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State of the question. Several heretics denied that there are two
wills in Christ, and for various reasons. Thus Apollinaris and his
disciples said that the Word in Christ took the place of His mind;
hence they denied that Christ had a human will and a human intellect.
Eutyches and the Monophysites, deciding that there is only one nature
in Christ, concluded that there is only one will.
The Nestorians, asserting that there was only an accidental union of
love between Christ and the Word, also posited one will in Christ.
Finally, the Monothelites, namely, Sergius of Constantinople,
Macharius of Antioch, Cyrus of Alexandria, asserting that there
are two natures in the one person of Christ, thought that Christ's
human nature was never moved by its own proper motion, but only as it
was moved by the divine nature; and so they denied two wills and two
volitions in Christ and admitted only the divine will.
Reply. There are two wills in Christ, namely, the divine will and
the human will.
This conclusion is de fide, defined by the Church, against the
Monothelites.[1395]
This defined truth is expressed in several texts of Holy Scripture.
Thus we read: "Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from
Me, but yet not My will but Thine be done."[1396] And
again: "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt."[1397] Also
Jesus says: "I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that
sent Me."[1398]
Theological proof. The human will belongs to the perfection of the
human nature, just as the divine will belongs to the perfection of the
divine nature. But Christ is truly God and truly man, having two
distinct natures. Therefore He likewise has two wills, namely, the
divine will and the human will. Otherwise Christ could neither have
obeyed nor have merited, for obedience and merit presuppose a created
will that is subordinated to the divine will.
Reply to first objection. But Christ by His human will always
followed the divine will. There was most perfect subordination of the
human will to the divine will.[1399]
Reply to second objection. Thus the human nature of Christ was the
animated and free instrument of the divine nature.
Reply to third objection. Christ's human will, like ours, is
inclined by its nature to something such as to happiness, or to good in
general and to anything freely.
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