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This question is inserted here especially
because of Origen's error that was condemned by Pope Vigilius in the
following canon: "If anyone says or thinks that our Lord's soul
existed and was united with God, the Word, prior to His incarnation
and birth from the Virgin, let him be anathema."[758]
Origen said that Christ's soul was created at the beginning of the
world, and by the performance of good works merited to be united
hypostatically with the Word, and was de facto united with the Word,
before it was united with the body in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.
Hence Vigilius declared: "If anyone says or thinks that the body of
our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the Blessed
Virgin, and that afterward God the Word and the soul were united
with it, as if He had already existed, let him be
anathema."[759]
Hence the teaching of the Church as defined against Origen is that
Christ's soul and body, or His entire humanity, was at the same
moment assumed by the Word. St. Thomas explains this teaching of
the Church especially in the third article of this question. In the
other articles, however, especially in the fifth, he considers what
was assumed by priority of nature, both on the part of the agent
assuming and according to his intention, and thus the entire human
nature of Christ was first assumed; and also he considers what was
first assumed on the part of the subject assumed in the order of
execution, and thus the parts were assumed before the whole, and so
the soul was first assumed, and the body through the soul as
intermediary, and finally the whole as resulting from each, or the
complete human nature.
Thus this distinction being established between priority of time and
priority of nature together with the aforesaid subdistinction, the
whole of this question will be understood.
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