The story of the fall of our first parents is bad news. But God will never let evil triumph over good. Right away, He pledged to remedy the evil cause by our first parents' rejection of His offer of eternal happiness. Right after the bad news came the good news. In chapter 3 (v 15) of the book of Genesis, God spoke to the serpent (the devil) and told him:
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Galatians (4:4-5), tells us about the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus Christ:
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
1.1 Did Jesus really exist?
Some theologians tried to differentiate between what they called the "Christ of Faith" and the "Christ of History". For them, the "Christ of History", the real Christ, is really just an ordinary man like us, somewhat outstanding in his actions and teaching, but nothing else. He died many years ago--he is a man of the past. They distinguish this "Christ of History" from the "Christ of Faith". The "Christ of Faith", these theologians say, arose from the beliefs and sentiments of Christians. It is this "Christ of Faith" that worked miracles and made many prophecies. It is this Christ that lives on among Christians. But all these things that the "Christ of Faith" is supposed to have done are really just stories that Christian imagination has invented through the centuries. It has nothing to do with the real Christ.
We must say, however, that the "Christ of Faith" is the same as the "Christ of History". The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), no 423, tells us:
We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He 'came from God',[John 13:3] 'descended from heaven',[John 3:13; 6:33] and 'came in the flesh'.[I John 4:2] For 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. . . And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.'[John 1:14,16]
The Gospels show us that Jesus Christ really existed. (In the second introductory lesson, we have seen that it is possible to prove that the Gospels are indeed trustworthy historical documents.)
1.2 How important is Jesus in the work of spreading the Good News?
When we are introduced to the Catechism, we are taught that it consists of four parts: creed, commandments, sacraments and prayer. But if we examine closely these four parts, we will see that they all converge in Jesus Christ. This is why we can say that when we learn or teach the Catechism, we are teaching not only a set of beliefs, rules, or rituals. What we are learning is a Person, Jesus Christ, because He summarises in His own life everything that has to be learned. This is what the CCC means (see points 426 and 427) when it says:
"At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father. . .who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever."[Catechesi tradendae 5] To catechize is "to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfilment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words and of the signs worked by him."[Catechesi tradendae 5] Catechesis aims at putting "people . . . in communion . . . with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity."[Catechesi tradendae 5]
In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God,. . . is taught - everything else is taught with reference to him - and it is Christ alone who teaches - anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. . . Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: 'My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.'"[Catechesi tradendae 6; cf John 7:16]
In fact, if we examine Christ's claims, we will see how His description of Himself (see John 14:6) fits into the four parts of Catholic Doctrine.
Thus, we say that Jesus Christ is the centre of all catechesis. He Himself is the Good News. If we fail to preach Him, we fail to preach the Good News.
Receiving the Good News is not a mere process of understanding a message. This makes the Catholic Faith so different from other religions which only require one to accept and live by a set of rules. Being Catholic above all means forming a deep, personal, intimate and familiar friendship with a Person. That Person is Jesus Christ. That deep, personal, intimate and familiar friendship leads us to let Jesus Christ take over our affairs, to give Him a free hand to run our lives, so that we can say with Saint Paul (see the Letter to the Galatians 2:20)
...it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
This is what Saint Josemaría Escrivá meant (Christ is Passing By, 121; cf 96, 104, 120, 183; also The Way of the Cross, 6, 10, among others) when he repeatedly taught that we have to be "Christ himself".
[W]e will foster in ourselves a vehement desire to live as co-redeemers with Christ, to save all souls with him, because we are, we want to be, ipse Christus: Christ himself
Number 85 of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC) asks: Why did the Son of God Become Man? Then it gives four reasons, summarising points 457-460 of the CCC:
For us men and for our salvation, the Son of God became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. He did so to reconcile us sinners with God, to have us learn of God’s infinite love, to be our model of holiness and to make us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
2.1 To save us by reconciling us with God
Our first parents, like the prodigal son in the Gospel (cf Luke 15:10-32), left the Father's house by their own will. But God's mercy is bigger than our pride, so He devised a plan to recover us and lead us back home. That plan, however, came at a price, and He Himself paid the price, through the death and resurrection of His only Son.
CCC 457 says:
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": "the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":[I John 4:1O; 4:14; 3:5]
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Saviour; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?[St Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech 15: PG 45, 48B]
2.2 So that we might know God's love
We could say that Jesus Christ is God's mercy and love in a visible form. Because Jesus has a body like ours, through His words and actions, above all His suffering, death and resurrection, we can see that God has gone to great lengths to prove that He loves us. A consequence of this is that the more we get to know Jesus in a personal way, we will want more and more to repay God's love with a self-sacrificing love.
CCC 458 teaches:
The Word became flesh so that thus 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."[I John 4:9] "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."[John 3:16]
2.3 To be our Model of Holiness
God the Father wanted us to be children again, but we needed someone who could give us a perfect example of how to behave as children. Jesus Christ became man with a body and soul like ours. His having a body made it possible for us to see and hear Him. Jesus is the visible Model of how to behave as God's faithful children, as God's Beloved.
CCC 459 says:
The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."[Matthew 11:29; John 14:6] On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!"[Mark 9:7; cf Deuteronomy 6:4-5] Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you."[John 15:12] This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.[cf Mark 8:34]
2.4 To make us sharers in the Divine nature
Jesus shared our human nature--our body, soul, intellect, will, freedom, sentiments--and He, in turn, made us "partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4). Through the sacraments of Baptism and Penance, Jesus Christ gives us back the privileges that our first parents refused.
CCC 460 tells us:
The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":[II Peter 1:4] "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."[St Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1, 939] "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."[St. Athanasius, De incarnatione 54, 3: PG 25, 192B] "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."[St Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4]
What do we mean by the word "Incarnation"?
The CCCC, no 85, replies:
The Church calls the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in the one divine Person of the Word the "Incarnation". To bring about our salvation the Son of God was made "flesh" (John 1:14) and became truly man. Faith in the Incarnation is a distinctive sign of the Christian faith.
Points 87 and 89 repeat the same idea:
Jesus is inseparably true God and true man in the unity of his divine Person. As the Son of God, who is "begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father," he was made true man, our brother, without ceasing to be God, our Lord.
The Church confesses that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, not confused with each other but united in the Person of the Word. Therefore, in the humanity of Jesus all things - his miracles, his suffering, and his death - must be attributed to his divine Person which acts by means of his assumed human nature.
Is it important that Jesus be true God and true Man?
Absolutely. If He were not true God and a mere man, His sacrifice would not be able to win the infinite merits that only God is worthy of acquiring. On the other hand, if he were not true man, He could not truly suffer and die. Either way, redemption could only be achieved by having the two natures in one Person.
3.1 Two Natures ("Ousia"), One Person ("Prosopon"/"Hypostasis")
Next to the mystery of the Blessed Trinity (three Persons, one nature) is the mystery of the Incarnation of the Second Person (one Person, two natures). The union of Jesus Christ's Divine nature with His human nature in one Person (the Person of the Word) is called the HYPOSTATIC UNION. In the Person of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the two natures (human and divine) are united, but not mixed or confused. CCC 464 states it as follows:
The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
As we have previously explained in the lesson on the Blessed Trinity, the term "nature" indicates WHAT a thing is, while the term "person" indicates WHO it is. Let us take the following example. Because Jesus Christ is man, He eats and drinks and acts in a human way. Because Jesus Christ is God, He can prophesy, do miracles, and so on. It is Jesus who acts, and He acts either through His divine nature or through His human nature.
3.2 Erroneous notions about Jesus' two natures and His Person
Since the Incarnation is a mystery, an attempt to explain it could lead to error. Just like in the case of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, errors arose because of a wrong understanding of the mystery. They were basically an attempt to do basic mathematics: if Jesus Christ had two natures, how can there be only one Person? So some resorted to denying the fact that Jesus Christ is man, and others denied the fact that He is God; still others said that He was actually two persons! Some of these errors are repeated today, with slight variations. Let us take up these errors, so as to avoid falling into them while trying to deepen our understanding of the mystery of Jesus Christ.
3.2.1 Denied Christ's true human nature / humanity
3.2.2 Denied Christ's true Divinity
Was Jesus Christ like you and me? Yes, in everything, except sin. The CCC 470 explains:
Because "human nature was assumed, not absorbed",[Gaudium et Spes 22 #2] 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. Everything that Christ is and does in this nature derives from "one of the Trinity". The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity: [cf John 14:9-10]
"The Son of God. . . worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin." [Gaudium et Spes 22 #2]
4.1 Christ's soul, intellect and will
4.1.1 Soul
CCC 471 says:
Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the soul or spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed a rational, human soul. [cf Damasus 1: DS 149]
4.1.2 Two intellects: one human, one Divine
CCCC 90 (cf CCC 472-474) teaches:
With his human intellect Jesus learned many things by way of experience; but also as man the Son of God had an intimate and immediate knowledge of God his Father. He likewise understood people’s secret thoughts and he knew fully the eternal plans which he had come to reveal.
Aside from his divine knowledge, Jesus Christ had three types of human knowledge. [Click here for a more extensive article in the Catholic Encyclopedia.]
4.1.3 Two wills: one human, one Divine
The existence of two wills in Christ becomes particularly prominent in the agony in the garden. Matthew (26:39-44; cf Mark 14:36-41; Luke 22:41-42), records the following scene:
39* And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch * with me one hour? 41* Watch * and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42* Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done." 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.
CCC 475 teaches:
Similarly, 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 co-operate 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.[cf Council of Constantinople III (681): DS 556-559] Christ's human will "does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will."[Council of Constantinople III: DS 556]
CCCC 91 summarises:
Jesus had a divine will and a human will. In his earthly life the Son of God humanly willed all that he had divinely decided with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation. The human will of Christ followed without opposition or reluctance the divine will or, in other words, it was subject to it.
4.2 Christ's True Body
If Jesus was true man, he should not only have a human soul, but also a human body.
CCCC 92 affirms:
Christ assumed a true human body by means of which the invisible God became visible. This is the reason why Christ can be represented and venerated in sacred images.
4.2.1 The human Face of Jesus
The Church recognised the legitimacy of representing and venerating the image of Jesus in the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea II, in the year 787.[cf Galatians 3:1; cf. Council of Nicaea II (787): DS 600-603] (cf CCC 476).
4.2.2 The Body of Jesus
Furthermore, CCC 477 says:
At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus "we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see."[Roman Missal, Preface of Christmas I] The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son. He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who venerates the icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted".[Council of Nicaea II: DS 601]
When Jesus Christ took on our human flesh, He made it holy. This is why we need to keep our bodies pure, in thought, word and deed. Moreover, we should offer our bodies--not only our minds and souls--to God, as Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Romans (12:1):
1 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Chastity, whether in marriage or in celibacy, is an imitation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
4.2.3 The Sacred Heart of Jesus
CCCC 93 (cf CCC 478) tells us:
Jesus knew us and loved us with a human heart. His Heart, pierced for our salvation, is the symbol of that infinite love with which he loves the Father and each one of us.
In his book Christ is Passing By, no 164 (Homily "Finding Peace in the Heart of Christ"), Saint Josemaría Escrivá wrote:
Let us realize all the richness hidden in the words "the sacred heart of Jesus." When we speak of a person's heart, we refer not just to his sentiments, but to the whole person in his loving dealings with others. In order to help us understand divine things, Scripture uses the expression "heart" in its full human meaning, as the summary and source, expression and ultimate basis, of one's thoughts, words and actions. A man is worth what his heart is worth...
...When we recommend devotion to the sacred heart, we are recommending that we should give our whole self to Jesus, to the whole Jesus — our soul, our feelings and thoughts, our words and actions, our joys.