The word ‘Christian’ comes from the Greek word Christianos which literally means ‘follower of Christ.’ That is, after all, what it means to be a Christian: to follow Jesus. It is He who sits at the center of who we are and all that we do, and so the declaration we make believing in Jesus, the God-man, who was crucified, died and rose again is the defining reality of our lives. To say ‘I believe in Jesus’ isn’t simply to follow an ideal or to be a part of a cause, it is to believe in a real person, one who is unlike any other person who has walked this planet:
“In Jesus, God really became one of us and thus our brother; neverthelesss he did not cease to be God and thus our Lord. The Council of Chalcedonin the year 451 taught that the divinity and the humanity in the one person Jesus Christ are united together ‘without division or confusion.’” -YouCat 77
“God willed that Jesus Christ should have a true human mother but only God himself as his Father, because he wanted to make a new beginning that could be credited to him alone and not to earthly forces.” -YouCat 80
Much could be said about the life Jesus led – his first thirty years were ‘hidden,’ with only the accounts of his birth, presentation, and finding in the Jerusalem Temple listed in the scriptures. But in these thirty years Jesus lived a real human life: growing in the family of Nazareth, learning to pray and to work as a carpenter alongside Mary and Joseph. His three years of ministry during which He called many to follow Him, presented a more intimate relationship with God than his Jewish brethren understood, and exemplified what it is to be human are spoken of in the Gospels. Apparently, this only scratches the surface of what Jesus did, as St. John acknowledges that “…there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).
But of all Jesus did, there is a handful of days which are at the center of all Christian belief: Jesus’ brutal suffering and execution on the Cross, His real death, and His resurrection on the third day. These events, which we refer to as the ‘Paschal Mystery’ are at the very heart of our faith. When Pontius Pilate is questioning Jesus, the Lord explains “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). Humanity desperately needed (and still needs) this witness. We embraced the lie that somehow God was holding out on us (Genesis 3:6), and since then have continued to choose our own way rather than His way. These choices to sin bore with them judgment and punishment – separation from God and ultimately, death (Romans 6:23). We experience the emptiness of life, unfulfilled desires, and untold suffering as the consequence of our ongoing rejection of God through sin. It is for this reason we needed Jesus to come to show us what we were missing: the love of God and a life well-lived. But he took things a step further, taking on our punishment and leading us into something so much greater:
“The Cross on which Jesus, although innocent, was cruelly executed is the place of utmost degradation and abandoment. Christ, our Redeemer, chose the Cross so as to bear the guilt of the world and to suffer the pain of the world. So He brought the world back home to God by His perfect love.” -YouCat 101
As a result, we hang the Crucifix prominently in our Churches, in our homes, and around our necks; we begin and end each prayer by the Sign of the Cross: because it is in this moment of incredible suffering and seeming defeat that God is able to make all things new (Revelation 21:5). In spite of our sins (our rejection of God), Christ gave everything for us, to change the way we see and live our lives:
“Because death is now no longer the end of everything, joy and hope came into the world. Now that death ‘no longer has dominion’ (Romans 6:9) over Jesus, it has no more power over us, either, who belong to Jesus.” -YouCat 108
There is a great gift offered to each one of us here. By giving His life in our place on the Cross, Jesus shows us what His Father‘s love is really like: a love with no limits, no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done. God loves us so much He is willing to give everything He is so that we no longer have to die. Because Jesus really died and rose again, we don’t need to fear death or the hardships that come in this life any longer. Jesus has shown us that God is bigger than all of it. In a world that is full of so much despair, as Christians we are able carry in us a great hope: that of a world with no more suffering and pain, where the desires of our heart are finally filled, and where the winding road in this life makes sense, seen through God’s eyes. It is for this reason that each of us is invited to have faith, that is to say that we are invited to be the followers of Christ, Christians, who respond to this gift of love from God. Our ultimate destiny is determined by our choice of response to this love, as love can never be forced on another:
“Even Christ cannot help someone who does not want to know anything about love; such a person judges himself.” -YouCat 112
