Dilexit Nos §62

⁶² The Fathers of the Church, opposing those who denied or downplayed the true humanity of Christ, insisted on the concrete and tangible reality of the Lord’s human affections. Saint Basil emphasized that the Lord’s incarnation was not something fanciful, and that “the Lord possessed our natural affections”. Saint John Chrysostom pointed to an example: “Had he not possessed our nature, he would not have experienced sadness from time to time”. Saint Ambrose stated that “in taking a soul, he took on the passions of the soul”. For Saint Augustine, our human affections, which Christ assumed, are now open to the life of grace: “The Lord Jesus assumed these affections of our human weakness, as he did the flesh of our human weakness, not out of necessity, but consciously and freely... lest any who feel grief and sorrow amid the trials of life should think themselves separated from his grace”. Finally, Saint John Damascene viewed the genuine affections shown by Christ in his humanity as proof that he assumed our nature in its entirety in order to redeem and transform it in its entirety: Christ, then, assumed all that is part of human nature, so that all might be sanctified.