Third Article of Faith – The Incarnation

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

The meaning of the incarnation is more complex than the story of the Virgin birth in Bethlehem.

The Word of God became flesh, i.e. Incarnate, in order to reconcile us with God, who so loved the world that he sent his Only Begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should have eternal life. The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness. The love that Jesus demonstrates in his earthly life by offering himself for others is the essence of the Christian life.

The Son of God became human so that humanity might become divine. This is the great mystery of faith: divinity and humanity sharing a common bond.

The Fifth Council of Constantinople (553A.D.) clarified that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. The Council Fathers declared that Jesus became man without ceasing to be God. Through the centuries the church believed the Virgin Mary was full of grace from the moment of her conception (i.e. The Immaculate Conception) and also when she conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit (i.e. the incarnation). Thus, Mary is ever virgin and truly the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of God.

Jesus, the Word of God, became man to save us by reconciling us with the Father, so that we might know God's love, to be our model of holiness, and to make us "partakers of the divine nature".

457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins”:

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?

458 The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

459 The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!" Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you." This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.

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." "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."

Belief in the Incarnation (the Son of God come in human flesh) is the distinctive sign of the Christian faith. 

463 Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the flesh."

Jesus assumed human form in the womb of the Virgin Mary, his mother. The conception of his human body was accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit, and not by natural generation from man, although he is truly conceived of Mary's flesh. 

456 With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

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." 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.”

484 The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates “the fullness of time”, the time of the fulfillment of God's promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the “whole fullness of deity” would dwell “bodily”. The divine response to her question, “How can this be, since I know not man?” was given by the power of the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.”

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 and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own.

486 The Father’s only Son, conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, is “Christ”, that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of his human existence, though the manifestation of this fact takes place only progressively: to the shepherds, to the magi, to John the Baptist, to the disciples. Thus the whole life of Jesus Christ will make manifest “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.”

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, as written in Scripture. 

423 We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He ‘came from God’, ‘descended from heaven’, and ‘came in the flesh’. For ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. . . And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.’

Jesus is fully God, and fully man. As God, he has always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At a specific point in history, he assumed human form and became man. He retains both of these natures fully, even now in heaven.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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:

“What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed", sings the Roman Liturgy. And the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who deigned 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!”

470 Because “human nature was assumed, not absorbed”, in the mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess the full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and will, and of his human body. In parallel fashion, she had to recall on each occasion that Christ's human nature belongs, as his own, to the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it. Everything that Christ is and does in this nature derives from "one of the Trinity". The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity:

The Son of God. . . worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.

The Incarnation: God the Son becomes man.

461 Taking up St. John's expression, "The Word became flesh", the Church calls "Incarnation" the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the mystery of the Incarnation:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

In the person of Jesus Christ, God reveals himself definitively and in fullness.

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." "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."

The Incarnation is a work of all three Persons of the Trinity.

258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation: “The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.” However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, “one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are”. It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.

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 and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own.

Jesus is fully God, fully 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.

The dogmas of the Blessed Virgin reveal Christ.

487 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.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary

490 To become the mother of the Savior, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace”. In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace.

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary. 

495 Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).

Mary's virginity.

496 From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived “by the Holy Spirit without human seed”. The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own. Thus St. Ignatius of Antioch at the beginning of the second century says:

You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin,. . . he was truly nailed to a tree for us in his flesh under Pontius Pilate. . . he truly suffered, as he is also truly risen.

497 The Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility: “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”, said the angel to Joseph about Mary his fiancee. The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”

The Virginal Marriage of Mary and Joseph (Theology of the Body 75).

Indeed, Christ's whole life, right from the beginning, was a discreet but clear distancing of himself from that which in the Old Testament had so profoundly determined the meaning of the body. Christ—as if against the expectations of the whole Old Testament tradition—was born of Mary, who, at the moment of the annunciation, clearly says of herself: “How can this be, since I know not man” (Lk 1:34), and thereby professes her virginity. Though he is born of her like every other man, as a son of his mother, even though his coming into the world is accompanied by the presence of a man who is Mary’s spouse and, in the eyes of the law and of men, her husband, nonetheless Mary’s maternity is virginal. The virginal mystery of Joseph corresponds to this virginal maternity of Mary. Following the voice from on high, Joseph does not hesitate to “take Mary...for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20).

Even though Jesus Christ’s virginal conception and birth were hidden from men, even though in the eyes of his contemporaries of Nazareth he was regarded as “the carpenter’s son” (Mt 13:55) (ut putabatur filius Joseph: Lk 3:23), the reality and essential truth of his conception and birth was in itself far removed from what in the Old Testament tradition was exclusively in favor of marriage, and which rendered continence incomprehensible and out of favor. Therefore, how could continence for the kingdom of heaven be understood, if the expected Messiah was to be David's descendant, and as was held, was to be a son of the royal stock according to the flesh? Only Mary and Joseph, who had lived the mystery of his conception and birth, became the first witnesses of a fruitfulness different from that of the flesh, that is, of a fruitfulness of the Spirit: “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20).

The story of Jesus’ birth is certainly in line with that “continence for the kingdom of heaven” of which Christ will speak one day to his disciples. However, this event remained hidden to the men of that time and also to the disciples. Only gradually would it be revealed to the eyes of the Church on the basis of the witness and texts of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The marriage of Mary and Joseph (in which the Church honors Joseph as Mary’s spouse, and Mary as his spouse), conceals within itself, at the same time, the mystery of the perfect communion of the persons, of the man and the woman in the conjugal pact, and also the mystery of that singular continence for the kingdom of heaven. This continence served, in the history of salvation, the most perfect fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in a certain sense it was the absolute fullness of that spiritual fruitfulness, since precisely in the Nazareth conditions of the pact of Mary and Joseph in marriage and in continence, the gift of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word was realized.

The Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, was conceived and born as man from the Virgin Mary.

Jesus, True God and True Man

If you were to stop 100 people on the street and ask them who Jesus is, what do you think they would say? You would expect to get a variety of answers - some people think that Jesus didn’t exist, some that he was a good teacher, a kind man; others that he was the Son of God. But what does that mean?

Some will either focus on Jesus as God, in his power and greatness, only appearing to be with us, or we focus on Jesus as Man, one of us, perhaps the best one of us, but still at best human. But as we’ll see, historic Christianity, the faith of the church throughout all its existence, won’t let us have this either or way of thinking about Jesus. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

Rather than an either / or, what we have is a both and - Jesus is fully God and fully man. But how do we know that? Read Mark chapter 1, the beginning of the good news about Jesus. Now imagine that you are Simon, sitting in your boat. You are a devout Jew, you know that ‘The LORD our God, the LORD is one.’ (Deut 6:4). There is one God. This man Jesus comes along and proclaims the kingdom of God is at hand, and calls you to follow him. You do so.

Later in chapter 1, Jesus heals the man with an unclean spirit in your synagogue in Capernaum. Look at 1:27 - ‘And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”’ (1:27) So who is this Jesus?

Fast forward to chapter 2, Jesus heals the man let down through the roof on the bed. Jesus forgives his sin, heals the man so he can walk, and what is the reaction of the crowd? ‘they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”’ (2:12)

Chapter 3, and as Jesus is casting out unclean spirits, they are recognising him: ‘And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried, “You are the Son of God,”’ (3:11). And it just keeps coming - Jesus doing these amazing things, and all the time you’re saying - who is this Jesus?

Not long afterwards, you’re in a boat. There’s a storm. A really bad storm, because even though you’re a fisherman, you think you’re going to die. What’s worse, Jesus is asleep on the boat. Doesn’t he care? Jesus gets up and calms the sea and the wind with a word. Look at 4:41 - ‘And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”’

Jesus is a man. No doubt about it. You’ve lived with him, travelled with him, ate with him, listened to him. Jesus is fully human. And yet there’s more to him - so when Jesus asks what you think of him, you are in no doubt: ‘You are the Christ.’ (8:29). You may not fully understand what the Christ means at this stage, but there’s no doubt who Jesus is. It’s confirmed at the Transfiguration, when Jesus becomes dazzling white on the mountain, and the voice from heaven declares: ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ (9:7).

At his trial, when asked if he is ‘The Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ Jesus replies: ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ (14:61-62). The high priest judges it blasphemy, to make himself equal to God, but what if he is speaking the truth? The whole way through, Mark’s gospel is building and building to the mighty declaration by the foreign soldier, who sees clearer than all the religious people of Israel: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’ (15:39).

Jesus is man, yes, no doubt about it. But Jesus is also God. As Mark says in his very first line: ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ (1:1). Now what we see being displayed through Jesus’ life, we also see displayed in Jesus’ resurrection - remember just a few weeks ago we heard Thomas’ declaration: ‘My Lord and my God.’ (John 20:28)

We also see it stated elsewhere. Think of John’s gospel, and how does it begin? ‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.’ (John 1:1) This word (logos, wisdom) became flesh. Or think of Philippians 2, that early Christian creed, ‘who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (exploited), but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men...’ (Phil 2:5-7)

Perhaps the greatest of these statements is found in Hebrews 1 (remembering that we could go to many more places in the New Testament... Romans 1, Colossians 1, 1 John 1 etc), the passage we had read. Who is Jesus? He is the Son, through whom God has spoken, the heir of all things, through whom God created the world. ‘He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.’ (Heb 1:3).

Let’s take a look at two groups, both of whom got it wrong about Jesus. First up, there were the Docetists (from the Greek ‘to seem’) - they claimed that Jesus was God, yes, but definitely not a real man - he just seemed to be human. Well, even on that brief introduction, you can see what the issues are. If Jesus wasn’t one of us, then how could he die in our place? How can he identify with our struggles and weakness if he only appeared to be human but didn’t actually take on flesh? The Jesus of the Docetists can’t save us.

A while later in church history, we meet a man who goes the other way. If the Docetists claimed that Jesus was only God, then Arius went to the other extreme. Jesus was just a man who came into existence when he was born of the virgin Mary, and while he was a good man, the best man ever, he definitely wasn’t God.

It’s because of Arius and his chums that the Nicene Creed is extended: ‘I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made …’ The Nicene Creed makes it absolutely sure, doesn’t it?

Jesus the man, the good man, the best man may inspire us to the best that a man can be, but that’s it. If he’s just another man, then he is not mighty to save, he would have the same problems as the rest of us.

So you see, we affirm what Scripture affirms - that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Nothing less will do. Nothing less will save us. No one else can save us. We see it through the rest of Hebrews, as you have the vision of who Jesus is right at the start - the Son of God, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature - this God took on flesh, came into the world, was made, for a little while lower than the angels, made purification for sins, identifies with us by calling us brethren, shares in our temptations, serves as our great high priest, prays for us, and has lifts our humanity to the heights of his throne.

Sometimes we can underestimate the Lord Jesus as we think of him, or undersell him as we speak of him to our friends. We all, naturally, tend to gravitate towards one or other of his aspects - either emphasising his humanity at the expense of his divinity, or focusing only on his greatness as God while forgetting his humanity. We really do need to hold both together, not in tension, but in perfect harmony, just as we see them displayed in Jesus.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Do you?

I Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ

The second article of the Creed is the foundation of our Christian faith. It is at once a profession of our belief that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and that the Incarnate God is the Lord, who is the Master of our eternal destiny.

Who, then, is Jesus Christ? He is the second Person of the Holy Trinity, whom the Father sent into the world to save the human race from sin. Having lost the friendship of God by sin, mankind could not regain this life of grace any more than a man who is dead can bring himself to life again.

Throughout the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus professed His divinity. So true was this that it was the main ground for His condemnation to death. Caiphas the high priest questioned Jesus about His claims to divinity, "I put you on oath, by the living God, to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus answered, "The words are your own" (Mt 26:62-66).

However, it was the apostle John who was the most emphatic in portraying Christ as, at once, true man and true God.

Defending Christ’s humanity, John was refuting the Docetae, who disclaimed the Incarnation on the premise that since matter was evil, God could not have become man.

St. John is explicit about Christ’s oneness with the Father and His divine nature. As a result, many so-called biblical scholars are reduced to dismissing John’s writings as pious exaggerations superimposed on the simple message of the Synoptics.

One episode in the fourth Gospel illustrates this principle. Jesus had just affirmed His oneness with God the Father, and His unbelieving listeners reacted immediately. Says the evangelist, "The Jews fetched stones to stone Him, so Jesus said to them, ‘I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?’ The Jews answered Him, ‘We are not stoning you for doing a good work, but for blasphemy; you are only a man, and you claim to be God’ (Jn 10:24-33).

As we move from the biblical record to the Church’s infallible teaching, the defense of Christ’s divinity becomes the cornerstone of Catholic doctrine. The first six ecumenical councils concentrated on defending Christ’s true divinity united with His true humanity.

By the year 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon drafted what has since come to be the final classic expression of faith on the person of Christ. It affirmed all the doctrinal definitions of the Catholic faith on what we believe about the Incarnate God.

We believe that Christ assumed a real human body. We believe that He assumed not only a body, but also a rational soul. He therefore has a divine and human mind, a divine and human will.

We believe that the two natures in Christ are united to form one individual. Christ is one person, the second person of the Trinity.

We believe that in Christ, each of the two natures remains unimpaired. They are not confused or changed in their respective properties; nor are they divided or separated, as though merely existing side by side. We believe that in becoming man, Christ was and remains true God, one in nature with the Father.

We believe that even as man, Christ is absolutely sinless. He not only did not sin, but He could not sin because He was God.

We believe that since Christ is one person, whatever He did (or does) was (and is) done simultaneously by both natures, although in different ways. This applies not only to what Jesus was and did in first century Palestine. It applies also to what He is and does in the twentieth century by His presence in the Holy Eucharist.

The Incarnation as the Humiliation of God

Why is the Incarnation the humiliation of God? Because whatever else humility is, it is most certainly self-abasement, a lowering of oneself. Humilis in Latin is the adjective corresponding to humus, "black dirt." With the dawn of Christianity, all the words of the pagan Roman vocabulary changed their meaning.

St. Paul told the Philippians of his day, and is telling the Philippians of all times, that the most difficult virtue for a human being to practice is humility. Consequently, in the first century as in the twentieth century, the followers of Christ must be powerfully motivated to practice humility. The deepest motive that St. Paul, under divine inspiration, could give us is the fact that God became man. He humbled Himself so that we proud creatures of flesh might be humble. We are not naturally humble. And the primary grace we need to even become humble, let alone grow in humility, is grace in the mind. We must see more clearly and more deeply what we already believe: that the Incarnation was God humiliating Himself, so that like Him, we too might be humble.

As far as God could, He emptied Himself of all the glory that He had a title to. He could not have become less than a human being. The lowest rank of creature that God could become identified with was a man. By His Incarnation, God humbled Himself to the limits of divine ingenuity.

What a lesson for us! Where would you find a person who not only accepts all the humiliation that comes into his life, but goes beyond that in even wondering, "How can I become more humble?" What is the most humiliating thing that God could do to me?" The most humiliating thing that God Himself could do was to become one of His creatures, and not even an angel, but only a speechless Child.

The Humility of Christ

Everything in Christ’s earthly life, from conception to the grave, everything was a manifestation of that mysterious attribute of God: His humility. We do not even need to be literate to be able to understand this kind of humility. He came into the world as a helpless infant. And this is the almighty Word of God, by whom the world came into being. He hid what He had and who He was. For nine months He was hidden in His mother’s womb. For thirty years He lived, as faith tells us, in total obscurity. Then, in His public life, from the moment He began to preach and proclaim the Gospel, He was not accepted, even by His fellow Nazarenes. Remember? Small wonder that He had so few true followers.

The modern world tells us if you want people to appreciate you, if you want them to recognize you, the last thing you want to do is to go into hiding, and the last thing you tell people to do is what they don’t like to do. We almost want to say that Christ found a way of making enemies and angering people, and He did so by the simple, expedient of being Himself and telling people the truth. If you want a lot of friends, do not tell them the truth.

Jesus taught the apostles, His chosen followers, far into the night. What happened? They just did not get it. I can speak from experience; the most humiliating thing for a teacher is to see that His students do not grasp what he is trying to tell them.

Christ experienced opposition on all sides. What a contrast in the six days from Palm Sunday to Good Friday! "Hosanna, hosanna," the crowd shouted on Palm Sunday, and on Good Friday: "Crucify Him!" One thing that Christ teaches us is the fickleness of human praise. Christ was betrayed by one of His own followers, scourged and crowned with thorns. Why did He allow it? Because He is God. He wanted to make sure that we understand what it means not only to reluctantly accept humiliation, but seek humiliation, sincerely welcome it when it comes.

Christ's Teaching of Humility

Christ taught first of all by example. Remember when John the Baptist remonstrated with the Master on the shore of the Jordan? John couldn’t bring himself to do it. "Look, I should be baptized by you," in effect telling Christ, "Please get out of the water." And Jesus told him, "No, that’s the way it must be; that’s the way the prophecies about me are to be fulfilled."

He is to be a suffering servant. We see His long years of subjection to two of His own creatures, Mary and Joseph, holy people; but they were creatures.

And then there is that unforgettable scene at the Last Supper. Just before He was going to undergo His passion, the one thing Christ made absolutely sure, the last lesson He would teach His apostles was a lesson in humility. He took a pan of water and a towel and started with Peter. Said Peter, "Not me, Lord; that’s beneath you." "But, Peter, if I don’t wash your feet, you cannot be my disciple." "Oh, all right, wash them."

Christ taught us humility by His words: "Take up My yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart: and you shall find rest for your souls" (Mt 11:29). To follow Christ, to carry His yoke, to be His disciples, there is no choice. Either we are going to be humble as His disciples, or no matter what vesture we may have around us, no matter what name people may give us, we are only as true followers of Christ as we are humble. Then he gives His promise: "and you shall find rest for your souls."

He is not only talking about that final eternal rest to which we all aspire. I have yet to meet a proud tranquil person. Proud people are worried; proud people are disturbed; proud people are restless. What a task we have to examine our lives and to ask ourselves: "How truly am I a follower of Christ, judging by my preoccupation with so many things? How little it takes to disturb me."

"Whosoever will be greater among you, let Him be your servants; even as the Son of Man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as a redemption for many" (Mk 43:45).

Christ practiced superhuman humility in order to teach us that if we are going to grow in virtue, we must start with humility. There is no virtue which is not weakened, which is not diseased, which is not infected, unless that virtue is possessed in humility.

"I am in the midst of you as He that serves" (Lk 22:25). Human beings do not like to be beholden or dependent on anyone. As all parents know, a child of three years can have a stubborn will! We don’t have to learn pride, we are born with it. It is humility that we have to keep learning and relearning. And the great teacher and master of humility is God become Man.

"You call me Master and Lord; and you say well, for so I am. If I then being your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, you do also" (Jn 13:13-15).

Especially in this Year of Faith, let’s at least once a day recall what Christ told His disciples and is telling us every day. "Whose feet, practically speaking, have I washed today? Before whom have I allowed myself to be humiliated or lowered in that person’s estimation?

Our Responsibility

The foundation for the following of Christ on its moral side is not only the practice of humility, but growth in humility. Jesus Christ is our model and inspiration for both the practice of humility and growth in this virtue. He is also the source of grace that we need to be able to become humble.

The great St. Theresa of Avila defined humility as the truth. There are two parts of this reflection on the meaning of humility as truth. On the one hand, humility does not overreach itself. Humility is the true estimate I have of myself, recognizing who I am, and not making claims or boasts for what I do not possess. Unlike us, Christ could not overreach Himself.

When is humility truth? When we think and act like we really are, and we do not have any higher estimation of who we are or what we can do than really and truly is the case. To remain and grow in humility in following Christ, we must keep reminding ourselves of who we are: we are creatures. God the Creator became one of His own creatures in order to protect us from the folly of thinking more of ourselves than we really are. We are, except for God, absolutely nothing.

Even as Christ revealed His own dependence on the heavenly Father, He showed dependence on Mary and Joseph, and dependence on the cruel Jewish Sanhedrin, who finally brought Him to His death.

We are all naturally proud. And the only way known to God and to man for lessening our pride is to walk the hard, rough road of humiliation. Welcome the humiliations in your life; cherish them; thank God for receiving them. Remember, the royal road of humility is paved with the sharp stones of humiliations. We don’t have to go around asking people: "I need more humility, would you mind humiliating me? They may say, "You idiot!" And we should say, "Thanks."

That is the first meaning of our humility in the following of Christ, in not overestimating, or overreaching ourselves. But there is another side to humility. Here again, the Son of God in human form is our perfect model to imitate. Humility also means that we do not under reach ourselves. Whatever we are, everything we have is a merciful gift from God. We were nothing, but we are not nothing now. We are children of God; we are loved by God; we possess graces and gifts, talents and abilities that God wants us to put into constant practice.

The hardest thing for many people is to balance these two forms of humility. Some people have almost an instinctive problem with the first kind of humility. They do not have much, but this does not protect them from finding something in themselves to be proud of.

Other people, however, do not under reach themselves with the gifts that God has given them. And we may be such persons. God never gives us anything to be stared at or hugged for ourselves. We are to be channels of grace for others. We may be gifted people who do not put to use the gifts which God has given us, always for His greater glory and correspondingly, for the good of souls.

St. Bernard relates how on one occasion he was to speak to thousands of people. As he walked up to the pulpit he said to himself: "Bernard, get down. You are going to preach this sermon so that people will say how eloquent Bernard is. For a moment, he hesitated, then he told the devil, "You liar. I did not prepare to speak for my own glory, and I will not be silent because you tell me I am proud of what people will think of me as an eloquent orator."

The more gifted we are, the more talents and graces God has given us, let us not do what the man in the parable did. He hid the one talent he possessed. Gifted people have to work harder, much harder, to remain humble than those who are less talented than they.

Christ, the living God, is our perfect model for the imitation that we need to practice the humility that God became Man mainly to teach us. God abased Himself to the limit, to teach us, proud creatures, the meaning of humility. But Christ never allowed anyone to doubt who He was, and what He should do. He did the will of His Father, was faithful to what the Father wanted, even though it meant working astounding miracles.

The Second Article of Faith

ARTICLE 2

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.

This article of the Creed is impacted with titles and biblical names. (Lord) refers to the God of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures and then refers to Jesus in the Christian Scriptures when he is recognized as the One sent by God.

(Jesus) or Savior is the name given to the one who would bring universal salvation to the human race. (Christ) the Messiah or Anointed One is the title given to Jesus because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission to save the Chosen People from their sins.

(The Only Begotten Son of God) indicates that from the beginning the divine sonship existed with the Father, that Jesus was not an afterthought but existed as the (Logos) or the Word of God made flesh proclaimed by the apostles and the followers of Jesus. "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father: through him all things were made."

This phrase is taken directly from the Council of Nicaea (325) that the Father and Son are "one in being" or consubstantial, that is, of the same substance in the divine nature of God. This phrase was then affirmed at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople (381). These Councils were called to combat Arianism which claimed that Jesus was not equal but subordinate to the Father’s divinity.

• God is Three Persons in one God - The Trinity (CCC 221, 234, 253, 254)

221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”: God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.

234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith”. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin”.

253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity”. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.” In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.”

254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. “God is one but not solitary.” “Father”, “Son”, “Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: “He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.” They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.” The divine Unity is Triune.

• The Divinity of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Trinity (CCC 454)

454 The title “Son of God” signifies the unique and eternal relationship of Jesus Christ to God his Father: he is the only Son of the Father (cf. Jn 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18); he is God himself (cf. Jn 1:1). To be a Christian, one must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (cf. Acts 8:37; 1 Jn 2:23).

• The world was created in and for Christ (CCC 280)

280 Creation is the foundation of “all God’s saving plans,” the “beginning of the history of salvation” that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ.

• Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord (CCC 430, 432, 455, 457)

430 Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves." At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission. Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, "will save his people from their sins". In Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of salvation on behalf of men.

432 The name "Jesus" signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation,23 so that "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

455 The title "Lord" indicates divine sovereignty. To confess or invoke Jesus as Lord is to believe in his divinity. "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit'" (1 Cor 12:3).

457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins"

• Jesus Christ is the center and heart of Christianity (CCC 426)

426 “At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father... who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever.” To catechize is “to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God’s eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by him.” Catechesis aims at putting “people... in communion... with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.”

The First Article of Faith - A Summary

Let’s sum up the First Article of Faith as contained in Catechism of the Catholic Church before we move on to the Second Article of Faith next week.

I believe in God

• God exists. There is only one God. He has revealed himself as "He who Is". His very being is Truth and Love. Even though he has revealed himself, he remains a mystery beyond understanding (Catechism, 178, 199, 200, 230, 231)
• God is at the same time one, and three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the central mystery of Christianity. (178, 261)
• Man responds to God's revelation by faith: believing God and adhering to his will. (176)
• Faith is necessary for salvation. (183)
• What God has revealed through Scripture and Sacred Catholic Tradition (what Christ taught to the Apostles) has been reliably written & handed down to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (96 & 97)

the Father almighty

• God the Father is the first Person of the one God, the Trinity.
• We dare to call God Father only through the merits of Jesus. He taught us to call God Father. (2798, 322, 742)
• We can call God Father only because of our union with his Son, Jesus. Through union with Jesus, we become adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. This is called divine filiation, and is the essence of the Good News. (422, 742, 1110, 1279, & Pope John Paul II, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope")
• God is Father because he is the first origin of all things, and because of his loving care for all of us as his children. (239)
• God is almighty because he is all powerful. The Catholic liturgy says, "God, you show your almighty power above all in your mercy and forgiveness" — by converting us from our sins and restoring us to his friendship by grace. (277)

creator of heaven and earth

• God created everything in existence, material & immaterial. (317, 320, 338)
• "The world was made for the glory of God." He freely chose to create to show forth & communicate his "glory" — his unlimited love and goodness. (293)
• Heaven exists; it is the immaterial dwelling place of God. (326, 2802, 1023-5)
• God upholds & sustains creation, is actively involved in its unfolding and development in time, and is the loving master of the world and of its history. (301-5, 314)
• We can perceive God's work of creation through the apparent order & design in the natural world. (286, 299)
• This belief in God as the first cause of all creation is compatible with various scientific theories and investigations of the secondary causes of development in the natural world. (283-4, 306-8)
• God deliberately created man, male and female, in his image and likeness and placed him at the summit of creation. Man alone was created for his own sake, and alone is called to share in God's own life. We are not a product of blind chance. (295, 355-6)
• God created man as male & female: equal in value & dignity, different in nature, and complementary in purpose. (369-372)
• While the creation accounts in Genesis may use symbolic language, it teaches profound truths about creation, man, the fall, evil, and the promise of salvation. (289, 389-90)
• The devil, a fallen angel, is real. He is the ultimate source of all evil. (391-5, 413-15)
• Adam, as the first man, freely chose disobedience to God, resulting in the loss of man's original holiness and justice, and brought about death. We call this state of deprivation original sin. (416-19)
• The victory of salvation won by Christ is greater than our loss due to sin. (420)
• The question of evil is a profound mystery. Every aspect of the Christian message is in part an answer to the question of evil. (309)