The Me of Jesus Christ, a contribution from the thomism of Fr. Xiberta

The theme of Jesus Christ’s Me and of his self-consciousness is one of the most difficult and exciting topics of the whole Christology. After having been laid out in the theological debates of the xx century, it caused a strong controversy among theologians, who suggested diverse solutions, some of which repeated old mistakes in the understanding of the mystery of Christ, the only Son of God the Father, who became man for our salvation. The Carmelite theologian Bartomeu M. Xiberta intervened in this controversy with an unusual clarity. First, in order to defend in a decisive way the dogmatic foundations required by the right understanding of Christ’s being mystery, he destroyed some theological and philosophical perspective mistakes that impeded a clear approach to Christ’s being; and then, also in order to offer a solution to the mystery of his Self-consciousness that would be consistent with the biblical and traditional teachings of the Church, whose chief representatives he would recognize in Saint Cyril and Saint Thomas. The purpose of this paper is to present this christological contribution of Fr. Xiberta and to show how this teaching is still currently relevant