NATIVITY OF GOD - CHRIST
By Fr. Luigi Villa Th. D.
On Christmas Eve, an angel appeared to the shepherds: " Fear not;," he says to them, " for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people: For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David ...".
the Redemption,
This is the True CHRISTMAS.
Jesus' incarnation took place in two stages; the first, when He was conceived; the second, occurred in the Upper Room on Easter evening. In Him, there were two natures: Divine nature and human nature with their corresponding operations.
By His Divine nature, Jesus acted as God, performing miracles, reading hearts, foreseeing the future. These operations could only proceed from the Divine nature. Therefore, Jesus Christ, by His Divine nature, was God.
And so, how did Jesus Christ the Redeemer die?
He died as a "Man," because as God, He could neither suffer nor die, being indivisible in Himself; therefore, as God, He could not die. Jesus' death, however, was not apparent, but real and agonizing.
Since there are two natures in Jesus Christ, one Divine and the other human, with their corresponding operations, His soul did indeed separate from His body, but as the Word, He remained truly and hypostatically united to both.
This is the "Christmas" of Jesus Christ-God, who brought us true joy, without which we could no longer live.
The Church never tires of reminding us of this at the beginning of its liturgical cycle. And it reminds us of it when, in the Mass, the great words of the Creed are sung: "Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis. Et incarnatus de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.»
"[Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary AND WAS MADE MAN."]
And also, we are reminded of this every day in the Angelus: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
Yet, in past centuries, many refused to believe this Gospel message, this "Child," the great God. The Church, however, will not forget this page of the Gospel, and will remember it until the end of the world...
God loved mankind so much. This is the doctrine of the Master.
The beloved disciple understood it well: "We have known," he says, "and we have believed in the love that God has for us!" And he adds: "This is the victory that overcomes the world: our Faith!"
In the tragic hours of our lives, what would we do if we did not have this faith in God's love for us?
The Gospel says: “And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy:, ‘Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. '"
There is a deeper evil than paralysis, blindness, illness, and physical death, and that evil is the death of the soul from which Jesus has freed us. "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38-39).
With the Apostle, We say: "I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God manifested in Christ our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).
But there is an evil far more terrible than physical evil and death: it is sin. No man can fall into sin and free himself from it alone. But what no man can do, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, can do, by forgiving us.
That the Son of God became man is a mystery, called the INCARNATION OF THE WORD, and also the "HYPOSTATIC UNION".
This "Hypostatic Union" is defined as: "The admirable union of Divine nature and human nature, in the one Person of the Word".
Therefore: in Jesus Christ, the Divine nature and the human nature are united in the single Person of the Word, who existed before, and therefore it is not a moral-accidental union, but a physical-substantial union, made in the Person.
Thus: in Jesus Christ there are two natures and only one Person.
The context of the Fathers' statements shows the accuracy of the interpretations of this dogma. Indeed, they all affirm that the same Jesus Christ is, at the same time, God and man.
"GOD, ONE in Nature, and Triune in the Person. Therefore, God is one, one Essence, or Nature, and Substance, in three Persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
"The Father was not made by anyone, nor created, nor begotten" ("Athanasian Creed").
"The Father, all that he has, does not have from another, but from himself, and He is the Principle without beginning" (D. B. 704).
“And the Father, begetting the Son from eternity, gave Him His Substance” (Council of Nicaea and the “Athanasian Creed”, and Fourth Lateran Council - D. B. 432).
“The Father, all that He has, He does not have from another, but from Himself, and is the principle without beginning” (Council of Florence, S. S. 704).
“The Holy Spirit is in God, as the spirit of man is in man” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).
“The Father cannot be sent, because He does not proceed from anyone. He comes to us but not sent; ‘We will come to him and make our home with him’” (John 14:23).
“God is a Being who has in Himself the reason for existing. Therefore, God is a being who moves everything without being moved; otherwise, He would not be God. He is God, however, if He is a First efficient uncaused Person, the ultimate reason of all causes. Therefore, God is the ordering and governing Mind, outside and above all things in the world.”
It is a matter of faith, therefore, that Jesus Christ is true God. The Council of Chalcedon defines Him as: "one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only Begotten God, the Word" (D. B. 548). And throughout the New Testament, the demonstration is clear and explicit: in the Synoptic Gospels, for example, it is distinctly reported that Jesus says, "My Father," never "Our Father."
St. Peter, in his confession, says: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and "this is my beloved Son" (Luke 9:28-36). In the "Acts of the Apostles," the Apostles preach about "Jesus, the Son of God"; "Lord of all" (Acts 1:36), "giver of the Holy Ghost and of graces" (Acts 2:33; 13:43).
In many texts, Saint Paul speaks of Jesus, the Son of God. To the Romans (1:1-4) he writes of Jesus Christ, promised by the Prophets, "Concerning his Son, who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the flesh, Who was predestinated the Son of God in power..." He continues (9:3), "Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the Creator of all things, God, blessed forever." In Colossians (1:15) he calls Him "the image of the invisible God," a substantial image, "in whom all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible..."
To the Hebrews (1:3) he says that He is "the brightness of His glory and the figure of his substance, heir of all things... and all things were made through Him..." "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (2:9) ... To the Philippians (2:5-11) he says that "Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant."
Jesus himself called himself not only Saviour, Lawgiver, Supreme Judge, but declared himself the Son of God. It declares itself pre-existent and comes directly from God. "I went out and did not come from God" (Jn 8:42). Prior to Abraham: "Amen, I say to you, before Abraham was (two thousand years before him), I am" (Jn 8:18). Jesus performs miracles in his own name: "I tell you, arise" (Lk 7:14). He declares himself to be "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (Jn 14:6). It is the "resurrection of men" (Jn 11:25).
"He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. " (Jn 6:55).
He praises Peter because he calls him "Son of the true God" and says: "but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.... For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will." (Jn 5:19-21). To Philip who asks Him to show Him the Father, He says even more simply: " Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, shew us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Believe me. I am in the Father; the Father is in Me" (Jn 14:9). "And I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30).
And we can still continue to quote texts that show how Jesus is the truly the Son of God!
***
– Tertullian writes: “We see a twofold state, not confused, but united in a single Person, Jesus, God and Man” (Adversus Praxean, 27).
– St. Ambrose writes: “In both natures, the one Son of God speaks, because in Him are both natures” (Epistle to Volusian, 11).
– St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies, 1, 9) writes: “Learn, O senseless ones, that Jesus, who suffered for us, who dwelt among us, He alone is the Word of God, Himselg.”
– St. Ignatius (Magnesians, 6, 1; Trallians, 7, 1; Romans, 3, 3) asserts, against the Donatists, that Christ, on the one hand, is the Word of God, existing from eternity in the bosom of the Father, and on the other hand, is true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, of the lineage of Adam, who suffered, died, and rose again.
– The First Vatican Council said: “The Catholic Apostolic Roman Church believes and confesses that there is only one true and living God, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intelligence, and in every perfection, and that, being one single spiritual substance, absolutely simple and immutable, He must be said, in reality and by essence, to be distinct from the world, in Himself and of Himself ineffably superior to all things that, outside of Him, are and can be conceived” (Denzinger-Bannwart, 8, 1782).
Therefore, it is “essence,” by which a thing is what it is and not something else, constituted in its species; and it is “subsistent” because it exists in itself and not in another. Therefore, the Divine essence is constituted by the fact that God is the same “I AM WHO I AM... HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-14).
***
Christ, therefore, has declared Himself to be true God, in the innermost sense of the word. In fact, he says: "My Father", and he never says it by accommodating himself to others.
He teaches his disciples: "When you pray, you will say, 'Our Father'" (Mt. 9:10; 32; 7, 11, 11, 27; 25:34; 28:19; Mk. 13:32; Lk 14:49). Jesus, found in the Temple, says: "Did you not know, that I must be about my father's business? " (Lk. 2:49).
***
We will then proclaim the infinite greatness of the NATIVITY of Jesus Christ; and with the ardor of His Faith, we will repeat the word of the Savior to the Macedonian:
"FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD,
AS TO GIVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON;
THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM,
MAY NOT PERISH,
BUT MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING"!
