The Identity of Christ

"Who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16,15).

Jesus' question about his identity desires an answer matured over a period, sometimes lengthy, of reflection and prayer, in the hearing of the truth of the Christian faith as professed by the Church.

We recognize in fact that in the presence of Jesus we cannot be satisfied with a merely human sympathy however legitimate and valuable, nor is it sufficient to consider him solely as a personage worthy of historical, theological, spiritual and social interest, or as a source of artistic inspiration.

We recognize that an urge to discover who Jesus really is, is present in the uncertain and anxious search of many of our contemporaries so like Nicodemus who went "by night to find Jesus" (cf. Jn 3,2), or like Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to "see Jesus" (cf. Lk 19,4).

The primary and essential object of catechesis is. . . the 'mystery of Christ'.

We shall consider four central points: 1) Jesus in his historical reality and in his transcendent messianic character, son of Abraham, son of man and Son of God; 2) Jesus in his identity as true God and true man, in profound communion with the Father and animated by the power of the Holy Spirit as he is presented to us in the Gospel; 3) Jesus as seen by the eyes of the Church which with the assistance of the Holy Spirit has elucidated and investigated the. data of revelation by giving us, especially in the ecumenical councils, precise formulations of the Christological faith; 4) finally, Jesus in his life and in his works, Jesus in his redemptive passion and in his glorification, Jesus in our midst and within us, in history and in his Church until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28,20).,

It is indeed true that in the Church there are many ways of catechizing the People of God in regard to Jesus. Each one of them, however, if it is to be authentic, draw its content from the perennial font of Sacred Tradition and of Sacred Scripture, interpreted in the light of the teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, of the liturgy, of the faith and piety of the people, in a word, of the living and operative Tradition of the Church under the action of the Holy Spirit.

We recognize this Tradition expressed and synthesized particularly in the teaching of the Sacred Councils, collected in the Creeds of the Faith and deepened by theological reflection faithful to Revelation and the Magisterium of the Church.

"Whatever be the level of his responsibility in the Church, every catechist must constant]y endeavor to transmit by his teaching and behavior the teaching and life of Jesus" (C.T., 6).

Jesus, in a particularly difficult moment in the life of his first disciples when the Cross appeared imminent and many abandoned him, addressed to those who remained with him another of those questions, so strong, so penetrating and inescapable, "Will you also go away?"

Once again it was Peter who replied as the spokesman of his brethren, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou alone hast the words of eternal life. We have believed and known that thou art the Holy One of God" (Jn 6,66-69).