C. CHRIST AS OUR SAVIOR AND REDEEMER

1. HIS HUMBLE BIRTH

THE SON OF GOD came into this world to save men from sin and the consequences of sin. the whole life of Christ, therefore, is dominated by this purpose. From the very beginning of His human life, from the moment of His conception in the womb of His Mother, christ is the Savior of mankind. Moreover, since He was capable of rational acts and therefore of free acts from the first moment of His existence in the womb of Mary, He began even at that moment to give to God that perfect obedience which is the souls of the sacrifice of Himself whereby He has redeemed mankind. As Adam had destroyed all human nature by his disobedience, so Christ restored human nature in His human nature. It is true that the principal redeeming act of Christ is the shedding of His Precious Blood on the Cross of Calvary. But, it is also true that from the beginning of His human life, Christ directed all the acts of His will to their final consummation on Calvary. From the very beginning, the will of Christ was perfectly conformed to the will of God.

IT IS FOR THIS REASON that Christ was content to be born of a poor woman of Nazareth, in the poverty of a stable at Bethlehem. It is for this reason that christ was content that his Divinity and Majesty as the Son of God should be manifested only gradually to mankind. Had He made His Divinity known to all men at once and unmistakably, then there would have been no room for faith in Himself; and, in the plan of God, men must be saved by faith. Hence, in the beginning, the Divinity of Christ was manifested only to His Mother and to St. Joseph, to the shepherds and to the Magi from the East. In this way, too, God safeguarded men's belief in the reality of the human nature of Christ. For had Christ manifested Himself as God at once ------ by some stupendous manifestation of His Divine power ------ men would have doubted that He was really a man, and so would have missed the awe-inspiring message of the Incarnation, the magnificent love of God for man. On the contrary, God saw to it that men of good will should be able to perceive both the Divinity and the humanity of Christ. The humble circumstances of His birth, the obscurity of His life at Nazareth, His familiar intercourse with men during His public ministry ------ all these would convince men of the reality of His human nature. On the other hand, the Star from the East which announced His birth to the Magi, the prophecy of Simeon, the Angels who appeared to the shepherds ------ all these were Divine signs of the Divinity of Christ. When the time was right, the miracles and prophecies of Christ Himself would convince men of His Divinity.

IN OBEDIENCE to the will of God, Christ submitted Himself to the Old Law which God had given to the Jews. Though He Himself was the founder of the New Law of grace, nevertheless He took upon Himself the burden of the Old Law. He submitted to the rite of circumcision, which was a profession of obedience to the Old Law. By shedding His blood in this way, He proved the reality of His human nature and at the same time He dedicated Himself to God for the salvation of men. In so doing, He also showed His approval of circumcision, which God had instituted for the Jews as a sign of their faith in the Savior Who was to come. The circumcision of Christ is also a manifestation of the wisdom of God, for if He were not circumcised, then the Jews, to whom He first preached the Gospel of salvation, would not have received Him at all.

  AT THE TIME of His circumcision, Christ was given the name Jesus. This was the name that God Himself had chosen for Him. It was foretold to Mary and Joseph by Angels. In Hebrew the name means "Savior." In this way, God announced the role which Christ was to play in the history of the world.

JESUS AS CHRIST gave men an example of humility and obedience by submitting Himself to circumcision; so too, Mary, His Mother, gave men the same example by going to the Temple to be purified after the birth of Christ. Like her Son she needed no purification. But like her Son she obeyed the will of God and showed her approval of the Old Law of God.

SO TOO, forty days after His birth, Christ was offered to God in the Temple in accordance with the Jewish rite. He Himself was consecrated to God as the first-born of Mary. And, even though He was sinless, the usual offering for the expiation of sin was made for Him. In this way, He taught men that they must offer themselves to God.

The image of the Sacred Heart is CHRIST AT THIRTY-THREE by:
Heinrich Hofman
19th Century