Who is Jesus Christ?
From the earliest times to the present day, people ask many questions about the person of Jesus. These questions relate above all to His nature: Who is He really?
The shortest answer to this question is formulated by faith in the mystery of the Incarnation. The Church calls the "Incarnation" the marvelous mystery of the union of the divine and human natures in the one divine Person of the Word [of Jesus] in order to accomplish the salvation of men. With the mystery of the Incarnation, she explains that Jesus, the Son of God, became "flesh" (Jn 1:14), true man. The mystery of the Incarnation has encountered and continues to encounter difficulties in accepting it. Throughout the ages there have been those who have denied Jesus the divine nature, claiming that as the Son of God He is subject to God, that He was created by Him. Such views were proclaimed, among others, by Arius, who lived at the turn of the third and fourth centuries, and his followers called Arians.
Even earlier, in the second century, it was not so much the divinity of Christ that began to be denied, but His true humanity, suggesting that He was only apparently human. He was denied a physical, material body, with the consequence that His sufferings and death on the cross were denied. These views were called Docetism. Their teaching contradicted the Church's faith in the true Incarnation of the Son of God, which had its origin in apostolic times. This trend inspired at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries the development of a trend in Christian theology called Monophysitism (from the Greek word meaning one nature). Its representatives proclaimed that Jesus had only one person: the divine and one divine nature, and not, as the Church believes, both divine and human.
The Church has always taught about the doubts arising in man regarding the nature of Jesus Christ:
CCC 465: “The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son "come in the flesh”. But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. 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 (homoousios) 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”.
CCC 466: “The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man." Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh."
CCC 467: “The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed: Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God. We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis”.
CCC 468: “After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople in 553, confessed that "there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity." Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity."
CCC 469: “The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother: "What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed", sings the Roman Liturgy. And the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who designed for our salvation to become incarnate of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!"
The Church, answering people's questions about the person of Jesus, explains that He gave origin to the religion of the Person, not the religion of ideas. It followers believe in a God Person who was born a Jew, born into the world from a woman of Israel to free humanity from sin. Christian theology, in answering the question of why God came to earth in Jesus Christ, gives two classic explanations: the first explains that the Messiah came to save humanity, to save it from the bonds of sin and evil. The second emphasizes that Jesus came into the world to reveal to humanity the true face of the merciful Father and so that man, caught up in the snares of evil, could rediscover his humanity through faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus makes Christians proclaim to the world God's invitation given by him to share in the joy of communion - union, life with the living God. The meaning of Jesus' mission is explained by the name announced by the angel at the moment of the Annunciation to His Mother Mary. It means "God saves." Completing these explanations is His second name: "Christ" in Greek and "Messiah" in Hebrew. Both mean "anointed." The anointing in the name of God expressed the consecration, the dedication by God of those who were to fulfill His mission (kings, priests, in some cases prophets). In the case of Jesus, this name expresses the conviction (faith) that His mission is connected with the proclamation and inauguration of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. To fulfill this mission, he was anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, so that in the world he would perform the threefold function of priest, prophet and king (CCC 436).
From the word Christ comes also the name "Christian", "Christians". Jesus himself drew attention to the greatness and particularity of his mission when he called himself the only-begotten Son of God (Jn 3:16). By this title he confirmed his eternal preexistence (Jn 10:36) (CCC 444). The second characteristic feature of his mission is the title "Lord". In the language of the Bible, "Lord" is God. This title expresses the Divinity, the divine reign of Jesus. A sign of this power were His deeds confirming His dominion over nature, sickness, demons, sin and death. The greatest of these signs was his resurrection.
The Church, in attributing to Jesus the divine title of "Lord", confesses that the power, honor and glory due to God the Father also belong to Jesus (cf. Rom 9:5; 2: 13; Rev 5:13) because he exists "in the form of God" (Phil 2:6), and which the Father confirmed by raising him from the dead and exalting him in his glory (Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:9-11). On this basis, faith in Jesus' lordship over the world and over history means recognizing that man cannot submit his personal freedom in an absolute way to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ (CCC 446, 447, 449, 450).
Even today, one hears a thousand human opinions about Him. Some make hypotheses that He was a disciple of Hindu or Egyptian sages. There are blasphemers who write books about His erotic or military involvement. Others, on the contrary, have the highest notions of Him and place Him on a par with Buddha and Mohammed.
And who is Jesus really? He is the Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, who became true man for our salvation. He is the Resurrection and the Life, and whoever believes in Him will not die forever (John 11:25f). And we know this not from flesh and blood, but from the grace of faith given to us by the One who so loved us that he even gave us his own only begotten Son (Mt 16:17; Jn 3:16).
Thought from Saint Faustina: “On one occasion I was reflecting on the Holy Trinity, on the essence of God. I absolutely wanted to know and fathom who God is. ... In an instant my spirit was caught up into what seemed to be the next world. I saw an inaccessible light, and in this light what appeared like three sources of light which I could not understand. And out of that light came words in the form of lightning which encircled heaven and earth. Not understanding anything, I was very sad. Suddenly, from this sea of inaccessible light came our dearly beloved Savior, unutterably beautiful with His shining Wounds. And from this light came a voice which said, Who God is in His Essence, no one will fathom, neither the mind of Angels nor of man. Jesus said to me, get to know God by contemplating His attributes. A moment later, He traced the sign of the cross with His hand and vanished." (Diary 30)
“O my Jesus, You are the life of my life. You know only too well that I long for nothing but the glory of Your Name and that souls come to know Your goodness. Why do souls avoid You, Jesus? -I don't understand that. Oh, if I could only cut my heart into tiny pieces and in this way offer to You, O Jesus, each piece as a heart whole and entire, to make up in part for the hearts that do not love You! I love You, Jesus, with every drop of my blood, and I would gladly shed my blood for You to give You a proof of the sincerity of my love. O God, the more I know You the less I can comprehend You, but this "non-comprehension" lets me realize how great You are! And it is this impossibility of comprehending You which enflames my heart anew for You, O Lord. From the moment when You let me fix the eyes of my soul on You, O Jesus, I have been at peace and desired nothing else. I found my destiny at the moment when my soul lost itself in You, the only object of my love. In comparison with you, everything is nothing. Sufferings, adversities, humiliations, failures and suspicions that have come my way are splinters that keep alive the fire of my love for You, O Jesus”. (Diary 57)
Until tomorrow
fr. george