God loved the world so much that He entered into human history as one of us. God became man in the Person of Jesus Christ to save us from sin, to show us God’s love, to be our model of holiness, and to make us sharers in God’s life. Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of God and the Law of the Kingdom, the Beatitudes. He showed us how to love God and how to love one another. And He gave His life on the Cross and rose from the dead so that we could hope for eternal life with God in Heaven.

The Incarnation

Because of His infinite love for us, in the fullness of time, God entered into human history through the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, became man in the Person of Jesus Christ. He was born to a woman, Mary, who freely gave her assent to God’s will in her life. Her yes to God’s plan, announced by the angel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation, made it possible for God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to enact His plan of salvation. Jesus assumed a human nature for four reasons: to save us from sin by reconciling us with God; so that we might know God’s love; to be our model of holiness; and to make us sharers in God’s divine life. In Jesus, God has fully revealed Himself to us. Jesus was fully God and fully man, possessing a divine intellect and will, and a human body, intellect, and will. He was like us in all things but sin. Jesus taught us about God and His plan of salvation, and He taught us how to love God and how to love our neighbor. Then Jesus died for our sins on the Cross, as was foretold in the Old Testament, and rose again on the third day to defeat sin and death and make it possible for us to avoid sin in our lives and be with God in Heaven after we die.

The Kingdom of God

The people of God had anticipated the coming of the Messiah from Old Testament times. The Messiah would be the one who would save God’s people from suffering and sin and who would usher in the reign of God. Jesus is the Messiah of God, who inaugurated God’s Kingdom here on earth (the Kingdom of God is also called the Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospels). The Kingdom of God is not an earthly Kingdom, nor is it a geographic place. Rather, it is the reign of God extended over all things. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus’ central message was “Repent and believe; the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He preached the Good News: that now was the time of fulfillment of all that God promised, and now was the time for His reign to begin. Everything Jesus taught and did revealed and deepened our understanding of the Kingdom of God. He invites all people to be a part of God’s Kingdom by repenting of sin and believing in Him. It is in God’s Kingdom that we find our salvation. Jesus revealed to us not only the power of God over all of creation, but the abundance of life that awaits us in Heaven.

Perfect Happiness in Heaven

Heaven is the state of being after death in which “those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ” (CCC 1023). The souls in Heaven enjoy perfect communion and relationship with God, His angels, and all the saints. In Heaven we will see God face-to-face, as He is. This is called the Beatific Vision. Jesus taught us about the perfect happiness and fulfillment that awaits us in Heaven. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered the Beatitudes, which teach us how to achieve this perfect happiness in Heaven with God by living our purpose here on earth. When we follow the Beatitudes, which perfect the Law of the Old Testament, we begin to experience the fulfillment of Heaven here on earth, in preparation for the perfect and eternal happiness that awaits us in the Kingdom of God.

The Greatest Commandments

Jesus taught us to follow His example and to imitate Him. When He was challenged by a scholar of the law, who asked Him, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus responded with a summary of the whole law: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40). In essence, Jesus summarized the first three of the Ten Commandments by saying we should first and foremost love God with our whole selves. Then He summarized the final seven Commandments by saying that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Rather than replacing the Law of Moses, Jesus’ law of love sums up the whole law and establishes it as the law of the Kingdom of God. Jesus expanded on this teaching throughout His ministry through many parables and teachings, and He gave us the Corporal Works of Mercy as practical ways to love and serve one another for the love of God.