Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
I'm going to continue our reflections on Franciscan spirituality today and its doctrinal foundations.
Today we'll talk about how Jesus Christ is for God.
Remember he's first willed for God, and only secondly, he's willed for our sake.
That's what Franciscan thesis is, that's what we'll discuss a little bit today.
In our last reflection, we spoke of God as the supreme good, and it's from that notion of supreme good that Franciscans Alexander of Hales and St. Bonaventure demonstrate logically the supreme convenience of the incarnation, that it was perfectly fitting for Christ to become man when you understand God as the supreme good.
But we know the incarnation is not just a possibility, it is a fact, and chronologically, yes, it does come after the fall of Adam.
So is it right to say that the incarnation depends on the need to redeem humanity, is it right to say that?
Well, the incarnation God becoming man is the greatest communication of the love of God ad extra, the love of God outside of himself.
At the same time, it also accomplishes the supreme glorification of God on the part of his creatures, so the goal of creation, the sharing of God's love, and his glorification outside of the Trinity, the goal of creation is perfectly reached with God becoming man.
Franciscans look at this, and we say that the greatest work of God, which is the eternal word becoming man, it cannot be occasional, can't be motivated simply by the sin of creatures.
If it's fitting for the divine nature to communicate or share itself in a supreme manner, in the best manner possible, then the greatest sharing of that goodness which is found in the hypostatic union, that greatest sharing of the goodness of God is independent of any external motive or occasion.
Franciscan Blessed Raymond of Lull writes this way, he says, the greatest good that one can create is a created good united to God in the unity of a person.
Therefore God is united to the creature so that he is known by him and his love is returned in the highest possible grade.
That's what happened when the word became flesh, as St. John says in John 1 verse 14.
And the best argument for this Franciscan position comes from Blessed John Duns Scotus.
Scotus argues for the absolute primacy of Christ, taking as his starting point the truth that God is love, foundational truth.
Scotus writes, he says, The one who wills something in an orderly way first wills the end.
So he first thinks about what the end result is going to be.
And immediately that which is nearest to the end, God wills in a most ordered way, says Scotus.
And therefore, he wills; thus, this is how he does it. First, he wills himself.
Immediately after, outside of himself, he wills the soul of Christ.
Therefore after willing that which is intimate to his essence before everything, God wills the glory of Christ, or this glory to Christ.
So before the provision foreseeing any merit or demerit on the part of us, God foresees the word incarnate, that is, the union of the two natures, divine and human, in the one person of the word.
Scotus continues along these lines saying, in first place God loves himself, in second place he loves himself in others, and this is a pure love, he says.
In third place, God wills to be loved by the one who can love him in the highest degree possible.
I'm speaking of a love of being which is extrinsic to him or is created, meaning the incarnation.
In fourth place, he foresees the hypostatic union of that human nature that must love him in the highest degree, even if no one had ever fallen into sin, says Scotus.
Might be a little hard to follow that, but all Scotus is saying is that the incarnation is the first thing willed by God in creation because, in creation, only Jesus can love God as he deserves to be loved.
Then Scotus is just showing how he reached that conclusion.
God from all eternity with a wisdom of vision, as the theologians say, he sees all possible things that he can create, and from those possible things he chooses, he predestines those that he will call into existence, and from all eternity he sees and wills the being of Jesus Christ first.
God chooses, God elects Christ with his sacred humanity and predestines him to glory and to union with himself.
So Christ is chosen before all things because he's the nearest thing to the end or goal of creation.
He's chosen independently from all things because he's the creature that alone suffices for everything.
He's sufficient in himself to reach the end or goal of creation, and from all eternity, God delights in this beloved Son in whom he's well pleased, as the Heavenly Father said at Jesus' baptism, we hear that in Matthew 3 verse 17.
The incarnation is singularly unique and expresses the triumph of uncreated love.
St. Bonaventure says that it transcends, it surpasses every perfection, every perfection in the order of nature, in the order of grace, in the order of glory.
Blessed John of Scotus simply calls the incarnation the masterpiece of God.
This is why we say that Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate, has an absolute primacy above all creatures.
Scripture calls him the first of God's works, Proverbs 8 verse 22, the firstborn of all creation, Colossians 1 verse 15.
Not the firstborn in time, but firstborn in the plan and in the mind of God.
Adam was the firstborn in time, Christ is the firstborn in the fullness of time, which we see in Galatians 4 verse 4.
And Christ's predestination is unique and independent, since everything else is predestined in him and for him, and his predestination is independent of man's sin.
Since, as Scotus says, no one, neither angel or man, was predestined solely because of the foreseen fall of someone else, so that no one else should rejoice in the evil of others, he says.
So we don't rejoice because Adam and Eve sinned, yes, we rejoice because Christ comes as a redeemer after the fall, but we don't celebrate our first parent's sin, right?
I hope that makes sense, I think it probably does if you read through this slowly.
In the divine plan, God foresaw sin, yes, but he doesn't see sin as the cause of the incarnation, quite the contrary.
God permits sin because he foresees and wills before all else the incarnation and the glory that would be given to the Trinity and to Christ himself, a glory which is infinitely greater than any sinful offense.
Compared to Christ, sin is almost as nothing compared to him.
Father Ciccarelli, in his book that we're using as our primary text, says that one theologian has used the term hamartia-centrism to designate the opinion that the incarnation depends on sin.
Why does he use that word?
Well, hamartia is a Greek word for sin, so if you think of God becoming man only because of sin, that's a sin-centered theology, it's not really a Christ-centered theology, it's not Christocentric theology, it's sin-centered.
The question really isn't if Adam hadn't sinned, would the Word have still become incarnate?
The real question is, in the actual order of divine providence, does the incarnation depend on sin or not?
We say no.
Franciscans say that all creation and the actual ordering of divine providence revolves around Christ, it doesn't revolve around the sin of Adam.
Father Ciccarelli quotes Father Matthias Schaben, a 19th-century German Catholic theologian who says this, and we'll close with Father Schaben.
He says, that sacred scripture and the fathers usually present the incarnation only under the aspect of redemption from sin is explained by the fact that they want to illustrate above all the greatness of the benefits that are derived from it, from the incarnation.
And then he says, the God-man revested in an infinite dignity cannot possibly have a secondary part in the divine plan.
Everything that he is and that he does cannot be solely for men or for sin.
All things considered, Christ is essentially willed for himself, and for God, and when he's sent and sacrificed for men, we then become even more his property, rather than him being ours.
In the divine plan in which he is inserted, the incarnation is like the most essential member or part of that plan, around which everything else is gathered.
The first member to which all are joined and subordinated, all other members, and for which every other thing acquires its place and its importance.
How do we acquire our place, our importance, our purpose?
It's all in Christ, with Christ, and through him.
Again, that's Father Matthias Schaben putting into his own words essentially the absolute primacy of Christ.
So let's ask Our Lady once again for the grace to glean from these pretty deep reflections whatever she wants us to hold on to, whatever will be helpful and beneficial for our growth in Christ.
Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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Ave Maria.