I Believe, Part 4

Catholic 365  I Believe Part 4

I BELIEVE, Part Four 

For those of you who have been following my articles about the Creed, I have one final installment. Here will end our series, because the rest will be published soon on Amazon in my book.

We pray, “For us men and our salvation.” 

It has been said, “We live in a broken world.” This world is broken by sin – both personal and communal.  It is not just personal offenses against God – it is the whole community, culture, and world that is held in the grips of sin and evil. As St. Paul says, “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned” (Romans 5:14).  Even over those who had not sinned. And if we have questions about how even a righteous person can feel the effects of sin, we can read the story of Job. From the very beginning of his story, it was noted that, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil”  (Job 1:1). We don’t have to read far to discover that evil found him and turned his entire world upside down.

The whole of the Bible tells the story of our downfall and wanderings from the One True God. The entire Old Testament is a story of a sort of leap frog that the Israelites played between good and evil. To this day, whole cultures, families, and people, waver back and forth between choosing God’s law versus the law of sin. It is difficult even for God’s own people to choose wisely between good and evil.  In the Old Testament, Joshua presses the people to make a commitment to God:

Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.  (Deut. 30:19)

St. Paul explains, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things, rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).  This is such a desecration against Our Lord, Who is the King of all creation.  This is even more of an insult against our Father Who created us to love and worship Him. The Baltimore Catechism begins with this: 

God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven. 1 

When we make sinful choices, it does more than cause conflicts between nations and people. Sin has a profound effect on our relationship with God. In the words of St. John Paul II:

Sin, which is the creature’s rebellion against the Creator, had interrupted the dialogue of love between God and His children. 2

Such a great injustice against the holy God demands justice and reparation. Jesus told St. Faustina that even He is torn between mercy and judgment. He said, "My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it." 3

I have often asked why justice demanded blood? It is a question that looms throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, God demanded atonement for personal and communal sin. He dictated that the blood of an animal could make reparation for sin. It was not only the blood of the animal, but it was the act of faith by the believer who sacrificed from his own flock.

But God the Father, from the beginning of time, had a plan for permanent restoration of the whole human race. The Catechism tells us how we can truly be at peace with God:

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.4 

Sin entered the world through humans, but only a Divine remedy could restore us. The great offenses that we have committed as a whole human race can only be repaired through a miraculous act by One who is Divine, taking on all our human woes. St. Paul states, 

For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One man, the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

We are in need of salvation – but are we being saved from something or for something? That is, are we being saved in order just to escape all of our problems – or are we being saved for something greater than ourselves? 

We pray, "He came down from Heaven.”  

St. John accentuates the true divine nature of Jesus Christ in his great discourse on the Incarnation:  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being…And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:1-2, 14)

The very One Who was the Co-creator of the universe was born in human flesh. He came down from Heaven, willingly came to save the world from eternal damnation. He came to us, instead, in love and grace. 

The Incarnation, the birth of Jesus, is when the eternal Christ became man and took on human flesh and the Name Jesus. The Catechism proclaims this great mystery:

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.5 

There is so much in this proclamation, that it begs us to meditate on it phrase by phrase. The Eternal Word, Who was with God in the beginning and Who is part of the Godhead – He came to us in our own likeness as a little, helpless baby. He came into poverty, pain, and He suffered as we do.  It is another great mystery.

The Catechism proclaims in exaltation: 

The Incarnation is, therefore, the mystery of the wonderful union of the Divine and the human natures in the One Person of the Word, that is, Jesus Christ.6 

In reading through the catechism, I find so many marvelous quotes by the saints. St. Gregory the Great explains the big why: WHY did Jesus come to earth? What is it that could prompt Him to leave eternal bliss and come to earth?

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?7 

Bibliography

1 Baltimore Catechism, #6. Accessed 6-11-2025. https://sacred-texts.com/chr/balt/balt1.htm.

2 (St. John Paul II, General Audience  6-10-1998, Section 2, line 7)

3 St. Faustina, Diary, 20. Accessed 6-11-2025). https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/saint-faustina-and-suffering-souls

4 USCCB, Catechism, Number 481. Accessed 7-6-2023. https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/file/flipbooks/catechism/

5 (USCCB, Catechism, Number 479. Accessed 7-6-2023. https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/file/flipbooks/catechism/

6 USCCB, Catechism. Number 483. Accessed 7-6-2023. https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/file/flipbooks/catechism/

7 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech 15: PG 45, 48B. Cited in Catholic Cross Reference, Catechism, 457https://www.catholiccrossreference.online/catechism/#!/search/s1.2.2/page/2