Luke 2:52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and in age [or stature], and in grace, with God and men.
My speculative theology in answer to this question:
On the question of stature, Christ became a man by being conceived of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and He is like us, in His human nature, in all things but sin. Therefore, His human nature developed in the womb much as we each and all develop in the womb — though of course He had no sin and His human nature was always united to His Divine Nature. The human nature of Christ therefore began as a single cell, progressed to be a mass of cells, and then progressed through each stage of prenatal development. After birth, the human nature of Christ progressed in development, from infant to toddler to child, to teenager, to adult. The increase in Christ’s stature is not merely an increase in height, but the usual development of human nature. Although this point is obvious, it has implications for the next two points that might not be obvious.
On the question of wisdom, the Divine Nature is eternal and unchanging, infinite and perfect in all that is good, including of course Wisdom. However, if the human nature of Christ is like us in all things but sin, his human nature must have increased in wisdom. As a single cell at His Incarnation and virgin conception, and as a mass of cells subsequently, the human nature of Christ would not have been able to know anything in his human brain, for he would have had no brain at the time. The human intellect is more than the physical brain; it includes the intellectual faculty of the soul. But since the soul is the form of the body, the lack of the brain at the earliest stage of development, and the incomplete development of the brain in later stages, does not permit the intellect of the soul to know and understand as in the adult, teen, or older child stages. An infant’s use of the intellect is limited by the lack of complete development of the brain, even though the soul itself does not develop as the body does. So when Christ was in the womb, and when He was an infant, His human nature did not have the same type and degree of the use of human intellect as later in life. To say otherwise is to contradict the teaching of the Church that Christ is like us in all things but sin.
Did the knowledge of Christ increase? Yes, in terms of the understanding in His human brain and human soul, Christ increased in knowledge. Although His soul had the Beatific Vision of God from conception, this does not imply that all knowledge was possessed by His human nature. The human person with the Beatific Vision does not know all things all at once, but only what is fitting to know. The prenatal Christ with the Beatific Vision was not thinking in his soul about the specifics of the Crucifixion, nor about the specifics of all events in the future of the Church. For every human soul, even that of Christ, is finite. So as Christ grew in stature, He grew in the knowledge that was in His human brain and in His human soul. At the earliest stages of development, He had no brain, and so had no knowledge in His human brain — though He had knowledge by the Beatific Vision in His soul. At later stages of development, the knowledge in His human brain increased, just as for us. Even the knowledge in His human soul increased over time. For the knowledge that a human soul has from the Beatific Vision is not given and understood by that human soul all at once. The soul understands more and more as the Beatific Vision continues. To say otherwise is to contradict the teaching of the Church that Christ is like us in all things but sin.
On the question of free will, we are all given a rational soul with free will at conception, and the same is true of the human nature of Christ. However, since the soul is the form of the body, the soul of a prenatal cannot exercise its natural intellect and free will until the body, particularly the brain, is sufficiently developed. This is the reason that prenatals and infants cannot commit personal sin. They have free will and intellect, but they cannot exercise it to understand right from wrong, and to make a choice that is wrong. The human nature of Christ is certainly without sin of any kind. The one Person of Jesus Christ is sinless God and sinless man, so even his human nature could not sin. However, in being like us in all things but sin, his human soul was the form of his human body, thereby implying that the human nature of Christ could not exercise human will and human intellect as a single cell, as a mass of cells, as a prenatal, as an infant — no more or less so than us. To say otherwise is to contradict the teaching of the Church that Christ is like us in all things but sin.
But does this imply that Christ in His human nature was imperfect? Not at all. We must distinguish the infinite perfection of the Divine Nature from the finite perfection of the human nature of Christ. Infinite perfection is unchanging. But finite perfection can change. The Blessed Virgin Mary was perfect at conception, perfect at birth, perfect at the Annunciation, perfect at the foot of the Cross, perfect at Pentecost, perfect as Queen of Heaven. This perfection is defined by conformity to the will of God. But the will of God for Mary as an infant is not the same as for her as a child. The will of God for Mary at the Annunciation is not the same as at the foot of the Cross. So Mary was always perfect, and yet she increased in perfection. For the will of God asked more of her as her life progressed.
And the same is true for the human nature of Christ. The Divine will of Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, for his own human nature, the will of God for the human nature of Christ, was not the same for Him as an infant, as a child, as an adult. And so the human nature of Christ increased in perfection, in stature, in wisdom, and even in grace.
The human person needs grace to do the whole will of God. But the will of God requires more of an adult than of an infant. And so more grace is given to the adult than to the child. A baptized infant has no personal sin and no original sin. An adult Saint has perhaps a few venial sins. But the adult Saint is much greater in grace, because the will of God asks more cooperation with grace of him.
And the same is true for the human nature of Christ. The will of God for Him as an infant, was less than for Him as a teen, was less than for Him as an adult. The most the will of God asked of the human nature of Christ was at His Crucifixion, and so the human nature of Christ increased continually in grace until that time when He gave up His human life, by an agonizing death on the Cross, for our salvation.
There are many souls in Heaven. Each is perfect and sinless. And yet one has a greater glory than another, including greater wisdom and greater grace. Finite perfection allows for differing types and degrees. A bucket and a glass are each filled to the brim with water; each is perfectly filled, and yet one has more than the other. As Christ grew in stature, His human nature grew in wisdom and in grace. Even in Heaven, the human nature of Christ is perfect, and yet finite in wisdom and finite in grace, while always being united to His own infinitely perfect Divine Nature.
by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and Bible translator
the reproach of Christ 