Le Bon Dieu d'Amiens, statue of Our Lord in the Cathedral of Amiens.
In their journey toward perfection, the different classes naturally develop human types proper to each, gradually approximating an ideal type.
This model, the ideal human type for all classes, this personification of perfection, is not a theoretical model, but a historic reality. The human type par excellence is the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man. The ascending march of humanity is a march toward Our Lord Jesus Christ, who realized the perfect human type in His humanity.
In Our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfection of human nature is elevated to a degree superior to itself through the Hypostatic Union with the Divine nature. In Our Lord Jesus Christ all the human virtues are present harmonically and supremely. They build upon each other in a perfect way, revealing, as the lamp shade reveals the light, the Divine Perfection itself, the God-Man.
A society committed to assimilating what could be called the human type of Our Lord Jesus Christ will continuously rise toward perfection. In this lies all genuine progress.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), American Appendix, p. 192.
Nobility.org Editorial comment: —
Our Lord is the Alpha and the Omega, our Model, our perfect exemplary cause.
The Savior united the two extremes of the social spectrum, the very poor and the manual laborer on one side, and the royal prince, the son of David, on the other. But if the distance between a poor man and a king is great, it is nothing compared to that between creature and Creator, between man and God. Our Lord bridged this distance. He was the God-Man, the Word Incarnate. Every perfection that exists is a reflection of His Divine Perfection.
The more we strive to obey and imitate Our Lord, the more we try to make the world and every aspect of our lives a reflection of His sublimity, the more we advance on the path of perfection and virtue that leads to Him.
And as admiration and love is all it takes for us to do this, then with the help of His grace and the prayers of His Blessed Mother we can do it. And we can do it, whatever may be our social class, whatever may be our station in life.
