The Christ

THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST
Who He is
He Is Human
He Is Divine
Two Natures   --  One Person
The God-Man

What He has done is the Good News
What He is Doing
What He will Do

He was not merely a man doing his best before God, but God doing His best for man, through the Love revealed in the sacrifice of Himself.

 . . . When Our Blessed Lord was a Babe held by Simeon, the old man had pronounced over Him these words:

This is the Light which shall give revelation To the Gentiles, This is the glory of thy people Israel. Luke 2:32

Now as a grown man walking in the full glare of these lights, He proclaimed:

 I am the Light of the World, He who follows Me can never walk in darkness; He will possess the Light which is Life. John 8:12

Here He made a universal claim such as had been prophesied by Isaias that He would be the Light of all peoples and all nations. Not everyone would follow the Light; some would prefer to walk in darkness and would therefore hate the light. He Who was standing in the temple in which the lights were gradually dimming proclaimed Himself the Light of the World. Previously, He had called Himself the Temple; now He affirmed that He is the Glory and the Light of that Temple. He was declaring Himself more necessary for the life of souls than the light of the sun is for the life of our body. It was not His doctrine, nor His law, nor His commandments, nor His teaching, that constituted this light; it was His Person.

In the midst of Our Lord's affirmation that He was the Messias, there began some of the judicial and civil measures which were later to culminate in the Crucifixion. The Pharisees sent police officers to arrest Our Lord. Before they arrived, Our Lord made another reference to His death:

For a little while I am still with you, And then I am to go back to Him Who sent Me. You will look for Me, But you will not be able to find Me; You cannot reach the place where I am. John 7:33-34

He foresaw all that would happen. Six months remained until the Passover; there was only a little time left before He would fulfill the reason of His coming. They were already planning His death, but their plans would be unsuccessful until He delivered Himself voluntarily into their hands. Then the door would be shut and the time of their visitation would have passed. The separation between them and Him would not be distance but unlikeness in mind and heart, which is the greatest of all distance.
The police who were ordered to arrest Him returned to the chief priests and Pharisees empty-handed.

The officials asked them: "Why have you not brought Him here?" The officers answered, "Nobody has ever spoken as this Man speaks." And the Pharisees answered, "Have you, too, let yourselves be deceived? Have any of the rulers come to believe in Him yet, Or of the Pharisees? As for these common folk who have no knowledge of the law,  A curse is on them." John 7:46-49

The temple officials had contempt for the people; their assumption was that no vulgar person is pious. The very fact that the policemen had an overwhelming impression made upon them and yielded themselves to His fountains of benediction was an indication of the power He had over men of good will. The vocation of a policeman was sanctified that day when these officers refused to arrest the Savior.
There would be another moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when officers would be so impressed with Our Blessed Lord that they would cast themselves prone on the ground, when He said that He was Jesus of Nazareth. On that night, they would have their way because His Hour had come. But for the present they were powerless.
The story of the Feast of Tabernacles ends with the words, "His Hour has not yet come." A particular hour existed for everything He had to do; even His birth is described as the "fullness of time." So His Cross had its appointed hour. Every orb that rolls through the immensity of space is bound to reach a certain point at its own hour. Alan's decrees and proposals often fail, but it is otherwise with the designs of the Almighty. The unity of His life was not in His scattered deeds and parables and utterances, but in Its consummation.
Bethlehem was the foundation of Calvary and His glory. The stairs mount upward from the stable, for even then "there was no room" for Him; the "contradiction" prophesied by Simeon was another step; the Feast of the Tabernacles, another. He knew every step of the way, for He was not merely a man doing his best before God, but God doing His best for man, through the Love revealed in the sacrifice of Himself.

*The Life of Christ  ISBN: 9780385132206, Author: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen