love.

The early Fathers of the Church agree unanimously that the marriage between Christ and
His Church finds its consummation in Holy Communion. St Cyril of Alexandria writes: when
the Body of Christ will touch your lips, then the wish of the Bride will be fulfilled for you: the
unity of Love in the Spirit is then consummated. It is through this kiss that God draws us to
Himself and this union will be fully consummated in heaven: we will join our will to God to
savour and experience the sweetness of His incomprehensible goodness, for at the top of
this ladder God bends towards us, gives us the kiss of love. In his excellent book, The Lamb’s
Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth, Scott Hahn gives us a sustained treatment of this
theme, exploring the book of Apocalypse as a testimony to the Eucharist revealing the
marriage feast of the Lamb. In Baptism, each of us is espoused to Christ 2Cor. 11:2, but
every Eucharist is our wedding feast. Every mass is a celebration of marriage. The King’s son
is about to marry a wife... the guests frequenting the marriage are themselves the bride...
for all the Church is Christ’s Bride (Scott Hahn). Nevertheless, St Francis de Sales adds a word
of caution: Perfect union with God must wait for heaven. Here on earth we are engaged, but
not married. It remains possible for us to break the engagement, but our faithful fiancé will
never be disloyal. The spiritual wedding will be celebrated when we die. The love that bonds
us here will become eternal.

From creation to incarnation, from the birth of Jesus to his death on the cross, from the
Ascension to the sending of the Holy Spirit – we have the unfolding design of the passionate
God who seeks to enter into communion with us. Here we see the two arms of the Father,
the Son and the Spirit drawing us back to his heart (St Irenaeus). However, as St Augustine
reminds us, “the God who created us without our help, will not save us without our help.”
Here we encounter the mystery between God’s grace and our free will. God provides us
with all the means necessary for our salvation through his Son and Spirit, but it depends on
our free response.

1. Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle

2. The narrow way … the only way to get through the ‘narrow door' that Jesus
mentions is through His cross.
3. DAILY - every day we have to get up and try and do better than the day before. A
Christian life is all about starting over again each day, with renewed freshness, -
every artist, athlete needs to train to excel… so must we have the same dedication in
our spiritual lives as we try to perfect our relationship with Christ.

As youth ministers we are sent to embody Christ to be his presence in the world of the
young.
In response to Rev. Stanley Jones’ question to Gandhi: “Why do you quote Christ so often
and yet Reject becoming his Follower?”

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He replies: “Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are
so unlike Christ”