A COMMENTARY ON THE "LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST"
                      by Fr. John Trigilio

There is an enormous impact on a person's spirituality whenever you deal
with Christology. The movie, "The Last Temptation of Christ" I found
distasteful and a piece of bad cinema, not to mention offensive to
ordinary Christians. I found Scorsesi's interpretation blasphemous and
pandering to sensationalism. The book which is the core of the movie
plot, I found DANGEROUS. It is perilous because it veils heresy with the
appearances of "spirituality." Someone not well versed in the complex
intricacies of Christology and Soteriology could honestly and
inadvertently be deceived into accepting FALSE notions about Our Divine
Lord.

"The Father's Son" by Rev. James T. O'Connor (1984) and especially "The
Consciousness of Christ" by Rev. William G. Most (1980) are INDISPENSABLE
sources of orthodox doctrine & dogma regarding Jesus Christ.  The
Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) solemnly and infallibly taught that
in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, there is one Divine Person with two natures,
human and Divine in such a way that they both are unconfused, unchanged
undivided and inseparable. This Chalcedonian formula of one Divine Person
and two natures, human and Divine, enhanced and elaborated the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed when it says "True God and true man." The
operative here is that Jesus' humanity DID NOT EXIST OF ITSELF AS A HUMAN
PERSON, but exists as being assumed into the eternal Person of the Son of
God. (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, MYSTERIUM FILII
DEI, "Declaration for Safeguarding Belief in the Mysteries of the
Incarnation and of the Most Holy Trinity Against Some recent Errors",
1972, AAS 64). Both the book and the movie imply that Jesus was a human
person or at least that He had a human person in conjunction with His
Divine Person. Chalcedon teaches that He did have a totally and complete
human nature and a totally and complete Divine Nature, BUT He had ONE
_Divine_ Person. While He has a human free will and a human rational
intellect in His human nature, He also has the omnipotent Divine Will and
the omniscient Divine Intellect in His Divine Nature.  Both wills and both
intellects are UNITED in the one Person. There is a union and a
conformity of His human will to the Divine Will because of the Grace of
the Hypostatic Union. Sin is the rejection of the Will of God.  Jesus
COULD not sin even in His human nature because that would mean He would be
able to contradict His Divine Will and would thus be contradicting His
very SELF, the Second Person of the Trinity. That is illogical and
impossible. Jesus was and is impeccable. It is NOT His alleged
vulnerability to sin (susceptibility to temptation) which makes Him like
us, but in that He shares our human nature, intellect and will. He does
not share our person. He is not a human person. A human person is
incapable of redeeming the whole human race. Only a Divine Person can
effect redemption and salvation.

"One like us in all things, save sin," says St. Paul. EXCEPT SIN includes
the effects of sin, namely concupiscence. He had NO weakened will and NO
darkened intellect in His human nature. His human will was always in
conformity to His Divine Will. Ergo, Jesus could not be tempted internally
by the world, the flesh and the Devil, as you and I can. He was
EXTERNALLY tempted in the desert by Satan but there was never a
possibility that they could even remotely have an effect as Satan was
attempting to tempt a Divine Person. This is the key. Christ has in
modern terms, one center of consciousness, i.e., one Person. He is not
schizophrenic nor does He have multiple personalities. The fact that He
does not possess a human "person" does not detract from His human nature
for the human nature is still guided and controlled by a Person which
happens to be Divine. In lacking a human person and in being only a
Divine Person, then the human words spoken via the human nature of Christ
are still considered as coming from the Divine Person. Consequently,
Jesus uses His human nature to say, "Lazarus, come out," and His Divine
Nature raises Lazarus from the dead but it is the ONE PERSON OF JESUS
CHRIST WHO PERFORMED THAT MIRACLE.

The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) could legitimately invoke the
title "THEOTOKOS" (Mother of God) for the Virgin Mary rather than limiting
her to "CHRISTOTOKOS" (Mother of Christ) as was espoused by Nestorius.
They could do so ONLY because although Mary gave Jesus ONLY His human
nature, she gave birth to the whole Jesus Christ, a Divine Person with a
pre-existent Divine Nature and a created human nature. This concept
precludes the "hero" worship of Jesus. He was NOT a hero. A hero is a
person just like us who conquered adversity before anyone else and leads
by example. Columbus discovers America and yet that could have been done
by someone else. The astronauts who landed on the moon did it first, but
it can be replicated now. What Jesus did on the Cross was SINGULAR and
UNIQUE. NO ONE, before or after Christ can replicate salvation by their
death as did Christ. His Sacrifice was infinite and unrepeatable.  He is
Savior and Redeemer; He is not a hero for no one can duplicate what He
did. His own statement, "I am the WAY," denotes that He is not a hero who
merely SHOWS the WAY (the means). He says explicitly that He IS the WAY.

The book and the movie create a gross distortion of the Hypostatic Union.
On an emotional level, we sinners can "feel" encouraged by a Jesus Who
endures what we endure and Who is successful in His goal to remain
faithful to the Father. Yet, Jesus is NOT a "role model." He IS the
Savior and he IS the Redeemer. As a Divine Person, His death has infinite
value. As a Divine Person, He can redeem the whole human race. As a
Divine Person, He can be the singular WAY to the Father. To appeal to our
emotional cravings for a "vulnerable" Christ is a great disservice to
Salvation History and is completely heterodox in concept.  The compassion,
mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus were certainly displayed through His human
nature, but they ultimately emanated from His Divine Person.  God has
compassion, mercy and forgiveness. The book and the movie portray a Christ
Who is identifiable with us. The object is NOT to make Him more like us,
but that we should become more like Him. We can never fully emulate
Christ, but we can be "perfected" as our heavenly Father is "perfect."

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