JESUS CHRIST, TRUE MAN AND TRUE GOD IN THE UNITY 0F THE DIVINE PERSON

53 This great mystery, namely, Christ as Head and Lord of the

universe, "has been manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3, 16) 10 men. The man, Jesus Christ, who dwelt among men—the one who as man worked with his hands, thought with a human mind, acted with a human will, Loved with a human heart—he is truly the Word and the Son of God, who through the incarnation in a certain way joined himself with every single man (cf. GS, 22).

Catechesis must proclaim Jesus in his concrete existence and in his message, that is, it must open the way for men 10 the wonderful perfection of his humanity in such a way that they will be

able to acknowledge the mystery of his divinity. Christ Jesus, for a fact, who was united with the Father in a constant and unique practice of prayer, always lived in close communion with men. By his goodness he embraced ail men, the just and the sinners, the poor and the rich, fellow-citizens and foreigners. If he loved some more particularity than others, this predilection was showered on the sick, the poor, the lowly. For the human person he had a reverence and a solicitude such as no one before him had ever manifested.

Catechesis ought daily b defend and strengthen belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in order that he may be accepted net merely for his admirable human Life, but that men might recognise him through his words and signs as God’s only-begotten Son (cf. John 1, 18), "God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father" (Dz.-Sch. 150). The correct explanation of the mystery of the Incarnation developed in Christian tradition: through a diligent understanding of the faith, the Fathers and the Councils made efforts 10 determine more precisely the concepts, to explain more profoundly the peculiar nature of Christ’s mystery, to investigate the hidden connections that bind him to his heavenly Father and to men. Besides, there was the witness of the Christian life about this truth—a witness that the Church presented throughout the centuries: that God’s communion with men, which is had in Christ, is the source of joy and inexhaustible hope. In Christ there is ail fullness of divinity; through him God’s love for men is shown forth.

St. Ignatius wrote to the Ephesians: "There is only one physician, both in body and in spirit, born and unborn, God become man, true life in death; sprung both from Mary and from God, first incapable of suffering and then capable of it, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Enchiridion patristicum, 39).