{"id":4288,"date":"2012-12-27T00:34:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T06:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=4288"},"modified":"2012-12-30T00:38:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T06:38:34","slug":"the-4-reasons-christ-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christ-reasons-for-birth\"<\/a>Why was\u00a0Christ born?\u00a0To die for our sins, right?<\/p>\n

That’s true, but I think it’s an incomplete view of Christ\u2019s life and mission.<\/p>\n

The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em>, in paragraphs 456-460,<\/strong>\u00a0gives us four reasons why the Word become Flesh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While you might have guessed the first three, the last one might surprise you…even seem a bit blasphemous!<\/p>\n

But that one gives you the ultimate reason Christ came to earth and the true goal of the Christian life.
\n<\/p>\n

1. To save us by reconciling us with God<\/h2>\n

Mankind was separated from God by the defiance of Adam and Eve.<\/p>\n

A representative of the human race had to make up for it.\u00a0But no \u201csorry\u201d that a man could say would be big enough to erase an offense against the infinite God. Only Jesus was in a position to pull this off.<\/p>\n

Jesus was a man so he could represent mankind. And, he was God, so his sacrifice was enough to make amends and repair the damaged relationship.<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ\u2019s willing sacrifice was an expiation, meaning it made atonement, for the sins of mankind. Another way to think of atonement is AT-ONE-MENT.<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s death reconciles God with man<\/a>. It heals the relationship ruptured by sin, and it makes us \u201cas one\u201d with God.<\/p>\n

2. So that we might know God\u2019s love<\/h2>\n

People often ask, \u201cWas Christ\u2019s brutal suffering and death really necessary? Couldn\u2019t God do it some other way?\u201d<\/p>\n

A standard answer is, \u201cYes, of course! God could do anything he wants. A pinprick would\u2019ve been enough.\u201d It may be true that one drop of blood was enough, but I think the Cross was really the only way.<\/p>\n

God can do anything he wants but he can\u2019t be who he\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

God is complete, self-giving, self-sacrificing love. The persons of the Trinity continually pour themselves out in love to each other, and the Cross is a Trinitarian event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the Cross, Christ does in time what he\u2019s done for all eternity as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity–offer himself in love to the Father. Could our redemption have been accomplished any other way? I don\u2019t think so because that\u2019s not who God is.<\/p>\n

What does Jesus show us by this death? That God loves all the way…complete, total, nothing held back. That we have a God who would sacrifice himself in love to save us; who would give his life for ours.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a God you could give your life to, as well.<\/p>\n

3. To be our model of holiness<\/h2>\n

Think about this, every person you\u2019ve ever met is flawed.<\/p>\n

Even the most perfect Saint…even Mother Teresa, is imperfect. They\u2019ve all sinned, and are all subject to original sin and it\u2019s effects. But there is one who was perfect from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an amazing quote from Vatican II that was one of Blessed John Paul II\u2019s favorites,<\/p>\n

\u201cChrist…by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals mankind to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus Christ is the perfect man. He shows us who we\u2019re supposed to be.\u00a0And what is the supreme calling he makes clear? That we are made for self-giving love.<\/p>\n

Created in the image of God, our calling is to make a gift of ourselves in love to God and to others. Christ showed us this on the Cross.<\/p>\n

In order to be holy, we have to imitate this self-sacrificing model of holiness.<\/p>\n

4. To make us partakers of the divine nature<\/h2>\n

The total amount of sin from every human person for all of time is next to nothing compared to the grace of the Cross.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t do anyone any good unless it gets to them.\u00a0That grace has to affect you, change you, transform you. It\u2019s not enough to be redeemed, you have to be divinized.<\/p>\n

Man\u2019s reconciliation with God was a necessary step. But the ultimate goal was for us to become partakers in the divine nature<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sounds crazy, I know. Maybe even a bit blasphemous. But from the earliest years of the Church, that was the understanding.\u00a0St. Irenaeus, writing\u00a0around 180 A.D.,\u00a0said,<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Son of God became man so that we might become God.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The grace of the Cross distributed through the Sacraments is meant to truly make you like God. And, not just a fa\u00e7ade or a covering. Truly changed. From the inside out. Changed to think and act and judge like him.<\/p>\n

Catechetical takeaway<\/h2>\n

Christ\u2019s life on earth was the perfect model of how to act like God.<\/p>\n

No more did you have to wonder what it meant to be like God. There he was, God in the flesh…eating, drinking, talking, praying.<\/p>\n

Christ\u00a0showed us holiness in everything he did. But we see it most perfectly on the Cross. There, Christ revealed the depth of God\u2019s love and the calling of our lives.<\/p>\n

And, through this self-emptying we are meant to become like God himself. Not merely acting differently, but being transformed into his likeness through grace.<\/p>\n

Now there’s a way to keep Christmas all through the year.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Jacinta Iluch Valero <\/a><\/p>\n

P.S.<\/h2>\n

I love it when you leave comments. Answer this question for me. Do these four reasons for Christ\u2019s birth give you a greater understanding of his life and death? Tell me below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why was\u00a0Christ born?\u00a0To die for our sins, right? That’s true, but I think it’s an incomplete view of Christ\u2019s life and mission. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraphs 456-460,\u00a0gives us four reasons why the Word become Flesh. While you might have guessed the first three, the last one might surprise you…even seem a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catechesis","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why was\u00a0Christ born?\u00a0To die for our sins, right? That’s true, but I think it’s an incomplete view of Christ\u2019s life and mission. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraphs 456-460,\u00a0gives us four reasons why the Word become Flesh. While you might have guessed the first three, the last one might surprise you…even seem a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\"},\"headline\":\"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\"},\"wordCount\":923,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Catechesis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\",\"name\":\"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"description\":\"The Intersection of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Faith.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094\",\"name\":\"Marc Cardaronella\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marc Cardaronella\"},\"description\":\"I'm passionate about the most effective ways to transmit the Catholic Faith and spread the Gospel to the world. Join me? You can find me on Facebook, Twitter for the catechetical ramblings of the day.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/author\/marccard\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella","og_description":"Why was\u00a0Christ born?\u00a0To die for our sins, right? That’s true, but I think it’s an incomplete view of Christ\u2019s life and mission. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraphs 456-460,\u00a0gives us four reasons why the Word become Flesh. While you might have guessed the first three, the last one might surprise you…even seem a […]","og_url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/","og_site_name":"Marc Cardaronella","article_published_time":"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Marc Cardaronella","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Marc Cardaronella","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/"},"author":{"name":"Marc Cardaronella","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094"},"headline":"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born","datePublished":"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/"},"wordCount":923,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg","articleSection":["Catechesis"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/","url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/","name":"The 4 Reasons Christ Was Born - Marc Cardaronella","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg","datePublished":"2012-12-27T06:34:46+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-30T06:38:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-4-reasons-christ-was-born\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christ-reasons-for-birth.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/","name":"Marc Cardaronella","description":"The Intersection of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Faith.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e35e8cdf8ac882a5e4f1b276d0553094","name":"Marc Cardaronella","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/164aa4b84d105cd32d10bdd83348b54c63dc618966b633b3dd110dd1c01a8840?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Marc Cardaronella"},"description":"I'm passionate about the most effective ways to transmit the Catholic Faith and spread the Gospel to the world. Join me? You can find me on Facebook, Twitter for the catechetical ramblings of the day.","sameAs":["http:\/\/marccardaronella.com"],"url":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/author\/marccard\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4288"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4295,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions\/4295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}