Jesus

The Divine Mercy image — Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, 1934
The Divine Mercy — painted by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski under the direction of Saint Faustina Kowalska, 1934. “Jesus, I trust in you.”

Jesus

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. He is fully God and fully man — one Person in two natures, as the Council of Chalcedon defined in 451 A.D. The Word made flesh. The One Mary leads us to.


Promised by God

For thousands of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the prophets of Israel pointed toward One who would come. Isaiah saw a Suffering Servant “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, by whose stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53). Daniel saw “one like a Son of Man, coming on the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13). Micah named the very town: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler” (Micah 5:2).

The Old Testament is, in this sense, the long approach. Every covenant with Abraham, every word of the prophets, every Passover and every Psalm, is reaching toward the One who would fulfill them all. The Christian reads the Old Testament as a love letter, written across centuries, finally answered when the Word became flesh.


God Becomes One of Us

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This is the heart of the Christian claim — that the eternal God, the One who spoke the universe into being, took on a human nature in the womb of a young Jewish woman in Nazareth. Not a phantom, not a costume, not a temporary visit. A real human life — small enough to be carried, hungry enough to nurse, mortal enough to die.

The Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity — these are not merely beautiful stories. They are the moment the divine and human met in one Person, never to be separated. Mary said her “yes”; God became one of us; and the world was changed forever.

“The Word Became Flesh” — Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire

The Annunciation by Fra Angelico
The Annunciation — Fra Angelico, c. 1433

The Seven “I Am” Sayings

Seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the phrase “I am” — the same words God used to identify himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Each is a window onto who he is.

I am the Bread of Life

I am the Bread of Life

John 6:35

The food that satisfies a hunger no other bread can reach. The Eucharist itself.

I am the Light of the World

I am the Light of the World

John 8:12

The light that scatters every darkness — sin, fear, despair, and death itself.

I am the Door

I am the Door

John 10:9

The way through which the soul enters the safety and abundance of the Father’s house.

I am the Good Shepherd

I am the Good Shepherd

John 10:11

The shepherd who knows his sheep by name and lays down his life for them.

I am the Resurrection and the Life

I am the Resurrection and the Life

John 11:25

Spoken at the tomb of Lazarus. The promise that even death does not have the final word.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

John 14:6

The road, the destination, and the breath that animates the journey — all in one Person.

I am the True Vine

I am the True Vine

John 15:1

Apart from him we can do nothing; abiding in him, the soul bears fruit that lasts.


The Cross and the Resurrection

On the night before he died, he gathered his friends and gave them his own Body and Blood. The next afternoon, he was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem. He died, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. This is the moment around which all of history pivots.

And then, on the third day — the morning that has divided every calendar in the world ever since — the women came to the tomb and found it empty. “He is not here, for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6). Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Peter, to the Twelve, and finally to over five hundred at once. The grave could not hold him.

The Resurrection is not the rescue of one man from death. It is the announcement that death itself has been defeated, and that everyone who is joined to Christ shares in his victory. It is the foundation of every Christian hope.

Christ on the Cross by Velázquez
Christ on the Cross — Diego Velázquez, c. 1632

“Evidence of the Resurrection” — Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire


Three Doors Deeper into Jesus

To know Jesus more deeply, three doors stand open.

The Trinitarian God

The central mystery of the Christian faith: the one God in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scripture, the great Councils, the Rublev icon, and how to begin contemplating the Trinity.

The Eucharist

The gift Christ left us on the night before he died: his own Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine. The Real Presence, the Mass, Eucharistic adoration, miracles, and how to receive Communion.

The Jesus Prayer

The ancient prayer of the Christian East — “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Its origin in the desert, hesychasm and Mount Athos, the prayer rope, and how to pray it.


Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.

— the Jesus Prayer, prayed in the Christian East for fourteen centuries