ARTICLE
II
"
And In Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord "
Advantages
of Faith in This Article
That
wonderful and superabundant are the blessings which flow to the human race from
the belief and profession of this Article we learn from these words of St.
John: Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God; 1 and also from the words of Christ the Lord,
proclaiming the Prince of the Apostles blessed for the confession of this
truth: Blessed Art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood have not
revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 2 For this Article is the most firm basis of
our salvation and redemption.
But
as the fruit of these admirable blessings is best known by considering the ruin
brought on man by his fall from that most happy state in which God had placed
our first parents, let the pastor be particularly careful to make known to the
faithful the cause of this common misery and calamity.
When
Adam had departed from the obedience due to God and had violated the
prohibition, Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat, for in what day so ever thou
shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death, 3 he fell into the extreme misery of losing
the sanctity and righteousness in which he had been placed, and of becoming
subject to all those other evils which have been explained more fully by the
holy Council of Trent.
Wherefore,
the pastor should not omit to remind the faithful that the guilt and punishment
of original sin were not confined to Adam, but justly descended from him, as
from their source and cause, to all posterity. 4 The human race, having fallen from its
elevated dignity, no power of men or Angels could raise it from its falling
condition and replace it in its primitive state. To remedy the evil and repair the loss it became necessary that
the Son of God, whose power is infinite, clothed in the weakness of our flesh,
should remove the infinite weight of sin and reconcile us to God in His blood.
{a}
Necessity Of Faith In
This Article
The
belief and profession of this our redemption, which God declared from the
beginning, are now, and always have been, necessary to salvation. In the sentence of condemnation pronounced
against the human race immediately after the sin of Adam the hope of redemption
was held out in these words, which announced to the devil the loss he was to
sustain by man's redemption: I will
put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. 5
The
same promise God again often confirmed and more distinctly manifested to those
chiefly whom He desired to make special objects of His favor; among others to
the Patriarch Abraham, to whom He often declared this mystery, but more
explicitly when, in obedience to His command, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice
his only son Isaac. Because, said
God, thou hast done this thing, and has not spared thy only - begotten son for
my sake; I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore. Thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my
voice. 6
From these words it was easy
to infer that He who was to deliver mankind from the ruthless tyranny of Satan
was to be descended from Abraham; and that while He was the son of God, He was
to be born of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh.
Not
long after, to preserve the memory of this promise, God renewed the same
covenant with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham.
When in a vision Jacob saw a ladder standing on earth, and its top reaching
to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending by it, 7 as the Scriptures testify, he also heard
the Lord, who was leaning on the ladder, say to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of
Isaac; ye land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy
seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust
of the earth. Thou shalt spread abroad
to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee
and thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. 8
Nor did God cease afterwards to excite in the
posterity of Abraham and in many others, the expectation of a Saviour, by
renewing the recollection of the same promise; for after the establishment of
the Jewish State and religion it became better known to His people. Types signified and men foretold what and
how great blessings the Saviour and Redeemer, Christ Jesus, was to bring to
mankind. And indeed the Prophets, whose
minds were illuminated with light from above, foretold the birth of the Son of
God, the wondrous works which He wrought while on earth, His doctrine,
character, life, death, Resurrection, and the other mysterious circumstances
regarding Him,- and all these they announced to the people as graphically as if
they were passing before their eyes. {b} With the exception that one has reference to
the future and the other to the past, we can discover no difference between the
predictions of the Prophets and the preaching of the Apostles, between the
faith of the ancient Patriarchs and that of Christians. {c}
But
we are now to speak of the several parts of this Article.
"
JESUS "
Jesus
is the proper name of the God-man and signifies Savior: a name given Him not
accidentally, or by the judgment or will of man, but by the council and command
of God. {d} For the angel announced to Mary His
mother: Behold thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
9 He afterwards not only commanded Joseph,
who was espoused to the Virgin, to call the child by that name, but also
declared the reason why He should be so called. Joseph, son of David, said the angel, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For
he shall save his people from their sins. 10
In
the Sacred Scriptures we meet with many who were called by this name. So, for example, was called the son of Nave,
who succeeded Moses, and, by special privilege denied to Moses, conducted into
the land of promise the people whom Moses had delivered from Egypt; and also
the son of Josedech, the priest. {e}
But how much more appropriate it is to call by this name our Savior, who
gave light, liberty and salvation, not to want people only, but to all men, of
all ages - to men oppressed, not by famine, or Egyptian or Babylonian bondage,
but sitting in the shadow of death and fettered by the galling chains of sin
and of the devil - who purchased for them a right to the inheritance of heaven
and reconciled them to God the Father!
In those men who were designated by the same name we see foreshadowed
Christ the Lord, by whom the blessings just enumerated were poured out on the
human race.
All
other names which according to prophecy were to be given by divine appointment
to the Son of God, are comprised in this one name Jesus; for while they
partially signified the salvation which He was to bestow upon us, this name
included the force and meaning of all human salvation.
" CHRIST "
To
the name Jesus is added that of Christ, which signifies the
anointed. This name is expressive
of honor and office, and is not peculiar to one thing only, but common to many;
for in the Old Law priest and kings, whom God, on account of the dignity of
their office, commanded to be anointed, were called christs. For priest commend the people to God by
unceasing prayer, offer sacrifice to Him, and turn away His wrath from mankind. Kings are entrusted with the government of
the people; and to them principally belong the authority of the law, the
protection of innocence and the punishment of guilt. As, therefore both these functions seem to represent the majesty
of God on Earth, those who were appointed to the Royal or sacerdotal office
were anointed with oil. Furthermore,
since Prophets, as the interpreters and ambassadors of the immortal God, have
unfolded to us the secrets of heaven and by salutary precepts and the
prediction of future events have exhorted to amendment of life, it was
customary to anoint them also.
When
Jesus Christ our Savior came into the world, he assumed these three characters
of Prophet, Priest and King, and was therefore called Christ, having
been anointed for the discharge of these functions, not by mortal hand or with
earthly ointment, but by the power of His heavenly Father and with a spiritual
oil; for the plenitude of the of the
Holy Spirit and a more copious effusion of all gifts than any other created
being is capable of receiving were poured into His soul. This the Prophet clearly indicates when he
addresses the Redeemer in these words: thou hast loved justice, and hated
iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows. 11
The same is also more explicitly declared by the Prophet Isaias: The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek. 12
Jesus
Christ, therefore, was the great Prophet and Teacher, from whom we have learned
the will of God and by whom the world has been taught the knowledge of a
heavenly Father. The name prophet
belongs to Him preeminently, because all others who were dignified with that
name were His disciples, sent principally to announce the coming of that
Prophet who was to save all men.
Christ
was also a Priest, not indeed of the same order as were the priest of the tribe
of Levi in the Old Law, but of that of which the Prophet David sang: Thou art a priest for ever according to
the order of Melchisedech. 13
This subject the Apostle fully and accurately develops in his Epistle to
the Hebrews.
Christ
not only as God, but also as man and partaker of our nature, we acknowledge to
be a King. Of Him the Angel
testified: He shall reign in the
house of Jacob for ever. And of his
kingdom there shall be no end. 14 This kingdom of Christ is spiritual and eternal, begun on earth
but perfected in heaven. He discharges
by his admirable Providence the duties of King towards his Church, governing
and protecting her against the assaults and snares of her enemies, legislation
for her and imparting to her not only holiness and righteousness, but also the
power and strength to preserve. But
although the good and the bad are found within the limits of this kingdom, and
thus all men by right belong to it, yet those who in conformity with His
commands lead unsullied and innocent lives, experience beyond all others the
sovereign goodness and beneficence of our King. Although descended from the most illustrious race of kings, He
obtained this kingdom not by hereditary or other human right, but because God bestowed on Him as man all
the power, dignity and majesty of which human nature is capable. To him, therefore, God delivered the
government of the whole world, and to this His sovereignty, which has already
commenced, all things shall be made fully and entirely subject on the day of
judgment. {f}
" HIS ONLY SON
"
In
these words, mysteries more exalted with regard to Jesus are proposed to the
faithful as objects of their belief and contemplation; namely, that He is the
Son of God, and true God, like the Father who begot Him from eternity. We also confess that He is the Second Person
of the Blessed Trinity, equal in all things to the Father and the Holy Ghost; for in the Divine Persons nothing unequal or
unlike should exist, or even be imagined to exist, since we acknowledge the
essence, will and power of all to be one.
This truth is both clearly revealed in many passages of Holy Scripture
and sublimely announced in the testimony of St. John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 15
But
when we are told that Jesus is the Son of God, we are not to understand
anything earthly or mortal in His birth;
but are firmly to believe an piously to adore that birth by which, from
all eternity, the Father begot the Son,- a mystery which reason cannot fully
conceive or comprehend, and at the contemplation of which, overwhelmed, as it
were, with admiration, we should a exclaim with the Prophet: Who shall declare his generation? 16 On this point, then, we are to believe that
the Son is of the same nature, of the same power and wisdom, with the Father,
as we more fully profess in these words of the Nicene Creed: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, his
Only-begotten Son, born of the Father before all ages, God Of God, light of light, true God of
true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things
were made.
Among
the different comparisons employed to elucidate the mode and manner of this
eternal generation that which is borrowed from the production of thought in our
mind seems to come nearest to its illustration, and hence St. John calls the
Son the Word. For as our mind, in some
sort understanding itself, forms an image of itself, which theologians express
by the term word, so God, as far as we may compare human things to divine,
understanding Himself, begets the eternal Word. It is better, however, to contemplate what faith proposes, and in
the sincerity of our souls to believe and confess that Jesus Christ is true God
and true Man,- as God, begotten of the Father before all ages, as Man, born in
time of Mary, His Virgin Mother. {g}
While
we thus acknowledge His twofold Nativity;
we believe Him to be one Son, because His divine and human natures meet
in one Person. As to His divine
generation He has no brethren or coheirs, a in the Only begotten Son of the
Father, while we mortals are the work of His hands. But if we consider His birth as man, He not only calls many by
the name of brethren, but treats them as such, since He admits them to share
with Him the glory of His paternal inheritance. They are those who by faith have received Christ the Lord, and
who really, and by works of charity, show for the faith which they profess in
words. Hence the Apostle calls Christ, the
first born amongst many brethren. 17 {h}
"
OUR LORD "
Of
our Savior many things are recorded in Sacred Scripture. Some of these, it is evident, apply to Him
as God and some as man, because from His two natures He received the different
properties which belong to both. Hence
we say with truth that Christ is Almighty, Eternal, Infinite, and these
attributes He has from His Divine Nature; again, we say of Him that He
suffered, died, and rose again, which are properties manifestly that belong to
His human nature.
Besides
these terms, there are others common to both natures; as when in this Article
of the Creed we say our Lord.
If, then, this name applies to both natures, rightly is He to be called
our Lord. For as he, as well as the
Father, is the eternal God, so is He Lord of all things equally with the
Father; and as He and the Father are
not the one, one God, and the other, another God, but one and the same God, so
likewise He and the Father are not the one, one Lord, and the other, another
Lord.
As
man, He is also for many reasons appropriately called our Lord. First, because He is our Redeemer, who
delivered us from sin, He deservedly acquired the power by which He truly is
and is called our Lord. This is the
doctrine of the Apostle : He
humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the
cross. For which cause God also hath
exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth,
and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus
Christ is in the glory of God the Father. 18 And of Himself He said, after His Resurrection: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. 19
He
is also called Lord because in one Person both natures, the human and
the divine, are united; and even though He had not died for us, He would have
yet deserved, by this admirable union, to be constituted common Lord of all
created things, particularly of the faithful who obey and serve him with all
the fervor of their souls.
Duties
Owed to Christ Our Lord
It remains, therefore, that the pastor remind the faithful that from Christ we take our name and are called Christians; that we cannot be ignorant of the extent of His favors, particularly since by His gift of faith we are enabled to understand all these things. We, above all others, are under the obligation of devoting and consecrating ourselves forever, like faithful servants, to our Redeemer and our Lord.
This
indeed, we promised at the doors of the church when about to be baptized; for
we then declared that we renounced the devil and the world, and gave ourselves
unreservedly to Jesus Christ. But if to
be enrolled as soldiers of Christ we consecrated ourselves by so Holy and
solemn a profession to our Lord, what punishments should we not deserve if
after our entrance into the church, and after having known the will and laws of
God and received the grace of the Sacraments, we were to form our lives upon
the precepts and maxims of the world and the devil, just as though when
cleansed in the waters of Baptism, we had pledged our fidelity to the world and
to the devil, and not to Christ the Lord and Savior!
What
heart so cold as not to be inflamed with love by the kindness and good will
exercised toward us by so great a Lord, who, through holding us in His power
and dominion as slaves ransomed by His blood, yet embraces us with such ardent
love as to call us not servants, but friends and brethren? This, assuredly, supplies the most just, and
perhaps the strongest, claim to induce us always to acknowledge, venerate, and
adore Him as our Lord.
Endnotes Article II
1.> 1 John iv. 15. 11.> Ps. xliv. 8.
2.> Matt. xvi. 17. 12.> Is. lxi. 1.
3.> Gen. ii. 16. 13.> Ps. cix. 4.
4.> Rom. v. 12. 14.> Luke. i. 32, 33.
5.> Gen. iii. 15. 15.> John i. 1.
6.> Gen. xxii. 16-18. 16.> Is. liii. 8.
7.> Gen. xxvii. 12. 17.> Rom. viii. 29.
8.> Gen. xxviii. 13, 14. 18.> Phil. ii. 9, 10.
9.> Luke i. 31. 19.> Matt. xxviii. 18.
10.> Matt. i. 20.
{a} On original sin and the necessity of the Incarnation see Summa Theol. 1a. 2.ae. lxxxi-lxxxiii ; 3a. i; Council of Trent, Sess. v.
{b} See Is. vii. 14; viii. 3; ix. 5; xi. 1-53; Jer. xxiii. 6; xxx. 9; Dan. vii. 13; ix. 24.
{c} On the necessity of faith in Christ see Summa Theol. 2a. 2ae. ii. 7.
{d} On the name Jesus see Summa Theol. 3a. xxxvii. 2.
{e} Josue, the son of Nave, is called Jesus (Eccl. xlvi. 1), as is also the son of Sirach (Eccl. l. 29). Jesus, the son of Josedech, is mentioned often in Esdras, Aggeus and Zacharias, and he it is of whom St. Luke speaks (iii. 29) as being descended from Eliezer.
{f} On Christ as Prophet see Summa Theol. 2a. 2ae. clxxiv. 4. ad 3; 3a. vii. 8; xxxi. 2. On the Priesthood of Christ see ibid. 3a. xxii ; on the Headship of Christ see ibid. 3a. viii. The meaning of the words, "kingdom of God," are explained under the second Petition of the Lord's Prayer.
{g} On the eternal generation and Sonship of Christ see Summa Theol. 1a. xxvii. 2; xxxiv.
{h} These thoughts are further developed in the explanation of the opening words of the Lord's prayer, p. 505.