"Jesus Christ" - True God and True Man.

To begin this reflection, I want to define the word Heresy. Webster states: “a religious belief opposed to the orthodox doctrines of a church; especially, such a belief specifically denounced by the church and regarded as likely to cause schism”. The CCC 2089; “Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. “Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same ; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him”.

All in this reflection contains excerpts from what I believe to be the first edition of the CCC, if indeed other printings were published. Different for my other reflections this is to promote the Church’s absolute directive on this very important and true explanation to the statement; Jesus Christ-true God and True man.

Did Jesus know He was Divine? Absolutely Yes! To back-up this statement see the CCC; “The Incarnation” beginning with 461. 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 on 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.”

CCC 464 ff; True God and True Man “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.”

CCC 468: After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ’s human nature a kind of personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council in 553 confessed that “there is but one hypostasis (or person) , which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity.” 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.”

CCC 470; How is the Son of God Man? “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 in 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.”

CCC 472; Christ’s soul and his human knowledge: “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 favor with God and man, and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience”.

CCC 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. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.”

There are a number of councils that had to refute different heresies regarding the human and divine characteristics about Jesus. But, know here, Jesus did know he was divine, and even going to the cross was aware of all he had come to redeem. Again, it is important to understand what the Church teaches about Christ and when teaching about him use the Catechism of the Catholic Church to back up their discussions and/or expressions. One more thing about the CCC, it was originally designed for the bishops of the Church to use in teaching doctrine. Anyone can and should use this catechism, but with discretionary care.

From “The Teaching of Christ”; excerpts of this belief: See Part 2 chapter 6 ff. “The books of the New Testament record a gradual development in the disciples’ recognition of who Jesus was and is”. “And Jesus applies to Himself names proper to God, such as “I am” which signifies the eternal reality and presence of God: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 78:58. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live”. (John 11:25-26).

(Knowledge of Christ) “Christ also knew Himself, the mystery of his own Person, of His Messianic dignity, and the task the Father had given him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God (John 13.3) is portrayed in full possession of Himself, confident, aware of His life and His mission. He knew full well that He was in the world to save sinners (Lk 19:10) to testify to the truth (Jn 18.37), to be the Light of the World (Jn 8.12). It was in awareness of who He was that He called all men to Himself. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11.28)”

(Power of Jesus) “In addition to the created powers that graced His humanity, Jesus, because of the personal union of His humanity with His divinity, exercised also divine power through His humanity. For His Human reality served instrumentally the mercy and strength of His own divine nature. Hence Jesus, in His humanity, performed personally and authoritatively works that are proper to God.” Such deeds of Jesus are sometimes called “theandric” (Godman) works, deeds, in which He acted through both His natures in perfect harmony. For each nature performs the functions proper to itself, yet in conjunction with the other nature.”