Section 2: Jesus Christ’s Mission is Revealed
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The “fullness of time,” according to Saint
Paul, begins when Gabriel tells Mary that she
will conceive and bear a Son, Jesus, whose
name means “God saves.”
The Holy Family is a model of the love
between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
which is which the Church holds the family as
of central importance.
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The Annunciation was when the angel Gabriel
asked Mary to be a part of salvation history
by giving birth to the Son of God, therefore
becoming the Theotokos, or “God-Bearer.”
Mary was chosen to bear Jesus since she
herself was conceived without sin, which is
known as the Doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception.
Mary remained a virgin even in conception to
show the divine nature of Jesus’ person.
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Jesus becomes the “New Adam” since His
Father is that of God, just like Adam’s father
was God.
Jesus did have a foster father, Joseph, on this
Earth to protect Him and Mary along the way
of life.
Mary remained a virgin her entire life to show
her devotion to God and to her only Son,
Jesus Christ.
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Joseph, when he found out Mary was
pregnant, was righteous and virtuous and
decided to divorce her quietly, so as not to
embarrass her publicly.
An angel, however, told Joseph in a dream to
take Mary as is wife still since she was
pregnant not with another man’s son, but
with the Son of God.
Joseph did so and showed what it truly means
to listen to one’s calling in life, even amongst
confusion and difficulty.
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The “Messianic Hope” of the Israelites was
fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
All the Old Testament prophecies about the
Messiah were fulfilled in Christ, giving his
disciples reason to believe in him and used to
spread the faith.
Christology is the study of the person and life
of Jesus Christ, from his birth, ministry, and
mission.
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Analogy of Faith is the connection that all
doctrines bear with one another and with
Divine Revelation, such as pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle fitting perfectly together.
The Doctrine of the Incarnation teaches that
Jesus, true God, came down from Heaven and
became true man.
Jesus then was both fully human and fully
man, a concept that will never be fully
understood with human understanding.
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Jesus, as true God and true man, is mediator
for us with God since sin cuts us off from
God. Jesus, as both man and God, establishes
for us the connection that brings salvation.
Jesus is expiation for our sins, or the act of
atoning for our sins by His Paschal Mystery.
Jesus came to also show us how deep God’s
love for us truly is so that we can embrace it.
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Jesus shows us how to be holy in everyday
life, since his true God nature is perfect
holiness.
Jesus came also destroy the ways of the Devil,
since no human, due to original sin, could
ever overcome or defeat the Devil fully.
In Jesus, we see that the Incarnation was
pivotal for the Paschal Mystery, for without
the Incarnation, there would be no Paschal
Mystery.
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The Reasons for the Incarnation are:
◦ To reconcile us to God through the forgiveness of
sins
◦ To know the depth of God’s love
◦ To be our model for holiness
◦ To make us partakers of the divine nature
◦ To destroy the power of the Devil
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Jesus has many names and titles given to Him
in the Bible.
The actual name Jesus means, “God saves,”
giving the name of Jesus the entire weight
and purpose of the Paschal Mystery: to save
God’s chosen people.
Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ literally
means “Messiah” from the Greek, which in
turn means “anointed.”
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Kings, prophets and priests were all anointed
with oil as a symbol of being chosen and
blessed by God.
Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit for the
mission of redemptive salvation.
After the Israel kingdom collapsed, the
people thought a new king and Messiah
would come to restore their kingdom. That
person is Jesus. So when we say Jesus Christ,
we are saying “Jesus, the Anointed One sent
by God to be the Savior of the World.”
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Son of God is a title for Jesus that establishes
for us the understanding of Jesus’ place in
the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
At Jesus’ Baptism and Transfiguration, we
hear God the Father say, “This is my Beloved
Son.”
“Lord” is the Greek word for Yahweh, or the
name given by the Israelites to God, yet too
holy to be spoken.
Lord then is a confession of respect that Jesus
is God incarnate.
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The Father’s saving plan is revealed through
His Son and is fully understood with the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s Passion, death, Resurrection, and
Ascension most clearly reveal Jesus’ and His
Father’s glory.
Jesus’ Paschal Mystery can also be seen
before his actual final days.
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Blessed Pope John Paul II created another set
of mysteries for the Rosary, which clearly
identify Jesus Christ as the manifestation of
God:
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The
The
The
The
The
Baptism in the Jordan
Wedding at Cana
Proclamation of the Kingdom
Transfiguration
Institution of the Holy Eucharist
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The full realization of the Kingdom of God is
the end result of God’s saving plan.
Jesus’s cousin, John the Baptist, baptizes
Jesus in the Jordan River, even though Jesus
was without sin.
Jesus wanted to be baptized to show His
embracing of His human nature, in which He
takes all of humanity’s sins upon His
shoulder.
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The Baptism shows the Trinity in all its Glory,
with Jesus as the Son, the Holy Spirit
descending upon Him as the Father says,
“This is my beloved Son, with who I am well
pleased.”
At the Wedding feast, Mary asks Jesus to turn
water into wine since all the wine ran out.
Jesus does so to show His power over
creation and so others would come to believe
in Him as such; this was the beginning of His
public ministry.
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The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
shows us that in Jesus Christ and His
teachings is the actual Kingdom of God, in
which the poor and lowly are exalted and the
rich sent away empty handed.
This Kingdom challenges all human
standards, which is the purpose of the
Gospel.
“Repent, and believe in the Gospel,” is the
message we hear on Ash Wednesday, as well
as the message of God’s coming Kingdom.
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The Transfiguration was when Jesus took
Peter and some of the other apostles up a
mountain and was transformed into glory
before their eyes.
As Jesus was glorified, he spoke with Moses,
who represents the law, and Elijah, who
represents the prophets, to show that Jesus
was the true fulfillment of the law and the
prophets all in one person.
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At the Institution of the Eucharist, Jesus gives
the Church the most important sacrament
and gift it possesses. Jesus turned ordinary
bread and wine into the Body and Blood that
He would shed on the cross the following
day.
Transubstantiation is the doctrine that the
bread and wine at Mass actually and truly
becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus, in the Eucharist, is identified as the
Lamb of God.
The Paschal Lamb is Jesus Christ since it is
through His blood and death that we are set
free from the bonds of sin, just like the blood
of the lamb used by the Israelites to escape
the bonds of slavery in Egypt.
The Lamb is a symbol Jesus willingly being
led to the cross, like a lamb to the slaughter.
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Redemption is the core of the Paschal Mystery,
since Jesus redeems us from our sinfulness by
dying on the cross. He buys back our way into
Heaven by conquering sin and death through His
death.
In Jesus’ time there was a majority of poor, or
non-elite, and a minority of rich people.
Jesus embraces His poverty and shows us that we
do not need to get ahead like the elite and rich as
the Devil would like, but rather to remember that
in poverty, we can more fully encounter Christ.
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Poverty of Heart means recognizing that we
must put God before everything else, even
gaining and collecting material wealth, hence
why this is also called spiritual poverty.
Jesus preached that the rich and elite have a
responsibility to tend to the poor and needy
since in giving to the poor, the rich can be in
communion with God’s will.
We are challenged to put our trust in God and
not in money. Ironic that on money the
words, “In God We Trust” is printed.
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To redeem the disobedience of Adam, Jesus
was totally obedient to the Father, even unto
death on a cross.
Jesus was obedient in His human
relationships, with Mary and Joseph.
Jesus was obedient to His Heavenly Father,
even when He was afraid of the impending
death that He tried to run from, though in the
end obediently accepted.
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Jesus goes beyond the Old Law and
challenges us to live a life in the New Law,
bringing us closer to God through Him.
Christ purifies our conscience through the
Paschal Mystery, as He takes away our sins
and challenges us to accept the ability to do
good.
Our moral choices should not be based on
the law, but on what brings us into union
with God.
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The New Law in the Sermon on the Mount calls us
to let go of anger and not let it fester into
revenge, for it is then that we are exposed to sin.
We are challenged not to avoid sex before
marriage, but formulating sexual fantasies and
desires that we are bombarded with in the media
today.
We are called not to just love our family and
friends, but to love all people; this teaching is
one of the most challenging, and necessary, of
the Sermon on the Mount.
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Jesus’ healings are a sign that God’s plan of
salvation is being fulfilled. Jesus did not come
to heal the sick alone; He came to heal the
ailment of sin and death, which was His true
mission.
Jesus healings, however, do symbolize our
own impending resurrection in which our
body and spirit will be made whole and pure
by God.
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Exorcisms are when demon spirits are cast
out from the body of a person and was
performed by Jesus and His apostles.
In Jesus’ time, sickness was associated with
sin; today, sickness is associated with natural
causes.
Jesus did associate sin with sickness; sin
made us sick and cut off from God, yet Jesus
is the cure for that sickness as He unifies us
again to God by His Paschal Mystery.