Monophystism

The last significant heresy about Jesus is known as Monophysitism. This theory centered around the notion of Jesus's human nature being absorbed by his divine nature. For example, if a drop of honey was put into an ocean, the honey would quickly be overcome by the massive amount of water. In the same way, Monophysitists argued, Jesus's human nature was completely overwhelmed by his divine. The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) condemned Monophysitism. The Church said Jesus consisted of two natures (human and divine) and that was final-there was no engulfing of one nature by the other. These two natures were hypostatically united to one person. This Hypostatic Union (the name of the Chalcedon doctrine) explained:

-Jesus had a human mind like any other man. It had to learn human traits. Therefore, the infant Jesus didn't speak to the shepherds or wise men. He had to learn how to walk, talk, and so on. His human will, like our own, was free to decide between good and evil. In other words, Jesus's human nature led to his decision to embrace God. He also freely conformed his will to God's. However, his divine nature allowed Jesus special insights that only God would know. His divine mind (in contrast to his human one) was infinite. His divinity revealed divine truths to him, such as the fact that he was the Son of God and that he came to Earth to save mankind.

-The divine nature of Jesus had the same divine intellect as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As God, Jesus knew and willed the same things as the other persons of the Trinity.

-As both God and man, Jesus bridged the gap between humanity and divinity. He actually saved humankind by becoming man, but his death had eternal value because of his divine nature. If Jesus had only been a man, his death would not have had any supernatural effect. His physical death atoned for sin and offered redemption for humans.

The bottom line of Catholic theology is that the faithful fully believe Jesus was one divine person with both a fully human and fully divine nature. Each nature had its own intellect and will. No one intellect dominated the other.

Note: Some modern scholars have proposed that Jesus was not aware of his divine nature because of his human intellect. However, the Catholic Church opposes this view, pointing to Luke 2:42-50. In that passage, Mary and Joseph find a 12-year old Jesus preaching in the Temple. Jesus tells Mary that he is in Father's house and is about to do his Father's will. Even a young Jesus was aware of his divine nature. Further passages such as "The Father and I are one" (John 10:30) and "before Abraham came to be, I AM," (John 8:58) dispel the notion of an identity crisis in the human Jesus. He was seemingly aware of who he was and that he was a part of the Trinity.