| Summary: | Since the thirteenth century a threefold human knowledge has been attributed to Christ: beatific vision, infused knowledge, and experimental knowledge. This theory is in fact very questionable because it splits the human psychology of Jesus quite unnaturally into three compartments and conceives the perfection of his humanity in a way which is far from obvious. It seems particularly difficult to reconcile the beatific vision with the Gospel witness concerning the passion of the Saviour and his earthly life similar to our own. It is to the Gospel witness that we must turn rather than to deductions of doubtful value. We then discover that Jesus has manifested in various ways his awareness of being the Son of God. This awareness cannot be identified with the vision. The texts of John's Gospel where Jesus declares to "have seen" have often been brought forward to prove the beatific vision. However, Jesus does not say that he sees the Father but that he has seen him, thereby attributing to himself a vision which precedes his earthly life, that is the divine vision which belongs to his eternal, intimate life with the Father. From this vision is derived the infused light which illumined the human knowledge of the Incarnate Son. This is how Jesus knew and recognised the Father. Such knowledge was bound to his filial consciousness and destined to be expressed in revelation.
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