Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 98 - Part IV.
(Youcat
answer - repeated) 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 604) By giving up his own Son for our
sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to
any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10;
4:19). God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us" (Rom 5:8). 604
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 605)
At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love
excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven
that one of these little ones should perish" (Mt 18:14). He affirms that
he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is
not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of
the redeemer who hands himself over to save us (Mt 20:28; cf. Rom 5:18-19). The
Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without
exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human
being for whom Christ did not suffer" (Council of Quiercy (853): DS 624;
cf. 2 Cor 5:15; 1 Jn 2:2).
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