44. There was, then, no place for human anxiety
and trepidation in that nature, which was more than human. It was
superior to the ills of earthly flesh; a body not sprung from earthly
elements, although His origin as Son of Man was due to the mystery of
the conception by the Holy Ghost. The power of the Most High
imparted its power to the body which the Virgin bare from the
conception of the Holy Ghost. The animated body derives its
conscious existence from association with a soul, which is diffused
throughout it, and quickens it to perceive pains inflicted from
without. Thus the soul, warned by the happy glow of its own heavenly faith and hope,
soars above its own origin in the beginnings of an earthly body, and
raises Reading
efficit. that body to union
with itself in thought and spirit, so that it ceases to feel the
suffering of that which, all the while, it suffers. Why need we
then say more about the nature of the Lord’s body, that of the
Son of Man Who came down from heaven? Even earthly bodies can
sometimes be made indifferent to the natural necessities of pain and
fear.