CHAPTER TWO - I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST,
THE ONLY SON OF GOD
The Good News: God has sent his Son
422 'But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.'[1] This is 'the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God':[2] God has
visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his
descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation - he has sent his own 'beloved Son'.[3]
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',[4] 'descended from heaven',[5] and 'came in the flesh'.[6] 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.'[7]
424 Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus
and confess: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'[8] On the rock of this faith
confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church.[9]
"To preach. . . the unsearchable riches of Christ"[10]
425 The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ
in order to lead others to faith in him. From the beginning, the first disciples burned
with the desire to proclaim Christ: "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and
heard."[11] It And they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their
communion with Christ:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the
word of life - the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim
to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us- that
which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have
fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.[12]
At the heart of catechesis: Christ
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."[13] To catechize is "to reveal in the Person of
Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfilment in that Person. It is to seek
to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words and of the signs worked by
him."[14] 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."[15]
427 In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God,. . . is taught - everything
else is taught with reference to him - and it is Christ alone who teaches - anyone else
teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips.
. . Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: 'My
teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.'"[16]
428 Whoever is called "to teach Christ" must first seek "the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus"; he must suffer "the loss of all things. . ." in order to "gain Christ
and be found in him", and "to know him and the power of his resurrection, and [to]
share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible [he] may attain the
resurrection from the dead".[17]
429 From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim him, to
"evangelize", and to lead others to the "yes" of faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time
the need to know this faith better makes itself felt. To this end, following the order of
the Creed, Jesus' principal titles - "Christ", "Son of God", and "Lord" (article 2) - will be
presented. The Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of his life - those of his
Incarnation (article 3), Paschal mystery (articles 4 and 5) and glorification (articles 6 and
7).
ARTICLE 2 - "AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS
ONLY SON, OUR LORD"
I. JESUS
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.[18] Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son
made man, "will save his people from their sins".[19] in Jesus, God recapitulates all of
his history of salvation on behalf of men.
431 In the history of salvation God was not content to deliver Israel "out of the house
of bondage"[20] by bringing them out of Egypt. He also saves them from their sin.
Because sin is always an offence against God, only he can forgive it.[21] For this reason
Israel, becoming more and more aware of the universality of sin, will no longer be able
to seek salvation except by invoking the name of the Redeemer God.[22]
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."[24]
433 The name of the Saviour God was invoked only once in the year by the high priest
in atonement for the sins of Israel, after he had sprinkled the mercy seat in the Holy of
Holies with the sacrificial blood. The mercy seat was the place of God's presence.[25]
When St. Paul speaks of Jesus whom "God put forward as an expiation by his blood", he
means that in Christ's humanity "God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself."[26]
434 Jesus' Resurrection glorifies the name of the Saviour God, for from that time on it is
the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the "name which is above
every name".[27] The evil spirits fear his name; in his name his disciples perform
miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name.[28]
435 The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude
with the words "through our Lord Jesus Christ". The Hail Mary reaches its high point in
the words "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart, the
Jesus Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Many
Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word "Jesus" on their lips.
II. CHRIST
436 The word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which
means "anointed". It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished
perfectly the divine mission that "Christ" signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated
to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in his name. This was the case for
kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets.[29] This had to be the case all the
more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom
definitively.[30] It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord
at once as king and priest, and also as prophet.[31] Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of
Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet and king.
437 To the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised
to Israel: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the
Lord."[32] From the beginning he was "the one whom the Father consecrated and sent
into the world", conceived as "holy" in Mary's virginal womb.[33] God called Joseph to
"take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit", so that
Jesus, "who is called Christ", should be born of Joseph's spouse into the messianic
lineage of David.[34]
438 Jesus' messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, "for the name 'Christ'
implies 'he who anointed', 'he who was anointed' and 'the very anointing with which he
was anointed'. The one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the
Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing.'"[35] His eternal
messianic consecration was revealed during the time of his earthly life at the moment of
his baptism by John, when "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power", "that he might be revealed to Israel"[36] as its Messiah. His works and
words will manifest him as "the Holy One of God".[37]
439 Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the
fundamental attributes of the messianic "Son of David", promised by God to Israel.[38]
Jesus accepted his rightful title of Messiah, though with some reserve because it was
understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a sense, as essentially
political.[39]
440 Jesus accepted Peter's profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the
Messiah, by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of Man.[40] He unveiled the
authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son
of Man "who came down from heaven", and in his redemptive mission as the suffering
Servant: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many."[41] Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed only when he
is raised high on the cross.[42] Only after his Resurrection will Peter be able to proclaim
Jesus' messianic kingship to the People of God: "Let all the house of Israel therefore
know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you
crucified."[43]
III. THE ONLY SON OF GOD
441 In the Old Testament, "son of God" is a title given to the angels, the Chosen
People, the children of Israel, and their kings.[44] It signifies an adoptive sonship that
establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and his creature. When the
promised Messiah-King is called "son of God", it does not necessarily imply that he was
more than human, according to the literal meaning of these texts. Those who called
Jesus "son of God", as the Messiah of Israel, perhaps meant nothing more than this.[45]
442 Such is not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son
of the living God", for Jesus responds solemnly: "Flesh and blood has not revealed this
to you, but my Father who is in heaven."[46] Similarly Paul will write, regarding his
conversion on the road to Damascus, "When he who had set me apart before I was
born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order
that I might preach him among the Gentiles..."[47] "And in the synagogues immediately
[Paul] proclaimed Jesus, saying, 'He is the Son of God.'"[48] From the beginning this
acknowledgment of Christ's divine sonship will be the centre of the apostolic faith, first
professed by Peter as the Church's foundation.[49]
443 Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the Messiah's divine sonship
because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so understood. To his accusers' question
before the Sanhedrin, "Are you the Son of God, then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I
am."[50] Well before this, Jesus referred to himself as "the Son" who knows the Father,
as distinct from the "servants" God had earlier sent to his people; he is superior even to
the angels.[51] He distinguished his sonship from that of his disciples by never saying
"our Father", except to command them: "You, then, pray like this: 'Our Father'", and he
emphasized this distinction, saying "my Father and your Father".[52]
444 The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the
Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his "beloved Son".[53]
Jesus calls himself the "only Son of God", and by this title affirms his eternal preexistence.[
54] He asks for faith in "the name of the only Son of God".[55] In the
centurion's exclamation before the crucified Christ, "Truly this man was the Son of
God",[56] that Christian confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal mystery can the
believer give the title "Son of God" its full meaning.
445 After his Resurrection, Jesus' divine sonship becomes manifest in the power of his
glorified humanity. He was "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness by his Resurrection from the dead".[57] The apostles can confess: "We have
beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."[58]
IV. LORD
446 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH,
by which God revealed himself to Moses,[59] is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord". From then
on, "Lord" becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel's
God. The New Testament uses this full sense of the title "Lord" both for the Father and
- what is new - for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself.[60]
447 Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the
Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses
his apostles.[61] Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by
works of power over nature, illnesses, demons, death and sin.
448 Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as "Lord". This title testifies to the
respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.[62] At the prompting
of the Holy Spirit, "Lord" expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.[63]
In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: "My Lord and my
God!" It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the
Christian tradition: "It is the Lord!"[64]
449 By attributing to Jesus the divine title "Lord", the first confessions of the Church's
faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father
are due also to Jesus, because "he was in the form of God",[65] and the Father
manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into
his glory.[66]
450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ's lordship over the
world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his
personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not "the Lord".[67] "The Church. . . believes
that the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in
its Lord and Master."[68]
451 Christian prayer is characterized by the title "Lord", whether in the invitation to
prayer ("The Lord be with you"), its conclusion ("through Christ our Lord") or the
exclamation full of trust and hope: Maranatha ("Our Lord, come!") or Maranatha
("Come, Lord!") - "Amen Come Lord Jesus!"[69]
IN BRIEF
452 The name Jesus means "God saves". The child born of the Virgin Mary is called
Jesus, "for he will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1:21): "there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
453 The title "Christ" means "Anointed One" (Messiah).Jesus is the Christ, for "God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38). He was
the one "who is to come" (Lk 7:19), the object of "the hope of Israel" (Acts 28:20).
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).
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'" (I
Cor 12:3).
ARTICLE 3 - "HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE
POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND WAS
BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
Paragraph I. The Son of God Became Man
I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME 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."
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 Saviour of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":[70]
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
Saviour; 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?[71]
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."[72] "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."[73]
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."[74] On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen
to him!"[75] Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love
one another as I have loved you."[76] This love implies an effective offering of oneself,
after his example.[77]
460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":[78] "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."[79] "For the Son of God became man so that we might become
God."[80] "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."[81]
II. THE INCARNATION
461 Taking up St. John's expression, "The Word became flesh",[82] 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.[83]
462 The Letter to the Hebrews refers to the same mystery:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you
have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin
offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I have come to do your will, O
God."[84]
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."[85] 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."[86]
III. 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.
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".[87] But already in the third century, the Church in a
council at Antioch had to affirm against 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.[88]
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."[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."[90]
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.[91]
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.[92]
468 After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of
personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople in 553,
confessed that "there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ,
one of the Trinity."[93] Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to
his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and
even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God,
Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity."[94]
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.[95] 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!"[96]
IV. HOW IS THE SON OF GOD MAN?
470 Because "human nature was assumed, not absorbed",[97] 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:[98]
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.[99]
Christ's soul and his human knowledge
471 Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the
soul or spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed
a rational, human soul.[100]
472 This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human
knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in
the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God
could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God
and man",[101] and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the
human condition can learn only from experience.[102] This corresponded to the reality
of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a slave".[103]
473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine
life of his person.[104] "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union
with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God."[105]
Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of
God made man has of his Father.[106] The Son in his human knowledge also showed
the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.[107]
474 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ
enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he
had come to reveal.[108] What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere
declared himself not sent to reveal.[109]
Christ's human will
475 Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church
confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human.
They are not opposed to each other, but co-operate in such a way that the Word made
flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the
Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation.[110] Christ's human will "does not resist or
oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will."[111]
Christ's true body
476 Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was
finite.[112] Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh
ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy
images to be legitimate.[113]
477 At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus "we
see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see."[114]
The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son.
He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be
venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who venerates the icon is
venerating in it the person of the one depicted".[115]
The heart of the Incarnate Word
478 Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and
gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for
me."[116] He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation,[117] "is quite rightly considered the
chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves
the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.[118]
IN BRIEF
479 At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is,
the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his
divine nature he has assumed human nature.
480 Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this
reason he is the one and only mediator between God and men.
481 Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one divine and the other human, not confused,
but united in the one person of God's Son.
482 Christ, being true God and true man, has a human intellect and will, perfectly
attuned and subject to his divine intellect and divine will, which he has in common with
the Father and the Holy Spirit.
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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