and labor. No one could enter heaven until a Savior was born.
Messiah is the Hebrew word for Savior, and in Greek the word is Christos. Both words also mean “Anointed One.” The Old Testament prophesied that a Savior would be sent to save the human race from sin and death, and Christians believe that God sent His Son, Jesus, to be that Savior.
The Catholic Church graphically reminds her members of the human nature of Jesus by conspicuously placing a crucifix in every church. A crucifix is a cross with the crucified figure of Jesus attached to it. It’s a reminder to Catholics that Jesus didn’t pretend to be human. The nails in His hands and feet, the crown of thorns on His head, and the wound in His side where a soldier thrust a lance into His heart all poignantly remind the faithful that Jesus’s suffering, which is known as his Passion, was real. He felt real pain, and He really died. He was really human. If He had been only a god pretending to be human, His pain and death would have been faked.
In addition to reminding believers of Jesus’s human nature and His painful sacrifice, the crucifix reminds them that Jesus commanded us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. (For this reason, many Catholics have a crucifix at home.) The concept of dying to self is something spiritual writers speak of often. The process of dying to self involves enduring unavoidable suffering with dignity and faith. Seeing Jesus depicted on His cross is meant to encourage the devout to do likewise and offer up their sufferings as did Jesus.
The obedient Son of God
Catholicism regards Jesus as the eternal Son of the Father and teaches that the relationship between Father and Son is one of profound love. To understand this dynamic even better, see the nearby sidebar “Deep thoughts about Father and Son.”
Obedience is a sign of love and respect, and Catholics believe that Jesus obeyed the will of the Father. To Catholics, “Thy will be done” is more than just a phrase of the Our Father. It’s the motto of Jesus Christ, Son of God.
And Catholic belief maintains that God the Father’s will was for Jesus to
Reveal God as a community of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) united in divine love
Show God’s love for all humankind
Be humankind’s Redeemer and Savior
DEEP THOUGHTS ABOUT FATHER AND SON
To the Church, the relationship between God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) isn’t the same as the relationship between human parents and children. Human fathers aren’t fathers before their sons or daughters are born. If you were an only child, for example, could your dad ever have been called a father before you existed? No. Until a son or daughter is born, no man is a father.
So if you think in those terms, you may think that God the Father didn’t exist before the Son (Jesus) was born. But the Church says that God the Father has always been the Father. So if the Father has always been the Father, then the Son (Jesus) has always been, too. Jesus is the eternal Son of the Father. The Father didn’t exist without the Son for even one instant, one second or microsecond, because the Father was always Father and the Son was always Son.
The Gospel Truth: Examining Four Written Records of Jesus
The New Testament contains four Gospels, books of the Bible that tell the life and words of Jesus. The four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each wrote one of the four Gospels, considered by Christians to be the most important of all biblical text, because these four books contain the words and deeds of Jesus when He walked this earth.
Even though a different man wrote each of the four Gospels, the same Holy Spirit inspired each man. Inspiration is a special gift of the Holy Spirit given to the sacred authors (those who wrote the Bible) so that only the words that God wanted written down were written down.
Catholic beliefs about the Gospel
The Catholic Church emphasizes that it’s imperative to consider the four Gospels as actually forming one whole unit. The four Gospels aren’t four separate Gospels but four versions of one Gospel. That’s why each one is called the Gospel According to Matthew or the Gospel According to Mark, for example, and not Matthew’s Gospel or Mark’s Gospel. No one single account gives the entire picture, but like facets on a diamond, all sides form to make one beautiful reality. The faithful need all four versions to appreciate the full depth and impact of Jesus.
Both the Holy Spirit and the author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, intended to use or not use the same words and to present or not present the same ideas and images based on the particular author’s distinct audience. For more on how the Gospels are both inspired and audience-savvy, see the later section “Comparing Gospels.”
Figure 4-1 shows how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are often depicted in art from Revelation (Apocalypse) 4:7. According to St. Ambrose (339–397), a Father of the Church (learned scholar), a man with wings symbolizes Matthew because he begins his Gospel account with the human origins and birth of Christ. Mark starts his account with the regal power of Christ, the reign of God, and is therefore symbolized by a lion with wings, which was held in high esteem by the Romans. Luke begins his account with the father of John the Baptist, Zachary, the priest, and is symbolized by an ox with wings because the priests of the temple often sacrificed oxen on the altar. John is shown as an eagle because he soars to heaven in his introduction to the Gospel with the preexistence of Christ as the Word (logos in Greek).
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 4-1: The writers of the four Gospels are often depicted like this from Revelation (Apocalypse) 4:7.
How the Gospels came to be
Were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John standing on the sidelines taking notes as Jesus preached or performed miracles? No. In fact, only two of the four, Matthew and John, were actual Apostles and