Jesus, Son of God

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Jesus, Son of God

• November 16, 17, 19

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Welcome

• Thank you for your presence
• Journey together
• Looking forward to a deeper look at our Creed

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Question

• How do you follow Jesus?

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Overview of evening

• Prayer
• Age specific breakout
• Grade 10 - Adults Fr Tom
• Grades 6-9 Dennis
• Grades 1-5 Libby
• 3-5 years old Maureen
• Closing prayer around font

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Focus

• GOF focus for the year
• The Creed (I believe)
• Use Bible Catechism as main sources
• Numerous sources from Fr. Bob to Luke Timothy
  Johnson

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Creed

• Longest part devoted to the Son of God
• Two sections
• First describes his relationship with God the
  Father, maker of heaven and earth
• the second deals with his involvement with
  humanity, from his incarnation to his second
  coming

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Distinction not division

• It is the One Lord Jesus Chris who is proclaimed
  in the Creed
• To focus on his divinity and then on his
  humanity should not lead us to separate them
• The Creed asserts simultaneously he is once
  fully human and divine

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Creed

• This first part of the Creed characterizes Jesus
  relationship to God in order to safeguard the
  belief that Jesus Christ is our savior
• Jesus was the way in which God became human and
  through that humanity made it possible for all
  humans to share in the divine life

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Creed

• Developed through theological debates
• Greatest disputes are about identity of Jesus
  specifically how he was related to God in third
  and fourth centuries
• Present Creed language defines even more closely
  the core truths challenged by heretics

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CREED

• We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only
  Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God
  from God, Light from Light, true God from true
  God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the
  Father. Through him all things were made. For us
  men and for our salvation he came down from
  heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit he was
  born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

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Thought

• A mystery is something we cant say enough about

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One Lord, Jesus Christ

• CCC 430
• Jesus means in Hebrew God saves
• At Annunciation Gabriel gave Jesus his proper
  name
• In Jesus, God will save his people from their
  sins

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One Lord, Jesus Christ

• CCC 436
• The word Christ comes from the Greek
  translation of the Hebrew Messiah which means
  anointed
• Anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as
  king and priest, and also a prophet

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One Lord, Jesus Christ

• Gal 44-5
• Mark 11
• God has visited his people
• Fulfilled the promise made to Abraham and his
  descendants
• He has sent his own beloved Son CCC 422
• We acknowledge his authority over our own hearts

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One Lord, Jesus Christ

• To say Jesus is Lord because of his resurrection
  meant that he had entered into the life of God
  and therefore shared in the power and authority
  of the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth

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Only Son of God

• Acts 920
• Gal 115-16
• Jesus Baptism (Mt. 317) and Transfiguration
  (Mt. 175)
• CCC 455 The title Lord indicates divine
  sovereignty. To invoke Jesus as Lord is to
  believe in his divinity (1 Cor. 123)

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Begotten

• Assert truth that Christ came from and returned
  to God in a way that no other human being has or
  will or could, because when he came from God he
  remained what he had been and when he returned to
  God he returned to his own place
• In response to Arianism (reduce Jesus to a
  creature)

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Begotten not made

• CCC 460 - The Word became flesh to make us
  partakers of the divine nature. For this is why
  the Word became man, and the Son of God became
  the Son of man so that man, by entering into
  communion with the Word and thus receiving divine
  sonship, might become a son of God

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Begotten not made

• CCC 460.. For the Son of God became man so
  that we might become God. The only-begotten Son
  of God, wanting to make us sharers in his
  divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made
  man, might make men gods

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Begotten

• Not talking about birth of Jesus as a human but
  part of Gods life
• This begetting is not a making by God but a
  sharing by the Father out of himself (begotten,
  not made)
• Johns gospel (11-18) speaks of the Word becoming
  flesh
• Helps us to think in spiritual not physical terms

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One in Being

• Trinity
• CCC 262 The Incarnation of Gods Son reveals
  that God is the eternal Father and that the Son
  is consubstantial with the Father, which means
  that, in the Father and with the Father, the Son
  is one and the same God

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All things were made

• Creation
• Genesis
• God, Maker of heaven and earth
• seen and unseen
• If Jesus is maker he is not made (Jn. 13, Col.
  115-16, Hebrews prologue)

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The Incarnation

• CCC 461
• John 114
• The Word became flesh
• The Son of God assumed a human nature in order to
  accomplish our salvation in it
• Phil. 25-8

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The Incarnation

• CCC 483 The Incarnation is therefore the
  mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and
  human natures in the one person of the Word

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Incarnation

• Incarnation is not an after-thought, not a rescue
  operation
• Implicit from the beginning
• Gen. 126 from the beginning God created them
  Male and female
• Image of Christ, in which the new creation, we
  are being formed

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For our salvation

• The heart of the Creed
• Confess that Jesus is Son of God
• Reveals Gods love for us
• A passionate God
• Salvation - 2 Peter 13-4
• Salvation not a rescue or restoration but an
  elevation (Rom 512-21)

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Heaven

• For our salvation he came down from heaven
• CCC 326 heaven can designate both the firmament
  and Gods own place our Father in heaven
  and consequently the heaven too which is
  eschatological glory
• This says two things Jesus is divine in origin
  and is truly among us

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Holy Spirit

• CCC 485 The mission of the Holy Spirit is
  always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son.
  The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,
  is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary,
  causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the
  Father in a humanity drawn from her own

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Born of Virgin Mary

• CCC 484 Mary was invited to conceive him in
  whom the whole fullness of deity would dwell
  bodily (Col. 29)
• CCC 487 What the Catholic faith believes about
  Mary is based on what it believes about Christ

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Immaculate Conception

• CCC 490 To become the mother of the Savior,
  Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate
  to such a role.
• CCC 491 proclaimed in 1854
• CCC 511 She uttered her yes in the name of
  all human nature

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Conclusion

• The Creed helps us speak about our experiences of
  God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
• God entered our world
• Fully human and divine
• Change our hearts and help us to see ourselves,
  others and this world differently