Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for
"greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
425
In suffering and
death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the
salvation of men.
426
Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save,
Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of
my own accord."
427
Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his death.
428
At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life
610 Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the
twelve Apostles "on the night he was betrayed".
429
On the eve of his Passion, while still free,
Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to
the Father for the salvation of men: "This is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of
the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
430
611 The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice.
431
Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it.
432
By doing so, the
Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, so
that they also may be sanctified in truth."
433
The agony at Gethsemani
612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last
Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden at
Gethsemani,
434
making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. . ."
435
Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human
nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt
from sin, the cause of death.
436
Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine
person of the "Author of life", the "Living One".
437
By accepting in his human will that the Father's
will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree."
438
Christ's death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
613 Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of
men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world",
439
and the sacrifice of the
New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the
"blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins".
440
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.
441
First, it is a
gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile
us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom
and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.
442
Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience
615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience
many will be made righteous."
443
By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution
of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many",
and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities".
444
Jesus
atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.
445
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