(Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone” (597).
In considering this question of responsibility, the Catechism also wants us to appreciate the difference between objectively sinful acts and the accompanying subjective guilt. Notice the side reference to 1735, which speaks about how far the guilt of bad acts can be “imputed” to a person. Many elements — fear, ignorance, pressure — can lessen the guilt and blameworthiness of a person who acts badly. On the cross Jesus said that his enemies did not know what they did, for they were ignorant of who he was (see Lk 23:34).
Of course, we do not have such an excuse, for we profess to know him and to be his disciples (597). And notice the present tense: “our sins affect Christ himself” (598). They do so in two ways: they “crucify” him anew in our hearts, where he now lives, and they “crucify” him in the members of his Body (see the scriptural references in footnote 390).
Day 84
CCC 599-605
Christ’s Redemptive Death in God’s Plan of Salvation
From the consideration of the historical circumstances surrounding Christ’s trial and death, we now turn to the place of Christ’s death in God’s plan. Jesus’ death on the cross was part of God’s deliberate plan (599), foretold in the Scriptures (601). That God has a plan does not make our actions into those of robots or mere puppets (600). It might help to look back to CCC 306-307 on Providence and secondary causes: God uses our free choices to achieve his plan. God never causes evil, but he does permit it, even the evil of the Crucifixion, so as to achieve redemption (311-312).
The Catechism also wants us to understand that the fact that this is God’s plan does not imply for a moment that the Father has no care for his Son. On the contrary, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God: they have one name (233), one substance (242), with each wholly possessing the Godhead (253) and sharing together the same mission (258). It is not that “God’s plan” is that of the Father only. It is the common plan of the Persons. Moreover, we remind ourselves that in his innermost being God is love (221). The three divine Persons live in a perfect unity of love (255). Christ’s redemptive death is therefore an expression of this Trinitarian unity and love.
Christ’s death is the divine answer to the disorder, hate, sin, and disunity of fallen humanity, the common divine response of the three Persons who are One almighty, unifying Love. As we saw in the section on the Fall, sin is a lack of harmony, of love, and of truth, and so the Son “assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin” (603). He totally identified himself with us in our fallen state, experiencing the effects of sin, and even death, in order to mend what was broken in us. His healing love is offered for each person without exception (606).
Day 85
CCC 606-612
Christ Offered Himself to His Father
In our readings for the next two days we see that Christ’s free offering of himself is out of love for the Father (606-612) and out of love for humanity (613-618).
The freedom of Christ is a key theme in today’s reading. Jesus freely chooses what the Father wills — he exercises “sovereign” freedom (609), being free as only a true king is free. And Christ’s kingly freedom is gained, paradoxically, through his total, loving obedience to the Father — “I do as the Father has commanded me.”
Jesus does not obey only externally, or halfheartedly; he embraces the Father’s plan and will — “I love the Father.” He is wholehearted in his obedience, holding nothing back. The term “embrace” is used of Jesus’ obedience whenever there is mention of the Father’s loving plan of salvation (606, 607, 609).
This embracing of the Father’s plan allows him to “accept” the suffering that is an inevitable dimension of love in the fallen world in which deep sin and the distortions of self-will oppose the Father’s plan. Perfect Love faces the opposition of sin and its consequences, experiencing the horror of suffering and death. This can’t be “embraced,” for it is not itself a good, but an agony; but it can be — and is — fully accepted. “By accepting in his human will that the Father’s will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive” (612).
This free and loving embrace of the Father’s plan, even in the face of suffering and death, is supremely expressed in the Mass. Jesus takes the very heart and center of who he is — his free and loving union with the Father — and gives this — gives himself — to us. The Catechism describes it this way: “Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men” (610). The Last Supper, in the body given and the blood poured out, perfectly expresses and incarnates his total self-offering (610-611).
Day 86
CCC 613-618
Christ Offered Himself for Our Sins
A sacrifice is an offering. Why are offerings made to God, who is infinite Being? They add nothing to him, give him no joy that he does not already have, provide no complement to his already boundless love.
Offerings are made, not for his sake, but for ours. Because we are made to give ourselves over into his perfect happiness and enjoy him forever, we seek every means by which to express this. We want to offer ourselves in love, so we symbolize this by giving things that belong to us — tithes of crops, of animals, of time. But they only symbolize the gift God really wants: the heart. And when the heart is not given along with the offering, we see the reaction in the Sacred Scriptures: ‘“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?’ says the Lord; ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts’” (Is 1:11); “‘Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?’” (Ps 50:13).
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