Sunday, November 29, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 98 - Part I.
(Youcat
answer) The violent death of Jesus did not come about through tragic external
circumstances. “Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). So that we children of sin and death might
have life, the Father in heaven “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Cor
5:21). The magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father asked of his Son,
corresponded to the magnitude of Christ’s obedience: “And what shall I say?
“Father, save me from this hour? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour”
(Jn 12:27). On both sides, God’s love for men proved itself to the very end on
the Cross.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 599)
Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence
of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter
explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This
Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of
God" (Acts 2:23). This Biblical language does not mean that those who
handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by
God (Cf. Acts 3:13).
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) In order to
save us from death, God embarked on a dangerous mission: He introduced a
“Medicine of immortality” (St. Ignatius of Antioch) into our world of death—his Son
Jesus Christ. The Father and the Son were inseparable in this mission, willing
and yearning to take the utmost upon themselves out of love for man. God willed
to make an exchange so as to save us forever. He wanted to give us his eternal
life, so that we might experience his joy, and wanted to suffer our death, our
despair, our abandonment, our death, so as to share with us in everything. So
as to love us to the end and beyond. Christ’s death is the will of the Father
but not his final word. Since Christ died for us, we can exchange our death for
his life.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 600)
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he
establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it
each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered
together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever
your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28; cf.
Ps 2:1-2). For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted
the acts that flowed from their blindness (Cf. Mt 26:54; Jn 18:36; 19:11; Acts
3:17-18).
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