We learn from the Bible that God created Adam and Eve in his own image and likeness and kept them in a state of holiness and justice. In this way, he offered them the grace of truly sharing in his divine life (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church No.375). In theology this status is called “Supernatural order”, because it cannot be acquired by human powers alone.
Even though God created the first parents to share his holiness, they rejected God’s friendship. This rejection is what we call the original sin. On account of this original sin, they lost the gift of supernatural order. However, God’s infinite love and mercy never failed to uphold the humankind.
God prepared the people for their salvation by his special choice of the people of Israel as his own people and by entering into a covenant with them. “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of the woman” (Galatians 4:4). With the human birth of Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the promise of a Savior that God had made to the first parents was fulfilled. This is what we profess in the Creed as: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man”
The Incarnation or the human birth of the Son of God is, thus, the supreme sign of God’s love for us. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost (Cf. Luke 19:10; John 3:17). In the Incarnation of the Son of God, there is union of the divine and human natures in one Person (Cf. CCC No.483). This means that Jesus became truly man, while remaining truly God (Cf. CCC No.464).
In the early centuries, there were many controversies denying the existence of two natures in Jesus; but the Church firmly defended the truth with clear explanations. In 325, Constantine, the Roman King, who declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire, called for a Council in the city of Nicaea. The Church in the Nicaean Council used the word “consubstantial”, in order to clarify the union of the two natures in Jesus. The Council further declared it as a doctrine of our faith and formulated the Profession of Faith, which was known as the Nicaean Creed. This is the Creed, that we recite in the Sunday Mass and on days of Solemnity.
God bless you
Fr. Arul Joseph V.
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