On the Catholic Perspective on the incarnation of Jesus, according to St.Thomas Aquinas: Two natures, one Person

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Accepted answer

Check out at least these The Thomist articles:
(note: the following is not an exhaustive listing of all The Thomist's articles on this topic)

  1. "Aquinas on Nature, Hypostasis, & the Metaphysics of the Incarnation"
  2. "Albert the Great & Thomas Aquinas on Person, Hypostasis, & Hypostatic Union,"
  3. and especially:
    Jason L. A. West's "Aquinas on the metaphysics of esse in Christ"

West also translated part of St. Thomas's Disputed Question: Concerning the Union of the Word Incarnate (De Unione Verbi Incarnati), which is a must-read for St. Thomas's view on the hypostatic union.

St. Thomas addresses the question of Christ's one being and two natures in De Unione a. 4 on "Whether there is only one being in Christ?":

Objection 1: For there is both a divine and a human being in Christ; which cannot be one, because being is not said univocally of God and creatures. Therefore, in Christ there is not only one being, but two.

...

I answer that ... Just as Christ is one simply on account of the unity of the supposit, and two in a certain respect on account of the two natures, so he has one esse simply on account of the one eternal esse of the eternal supposit. But, there is also another esse of this supposit, not insofar as it is eternal, but insofar as it became a man in time. That esse, even if it is not an accidental esse--because man is not accidentally predicated of the Son of God, as was said above [art. 1]--nevertheless, is not the principal esse of its supposit, but a secondary [esse]. Now if there were two supposits in Christ, then each supposit would have its own principal esse. And thus there would be a twofold esse in Christ simply. [Emphasis added]

St. Thomas also writes in his Compendium of Theology c. 212 on "the Unity and Multiplicity in Christ":

For it is clear that parts divided individually have their own esse, but insofar as they are considered in a whole they do not have their own esse, but they exist through the esse of the whole. So, therefore, if we were to consider Christ as an integral supposit of two natures, there would be only one esse of him, just as there is also one supposit.

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