Those of you who attended our conference in October heard a talk I gave entitled, “The Absolute Primacy of Jesus Christ and Its Implications for Our Crusade.” In it, I spoke of the Scotist Thesis, also called the Franciscan Thesis, which holds that the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ was predestined from all eternity ante praevisum lapsum — before the foreseen fall (of Adam). This means that the fall was neither the only, nor the primary reason for God becoming Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
This theological opinion is named after the medieval Franciscan theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308), but its adherents over the centuries have included theologians from other religious orders (including notable Dominicans), secular priests, and lay theologians.
I made the argument that the dogma, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, makes more sense, or “fits better” into the economy of Christ’s Absolute Primacy, meaning that, as a theological synthesis of revealed truth, the Scotist position provides us with a superior edifice into which this dogma fits. Father Feeney himself was, as he said, “a Franciscan” on this point, and declared his belief that the Incarnation would have happened regardless of the sin of our first father.
Yes, Jesus Christ came to redeem us from sin, and this is the only actual economy of salvation that God has willed. But, as the Scotist authors demonstrate from Holy Scripture, Jesus Christ was predestined as supreme Glorifier of the Blessed Trinity and King of the heavenly court regardless of both sin and our consequent need of redemption. The great Franciscan Capuchin Doctor of the Church, Saint Lawrence of Brindisi — a Scotist through and through — adds that God permitted the fall in order to give Christ more glory. This not only highlights the central point of the Incarnation — to give glory to the Holy Trinity — but it agrees with what Saint Paul wrote to the Philippians, who, after referencing Christ’s self-emptying in becoming man and His humble obedience unto death, even the death of the Cross, posits an important effect following from the cause of Christ’s passion: “For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names” (Phil. 2:9). This maximal exultation (glorification) of Christ followed the extreme abasement of the Passion.
Our Blessed Lady participated in both the abasement and the glory, and sang out a description of both Herself and Her Son in the Magnificat: “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble” (Luke 1:52). Jesus being given such glory after His abasement — and Mary, too, with and under Our Lord — they together glorify the Trinity even more than if the fall had not happened.
But it is not yet Passiontide, when we face the drama of Christ’s humiliations; nor is it Easter, when we contemplate His great glory; it is Advent, and Christmas is so soon! Let us, then, reflect on the joyful mysteries and deepen our faith, hope, and charity in and for our Emmanuel, to whose merciful coming on the happy Feast of the Nativity we so eagerly look forward. Here, I propose to look at only one such mystery, and to view it in light of Christ’s “Absolute Primacy” — a prism through which all of His mysteries may be seen with great spiritual fruit.
All throughout Advent, the Church brings before our eyes the first joyful mystery of the Rosary, the Annunciation. This name, Annunciation, immediately signifies only the external circumstances of the hidden yet august event taking place in the intimacy of Mary’s chamber in the city of Galilee called Nazareth. What it names is, as it were, the container; the treasure inside that container it is both the central mystery of our Faith and subject of the Franciscan Thesis: the Logos made Flesh in the Incarnation. This is not only the central event that splits history in two between B.C. and A.D., and, as such, is the center or axis upon which all history hangs. It is that, but it is also much more, for it is the very purpose of creation itself. All creation is for Jesus Christ, predestined to be the Supreme Glorifier of the Blessed Trinity, and the Recipient, in turn, of the glory we give to Him. “And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s,” says Saint Paul (I Cor. 3:23).
The Mystery of the Annunciation is both the central point of history and the very raison d’ être of creation, without which there would be no history — only eternity. The weight of this Mystery is in history, but entirely antecedent to history, and history itself depends upon it. Such an outlook thoroughly vanquishes the historicism that is one of the constitutive elements of Catholic Modernism. Historicism holds that social and cultural phenomena are determined by history, and the Modernists have subjected Catholic doctrine to this false principle so that — to them — doctrine was shaped and determined by evolutionist historical processes. They are wrong; reality is quite the other way round: History was shaped and determined by this central Christian Mystery, the Incarnation.
We might say that the Annunciation opens the curtain on the drama of salvation. The cast of characters on this stage — called in literature and theater the dramatis personae — includes the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Angel Gabriel, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. The drama is related in only one passage of the Gospels: Luke 1:26-38. Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural quotes in the following are from that passage.
The Trinity: As we will see below, all three Persons of the Trinity are mentioned in the account of Saint Luke. Each is mentioned individually, but, as with all of God’s works in creation, the work is common to all three Persons. Now, the Incarnation is the greatest work of God in creation, or as the theologians say, His greatest work ad extra. (The correlative term, ad intra, pertains to the inner life of God.) According to the Franciscan theologians, it is manifestly absurd that God’s greatest work in creation would be dependent upon sin. God had many reasons for the Incarnation — including to remedy sin and for Jesus to reveal the truth to man (cf. John 18:37) — but the greatest of these reasons is the only one absolutely worthy of God — namely, Himself! In summary, it is to glorify Christ, and, through Him, to Glorify the Holy Trinity.
The Father: “And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth…” As Abraham sent his servant to Mesopotamia to find a bride for Isaac (Gen. 24), so the Eternal Father sends Saint Gabriel to Nazareth to propose the Incarnation to Mary. The Father is, in the inner life of the Trinity, the “Origin without origin,” and, as the other Persons have Their origin in Him, so the plan of the Incarnation begins with Him. The Father is again mentioned in the dialogue between His messenger and the Virgin: “And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Jesus is eternally and naturally God’s “only begotten” (John 1:14), the Son of the Eternal Father.
The Son: As the Second Person is the only begotten in eternity, it is fitting that He be begotten in time to be made both “the firstborn of every creature” (Col. 1:15) and “the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy” (Col. 1:18). The Eternal Word was, according to Blessed John Duns Scotus, predestined to be the King of the Heavenly Court. In this Mystery, that eternal plan meets time, and the careful divine preparations of the Old Testament are fulfilled when Christ becomes the long awaited Son of David, the Davidic King par excellence: “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.” This is a literal fulfillment of God’s promise in the Psalms: “Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David: His seed shall endure for ever. And his throne as the sun before me…” (Ps. 88:36-38).
At the time of the Annunciation, the Mystical Body of Christ, which already actually existed in Heaven as the Church Triumphant in the persons of the blessed Angels, now comes to earth when its Head is made Man. Soon, by Baptism, men may become members of Christ so that they can go to Heaven.
The Holy Ghost: The Third Person of the Trinity proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of willing, of loving. He is, therefore, “Substantial Charity” — that is, Love in Person. He is also the “term” or completion of the processions of the Trinitarian Persons, and the only Divine Person who is not the principle of any other. Yet, in time, He is “fruitful” by His spousal relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary. In response to Mary’s question about how this marvel will happen, given that She intends to remain a virgin, Saint Gabriel’s language, is spousal: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” The Scotist Mariologist and martyr, Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, calls Mary the “created Immaculate Conception” and the Holy Ghost, the “Uncreated Immaculate Conception.”
The Angel Gabriel: This messenger sent to announce the divine proposal to Our Lady was himself sanctified and saved by Jesus Christ; for, according to the Scotists, Adam and Eve and, before them, the Angels were sanctified by the grace of Christ, just as Mary Herself was “preventively redeemed” by the grace of Christ. Gabriel was there in the beginning with Michael and the other good Angels when, as their test, they accepted God’s plan to elevate a nature inferior to their own to the places of King and Queen of the Heavenly Court. He humbly bowed his head then and accepted his King and Queen, and now he is the one who is privileged to announce the eternal plan to Her humble Majesty.
The Blessed Virgin Mary: Gabriel greets Her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” He tells Her not to fear, “for thou hast found grace with God.” The utterly unique event of the Immaculate Conception had prepared Her some fourteen years earlier for this moment, and that is how She is — to translate the Greek literally — “filled with grace.” That same mystery of Her Immaculate Conception has already greeted us liturgically on December 8, during our annual Advent preparation for Our Lord’s Birth. At the moment of the Annunciation, the unfathomable mystery of God’s grace and human free will meet at their absolute height in a human person when She, having discerned the will of God, gives Her consent to the divine proposal: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.” Imagine that: God made His eternal economy hang on the thoughtful reply of a creature. But what a creature! The perfect Daughter of the Father, the worthy Mother of the Son, and the faithful and fruitful Spouse of the Holy Ghost! We are grateful to God and to the Blessed Virgin for Her fiat, Her free-willed consent to the eternally predestined divine proposal.
The Royal Saint Joseph: Saint Luke’s narrative introduces Our Lady as, “a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin’s name was Mary.” Mary’s man is not present for the grand event, but he is quietly in the background, and it is appropriate that Saint Luke names him in this connection: If Jesus is to be the Davidic King, the Davidic blood of Mary is not sufficient; it is the male line that passes on the royal title. Joseph, was of that line; he is called by an Angel, “Joseph, son of David” (Matt. 1:20). It is perhaps Gabriel himself who said that, although Saint Matthew does not name the Angel.
To help you better welcome our King at Christmas, I would like to recommend a prayer by a Scotist Franciscan theologian, Père Chrysostome, O.F.M. The prayer was granted a plenary indulgence by the Supreme Apostolic Penitentiary in 1923, and we have used it for years as part of our Novena to Christ the King. Père Chrysostome was a great defender of the Absolute Primacy of Christ — as indicated by the text I have emboldened — and his work is referenced in much of the literature on the subject. Please make this commendation, offering, and pledge to His Royal Highness, Jesus Christ the King your own this Christmas:
O Christ Jesus, I acknowledge Thee to be the king of the universe; all that hath been made is created for Thee. Exercise over me all Thy sovereign rights. I hereby renew the promises of my baptism, renouncing Satan and all his works and pomps, and I engage myself to lead henceforth a truly Christian life. And in an especial manner do I undertake to bring about the triumph of the rights of God and Thy Church, so far as in me lies. Divine Heart of Jesus, I offer Thee my poor actions to obtain the acknowledgment by every heart of Thy sacred kingly power. In such wise may the kingdom of Thy peace be firmly established throughout all the earth. Amen.
If “all that hath been made is created for” Christ our King, then His existence as the Incarnate Logos is antecedent to creation in the Divine Mind. If that is so, then it follows that the Incarnation is logically antecedent to the Fall, which is the essence of the Scotist position.
May His Majesty and our Queen Mother grant a blessed and merry Christmas to all our Tertiaries, friends, and supporters!
