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Chapter 7. The Good News: God Has Sent His Son • 83
Understanding that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine is very
important. The Church has consistently defended this teaching against
attempts to present one or the other as somehow less. If the Crucifixion
and Resurrection were events that involved God only, then we are not
saved. If Jesus was not divine, he would have been just another good
man whose death and Resurrection would not have saved us. It is neces-
sary to believe that the mystery of the Incarnation means that Jesus was
both fully God and fully man.
1. What does the name
Jesus
mean?
Jesus means in Hebrew: “God saves.” . . . Since God alone
can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son
made man, “will save his people from their sins.” (CCC, no.
430, citing Mt 1:21)
2. Why is Jesus called
Christ
?
The word “Christ” [
Christos
] comes from the Greek transla-
tion of the Hebrew
Messiah
, which means “anointed.” It
became the name proper to Jesus . . . because he accom-
plished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ” signifies.
(CCC, no. 436)
3. How does Jesus model discipleship for us?
In all of his life, Jesus presents himself as
our model
. He is
“the perfect man,” who invites us to become his disciples
and follow him. In humbling himself, he has given us an
example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to
pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the
privation and persecution that may come our way. (CCC,
no. 520, citing GS, no. 38)
FROM THE CATECHISM