Catechism Paragraphs
571 – 623
“God’s saving plan was accomplished “once and for all” (Heb
9:26) by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ. 571 At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus issued a solemn warning: ‘Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to
abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell
you until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a
letter, will pass form the law, until all is accomplished.’ (Mt 5:17-19) 577
Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its all-embracing detail –
according to his own words, down to ‘the least of these commandments.’ The Law indeed makes up one inseparable
whole, and St. James recalls, ‘Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become guilty of all of it.’ (Jn 8:46) 578 By giving Israel this
principle they (the Pharisees) had led many Jews of Jesus’ time to an extreme
religious zeal. 579 The perfect fulfillment
of the Law could be the work of none but the divine legislator, born subject to
the Law in the person of the Son. In
Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone, but upon the
heart of the Servant who becomes a covenant to the people. 580 Jesus did not abolish
the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way:
“You have heart that it was said to the men of old … But I say to you …” With this same divine authority, he disavowed
certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were ‘making void the word of
God.’ 581 Going even further, Jesus perfects the
dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life.
‘Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him … What comes
out of a man is what defiles a man.’
Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law who did
not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the
divine signs that accompanied it. (Jn
5:36, 10:25, 37-8) This was the case
especially with the Sabbath laws, for he recalls often with rabbinical
arguments, that the Sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbor,
which his own healings did. 582
Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with
God for him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and
he was angered that its outer court had become a place of commerce.” 584
“If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could be occasions of
opposition to Jesus by Israel’s religious authorities, his role in the
redemption of sins, the divine word par excellence, was the true
stumbling-block to them. 587
Jesus scandalized the
Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly as with
themselves. 588 Jesus gave scandal
above all when he identified his merciful conduct towards sinners with God’s
own attitude toward them. But it was
most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities
of Israel on the horns of a dilemma.
Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, ‘Who can forgive sins
but God alone?’ 589 Jesus asked the
religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father’s
works which he accomplished. But such an
act of faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new ‘birth from
above’ under the influence of divine grace (Jn 3:7; 6:44). Such a demand for conversion in the face of
so surprising a fulfillment of the promises allows one to understand the
Sanhedrin’s tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged that he deserved the
death sentence as a blasphemer. The
members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of ‘ignorance’
and the ‘hardness’ of their ‘unbelief.’ (Lk 23:34; Acts 3:17-18; Mk 3:5, Rom
11:25, 20)” 591
THE TRIAL OF JESUS
“The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous
about what stance to take toward Jesus.
The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers. To those who feared that ‘everyone will
believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and
our nation,’ the high priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: ‘It is expedient
for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation
should not perish. The Sanhedrin, having
declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to
put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political
revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been
accused of sedition. The high priests
also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to
death.” 596
“In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in witness of
her saints, the Church has never forgotten that ‘sinners were the authors and
the ministers of all the sufferings that the diving Redeemer endured.’ Taking into account the fact that our sins
affect Christ himself, the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the
gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility
with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone: We must regard as guilty all those who
continue to relapse into their sins.
Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross,
those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God
anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this
case is greater in us than in the Jews.
None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they
would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
We, however, profess to know him.”
598
“Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an
unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s
plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on
Pentecost: ‘This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God.’ 599 The Scriptures had foretold this divine
plan of salvation through the putting to death of ‘the righteous one, my
Servant’ as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that
would free men from the slavery of sin. (Isa 53:11, Jn 8:34-6; Acts 3:14) St. Paul professes that ‘Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the scriptures.’
601 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate
the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation this way: ‘You were
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers … with the precious
blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the
world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.’ Man’s sins, following on original sin, are
punishable by death. Bu sending his own
Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of
sin, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God. 602
He could say in our name from the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?’ Having thus established,
him in solidarity with us sinners, God ‘did not spare his own Son but gave him
up for us all,’ so that we might be reconciled to God by the death of his Son. 603
By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior
to any merit on our part: ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.’ God shows his love for us in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us.” 604
CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS FATHER FOR OUR SINS
“From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces
the Father’s plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: ‘My food is to
do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.’ 606 After agreeing to baptize him along with the
sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the ‘Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world.’
By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering
Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears
the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s
redemption at the first Passover.
Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: ‘to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many.’ 608
On the eve of his Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last
Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the
Father for the salvation of men: ‘This
is my body which is given for you.’
‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.’ 610
The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial
of his sacrifice. (1Cor 11:25) 611 Like ours, his human nature is destined for
eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of
death. By accepting in his human will
that the Father’s will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for ‘he
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.’
612 Christ’s death is both the Paschal sacrifice
that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through “the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world,” and the sacrifice of the New Covenant,
which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him through the ‘blood
of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’
(Mt 26:28) 613This sacrifice of
Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices. First, it is a gift from God the Father
himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us
with himself. At the same time it is the
offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life
to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience. (Heb
9:14)” 614
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so
by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. By his obedience unto death, Jesus
accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who makes himself an
offering for sin when he bore the sin of many and who shall make many to be
accounted righteous, for he shall bear their iniquities. Jesus atoned for our faults and made
satisfaction for our sins to the Father. 615
Did God will the death
of his only Son? The violent death
of Jesus did not come about through tragic external circumstances. Jesus was ‘delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God.’
(Acts 2:23) YOUCAT Q98
‘His most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us.’ 617
‘The possibility of being
made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to ‘take up their
cross and follow him,’ for Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
so that we should follow in his steps.’
(1Pet 2:21)” 618
This last section is, I believe, a critical point in
Catholic teaching. He merited justification for us, the possibility of being made partners in
the paschal mystery is offered to
all men. It is up to us, by our lives,
to take him up on that offer. He merited
justification for us, but it is not guaranteed.
We can reject him.
Why are we too
supposed to accept suffering in our lives and thus “take up our cross” and
thereby follow Jesus? Jesus said,
“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. (Mk 8:34). Christians have
the task of alleviating suffering in the world.
Nevertheless, there will still be suffering. In faith we can accept our own suffering and
share the suffering of others. In this
way human suffering becomes united with the redeeming love of Christ and thus
part of the divine power that changes the world for the better. YOUCAT Q102
Next time we’ll look at the Church’s teaching on Jesus’
burial and Resurrection, catechism paragraphs 624 - 658
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