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State of the question. What is asked in this article is whether
Christ ought to have assumed not only hunger, thirst, exhaustion,
and death, but also other bodily defects, such as diseases, fever,
leprosy.
Reply. Christ assumed only the defects that follow from the common
sin of the whole human race, and that are not incompatible with the end
of the Incarnation.
Christ assumed human defects precisely because He wished to satisfy
for the sin of human nature. But satisfaction, which is penal, must
correspond to the sin. Therefore, in reparation for the common sin,
Christ voluntarily assumed common penalties, such as hunger, thirst,
exhaustion, and death.
He did not assume, however, defects that are incompatible with the
end of the Incarnation, such as difficulty in the performance of good
works, proneness to evil. He did not either assume sicknesses and
diseases that result from the actual sins of man, or from the defect in
generative power. Christ was impeccable, and His body was most
perfect in that it was miraculously conceived.
As regards the beauty of Christ's body, St. Thomas says:
"Christ had beauty as it befitted His state and the reverence that is
due to His condition";[1307] and in another work he says:
"Christ was not imposing in aspect as it is said of Priam that his
countenance befitted his imperial dignity."[1308] In other
words, the beauty of His countenance manifested especially the beauty
of His most holy soul.
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