13. The Paschal Mystery

13. THE PASCHAL MYSTERY In the liturgy of Holy Week, we commemorate Christ's Passion , Death, and Resurrection. Compendium 112-116 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13:1 1. These events are inseparable and stand at the center of our faith. 2. The Hebrew word "paschal" means both "the passing over" and "passage". 3. In the Exodus the homes of the Israelites, marked by the blood of the sacrificial lamb, were "passed over" by the Angel of Death thereby sparing them so they could make the passage from slavery to freedom. 4. "Passover" is not just an historical celebration but a living memorial. 5. This first Passover anticipates Christ's shedding his blood for us as the sacrificial lamb to free all from the slavery of sin. 6. With Baptism in Christ we pass over from sin to a new and eternal life with Christ. 7. Christ is the new Moses who definitively interprets the Law and the Prophets. 8. We cannot impute guilt for the death of Jesus on those who historically participated in bringing it about. 9. Christ died for all our sins and as Christians we bear a greater responsibility for sin. 10. But God sent his Son in expiation for our sins. 11. Jesus assumed our humanity in order that it would become the very means of our redemption. 12. The entire life of Christ was a free offering to the Father to carry out his plan of salvation. 13. He announced the Kingdom, confirmed it with miracles, took our sins upon himself, cancelled death and showed us the path to everlasting life. 14. "Do this in memory of me", Jesus not only commands the Apostles to recall but also re-enact the very same mystery of love. "As often as you eat this bread and drink this blood you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." This is the origin of the Mass and the priesthood. 15. "Obedient unto death", Jesus' agony unmasks the enormity of our sins, which we tend to trivialize. Obedience is the key to our reconciliation with God and with those we have harmed. 16. Jesus invites us to take up our daily cross of sacrifice and suffering and walk with him in joy. 17. We await with Mary, our mother, in gratitude and wonder, as the sadness of death gives way to the joy of the resurrection. 18. The stupendous message of the paschal mystery is that our God loves each of us beyond all measure and with infinite tenderness. He implores us to love one another “as I have loved you” and makes this possible with the words “do this in memory of me.” Our God is not an arduous task master but rather an intimate friend and partner who invites us to an eternal banquet in celebration of that everlasting friendship. We cannot earn such an invitation. We can only accept it with the humility of a destitute beggar who is called to the table of the most magnanimous King of kings. We must rejoice and be glad and shout out the good news that our God loves us, forgives and forgets our ingratitudes, and gave his own son to save us from sin and death and desires with his whole heart that we share an eternity of infinite happiness with him. Truly there is no God like our God and no faith like our faith, no gospel like our Gospel.

10. Jesus Christ the Only Son of God

10. Jesus Christ, The Only Son Of God
Truly God and truly man, Jesus Christ stands at the center of history
Compendium 79-97
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Galatians 4:4-5

1. The proclamation of the name of Jesus and his saving deeds is the heart of the Gospel.
"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" the entire life and mission of the Church has been built on this confession of Peter.
2. Our faith in Christ should instill in us the desire to share the Good News and to reveal in the Person of Christ the entire design of God and to put humanity in communion with him.
3. "Jesus" means "God saves" - because he will save his people from their sins.
In no other name can we find salvation (Acts 4:12) That is why we are never to take Jesus' name in vain.
4. "Christ" is not a family name but a Greek term meaning "anointed one" or "Messiah"
5. Through Baptism we become members of the Church and heirs to all that the Lord  did to save us through his life death and resurrection.
6. Both Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist and his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor were marked by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"
7. "Lord" refers to Jesus' divine sovereignty demonstrated by his miracles, control over nature and his forgiveness of sins.
8. We should never let a day go by without repeating with the apostle Thomas "my Lord and my God"
9. Although Jesus was from eternity God's Son, at a certain point two thousand years ago he assumed our human nature and entered history. This happened because God wanted to draw near to us, reconcile us to his love and enable us to share in his divine life.
10. Jesus is at once "true God and true man" - of one substance, "consubstantial" with the Father and at the same time truly our brother.
11. Fully God and fully man, Jesus has revealed the Father to us and also revealed us to ourselves, who we are and what we should become.
12. As God, he has made us partakers in the divine nature, in the life and love he shares with his Father from all eternity.
13. He worked with human hands, thought with a human mind and learned by experience.
14. Jesus possessed both a human and divine will.
15. The human will of Jesus was fully conformed to the Father's saving love.
16. Jesus's obedience serves to heal our disobedience and its effects.
The disobedience of Adam estranged humanity from God and the perfect obedience of Jesus not only restored us to God but elevated humanity to an infinitely higher level as brothers of His only begotten son and heirs with Jesus to the Kingdom of Heaven.
17. His human heart also knows and loves us. The Sacred Heart of Jesus symbolizes the boundless love of the Holy Trinity for us.
18. For a Christian there are no equals or substitutes for Jesus. He is the only Way, Truth and Life. Christians who do not profess and proclaim this are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm and Jesus has promised to vomit them out of his mouth.
19. Do you have a personal intimate relationship with Jesus? It is available in the Eucharist. “He who eats my body and drinks my blood, lives in me and I in him.”
20. It is easy to go astray, the world is a relentless temptation. Jesus has made it just as easy to get back on track with the “daily bread” and repentance. His mercy is unlimited and greater than any sin.