77. God really became one of us and thus our brother; nonetheless,Jesus did not cease to be God at the same time and thus our Lord.

God really became one of us and thus our brother; nonetheless,Jesus did not cease to be God at the same time and thus our Lord.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 77

Ave Maria series

77.  What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is at the same time true God and true man?

In Jesus, God really became one of us and thus our brother; nonetheless, he did not cease to be God at the same time and thus our Lord.  The Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 taught that the divinity and the humanity in the one person Jesus Christ are united together “without division or confusion”.  [464-467, 469]

A view (directly overhead) of the Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Old City of Jerusalem. This church was built in a.d.335 by Emperor Constantine and has a capacity of 3,000 worshipers. .....77

.....77

The Church grappled for a long time with the problem of how to express the relation between the divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ.  Divinity and humanity are not in competition with each other, which would make Jesus only partially God and only partially man.  Nor is it true that the divine and human in Jesus are confused.  God took on a human body in Jesus; this was no mere appearance (Diocetism), but he really became man.  Nor are there two different persons in Christ, one human and one divine (Nestorianism).  Nor is it true, finally, that in Jesus Christ the human nature was completely absorbed into the divine nature (Monophysitism).  Contrary to all of these heresies, the Church has adhered to the belief that Jesus Christ is at the same time true God and true man in one Person.  The famous formula, “without division or confusion” (Council of Chalcedon) does not attempt to explain something that is too sublime for human understanding, but rather draws the boundaries, so to speak, of the faith.  It indicates the “line” along which the mystery of the person of Jesus Christ can be investigated.

“He remained what he was and he assumed what he was not.”  Roman Liturgy, January 1

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 

“Jesus is evident.”  Hand Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988, Swiss Catholic theologian)

“A religion without mystery is necessarily a religion without God.”  Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667, English spiritual writer)

[464-467, 469]

TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

464 The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.  During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it.--Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

465 The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son "come in the flesh (compare 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7)".⁸⁷ But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is "begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father", and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God "came to be from things that were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the Father (Council of Nicaea I (325): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 130, 126).⁸⁸ —CCC

466 The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man (Council of Ephesus (431): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 250 )."⁸⁹ Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh (Council of Ephesus: Denzinger-Schönmetzer 251)."⁹⁰ --CCC

467 The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed: --CCC

“Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God (Council of Chalcedon (451): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 301; compare Hebrews 4:15) .⁹¹  –CCC

• “We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis (Council of Chalcedon: Denzinger-Schönmetzer 302).”⁹² --CCC

469 The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother:--CCC

"What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed", sings the Roman Liturgy (Liturgy of the Hours, 1 January, Antiphon for Morning Prayer; compare St. Leo the Great, Sermo in nat. Dom. 1, 2; Patrologia Latina 54, 191-192 ). And the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who deigned (condescended) for our salvation to become incarnate of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!"( Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Troparion "O monogenes.")⁹⁶ –CCC