The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Paragraphs 456-455

456 With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

457 The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Saviour; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?

458 The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

A Message from Father Christian

Dear Faithful,

In my homily this past weekend, I focused on the primacy of receiving in the spiritual life. The perfect model for this is Our Lady, who received the Holy Spirit. The fruit of this receiving was Jesus. Fr. Jean Corbon once said: “The most fruitful thing a human being can do is receive God.” This is quite a statement and is worthy of pondering in our prayers!

Receiving is primary because if we are called to give of ourselves in love to others, we must first receive love. God is love, and His love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We must humbly receive it, for we cannot give what we do not have. If we were to love simply pulling from our own human reserves, we would most certainly burn out.

It strikes me that if we are to receive, we must first let something go. Many things get in the way of our receiving: sins, lies that we believe, unrealistic expectations, etc. These can be hard to let go of, but they must be if we are to receive from God. This season of Lent is all about letting go of such things so we can receive God more fully during Easter.

Peace and God bless,
Fr. Christian

"Feed My Sheep" by Young Sung Kim