Catechism Paragraphs
430 – 483
JESUS
“Jesus means in Hebrew: ‘God saves,’ which expresses both
his identity and his mission. 430
God was not content to deliver Israel out of the house of bondage by
bringing them out of Egypt. He also
saves them from their sin. Because sin
is always an offense against God, only he can forgive it. (cf Ps 51:4, 12) 431
Jesus’ Resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior God, for from that
time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the ‘name
which is above every name.’ (Phil 2:9-10)
434 The name of Jesus is at the heart of
Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers
conclude with the words ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ.’” 435
CHRIST
“The word ‘Christ’ comes from the Greek translation of the
Hebrew Messiah, which means ‘anointed.’ It became the name proper to Jesus only
because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that ‘Christ’
signifies. 436 To the shepherds the
angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised to Israel: ‘To you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’ (Lk
2:11) 437 Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his
divine mission, for the name Jesus implies ‘he who anointed,’ ‘he who was anointed,’ and ‘the very
anointing with which he was anointed.’
The one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the Son,
and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing.’ 438 Jesus accepted Peter’s
profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the Messiah, by announcing
the imminent Passion of the Son of man.
He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the
transcendent identity of the Son of Man ‘who came down from heaven,’ and in his
redemptive mission as the suffering Servant.
Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed only when he is
raised high on the cross.’ 440
THE ONLY SON OF GOD
“In the Old Testament, ‘son of God’ is a title given to the
angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings. It signifies an adoptive sonship that
establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and his creature. When the promised Messiah-King is called ‘son
of God,’ it does not necessarily imply that he was more than human, according
to the literal meaning of these texts. 441
Such is not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as ‘the
Christ, the Son of the living God,’ for Jesus responds solemnly: ‘Flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you,
but my Father who is in heaven.’ (Mt 16:16-17)
From the beginning this acknowledgement of Christ’s divine sonship will
be the center of the apostolic faith. 442
The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the
Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his ‘beloved
Son.’ (Mt 3:17, 17:5) Jesus calls
himself the ‘only Son of God,’ and by this title affirms his eternal
preexistence. (Jn 3:16) 444 After his Resurrection, Jesus’ divine
sonship becomes manifest in the power of his glorified humanity. He was ‘designated Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.’” (Jn
1:14) 445
“Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as ‘Lord.’ This title testifies to the respect and trust
of those who approach him for help and healing.
At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, ‘Lord’ expresses the recognition of
the divine mystery of Jesus. 448
The title ‘Lord’ indicates divine sovereignty. To confess or invoke Jesus as Lord is to
believe in his divinity. ‘No one can say
‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit “(1Cor 12:3) 455
WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
“With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: ‘For us men
and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy
Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.’ 456 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with
God, who ‘loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.’ (1Jn 4:10)
457 The Word became flesh so that we might know God’s love: ‘In this the love of God was made
manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might
live through him.’ (1Jn 4:9) 458 The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from
me.’ ‘I am the way, the truth, and the
life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.’ (Mt 11:29, Jn 14:6) ‘Love one
another as I have loved you.’ (Jn 15:12)
459 The Word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature. (2Pet
1:4) ‘For the Son of God became man so
that we might become God.’ ‘The only
begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our
nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.’” 460
“Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the
distinctive sign of the Christian faith: ‘By this you know the Spirit of God:
every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.’
(1Jn 4:2) 463 He became truly man while remaining truly
God. Jesus Christ is true God and true
man. During the first centuries, the Church
had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that
falsified it. 464 The first ecumenical
council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is ‘begotten,
not made, of the same substance as the Father,’ and condemned Arius, who had
affirmed that the Son of God ‘came to be from things that were not’ and that he
was ‘from another substance’ than that of the Father.’ 465 Because ‘human nature was assumed, not
absorbed,’ in the mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over
the course of centuries to confess the full reality of Christ’s human soul,
with its operations of intellect and will, and of his human body. In parallel fashion, she had to recall on
each occasion that Christ’s human nature belongs, as his own, to the divine
person of the Son of God, who assumed it.
In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine
ways of the Trinity. 470
This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human
knowledge. As such, this knowledge could
not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of
his existence in space and time. This is
why the Son of God could, when he became man, ‘increase in wisdom and in
stature, and in the favor with God and man,’ (Lk 2:52) and would even have to
inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from
experience. This corresponded to the
reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking ‘the form of a slave.’ 472 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person
of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of
understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal.” 474
“At the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681,
the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural
operations, divine and human. They are
not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh
willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with
the Father and the holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ’s human will does not resist or oppose
but rather submits to his divine and almighty will. 475 Since the Word became
flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ’s body was finite. Therefore the human face of Jesus can be
portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church
recognized its representation in holy images to be legitimate.” 476
Why can we grasp Jesus
only as a “mystery”? Jesus extends
into God; therefore we cannot understand him if we exclude the invisible divine
reality. The visible side of Jesus
points to the invisible. We see in the
life of Jesus numerous realities that are powerfully present but that we can
understand only as a mystery. Examples
of such mysteries are the divine Sonship, the Incarnation, the Passion, and the
Resurrection of Christ. YOUCAT Q78
A religion without
mystery is necessarily a religion without God.
– Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667, English spiritual writer)
Next time we look at Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit
and the mysteries of His infancy, catechism paragraphs 484 - 534
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