God fully assumed complete human nature. In every heresy one of those terms is removed. Instead there is the fastening onto some limited aspect of Christ’s mystery, while denying the full truth of the faith.
Day 68
CCC 470-478
How Is the Son of God Man?
Once again, the Catechism provides us, in a single paragraph, CCC 470, with an excellent summary of the section we are reading before unpacking it in some detail. CCC 470 explains that only gradually were the implications recognized of the truth that a complete human nature was assumed by the Son of God. Jesus had everything that belongs to our humanity. The paragraphs following speak of Christ’s human soul and intellect (471-474), his human will (475), his human body (476-477), and his human heart (478). The Church is saying that “one of the Trinity” thought with a human mind; chose with a human will; ran, ate, slept, and suffered in a human body; and loved with a human heart. Jesus is only one Person — that is, only one individual Being knowing, acting and loving — the divine Person of the Son of God. In the Person of Jesus we meet the human expression of one of the Trinity; we see into the life of God.
As part of a complete humanity, the Divine Son united a human intellect to himself. CCC 472-474 explains this. It means that Jesus had to learn naturally as all human beings do, gradually through experience — what hot and cold feel like, how to tend plants successfully, and so on. As the Divine Son, though, he also had supernatural knowledge of all that the Father had given him to reveal for the sake of his mission of salvation — the Father and his loving plan and also the “secret thoughts of human hearts” (473). His human will, like his human intellect, is entirely turned over to the service of his saving work (475).
This section also helps us understand why the Church venerates Christ’s human heart, his Sacred Heart, and images of Christ’s body (476-478). Because his heart and body — indeed every aspect of his humanity — belong to the divine Person, in venerating them we are venerating the eternal Son.
Day 69
CCC 484-486
Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit
The Persons of the Blessed Trinity act together in the work of creation (258, 292). Here we see how they act together in the even greater work of the re-creation of all things. In this short, delicate section we see how the Father prepares and invites the Blessed Virgin (484), the Holy Spirit overshadows her (485), and the Son is conceived in her (486). The Incarnation is truly a Divine work of the Persons together.
The Incarnation is a work of the divine Persons in cooperation with the Blessed Virgin (488). We can notice the importance of the free assent that Mary gives. The Father “invites” Mary (484); he does not force her. The work of our redemption at all stages is something that is to be humanly and freely welcomed and embraced, as our divine Lover God wants nothing less.
As well as providing her free assent, Mary also offers her human nature to the divine Son. It is human nature taken from Mary that is assumed by the Son. The Holy Spirit causes her to “conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own” (485). It is in and through the humanity drawn from Mary that the eternal Son reveals the Father and rescues us from sin and death. It is in and through the humanity drawn from Mary that the eternal Son rises glorified from the dead.
Finally, we see in these short paragraphs the secret of the whole Christian life: that it is brought about by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who comes upon Mary (484), who causes Mary to conceive Christ (485), and who anoints the humanity of Christ with power (486). The Christian life is a divine life, lived “in the Spirit” and made possible only by the anointing power of the Spirit who is sent upon us and upon all of the Church (see Gal 5:25; Acts 1:8).
Day 70
CCC 487-494
Born of the Virgin Mary
Saint John Paul II, in his greatest work on catechesis, described Mary as a “living catechism” (Catechesis in Our Time, 73). And what we read in her life always leads us to her Son. The Catechism gives us this principle at the beginning of today’s reading: “What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ” (487). This is the key to understanding each of the doctrines about Mary — the Church asks us to look for what they teach us about Jesus and his saving work.
Mary’s predestination is the first doctrine presented here (488-489). It teaches us that God’s plan of salvation fully embraces our freedom. “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother” (488). God has a plan “formed from all eternity in Christ” (50). His predestination does not mean that he coerces us into his plan, but rather that he provides all that is needed for us to make our assent.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the next doctrine presented (490-493). Mary was conceived without original sin, without the disorder that affects all human beings. Does this unique condition mean that she did not need a Savior? On the contrary. While Christ has rescued you and me out of the misery of sin, in the case of the Blessed Virgin, he has saved her from entering into this condition. She was “preserved” from sin, perfectly redeemed from the moment of her conception.
Mary’s obedience of faith is the third doctrine (494). Reading this paragraph helps us understand what a perfect act of faith looks like — a wholehearted offering of ourselves in trust to the God who wishes to espouse us and for whom nothing is impossible, that we might be his “handmaid” in whatever situation he places us for the sake of Christ’s work of redemption.
Day 71
CCC 495-507
Mary’s Motherhood and Virginity
These two doctrines, concerning Mary’s motherhood and virginity, appear to be opposites. In fact, they are two sides of a single coin, both of them affirming Christ’s uniqueness and divinity.
The Council of Ephesus, in AD 431, solemnly declared that Mary was the Theotokos, the Mother of God (495). While this is a title given to Mary, the declaration primarily says something about Jesus. The cross-reference to CCC 466 explains the truth about Christ that is confirmed here: that Jesus is a single divine Person, God the Son who took to himself a complete human nature drawn from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Person whom Mary carried in her womb was the divine Son. The title preserves for us the mystery of the Incarnation.
The virginity of Mary (496-498) and her perpetual virginity (499-501) both affirm the unique nature of Jesus. Jesus had no earthly father; Joseph is his earthly foster father. The proclamation of Mary’s virginity protects the truth that Jesus is the consubstantial Son of the Father.
The virginity of Mary is a historical truth; her miraculous conception of Jesus is a given fact of history. As we saw with the affirmation of the essential historical veracity of the Gospels (126), and as we will see with the miracles of Jesus (548) and his bodily resurrection (639), the Church holds firmly to the historical truths of these events — and seeks to answer any objections to their historicity (498, 500). They are not only symbolic of deeper spiritual truths.
However, all of these historical events do also carry rich spiritual significance. We see this in the next section of the Catechism, which concerns the meaning of Mary’s virginity in God’s plan (502-507). The Church wants us to develop those “eyes of faith” (502) that can begin to perceive why God acts as he does, that can “read” the meaning of the events around us in the light of God’s plan for our adoption into the mystery of his eternal love.
Day 72
CCC 512-513
The Mysteries of Christ’s Life
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