Chapter 2:Who is

Jesus Christ?©Ave Maria Press

The Power of Words

Language sets us apart from other creatures.

Friends, Romans, and countrymen;

lend me your ears.

Words can domuch good.

But they can also do great harm.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a

master.

The most important word ever spoken is the Word of

God.The prologue of the Gospel of John calls the Son of God

“The Word” – o logo .

The Word of God became man in Jesus

Christ.

The Incarnation of JesusThe Incarnation is the essential Christian belief that the Son of

God became human in the

person of Jesus Christ.

We celebrate the conception of the Son of God at the Annunciation.

With Mary’s “yes,” the Son of God became human.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell how the angel Gabriel

brought Mary the news of God’s plan for the

salvation of the world, and how she named

her baby Jesus, which means “YHWH is

salvation,” or “savior.”

Today, we associate Christmas with gift

giving.

This is appropriate, for on the first Christmas, God gave us the greatest gift of all – his Son.

The Nativity refers to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, nine months after the Annunciation.

The presence of Joseph is strongly

felt in the Gospels.

We know Joseph was a man of tremendous faith and great courage. He raised Jesus to become a man of love, gentleness, and hard work.

Joseph should also be an example for us of these important values.

While the Gospel of John does not describe the Christmas story, it makes a powerful

statement about the origins of Jesus.

In the Prologue of John’s Gospel, the evangelist makes it clear that

Jesus is true God and true man. He wrote this to combat a heresy

called Docetism, which said that Jesus only appeared to be human.

Why did God become human?

The Purpose of the Incarnation

► To reconcile us with God.

► To show us God’s love.

► To be our model for holiness.

► To enable us to share in God’s nature.

Learning about Jesus

Who is the real Jesus?

Many ways to know Jesus

Whether we get our information about Jesus from our parents,

priests, teachers, bishops, popes, or from reading the Bible; all

knowledge about Christ goes back to the apostles, who knew him in life and saw him after his death and

Resurrection.

The Jesus of History

Historical records verify that Jesus was a real person, not just the invention of early

Christians.

We know also, that Jesus gathered disciples and

preached a powerful message to them.

We know from historians outside the Bible, that Jesus was known to be a carpenter

and lived in Galilee according to the Law of Moses.

His message was one of repentance and

the coming of God’s Kingdom.

Because Jesus spoke with authority and challenged the way people had

come to respond to God, he angered many of the leaders in the

Jewish community.

The Miracles and Ministry of Jesus

In addition to preaching about the Kingdom of

God, Jesus performed

miracles to show that God’s

Kingdom had already broken

into human history.

The Humanity of Jesus

Jesus was a human being – like us in all things but sin. He had a

charismatic personality, experienced human emotions

and human pain.

Jesus, Resurrected

LordThe teachings of the Church pass on

to us that Jesus was much more than an influential human figure.

The doctrine of the Incarnation tells us that Jesus is the Son of God.

Another essential belief of the Church is that of Christ’s

Resurrection.

Our belief in the Resurrection tells us that after Jesus suffered a painful death on the cross …

He rose from the dead, and is alive now, in glory forever.

Meeting Jesus Today

We can read about Jesus in the New Testament – especially the Gospels. Christ also makes it possible for us to know him and have a relationship with him in several ways:

In the Sacraments In Prayer In his body, the Church

The Seven Sacraments are efficacious signs instituted by Christ to confer grace upon us.

In the Sacraments of the Church, Jesus comes to us in the very special

moments of our lives, to give us powerful signs of his love for us.

Baptism Eucharist Marriage Anointing of the Sick

Reconciliation Confirmation Holy Orders

Prayer

This is the Lord’s invitation to us to approach him in prayer.

He also showed us, by his own example, the importance of prayer.

Jesus told us: “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the

midst of them.”

Christ’s Body: The Church

Jesus lives in the institution that he established to be a vehicle of our salvation – the Church.

Christ is the head of that Body, and he lives in each of its members. Because the Son of God became human, all of humanity has tremendous dignity.

In Matthew 25, Jesus reminds us how important even the poor and outcast among us are by telling us that whatever we do to these least of our brothers and sisters, so we do to him.

The Mysteries of Christ’s Life

A mystery is a truth about God that will always be beyond

human understanding.

Mystery also refers to God’s saving plan that was gradually revealed

in human history.

The Birth and Infancy of Jesus

In the Nativity, God humbled himself and came into the world as a

vulnerable infant. The first to witness his arrival were poor shepherds.

The Birth and Infancy of Jesus

In the Epiphany, Jesus is revealed as Messiah to non-Jewish wise men from the east—signifying that Christ is the

Savior of the entire world.

The Birth and Infancy of Jesus

At Jesus’ Presentation in the Temple, Simeon predicts the suffering and death of

Jesus, as well as the sorrows Mary will experience. Mary and Joseph presented

Jesus as a firstborn son in the Temple forty days after his birth to fulfill the Law of

Moses.

The Hidden Life of Jesus

The Evangelists don’t tell us much about the childhood of Jesus. The Gospels do convey,

however, that Jesus grew in wisdom, and our faith shows us that Jesus lived out respectful

obedience to his earthly parents and the Jewish religion. On one pilgrimage to the

Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus was left behind, and amazed the priests with his

understanding of his heavenly Father.

The Baptism of Jesus

Even though he was without sin, Jesus submitted to baptism by John the Baptist in

the Jordan River. At this beginning of his public ministry, God the Father revealed that Jesus is his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit

descended upon him like a dove.

The Temptations of Jesus

The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ being

tempted by Satan in the desert help us to understand that Jesus had free will like all human beings, but

that he resisted every temptation put before

him.

Satan tempted Jesus to use his divine power to create bread to satisfy his hunger. He then tempted him to throw himself off the Temple parapet, knowing that angels would catch him and the crowd become his devoted followers. Finally, Satan offered Jesus worldly power if only he would worship him. Jesus resisted all these temptations, and remained sinless.

Jesus proclaims God’s Kingdom

The message of Jesus’

words and actions was to consistently proclaim the Kingdom of

God, or Kingdom of

Heaven.

Christ’s Ministry Begins at Capernaum

Jesus called us to turn away from sin and listen to the message he proclaimed about God’s love for us. He chose twelve apostles to follow him and

help to spread the Good News.

The first of Jesus’ chosen apostles were Peter, Andrew, James, and John; whom

Jesus called away from their fishing nets to go and follow him.

The Kingdom Is Open to All

Jesus opened his arms to everyone. Sinners, too, are called to enter God’s Kingdom—but

people must repent of their sins and respond to God’s love.

The Poor and Lowly are Beloved in the Kingdom.

Jesus tells us in many ways that we must have a special love for the poor and

persecuted in the world. He also tells us that we must become as little children and be

open and accepting of others and God’s will.

Messages about the Kingdom

With parables and rich images, Jesus explained God’s Kingdom. He surprised his listeners and helped them understand that the true nature

of our God is vastly different than many of their assumptions. He often used paradoxes,

which are statements that seem contradictory, but actually contain a hidden truth.

A few examples of Jesus’ familiar paradoxical teachings:

“Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”· “Whoever wishes to be first among you, shall be your servant.” · “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but

whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Miracles of Jesus

Jesus performed many miracles that confirmed the truth of his words and his authority to

proclaim his message. When Jesus said that he could forgive sins, some of the scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy,

which is a sin against the dignity of God, since only

God can forgive sins.

By healing the sick, Jesus proved that he did,

indeed, have the power to forgive.

The Miracles of Jesus

The miracles themselves teach us important truths

about God’s Kingdom. With different types of

miracles, Jesus communicates different

truths.Physical healings demonstrated Jesus’ power over sin and revealed that the coming of God’s

Kingdom brings wholeness and happiness. When Jesus drove out evil spirits through

exorcisms, he established his power over Satan. Jesus showed his power over the forces of

nature, since all of creation came to be through him, with various nature miracles. And by

raising people from the dead, Jesus proved his mastery over life and death as the true Son of

God.

The Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration confirmed Jesus’

divinity as he appeared gloriously

transformed alongside the

prophets Moses and Elijah. The presence of the Old Testament prophets confirmed

that it was Jesus whom they had foretold as the

savior.

This event inspired Peter’s confession that Jesus is the

Messiah, the Son of the living God.

The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus

Obedient to his Father’s will, Jesus submitted to humiliation and an agonizing death to become the

Savior of the world.

The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus

But Jesus’ story did not end in death. On the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus

rose to eternal life.

The Meaning of the Paschal Mystery

The sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf repaired the broken relationship between

God and humanity.

The Meaning of the Paschal Mystery

By his death, Jesus liberated us from sin.

By his Resurrection, he opened for us the way to new life.