Saturday, June 29, 2013

...And In Jesus Christ...

As we continue on with the Apostles' Creed we arrive at the second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  In this, we are introduced to the Son of God.  The Son is both divine and human.  God becomes incarnate taking on our limitations of the flesh and along with that our temptations and sufferings.  Jesus is born through the intimate connection of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit of God.  We know from Catholic teaching that Mary was conceived free of original sin.  In this way God acted in Jesus Christ to prepare the way for the salvation of the world in this first act.

Catholics must be clear on this idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Jesus could not be born with the contamination of sin. So, in order to achieve this, God had to prepare the way by initiating the salvation process.  It is often said that Mary is the first recipient of Jesus salvific act.  The purity of Mary is essential for God to enter into the world to save us from our sins.

Once born into our world, Jesus assimilates into his place in the world and in time begins to teach the people around him about the nature and deep love of God.  This teaching becomes threatening to the authority around Jesus--both the Jewish and Roman leaders.  At the hands of the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate Jesus is tortured to make him renounce His claims of God.  Finally he is sentenced to death on the Roman Cross.  Once more an agonizing torture until Jesus breathes his last breath and commends His Spirit to God's care.

Like any human, Jesus' body is removed from the cross and laid in a tomb.  This signifies the last step of life on this earth.  The chapter should be finished and the book complete!  But it is not!  In the next blog entry I will continue with our Creed.

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