I learned a new word last night: kenosis. I thought to myself, "Sounds sort of like gnostic"-- I was on the right track, as kenosis is also related to our understanding of Christ's divinity.

Catholics believe that Christ voluntarily took on the limitations of man, including birth, but without suffering the consequences of the Fall. Jesus had no Original Sin, in spite of the fact He became incarnate.

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve suffered no disease, no decay. But after the Fall, they were subject to predators, sickness, death, and the emotional and psychological loss of their former state. They keenly and acutely felt the tear in their relationship with God which their sin had created.

So while Jesus was man, He was more like Adam and Eve before the Fall; His nature wasn't fallen, so he was immune from decay and death. Additionally, there was no loss of relationship with the Father, given that Jesus Himself is one person in the Triune God.

Kenosis. What's also cool is that this understanding is compatible with the notion of the hypostasis.

I was also reading about today's Saints. Before imprisonment, Hippolytus sounds like he was some kind of Catholic Alex Jones-- I can just see him throwing chairs, "The devil will not win, I'm sick and tired of this crap!! Satan! Today I am declaring myself the anti-pope! Raaaaaugh!"

It has to be said, "Maximinus Thrax" sounds like some kind of character out of the "Mass Effect" series! Or some kind of pro-wrestler! I can see the t-shirts: "Mess with the Thrax, and you'll pay the tax."

Finally, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed the new "Catholic Reading List" menu item above! My friends Sam and Jayda have been assembling reading list PDF files-- I used Copilot to OCR them and translate them to HTML. There's enough reading material on there for multiple lifetimes I think.