We believe that the divinity of Christ did not depart from His humanity, so how then did it depart from Him when He died on the Cross?
Between the Magazine and the Readers
Question:
We believe that the divinity of Christ did not depart from His humanity, so how then did it depart from Him when He died on the Cross?
Answer:
The question contains an error, because the divinity of Christ did not depart from Him at His death on the Cross.
Christ has a complete humanity in which the soul is united with the body. This humanity is united with the divinity. At the time of death, a separation occurred between the soul and the body, between the two components of the humanity. But no separation occurred between the divinity and the humanity. As we say in the Syriac Fraction in the Divine Liturgy:
“His soul was separated from His body, but His divinity was never separated from His soul nor from His body.”
His soul remained united with the divinity, and His body remained united with the divinity, and at the Resurrection His soul united with the divinity came and was united with His body united with the divinity. Therefore, there was no separation at death nor after death.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Fifth Year – Issue Five – 2 November 1974
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