Miren Aranzazu Aroztegi Esnaola: Exegesis of Jn 17:21 in Hilary of Poitiers: Relationship between the Eucharist, the Church and the salvation of all humanity.

 Hilary of Poitiers states that, by the incarnation, the Son of God assumes the entire humanity within His Body. This seems to be in contrast with the necessity of the Eucharist and the role of the Church. The paper aims at analysing the way Hilary solves such hermeneutic tension, in his exegesis of Jn 17:21, through the concepts of “profectus” and assumption. The latter does not exclusively take place in the moment of incarnation, once and forever, as an automatic incorporation of all humankind into the Body of Christ. Hilary understands that assumption rather responds to a “profectus”, a progress by which all men and women can be assumed by the Incarnate Verb, in a gradual way and according to the logic of time. He believes that such progress is initiated with the incarnation, by which the entire humanity has been enabled to be saved by Jesus Christ. From this moment onwards, each one can be born again within His Body through baptism, and be made “one thing” with Him through the Eucharist. Thus, those who eat His flesh are incorporated into the Body of Christ, which is the Church, the only way to reach God. In addition, Hilary strongly defends the unity of nature between the Father and the Son as the model of unity for all humankind. In fact, he considers the “profectus” as a progress of each human being towards his or her unity with the Father, which will only be fully reached in the final resurrection.