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Friday, March 1, 2013

CFC [P.161 - 170]



EXPOSITION



556.     The Creed puts great stress on Christ’s passion and death. Immediately following “born of the Virgin Mary,” it proclaims five actions undergone by Jesus: suffered, was crucified, died, was buried, and descended to the dead.
       This chapter takes up these five actions of Christ our Lord under five general themes. First, an introductory section on the Cross, symbol of saving Love; second, Christ’s view of his suffering and death; third, its characteristics; fourth, its profound effects of salvation and radical conversion; and finally, Christ’s descent to the Dead.

I. THE CROSS: SYMBOL OF SAVING LOVE

557. St. Paul expressed the core of the “Good News” given him as follows: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3; cf. CCC 601). Far from being a negative, depressing reality, the suffering and death of Christ help us “to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:18-19). The innocent Christ’s personal pain and suffering brings home to us, in a way nothing else possibly could, the evil and ugliness of sin and its power in creating poverty, disease, hunger, ignorance, corruption and death. A truly “Christian” sense of sin is a grace received at the foot of the Cross, within the felt-experience of God’s overwhelming forgiving Love in Christ Jesus.

558.     Clearly it is not the very sufferings and death of Christ that save us, for this would make his torturers and executioners our saviors. Rather, we are saved by Jesus’ perfect self-giving love for his Father and for us, a love lived out to the death. In John’s Gospel Jesus declares: “The Father loves me for this: that I lay down my life to take it up again. No one takes it from me: I lay it down freely” (Jn 10:17-18). Paul quotes an early liturgical hymn: “He humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!” (Phil 2:8)
       Today’s liturgy expresses how Christ, in fulfillment of his Father’s will, “gave himself up to death . . . a death he freely accepted . . . For our sake he opened his arms on the Cross” (EP IV and II).

559.     The Cross, then, does not exalt passive suffering or weakness, as some have exploited it in order to dominate others. It is, rather, the transformation of suffering and weakness through active, total self-giving love. “For God’s folly is wiser than men, and his weakness more powerful than men” (1 Cor 1:25). Gregory the Great describes this wondrous exchange:

He was made flesh that we might possess the Spirit.
He was brought low that we might be raised up.
He endured blows that we might be healed.
He was mocked to free us from eternal damnation.
He died to give us life. (Homilies on Ezekiel, II:4,20)

II. CHRIST’S VIEW
OF HIS SUFFERING AND DEATH

560.     In our present times, some have tried to explain Christ’s suffering and death merely as the political execution of a non-conformist revolutionary by the Roman colonial powers. Doubtless there was a political aspect to the Cross, but it surely was not its essential meaning as interpreted in the inspired writings of the New Testament.
         The Apostolic Faith expressed in the New Testament sees in Jesus’ passion and death not just some incidental historical event of Jews and Romans, but the saving act of God in Jesus’ free self-sacrifice. Thus Peter preached on the first Pentecost: “This man [Jesus] . . . was delivered up by the set purpose and plan of God; you even made use of pagans to crucify and kill him. . .” (Acts 2:23; cf. 4:27f; CCC 599). Jesus himself clearly understood his Passion and Death as his mission from the Father, interpreted in the light of the Old Testament prophets.

561.     As His Mission. The Synoptic Gospels ‘record Jesus’ triple pre-diction of his suffering and death (cf. Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:33f). “He began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be put to death, and rise three days later” (Mk 8:31). These predictions correspond with other sayings of Jesus. “Can you drink the cup I shall drink or be baptized in the same bath of pain as I?” (Mk 10:38) “I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel till it is over” (Lk 12:50). And in his parable of the tenants Jesus portrays the death of the Son at the hands of the vineyard’s wicked tenants (cf. Mt 21:33-46).

562.     Following the OT Prophets. Jesus interpreted his coming death in line with the Old Testament prophets. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you slay the prophets and stone those who are sent to you!” (Lk 13:34; cf. 11:47, 49). His death was “necessary” to fulfill the Scripture: “How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have announced! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:25b-26) He saw his suffering and death as part of the coming of the Kingdom, the “test” he taught his followers to pray about: “Subject us not to the test” (Lk 11:4).


III. CHARACTERISTICS OF
CHRIST’S SUFFERING AND DEATH

A.   Redemptive

563.     Jesus saw his Passion and Death as redemptive, his ultimate service in the Kingdom. “The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve — to give his life in ransom for the many” (Mk 10:45). The center of the ‘Good News’ focused sharply on “the redemption wrought in Christ Jesus. Through his blood, God made him the means of expiation for all who believe” (Rom 3:24-25a). “It was he who sacrificed himself for us, to redeem us from all unrighteousness and to cleanse for himself a people of his own, eager to do what is right” (Ti 2:14).

564. That his Passion and Death are “redemptive” is shown by Christ most clearly in his Last Supper. John introduces his account with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. “Jesus realized that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in this world, and would show his love for them to the end” (Jn 13:1). And for John, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). Matthew’s account of Christ’s institution of the Eucharist explicitly asserts its redemptive value: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). Christ is the New Paschal Lamb, sacrificed to redeem the people (cf. Jn 19:36; 1:29,36).

565.     Church tradition has stressed this redemptive and sacrifical character of Christ’s Passion and Death. “Our Lord Jesus was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish an everlasting redemption” (Trent; ND 1546). And again, “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again” (SC 47).

566.     Thus, in her liturgy the Church prays in the 5th Easter Preface:

Father, we praise you with greater joy than ever in this Easter Season
When Christ became our Paschal Sacrifice.
As he offered his body on the Cross,
His perfect sacrifice fulfilled all others.
As he gave himself into your hands for our salvation.
He showed himself to be the priest, the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice.

B.    From Sin

567.     Christ’s coming, then, was “to expiate the sins of the people” (Heb 2:17; cf. CCC 601, 606). Paul summarizes Jesus’ saving work in four steps. First, Jesus offered a sacrifice as both priest and victim. “Christ our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7). Second, he “gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age” (Gal 1:4). Third, he thus created a new Covenant with God. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor 11:25). Fourth, all this for us and our salvation. “When we were still powerless, Christ died for us godless men” (Rom 5:6; cf. Eph 5:2; 1 Thes 5:10).

568.     Jesus redeems sinners in two ways. First, he removes their subjective guilt by bringing them God’s pardon and forgiveness. Thus he restores their relationship of friendship to God which sin had destroyed. Second, Jesus repairs the objective moral harm and contamination caused by sin, through his own act of reparation and expiation which makes possible the sinners’ own acts of expiation.
       Both these dimensions are clearly indicated in Christ’s encounter with Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector. In visiting the house of Zacchaeus, Jesus liberated him from his guilt of sin: “Today salvation has come to this house. . . The Son of Man has come to search out and save what was lost.” This inspired Zacchaeus to make up for the objective harm he had caused: “I give half my belongings, Lord, to the poor. If I have defrauded anyone in the least, I pay him back fourfold” (cf. Lk 19:1-10).

569.     Clarification. Some have gravely misunderstood Christ’s expiation as picturing the Father punishing him cruelly for our sins, even though he is completely innocent. This is a monstrous view of God the Father, and badly misinterprets the New Testament. The Father hates sin, not Jesus. Jesus is the Father’s “beloved” (Mk 1:11 et passim). His whole life was a perfect offering to the Father (cf. Jn 4:34; 6:38; CCC 606).
       The truth is that Jesus shares the Father’s love for us sinners, and freely accepted the “cup” the Father has given him (cf. Jn 18:11; CCC 609). Jesus suffered with sinners, as a victim for sin and sinners, and as a victim of the Law and sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; Rom 8:3; PCP II 84).

C.   For Us

570.     But how can Christ’s Sufferings and Death affect us sinners? The key to the answer lies in the biblical notion of corporate solidarity. Isaiah’s four ‘Servant Songs’ (cf. Is 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12) present a mysterious figure chosen by God to “give his life as an offering for sin, . . . through his suffering my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear” (Is 53:10-11). Christ, one of us, could take upon himself “the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29) and offer him-self as a “Lamb of expiation” (cf. Lv 14).
 Today the notion of “solidarity” has come into new prominence relative to social transformation, and humanity’s relation to the Blessed Trinity (cf. SRS 38-40; PCP II 32, 139, 294-96, 306f, 313, 320, 353).

571.     The Good Friday liturgy stresses Christ’s corporate solidarity with us sinners and his suffering for us, quoting Isaiah:

It was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured, . . .
He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins;
Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way;
But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all (Is 53:4-6).

572. St. Paul used this principle of solidarity to explain both our human sinfulness and our salvation in Christ (cf. Chap. 8 on Original Sin).

Just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and with sin death, death thus coming to all men inasmuch as all sinned . . . much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound for all (Rom 5:12,15).

573.     “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3), then, means two things. First, Jesus died because of our human sinfulness. Second, he died to show us, and empower us, to overcome sin and its effects in our broken world. Christ is the Way we are enabled to bear the sins of many, not returning evil for evil, nor violence for violence in a vicious cycle of revenge (cf. Mt 5:38-42). Christ’s love gives us a chance to love even our enemies (cf. Mt 5:44), for he has sent us his Spirit of love.

574.     But Christ’s redemption in no way makes us passive recipients. Scripture clearly affirms:

Christ suffered for you. . . and left you an example, to have you follow in his footsteps. . . He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live in accord with God’s will. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Pt 2:21, 24).

And again: “You have been purchased, and at a price. So glorify God in your body ” (1 Cor 6:20 ).

575.     It is true that Jesus acted on our behalf: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). But his great Sacrifice does not make our own sacrifices unnecessary. Rather, it makes them possible as saving realities. We are called by Christ to share in his sacrifice (cf. CCC 618). PCP II explains how in the Paschal Mystery

Jesus brought us into his passover from suffering to glory, from death to life, from our human sinfulness to his grace. In this mystery we as his disciples need to share, finding in it the rhythm and pattern of our own life. . . By losing our life this way, we save it and grow in our discipleship of Jesus (PCP II 85-86).

576.     To know Jesus as our Redeemer, for St. Paul, meant sharing in his sufferings. To the Philippians he wrote: “I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from his resurrection; likewise to know how to share in his sufferings by being formed into the pattern of his death” (Phil 3:10). Thus Paul could boast: “Even now I find joy in the suffering I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church” (Col 1:24).


IV. PROFOUND EFFECTS OF CHRIST’S DEATH

A.   Universal, Eschatological, Empowering Salvation

577.     But what makes Christ’s saving love unique? How is Christ different from all other martyrs through the ages? The answer lies in three fundamental qualities of Christ’s saving love. It is: 1) universal, 2) eschatological, and 3) empowering.
       First, Jesus died “not for our sins alone, but for those of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2; cf. CCC 604). St. Paul explains: “He indeed died for all, so that those who live, might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised up” (2 Cor 5:14-15). So it is Christ’s love that transforms us so we can really lead a new way of life. “If God has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another” (1 Jn 4:11).

578.     Christ’s Cross on Calvary stands as a symbol of his universal redeeming love. The horizontal bar stretches Christ’s arms to embrace the whole world of human suffering, while the vertical column points him toward his heavenly Father, beyond the bounds of time and space. The “two others crucified with him, one on either side” (Jn 19:18) show Jesus’ solidarity with the whole history of human suffering. The crucified body of Jesus Christ speaks a universal language to all men and women for all time.

579.     Second, this saving love of Christ is “eschatological.” Jesus did not die simply to raise our standard of living, or make life easier. He died that those who follow him will receive “eternal life in the age to come” (Mk 10:30). Moreover, third, this dimension is “already” present in us in grace, empowering us so that all our actions can have “saving” power. “The Father sent His Son as savior of the world. When anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. . . The way we know that we remain in him and he in us is that he has given us of his Spirit” (1 Jn 4:14,13). Put briefly, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life. Whoever does not possess the Son of God, does not possess life” (1 Jn 5:11-12).

580.     The essence of the New Testament theology of salvation in Christ can be sketched in four truths. First, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world; there is no salvation apart from Jesus. Second, through his sufferings and death he has won for us sinners “objective redemption, that is, reconciled all with the Father. Third, he did this in loving obedience to his Father’s will and love for us. Finally, he calls us to personal interior repentance for our sins and a life of loving service of others, that is, “subjective redemption.”

581.     Vatican II provides a similar description of Christ’s redemptive work and its effects:

As an innocent lamb he merited life for us by his blood which he freely shed. In him God reconciled us to himself and to one another, freeing us from the bondage of the devil and of sin, so that each of us could say with the apostle: “the Son of God loved . . . me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). By suffering for us he not only gave us an example so that we might follow in his footsteps, but he also opened up a way. If we follow this path, life and death are made holy and acquire a new meaning.
Conformed to the image of the Son, Christians receive the “first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom 8:23) by which they are able to follow the new law of love (GS 22).

582.     Two ways of summarizing Christ as Savior also help in relating to the wider perspectives of our Faith. The first is focusing on “the blood of Jesus.” Throughout Old Testament salvation history, blood was highly symbolic. It could refer to deliverance from death (cf. Ex 12:7, 13, 22f) and life itself (cf. Lv 17:11-14). Or it could mean sin-offering, cleansing from sin (cf. Lv. 16). Or blood could mean the seal of the Covenant at Sinai (cf. Ex 24:6-8).
       These three meanings were supremely realized in Christ, the Paschal Lamb, whose blood a) brings life (cf. Jn 6:53-56), b) cleansing us from all sin (cf. 1 Jn 1:7) and c) creating a new Covenant (cf. Mk 14:24).
       The hymn to Christ in the Letters to the Colossians summarizes these dimensions neatly:

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him [a], and by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens [b], making peace [c] through the blood of his cross (Col 1:19f)

583.     A second way of summarizing Christ’s redemptive work is to relate our basic human yearnings for life, for meaning, and for loving fellowship to the Triune God. For our drive for life is fulfilled by God the Father, “the living and true God” (1 Thes 1:9). By sending His Son, the wisdom of God, He gives meaning and purpose to our lives (Jn 14:6). And this inspires “fellowship” by pouring out His “love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit(Rom 5:5; cf. 2 Cor 13:13).

B.    Radical Conversion

584.     But what is the experience of this salvation that Christ calls us to? The answer lies in a radical conversion of heart. We can illustrate what this means in four common Filipino types. First, some Filipinos don’t really believe that God loves them, accepts them and cares for them. They cannot “trust” God. To them Christ reveals that God really is their “loving Father” who is truly compassionate (cf. Lk 6:36). His “love was revealed in our midst in this way: He sent His only Son to the world that we might have life through Him” (1 Jn 4:9).

585.     Second, others lack all self-confidence. Their poor self-image makes them hesitant to reach out and share with others. They are always afraid of what others might say. Christ “saves” them by revea-ling their inner goodness. His life and death prove how much they mean to God. In bringing them God’s forgiveness and acceptance, Christ radically grounds their new positive self-image.

586.     Third, some Filipinos find it hard to get along with others. They tend to hold grudges against anyone who hurt them. Christ “liberates” them by calling them to turn toward being a “man/woman-for-others” in self-giving service. Through word and example, Christ taught that true happiness and self-fulfillment come from forgiving others, and helping the poor and needy. Moreover, he empowers them for this service by sending them his own loving Spirit. It is Christ’s Spirit that brings deep “love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22-23).

587.     Lastly, to those who seek happiness in riches, reputation and power, Christ gave the example of rejecting these temptations (cf. Mt 4:1-11) and urging simplicity of life (cf. Mt 6). He called the poor “blessed” because they could more easily recognize their dependence on God. He warned the rich against being tied down by concern for their wealth. He asks: “what profit does a man show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?” (Mk 8:36) His answer was to picture the poor Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man suffered the torments of the damned (cf. Lk 16:19-31).

588.     In brief, then, we experience our sinfulness in our inability to 1) trust God, 2) accept ourselves, 3) relate positively to others, and 4) control our basic drives toward riches, reputation and power. Christ “saves” us by:

  re-imaging God as our loving Father,
   grounding our own inalienable self-worth in God, as well as
  the dignity of every other person; and
  clarifying the authentic hierarchy of values in life.

       Jesus could do this because he lived totally for his heavenly Father, in complete self-giving service for others. He was the “Sacrament” of God’s loving presence and power. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” he told Philip (Jn 14:9). Christ showed us what it means to be: 1) free from servile fear of God, 2) free from self-doubt, 3) free from negative relationships with others, and 4) free from our own greed for riches, reputation and power.

589.     But how does this saving power of the “free” Jesus touch ordinary Filipino Catholics today? The answer is multiplex. Christ comes to us: 1) in his inspired Word of the Bible, 2) in his saving symbolic acts, the Sacraments, 3) in the community of his disciples, the “People of God,” the Church; and most of all, 4) in his Holy Spirit, indwelling within us in grace.


V. CHRIST’S DESCENT TO THE DEAD

590.     The last action of Christ’s Passion and Death proclaimed in the Creed is: “He descended to the dead.” The first meaning of this expression may simply be a confirmation of “died and was buried.” Christ truly and fully underwent the final test of all humans, death (cf. CCC 632). But the scriptural basis implies a second meaning, namely, Christ’s salvific work on behalf of the just who had died before his coming (cf. CCC 633). In 1 Peter we read that Christ “went to preach to the spirits in prison.” “The reason the Gospel was preached even to the dead was that, although condemned in the flesh in the eyes of men, they might live in the spirit in the eyes of God” (1 Pt 3:19; 4:6 ).

591.     A reading from the liturgy of the Hours on Holy Saturday beautifully expresses this second meaning of Christ’s salvific work among the dead:

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