CCC 333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God “brings the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’”1 Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church’s praise: “Glory to God in the highest!”2 They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.3 Again, it is the angels who “evangelize” by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection.4 They will be present at Christ’s return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgement.5
CCC 430 Jesus means in Hebrew: “God saves.” At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission.6 Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, “will save his people from their sins”.7 in Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of salvation on behalf of men.
CCC 437 To the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised to Israel: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”8 From the beginning he was “the one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world”, conceived as “holy” in Mary’s virginal womb.9 God called Joseph to “take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”, so that Jesus, “who is called Christ”, should be born of Joseph’s spouse into the messianic lineage of David.10
CCC 486 The Father’s only Son, conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, is “Christ”, that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of his human existence, though the manifestation of this fact takes place only progressively: to the shepherds, to the magi, to John the Baptist, to the disciples.11 Thus the whole life of Jesus Christ will make manifest “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.”12
CCC 497 The Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility:13 “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”, said the angel to Joseph about Mary his fiancee.14 The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”15
CCC 1507 The risen Lord renews this mission (“In my name. .. they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”16) and confirms it through the signs that the Church performs by invoking his name.17 These signs demonstrate in a special way that Jesus is truly “God who saves.”18
CCC 1846 The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners.19 The angel announced to Joseph: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”20 The same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”21
CCC 2666 But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: “Jesus,” “YHWH saves.”22 The name “Jesus” contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray “Jesus” is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.23
CCC 2812 Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice.24 This is the heart of his priestly prayer: “Holy Father. .. for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”25 Because he “sanctifies” his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father.26 At the end of Christ’s Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”27
1 Heb 1:6.
2 Lk 2:14.
3 Cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13,19; 4:11; 26:53; Mk 1:13; Lk 22:43; 2 Macc 10:29-30; 11:8.
4 Cf. Lk 2:8-14; Mk 16:5-7.
5 Cf. Acts 1:10-11; Mt 13:41; 24:31; Lk 12:8-9. The angels in the life of the Church
6 Cf. Lk 1:31.
7 Mt 1:21; cf. 2:7.
8 Lk 2:11.
9 Jn 10:36; cf. Lk 1:35.
10 Mt 1:20; cf. 1:16; Rom 1:1; 2 Tim 2:8; Rev 22:16.
11 Cf. Mt 1:20; 2:1-12; Lk 1:35; 2:8-20; Jn 1:3 1-34; 2:11.
12 Acts 10:38.
13 Mt 1 18-25; Lk 1:26-38.
14 Mt 1:20.
15 Is 7:14 (LXX), quoted in Mt 1:23 (Greek).
16 Mk 16:17-18.
17 Cf. Acts 9:34; 14:3.
18 Cf. Mt 1:21; Acts 4:12.
19 Cf. Lk 15.
20 Mt 1:21.
21 Mt 26:28.
22 Cf. Ex 3:14; 33: 19-23; Mt 1:21.
23 Rom 10:13; Acts 2:21; 3:15-16; Gal 2:20.
24 Cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:31, Jn 8:28; 17:8; 17:17-19.
25 Jn 17:11, 19.
26 Cf. Ezek 20:39; 36:20-21; Jn 17:6.
27 Phil 2:9-11.