THE P RTAL
November 2013
Page 10
The A - Z of the Catholic Faith
by Fr Stephen Wang
J
J is for…
Jesus Christ
Two thousand years ago, God fulfilled
his promises to his Chosen People by sending his own
Son to be born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only Saviour of
the world. He is a human being like us, but without
sin, and he is the all-powerful and eternal God, infinite
in knowledge and love.
Jesus transformed people’s lives by his teaching
and his miracles. He reached out to them with God’s
healing and forgiveness. His greatest act of love was
to offer his life for us in sacrifice, in obedience to the
Father.
He let himself experience the depths of human
suffering, even to being crucified. His death on the
cross brings us forgiveness and reconciliation. It
means that nothing has to separate us from the love of
God in Christ.
On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.
Jesus then revealed himself plainly to his followers,
and convinced them that he had truly risen from
the dead. By ascending to heaven in his glorified
humanity he showed that our goal is to be with God
for all eternity.
After his Ascension, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to his
followers so that they could share in his divine life and
proclaim it to others.
In this way Jesus revealed the mystery of the
Holy Trinity: that within the unity of God there is a
communion of Divine Persons - the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit - equal in majesty and glory.
The Jewish People
There is a profound link between the Church
- the People of God of the New Covenant - and the
Jewish People, who were the first to hear and respond
to the Word of God in the Old Covenant.
Part of God’s divine plan, recorded in the Old
Testament, was to choose this People, to reveal himself
to them, and to teach them to hope for the salvation
he promised.
As St Paul wrote: to the Jews ‘belong the sonship, the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship,
and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs; and
of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ’ (Rom
9:4-5).
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