Q82 Isn’t it improper to call Mary the “Mother” of God?
No. Anyone who calls Mary the Mother of God thereby professes that her Son is God [495, 509] As early Christianity was debating who Jesus was, the title Theotokos (“god-bearer”) became the hallmark for the orthodox interpretation of Sacred Scripture: Mary did not give birth merely to a man whoContinue Reading
Q81 Did Mary have other children besides Jesus?
No. Jesus is the only son of Mary in the physical sense. [500, 510] Even in the early Church, Mary’s perpetual virginity was assumed, which rules out the possibility of Jeus having brothers and sisters from the same mother. In Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue, there is only one word forContinue Reading
Q80 Why is Mary a Virgin?
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. [484-504, 508-510] Mary’s virginity is not some outdated mythological notion but ratherContinue Reading
Q79 Did Jesus have a soul, a mind and a body just as we do?
Yes. Jesus “worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved” (Second Vatican Council, GS 22, 2). [470-476] The humanity of Jesus is complete and includes also the fact that Jesus possessed a soul and developedContinue Reading
Q78 Why can we grasp Jesus only as a “mystery”
Jesus extends into God; therefore we cannot understand him if we exclude the invisible divine reality. [525-530, 536] The visible side of Jesus points to the invisible. We see in the life of Jesus numerous realities that are powerfully present but that we can understand only as a mystery. ExamplesContinue Reading
Q77 What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is at the same time true God and true man?
In Jesus, God really became one of us and thus our brother; nevertheless, he did not cease to be God at the same time and thus our Lord. The Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 taught that the divinity and the humanity in the one person Jesus Christ areContinue Reading
Q76 Why did God become man in Jesus?
“For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven” (Nicene Creed) [456-460] In Jesus Christ, God reconciled the world to himself and redeemed mankind from the imprisonment of sin. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son” (Jn 3:16). In Jesus, God took onContinue Reading
Q75 Why do Christians address Jesus as “Lord”?
“You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am” (Jn 13:13). [446-451, 455] The early Christians spoke as a matter of course about the Jesus as “Lord”, knowing that in the Old Testament this title was reserved as a form of addressing God. Through manyContinue Reading
Q74 What does it mean to say Jesus is “the only-begotten Son of God”?
When Jesus calls himself “God’s only-begotten Son” and Peter and others bear witness to this, the expression means that of all men only Jesus is more than a man. [441-445, 454] In many passages of the New Testament Jesus is called “Son”. At his baptism and his transfiguration, the voiceContinue Reading
Q73 Why is Jesus called “Christ”?
The brief formula “Jesus is the Christ” expresses the core of the Christian faith: Jesus, the simple carpenters’s son from Nazareth, is the long-awaited Messiah and Savior. [436-440, 453] Both the Greek work “Christos” and the Hebrew word “Messiah” mean the “Anointed one”. In Israel kings, priests, and prophets wereContinue Reading
