{"id":653,"date":"2014-12-24T14:57:18","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T14:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wpengine.com\/?p=653"},"modified":"2014-12-24T14:57:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T14:57:18","slug":"jesus-was-a-real-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/jesus-was-a-real-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus was a real person!"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>The eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, today emptied himself for our sake and became man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">Antiphon 3, Evening Prayer I<br \/>\nChristmas Day<\/p>\n<p>A baby is born in Bethlehem, and all the world is changed. God has become man. I\u2019ll say it again \u2013 God has become man. All religions are not the same. A baby is born in Bethlehem, and all the world is changed.<\/p>\n<p>Christianity is the only religion to claim the God-Man. Other faiths claim prophets, or representations of a spiritual entity, but only Christians claim that the God they worship, the God they claim created the heavens and the earth, became a human being and lived among us in the flesh.<\/p>\n<p>I can recall the first time that this fact really struck me. I was a student in Rome and was on the Scavi tour at Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica. We were at the tomb of Saint Peter, and I was looking at his bones. Now, my family had a custom of visiting the cemetery, usually at Christmas and Easter, placing flowers at the graves of our relatives, and praying for them. As I was \u201cvisiting the grave\u201d of Peter the Apostle, the thought occurred to me that this was similar to visiting my grandparents\u2019 graves. Then I thought, \u201cOh my gosh, Peter was a real person!\u201d Then, immediately following, \u201cIf Peter was a real person, then <em>Jesus was a real person!<\/em>\u201d Thus began my insatiable appetite for all things theological. I just had to learn everything I could about this Jesus \u2013 this very real person who walked this earth.<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/12\/The_Nativity_of_Jesus_Christ_by_logIcon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-654\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/12\/The_Nativity_of_Jesus_Christ_by_logIcon-220x300.jpg\" alt=\"The_Nativity_of_Jesus_Christ_by_logIcon\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Incarnation is a doctrine of faith unique to Christianity. When this doctrine is ignored or underappreciated, Jesus can become anything from a wise prophet to Santa Claus. He is neither. He is the God-Man, the perfect, intimate unity of God and human. He is the One who, by His death and resurrection, makes it possible for <em>all<\/em> humans to be intimately united to God the Father. Therein lies our Christmas joy!<\/p>\n<p>A baby is born in Bethlehem, and all the world is changed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carmina Chapp<\/strong> is Associate Director of Theology Programs at Saint Joseph\u2019s College Online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, today emptied himself for our sake and became man. Antiphon 3, Evening Prayer I Christmas Day A baby is born in Bethlehem, and all the world is changed. God has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/jesus-was-a-real-person\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23,1],"tags":[65,144],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacred-theology","category-spirituality","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-incarnation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}