Jesus is known as the second person of God in the Most Blessed Holy Trinity. He is also mankind’s cause and medium through which we find salvation with God the Father and live eternity participating in the life of the Holy Trinity. It is Jesus, being of God’s substance and Divine nature, who assumed human nature in the complete sense of having the composite of human life of both a soul/spirit and body. He lived a perfect human life after emptying Himself of relying on the Divine nature for grace any more than is available as recourse to any other human through prayer and trust in the Father’s Divine Providence. He is God showing us the way through His example in life, through His passion, in death, in Resurrection, in His Resurrection, and through His eternal intercession on our behalf.
The name Christ is best understood as the Church being its body with Jesus as the head. [Col 1:18] It is through Baptism that all Christians become members of the Church and, in turn, members of the Body of Christ. As practicing members of the Church and Body of Christ, Christians surrender themselves to the reign of the head, Jesus. Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” [ John 14:6 ] All of creation was made subject to futility, but not without hope. Jesus, our head individually and of the Church, leads us to be free from sin as children of God. [ cf. Romans 8:20-21 ]
All things were created through Jesus, who existed before all things, and it is through Him all things hold together. [ Cf. Romans 8:16-17 ] It is also through him that all will be reconciled for Him. [ Romans 8:20 ]
The name Jesus, in Hebrew, means “God saves.” [ CCC 430 ] The name Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah meaning “anointed.” [ CCC 436 ] Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, who is the anointing. It is with this same Holy Spirit that each Christian is anointed at Baptism. The Holy Spirit prepares the Christian as a Temple to receive the conception of Jesus so that we may bear Jesus in both the word and sacrament. Through both, the Christian surrenders to the reign of Jesus as our head.
The question for the Christian to answer is, “Are you responding , in surrender to Jesus our head, His own words, ‘This is my body, I give it up for you.’”
Peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.
© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved
