Welcome to a

new day of
learning!
 JESUS
CHRIST:
THE GOD-
MADE-MAN
Being Christian is
not the result of an
ethical choice or a
lofty idea, but the
encounter with an
event, a person,
which gives life a
new horizon and a
decisive direction.
– Benedict XVI
(Deus Caritas Est)
The Heart of Catechesis

At the heart of Catechesis

is Jesus Christ who

suffered, died, rose

again, and now lives
forever.

He alone can make us share

in the life of the
Trinity.
“In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God...
And the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1, 14)
Who is this WORD?

The Lord Jesus Christ is the

Eternal Word of the Father.
The Word Became Flesh
For us men and
for our salvation

1. In order to save us by
reconciling us with
God.
The Word Became Flesh
For us men and
for our salvation

2. So that we might
know
God’s love.
The Word Became Flesh
For us men and
for our salvation

3. To be our model of
holiness.
The Word Became Flesh
For us men and
for our salvation

4. To make us
partakers of
the divine nature.
INCARNATION (in + caro, “flesh”)
The fact that the Son of God assumed
a human nature in order to
accomplish salvation in it.
TRUE GOD & TRUE MAN
Christ became truly man
while remaining truly God.
He is NOT part God
and part man.
 JESUS IS GOD.
Mary is the Mother of Jesus.
Therefore, MARY IS THE MOTHER OF GOD.
Mary’s Divine Motherhood

Everything we know and

revere about Mary depends
upon her unique, God-
given vocation to be the
“Mother of God and of the
Redeemer.” This doctrine
is expressed every time we
pray the Hail Mary:
Holy Mary,
Mother of God!
Mary’s Divine Motherhood

Called in the Gospels

“the mother of Jesus,”
Mary is acclaimed by
Elizabeth, at the prompting
of the Spirit, as “the
mother of my Lord.”

The Church confesses that

Mary is truly Theotokos
(God-bearer).
 Mary’s Perpetual Virginity
From the first formulations of
faith, the Church has confessed
that Jesus was conceived solely
by the power of the Holy Spirit
without human seed, and born
of the Virgin Mary.

The virginal conception is a

divine work that surpasses all
human understanding and
possibility.
Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

The Catholic Church holds

as dogma that Mary is ever-
Virgin. It stresses thus the
radical novelty of the
Incarnation and Mary’s no
less radical and exclusive
dedication to her mission as
mother of her Son, Jesus
Christ.
 Mary’s Perpetual
Virginity

Mary is Aeiparthenos
(Ever Virgin).

Mary “remained a virgin

in conceiving her Son,
a virgin in giving birth to
him, a virgin carrying
him,
a virgin nursing him at
her breast, always a
virgin.” (Saint Augustine)
 Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

Vatican II reiterated the teaching about Mary, the

Ever-Virgin, by stating that Christ's birth did not
diminish Mary's virginal integrity but sanctified it.
The Two
Natures of
Jesus Christ
defined by
Ecumenical
Councils
 Excursus: What is an
Ecumenical Council?

It is a gathering of Church leaders (in particular

Bishops) who have the authority to make joint
decisions regarding Church doctrines and
disciplines that are binding.
THE COUNCILS

I. Nicea
II. Constantinople
III.Ephesus
IV.Chalcedon
 Helpful Terms (Rausch, Who is Jesus? P.154)

Term Basic Meaning Usage/Sense

Hypostasis (Greek) “to stand under” A reality existing by
Substantia (Latin) “to stand under” itself

Ousia “to be,” “being” Being, distinct entity,

nature
Homoousios “same” being One in being;
consubstantial
Prosopon (Greek) Face, countenance Concrete appearance,
Persona (Latin) Character, individual person; “individual
substance of a
rational creature.”
(Boethius, 6th CE)

Theotokos “God-bearer” Mother of God

Christotokos “Christ-bearer” Mother of Christ
Council of Nicea (325)

The Council Fathers

condemned Arianism
that taught that the
Son came to be from
things that were not
and that he was from
another substance
than that of the Father
(homoiousios).
Arius
th
- 4 Century
Priest
- Theologian
from
Alexandria
ARIANISM

Jesus was the highest created being of

God, but does not share the same
substance as God. Christ, though
greater than man was fully human but
not fully God, was not eternal but
created.
 Council of Nicea (325)
Teaching:
The Son of God is “begotten, not made,
of the same substance (homoousios) as the
Father.” Hence, Christ is God.
Council of Nicea (325)
While the Father and the Son are
distinct, the Son “belongs to the
Father’s substance and is of the
same nature as He.”
–St. Athanasius

“God the Father and God the

Son are clearly one, not by a
union of Person but by a
unity of nature.”
–St. Hilary of Poitiers
Council of Constantinople (381)
The Council Fathers
condemned Apollinarianism
that taught that the Logos
replaced the human soul of
Christ. Jesus was not truly a
human being since he lacks a
rational soul, without a
principle of human
individuality, freedom, and
action.
Apollinarianism
Appolinarius of Laodicea

Christ is not fully

human. He did not have
a human mind or soul.
He argued that if Christ
had a human soul then
he might have sinned.
Council of Constantinople (381)
Teachings:
Christ’s human
nature—complete with
operations of intellect
and will, and human
body—belongs to the
divine person of the
Son of God who
assumed it.
Council of Constantinople (381)
Teachings:
This Council upheld
that Christ while
sharing in the same
divine substance
possessed a fully
rational faculty, i.e., a
human soul, Hence,
Christ is human.
Council of Ephesus (431)
The Council Fathers
condemned Nestorianism
that regarded Christ as a
human person joined to the
divine person of God’s Son.
They also held that Mary is
only Christotokos, not
Theotokos, since a creature
cannot give birth to God.
Nestorius
- Patriarch of Constantinople

In Christ are two persons: a

human person and Divine
person. God the Son simply
used the human person as an
instrument to reveal himself.
Thus, Jesus is “God-bearing-
man” rather than “ God-man”.
 Council of Ephesus (431)
Teachings:
The Divine Person of the
Son of God assumed
humanity and made it his
own, from his conception.
Mary truly became the
Mother of God by the
human conception of the
Son of God in her womb.
Council of Ephesus (431)
Jesus is the “one
incarnate nature of the
divine Logos,”
understanding that while
remaining God, the
Logos or Son took on
human life. There is
“union in hypostasis” –
St. Cyril
Jesus is “perfect God
and perfect man.” The
two natures are without
confusion.
–St. John of Antioch
Council of Chalcedon (451)
The Council Fathers
condemned
Monophysitism that
taught that the human
nature had ceased to exist
as such in Christ when the
divine person of God's
Son assumed it.
MONOPHYSITISM
Greek mono physis
(“single nature”)

Jesus had only one

nature the divine Eutcyhes
nature -an Abbot in
Constantinople
 Council of Chalcedon (451)
Teachings:
The 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.
 Council of Chalcedon (451)

Teachings:
Taught that the two distinct
natures were united in the one
person of Jesus Christ.
Council of Chalcedon (451)
“So the proper
character of both
natures was
maintained and came
together in a single
person. Lowliness was
taken up by majesty,
weakness by strength,
mortality by eternity.”
– Flavian’s profession
of faith, echoed by
Pope Leo