Christ
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Christ (from the Latin Christus, and this from the Biblical Greek Χριστός, Christós) is a translation of the Hebrew term "Messiah" (מָשִׁיחַ, Māšîaḥ), meaning "anointed", and used as a title or epithet for Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament. In Christianity, Christ is used as a synonym for Jesus.
Followers of Jesus are known as "Christians" because they believe and confess that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, which is why they called him "Jesus Christ", which means "Jesus, the Messiah" (in Hebrew: «Yeshua Ha'Mashiaj»), or, in its reciprocal use: «Christ Jesus» («The Messiah Jesus»).
The title "Christ" is also within the personal name "Jesus Christ", and is mentioned as a synonym for Jesus of Nazareth in the Christian faith, which considers him the savior and redeemer of men, the "Word" (or Word) of God incarnate «the only begotten Son of God».“and the firstborn of the spirit sons of our Heavenly Father,' (Colossians 1:13-18)”
The main Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ include his consideration as the Son of God, constituted as Lord; that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary; that he was crucified, died, and was buried during the reign of Pontius Pilate; that he descended into hell and later rose from death and ascended to heaven, where he is together with God the Father and from where he will return for the Final Judgment.
Christology, an area of theology, is primarily concerned with the study of the divine nature of the person of Jesus Christ, according to the canonical gospels and other New Testament writings.
In the Bible
The title "Messiah" was used in the Book of Daniel, which speaks of a "Prince Messiah" in the prophecy about "the seventy weeks". It also appears in the Book of Psalms, where it speaks of kings and princes who conspire against Yahveh and his anointed. But fundamentally in the book of the prophet Isaiah the so-called messianic current (Is 9, 1-7) attributed to Christ according to the New Testament writings is expressed.
In the canonical gospels
Jesus is called "the Christ" in all four New Testament Gospels where he is described as anointed with the Holy Spirit. Some references include Matthew 1:16, Matthew 27:17, Matthew 27:22, Mark 8:29, Luke 2:11, Luke 9:20, and John 1:41. In the Gospel of Matthew the subject is dealt with in the following passage:
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, "Who do men say that he is the Son of Man?" And they said, "You, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon the son of Jonah, for this hath not revealed unto thee flesh and blood, but my Father that is in heaven.Gospel of Matthew 16:13-17
In the Gospel of John, the title "Christ" is used as the name of Jesus:
- «[...] grace and truth have come to us through Jesus Christ».
- «This is eternal life: let them know you, the only true God, and your envoy, Jesus Christ.».
In other biblical books
In the Book of Daniel it is stated that the prince messiah would be cut off, and would have nothing. The old version of Reina-Valera translates "he will be killed and will have nothing" and in the margin of the paraphrase "he will be thrown out of possession." This was fulfilled when, instead of being accepted as Messiah by the Jews, he was rejected, cut off, and received none of the messianic honors that were due to him, though, by his death, he laid the foundations of his future glory on earth, working eternal redemption for the saved. In the First Letter to the Corinthians Saint Paul of Tarsus wrote that just as the body is one and has many members, so is the Christ: the head and the members in the power and anointing of the Spirit form a single body.
In the Book of John, this title is related to that of Messiah, "called the Christ".
Having been rejected as messiah on earth, he has been made, already raised from the dead, Lord and Christ, and thus the counsels of God regarding him and man are fulfilled in him. It is revealed that the saints had been chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. All things in heaven and on earth have to be headed in the Christ, since the Christ is the head of the body of the Church.
Christ, the Anointed
The word “anoint” ―from the Latin únguere― means ‘to elect someone to a very notable position or office’ (such as high priest or king).
The Hebrew conception of the anointed or enthroned comes from the ancient belief that smearing a person or spraying an object with oil gives extraordinary qualities, even supernatural ones, when they come from a divine authority. In ancient Israel, the custom of anointing a person granted the power to exercise some important position. The term Christ was used not only with priests who were mediators between God and humanity, but also with theocratic kings who were representatives of God and thus acquired priestly dignity. It was later applied to the prophets and was even linked to the patriarchs. However, in the transformation of the messianic concept, the use of the term was restricted to the redeemer and restorer of the Jewish nation.
In the New Testament, the word Christ is used both as a common name and as a proper name. In both meanings it appears with or without a definite article, alone or associated with other terms or names. When used as a proper name and, many times, in other cases, it designates Jesus of Nazareth, the expected Messiah of the Jews. In this way, for the Christian confessions, Jesus Christ is the messiah, the one whom the Old Testament announced would arrive as God's plan of salvation for humanity. Other religions, especially Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Conservatives, and Reforms, consider him only as a great prophet or preacher of his people - the Jewish people - and the founder of the Christian religion, in whom his followers believe and affirm. who is the incarnate son of God.
Christ the savior
The word savior, in turn, was the qualifying title that the Jews applied to their priests, kings, and prophets, since these had to be anointed with oils as part of the rite that consecrated them to their work. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth, considering that this was the Messiah promised by the messianic prophecies of the Tanakh, applied this title to their leader, calling him Christ Jesus or the Savior. In the middle of the 2nd century -some hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth- they began to be known as Christians in Antioch, as they claimed to be followers of the Christ.
According to some Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church or the main Protestant churches, Salvation is a coming from God. They support this point of view in the words of the Apostle Peter: "On the contrary, we believe that both they and we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus." This grace is obtained through faith and Christian action, according to Catholics and Orthodox, or exclusively by faith, according to Protestants, that is, in believing or trusting that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior and the Only Forgiver of sins.
In Paul's letter to the Romans, salvation is explained, but more precisely in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians: "Christ, with his death and Resurrection, is the one who eliminates the debt of the human sin and conveys that redeeming grace in his person." For Christianity, salvation is available to all who believe and act accordingly.
Christianity
Christian belief affirms that God manifested himself to men in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (Hebrew: Yeshúa), being the Son of God made man and, therefore, the announced Messiah by the prophets in the scriptures, and eagerly awaited by Israel. Scriptures. In fact, Jesus himself claimed to be the Christ. In the Gospel of John, when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman, the following event is recorded:
The woman said to her, "I know that the Messiah, called Christ, must come. When he comes, he will announce everything to us."
Jesus answered, "It is I who speak with you."(John 4:25-26)
As a result of this, the Samaritans are narrated saying: "We ourselves have heard, and we know that truly this is the Savior of the world, the Christ." (John 4:42)
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The Gospel of Mark also narrates Jesus claiming to be the Messiah, when the priests of the temple were questioning him:
The High Priest questioned him again: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God blessed?”
Jesus answered, "So I am, and you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the Almighty and coming among the clouds of heaven."
Then the High Priest scratched his garments and exclaimed, "What need do we already have for witnesses?
You just heard blasphemy. What do you think?" And they all sentenced him to death.(Mark 14:61-64), Jerusalem Bible Version
Christianity arose as a community, the Church, inspired by the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. According to Saint Luke (in Acts of the Apostles 11:26), the disciples of Jesus were first called "Christians" in Antioch in Syria. The mission that united them was the preaching of these teachings throughout the world, a preaching initially carried out by their direct disciples, called apostles. According to the Gospels, God prepared a people, prefigured in the people of Israel, led by Moses and the prophets and led by Christ as leader and savior. With this people, Christ would make a new alliance. The purpose of this pact is that everyone knows God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son and in Him they have eternal life (according to the Gospel of John 3.16).
According to Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God made man (according to the Gospel of Matthew), conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. After the crucifixion, he rose on the third day and later ascended to Heaven; and his return is expected at the end of time in what is called the "second coming of Christ", or Parousia. Christianity explains that the suffering of Jesus was necessary., his sweat was like great drops of blood that fell to the ground.
In the different Christian denominations
The Christian religion began within Judaism as one of many messianic movements, centered on the person of Jesus of Nazareth. His followers spread their worship throughout the world based on the idea that Jesus had risen.
Followers of Christ in the world today do not form a single, uniform group, but are grouped into different denominations, such as the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Anabaptist, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Methodist, Mormon, etc. And there are still those who do not recognize a link with any group.
The faith in Christ of the majority of these communities can be summarized in this ancient profession of faith:
I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son Our Lord, who was conceived by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit. Born of Saint Mary the Virgin, he suffered under the power of Pontius Pilate, he was crucified, dead and buried, descended to hell, on the third day he rose from the dead, ascended to heaven and is sitting on the right hand of God the Almighty Father. From there he will come to judge alive and dead.Apostolic Creed
There is a movement called ecumenism, which tries to seek the unity of all followers of Christ. In this regard, within the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council, in its decree Unitatis redintegratio, has expressed, referring to the division of Christians, "it is openly repugnant to the will of Christ and is a stone a scandal to the world and an obstacle to the cause of spreading the Gospel throughout the world."
Prior to its realization, Pope John XXIII created the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. This call has been continued by subsequent popes.
Theology
In early Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth was seen by some of his Jewish contemporaries as the Messiah prophesied in the Tanakh, but later, Jesus was seen as the image of God, breaking away from Judaism and creating his own book sacred, the bible
Most Christians have as dogma the Holy Trinity that represents God, the theologian Arrio disagreed with that teaching and said that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father and therefore is not part of God, this model led to a movement called Unitarianism. The theologian Nestorius indicated that Jesus and God are divine in nature but separate. Binitarianism teaches that God is two persons. In some Christian branches Jesus is God.
Departing from Christianity, into Islam, Jesus is one of many prophets sent by God.
In Catholicism
For Catholicism, Christ is the Son of God made man for the salvation of the human race, and that is the "Good News": God has sent his Son. Son of God made man: for the Catholic Church this means that the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son, became man in the womb of Mary. Christ, being a single divine Person, is perfect God and perfect man. This doctrine finds its antecedents in different texts of Sacred Scripture, among which we can cite:
In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.Gospel according to Saint John 1:1. Ed. BdJ
And the Word became flesh, and set His dwelling among us...Gospel according to John 1:14. Ed. BdJ
Thomas answered, "My lord and my God. »Gospel according to Saint John 20:28. Ed. BdJ
... and the patriarchs; of which Christ also proceeds according to the flesh, which is above all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans 9:5. Ed. BdJ.
Who, being of a divine condition, did not lively hold the same to God. But he stripped himself of himself as a servant, making himself like men and appearing on his porte as a man; and he humbled himself, obeying unto death and death of the cross. Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name, which is above every name. In order for all knees to be doubled in the heavens, in the earth and in the deep, and every tongue to confess that Christ Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians 2:6-11 Ed. BdJ
...keeping the happy hope and Manifestation of the glory of the great God and Savior our Jesus Christ...Epistle of St. Paul to Titus 2:13 Ed. BdJ
There have been various debates within the Catholic Church regarding how these statements should be interpreted. Its official position has been established in the decisions of the different Councils:
The First Council of Nicaea, in the year 325, the first ecumenical council that the Catholic Church was able to carry out after the persecutions it suffered its first 300 years, deepened the cited biblical texts, affirming that Jesus Christ is consubstantial with the Father (of the same substance as the Father), that is, true God.
The First Council of Constantinople, in the year 381, continued with the deepening of the doctrine, drafting the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed:
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before all the centuries: God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, uncreated, of the same substance of the Father, by whom all was done; that by us, men, and by our salvation came down from heaven, and by the work of the Holy Spirit was taken care of Mary the Virgin, and became a man, and by our time was crucified.
The following Councils have continued to specify the doctrine:
- The Council of Ephesus (431) defined that the historical Christ is at the same time true God and true man, and as a necessary consequence, Mary is the mother of God.
- The Council of Chalcedon (451) specified and formulated the existence of the two divine and human natures in the One Person of Christ.
- In the Second Council of Constantinople (year 553), the union of the divine and human natures was specified by insisting on the uniqueness of the Person of Christ.
- The Third Council of Constantinople (years 680-681), proclaimed the existence in Christ of two wills, the human and the divine.
These clarifications have arisen as a response to different doctrines that were appearing. For example:
- Monarchism or Adoptionism: Jesus was a simple human being, elevated to a dignity similar to that of God after his death.
- Apollinarism: in Christ the spirit was replaced by the divine Logos, thereby implicitly denying the complete human nature of the Redeemer.
- Arianism: Jesus was created by God as the first act of Creation, the glorious crowning of all creation. Then Jesus was a being created with divine attributes, but not divine in and by Himself.
- Monophysiism or eutiquianism: it affirms that in Christ there is only one nature, the divine.
- Nestorianism: it stated that in the Word there are two people: the divine (Christ, son of God) and the human (Jesus, son of Mary). Therefore, Mary is not the Mother of God, she is the mother of Christ.
- Monotheism: it claimed that in Christ there were two natures (as in Catholicism), but only divine will.
In all of them, the Church has seen the denial of redemption, because they believed that it was necessary for Christ to be God, in order to redeem; that he were a man, to be able to suffer; and that he was a single person, in order to be able to refer to divinity and humanity «in ineffable and mysterious concurrence in unity».
For the Catholic Church, Christ, in today's world, is "Lumen Gentium", "Light of the peoples". be afraid! Open, even more so, open wide the doors to Christ!"
More recently, Pope Francis has said:
Jesus is God, but he has come down to walk with us. He's our friend, our brother. The one who enlightens us on our way. And so we welcomed him today. And this is the first word I would like to say to you: joy. Never be sad men and women: a Christian can never be.Pope Francis, homily at Mass for Palm Sunday 2013.
Born of Virgin Mary
The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that "the Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it is truly the Son of God who has come in a humanity like ours".
The Catholic Church highlights the role of Mary in the virginal conception of Christ, in her faith relationship towards Him and in the redemption wrought by him. The Fathers of the Church addressed the intimate union of Christ and Mary in the work of redemption. For example:
Adam, in fact, was recaptured in Christ, that this which is mortal should be swallowed up in immortality, and Eve in Mary, that a virgin might become a lawyer of a virgin should dissolve and annul with her obedience as a virgin the disobedience of a virgin.Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (martyr and Father of the Church, f. 202)
On the one hand, the Catholic Church maintains that God has prepared Mary for such a mission, "in attention to the merits of Christ Jesus", preserving her from original sin, in what is called her Immaculate Conception and granting her a multitude of thanks, which she herself recognized by saying: "Because the Almighty has done great things for me" and to which she reciprocated with absolute fidelity and dedication.
On the other, he has seen in the yes of Mary, by accepting the angel's offer to be the mother of Jesus, the yes of humanity, who accepted through her the salvation that Christ would bring.
Because she is the mother of Christ, who, according to what the Catholic Church has seen, teaches that she is the second Person of the Holy Trinity who became a man without losing her divine condition, the Church calls her the Mother of God.
The Gospels detail the most outstanding events in the life of Christ, however, in them the discreet presence of Mary does not go unnoticed: the Son of God becomes a man after her consent; the shepherds and magicians find the Promised Child with her; Christ performs her first miracle at her request; he stands firm at the foot of the Cross, next to her Son. The Church has seen in the words of Jesus: "Woman, there is your son" and John: "There is your mother" the dedication of Mary as mother of all Christians, represented in the person of John, therefore who is called "Mother of the Church". And she, who "kept all things carefully in her heart", persevered in prayer with the nascent Church, according to the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Apocalypse tells of a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head, and who gives birth to a male child who will defeat the infernal dragon.
In the same promise of the Redeemer, contained in the book of Genesis, it speaks of a woman, from whom the victor of the serpent would be born:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your lineage and yours. He'll crush your head and you'll stalk him.Genesis
In this regard, Saint Alfonso María de Ligorio comments: «Since the beginning of Humanity, God predicted to the infernal serpent the victory and the dominion that our queen would exercise over him when announcing that a woman would come into the world who would she would defeat him […] And who was this woman his enemy if not Mary, who with her precious humility and most holy life always defeated and brought down his power? «In that woman the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ was promised», says Saint Cyprian. And for this reason he argues that God did not say "I put", but "I will put", so that it would not be thought that he was referring to Eve ».
Saint Augustine, commenting on the passage where a woman says to Jesus: «blessed is the womb that carried you» and the Lord answered: «better, blessed are those who listen to the word of God and do it», he says that this It means that Mary not only heard the word and fulfilled it, but she is happier for having conceived Christ in her mind through faith, than for having carried him in her womb. Through her, the same "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
Because of this choice of God and his correspondence on the part of Mary, the Church has seen in her a model of a perfect Christian, and a path to reach Christ.
Christ and the Church
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus speaks of "his Church". The word "church" comes from the Greek ecclesia, meaning 'assembly'. Saint Paul of Tarsus says that the church is the body of Christ.
The Catholic Church claims to be the church founded by Christ, exhibiting, among other arguments, apostolic succession: all Catholic bishops have been ordained by another bishop, and thus, going back, one of the apostles will be reached chosen by Christ. Saint Irenaeus of Lyon says thus:
But the tradition of the apostles is well evident throughout the world and can be seen by all who want to contemplate the truth. In fact, we can list those who were instituted by the apostles as successor bishops to us.Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (Martyr and Father of the Church, f. 202), "Treaty against heresies" (about 190)
According to the Church, only in it can be found the total plenitude of the means of salvation given by Christ. However, she herself teaches that outside of her visible limits, there are many elements of sanctification and truth.
Christ and the Pope
According to Catholicism, within the apostolic succession that concerns all bishops, there is that of the Bishop of Rome, the pope, successor of Saint Peter to this day. (See List of potatoes.) The Catholic Church affirms that Christ constituted head of the Church from him to Saint Peter and in him to his successors:
We therefore teach and declare that, according to the testimonies of the Gospel, the primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church of God was promised and conferred immediately and directly to the blessed Peter by Christ our Lord. For only Simon — whom he had already said before, Thou shalt call thee Cephas [Ioh. 1, 42]—, after uttering his confession: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord addressed himself with these solemn words: Blessed art thou, Simon, the son of Jonah, for neither the flesh nor the blood hath revealed unto thee, but my Father that is in heaven. And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this stone will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and unto thee will I give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and when thou shalt bind upon the earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven [Mt. 16:16]. [Contra Richer, etc.; v. 1503]. And only Simon Peter conferred Jesus after his resurrection the jurisdiction of the supreme shepherd and rector over all his flock, saying, "Appease my lambs." "Appease my sheep" [Jn. 21, 15 ss].Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus of the Second Vatican Council
The Church teaches that the pope is the "perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity, both of the bishops and of the multitude of the faithful." For this reason, Saint Ambrose of Milan could say: "wherever Peter is, there is the Church".
With reference to this, Saint Irenaeus of Lyon continues in the quote that was transcribed in the section referring to Christ and the Church:
It would be very long in a writing like the present to list the successor list of all Churches. For this reason we will indicate how the greatest of them, the oldest and most famous of all, the Church which in Rome founded and established the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, has a tradition that plucks from the apostles and comes to us, in the preaching of faith to men (cf. Rom. 1, 8), through the succession of the bishops. [...] In fact, with this Church (from Rome), because of the greatest authority of its origin, the whole other Church must be in agreement, that is, the faithful everywhere; in it it has always been preserved by all who come from everywhere that tradition which begins from the apostles.Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (martyr and Father of the Church, f. 202)
And Saint Cyprian of Carthage:
The Lord speaks to St Peter and says to him, "I tell you that you are Peter and on this stone I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." And though all the apostles confer equal power after their resurrection and say to them, "Just as the Father sent me, I also send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you will forgive any of the sins, they will be forgiven; if any of you retain them, they will be retained," however, to manifest unity established a chair, and with his authority he ordered that the origin of this unity should begin by one. It is true that the other Apostles were the same as Peter, adorned with the same participation of honor and power, but the principle emanates from unity. Peter is given the primacy, so that it is manifested that he is a Church of Christ.Saint Cyprian of Carthage (Martyr and Father of the Church, f. 258) "From the Unity of the Church" (4:5).
The Word of Christ and its interpretation in the Catholic Church
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For the Church, the teachings of God are contained in the Bible and in the oral transmission of the preaching of the apostles, called Apostolic Tradition. In turn, these teachings have reached men of all times through the Magisterium of the Church, exercised by the bishops, successors of the apostles, in communion with the successor of Saint Peter, the pope.
The interpretation of the Word in the Catholic Church is not free. In the case of Sacred Scripture, for example, the Church teaches that it must be done "being attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to manifest to us through his words."
This interpretation is carried out by the Church, "the pillar and foundation of the truth", as Saint Paul says. And it was exercised from the beginning, by the apostles themselves: "The Holy Spirit, and we ourselves, have decided... ”.
The early Church had no New Testament. The very inclusion of the sacred books in the biblical canon has been an act of the ecclesiastical Magisterium. The rest of the Christian denominations have inherited the Bible (the New Testament at least) as it was established by the Catholic Church.
Since the beginning of Christianity, divided opinions arose regarding the teachings transmitted by Jesus Christ. For example, the Apostle Saint John says, referring to the dissidents: "they came from among us, however, they were not among us".
The Church understands that God, by revealing his word through Christ, constituted at the same time an authority present at all times, in charge of interpreting it without mistake, in order to maintain "the purity of the faith transmitted by the apostles otherwise there would be no way of knowing without doubt which is the correct interpretation. This ability of the Church to interpret the word of Christ without mistake, the Church calls it "infallibility", and she understands that she has received it from Christ, together with the mission of spreading his word.
The Roman Pontiff, Head of the Episcopal College, enjoys this infallibility by virtue of his ministry when, as the supreme pastor and master of all the faithful who confirm in faith to his brothers, proclaims by a definitive act the doctrine in matters of faith and morals... The infallibility promised to the Church also resides in the episcopal Body when it exercises the supreme magisterium with the successor of Peter, especially in an ecumenical Council (LG 25; cf. Vatican I: DS 3074).Catechism of the Catholic Church, 891
The grace of Christ in the sacraments
Some paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church where the doctrine about the sacraments is explained:
The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments through which the Holy Spirit distributes the grace of Christ, which is the Head, in the Church which is his Body.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 774
Sitting on the right of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments, instituted by him to communicate his grace. The sacraments are sensitive signs (words and actions), accessible to our current humanity. They effectively realize the grace they mean by virtue of the action of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1084
There are in the Church seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation or crysmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, priestly order and marriage (cf. DS 860; 1310; 1601).Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1113
Adhered to the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, the apostolic traditions and the unanimous feeling of the Fathers, we profess that the sacraments of the new Law were all instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ (DS 1600-1601).Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1114
The Eucharist as an actualization of Christ's sacrifice
Special mention deserves the Eucharist. The Catholic Church believes that the Eucharist or Holy Mass was instituted by Christ when at the Last Supper he said: "Take and eat: this is my body", "Take and drink, this is my blood", "do this in memory of me".. She believes that in each Eucharist the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross once and for all is made present (“is re-presented”), its memory is perpetuated through the centuries and its fruit is applied. And that the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are a single sacrifice, since in both one and the other, Christ is the priest who offers the sacrifice and the victim who is offered. They differ only in the way the sacrifice is offered. On the cross Christ offered it in a bloody way, and by himself, and in the Mass in an unbloody way and by the ministry of the priests. For this reason Saint John Paul II could say that in the Eucharist "the event is indelibly inscribed of the passion and death of the Lord. He not only evokes it but makes it sacramentally present. It is the sacrifice of the Cross that is perpetuated through the centuries.”
The Eucharist as the real presence of Christ in the world
The Church believes that Christ himself is present in the Eucharist. She does not understand this presence as the one that occurs in an effigy, image, symbol or reminder, but rather she believes that He is in person, alive and whole, with his body, blood, soul and divinity, in a "true, real and substantial.”
This is why Saint John Chrysostom could say: «How many people say today: 'I would like to see Christ in person, his face, his clothes, his shoes.' Well, in the Eucharist it is him you see, the one you touch, the one you receive! You wanted to see his clothes; and it is he himself who gives himself to you not only to see him, but to touch him, eat him, welcome him into your heart».
And Saint John Paul II: «The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ, her Lord, not only as a gift among many others, even if they are very valuable, but as the gift par excellence, because it is a gift of himself, of his person in his holy humanity and, furthermore, of his work of salvation".
The Church understands that the Eucharist stands out from the rest of the sacraments since while they have the mission of sanctifying, in the Eucharist is the very author of holiness. Altar", "Blessed Sacramento", or simply "Most Holy".
Christ has promised eternal life to those who receive him in this Sacrament:
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal Life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Because my flesh is the true food and my blood, the true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.John 6:54-56.