The Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X
on Hypostatic Union
The Third Article of the Creed
1 Q: What is taught in the Third Article:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary?
A: The Third Article of the Creed teaches that by the Operation of the
Holy Ghost the Son of God took a
Body and Soul like ours, in the
Chaste Womb of the
Virgin Mary, and that He was born of that
Virgin.
2 Q: Did the Father and the Son
also take-part in forming the Body and creating the Soul
of Jesus Christ?
A: Yes, the whole Three (3) Divine Persons co-operated in forming
the Body and in creating the Soul of
Jesus Christ.
3 Q: Why then is it simply said: He was conceived by the Holy Ghost?
A: It is simply said: He was conceived by the
Holy Ghost, because the Incarnation of the
Son of God is a work of Goodness and
Love, and the works of Goodness and
Love are attributed to the Holy Ghost.
4 Q: In becoming Man did the Son of
God cease to be God?
A: No, the Son of God became Man
without ceasing to be God.
5 Q: Jesus Christ, then, is God
and Man at the same-time?
A: Yes, the Incarnate Son of God,
that is, Jesus Christ, is both God and
Man, Perfect
God and Perfect Man.
6 Q: Are there, then, Two (2) Natures in
Jesus Christ?
A: Yes, in Jesus Christ, Who is
both God and Man, there are
Two (2) Natures, the Divine and the
Human.
7 Q: In Jesus Christ are there also
Two (2) Persons, the Divine and the
Human?
A: No, in the Son of God made
Man there is only One (1)
Person, namely, the Divine.
8 Q: How many Wills are there in
Jesus Christ?
A: In Jesus Christ there are Two
(2) Wills, the One (1)
Divine, the Other
Human.
9 Q: Did Jesus Christ possess
Free Will?
A: Yes, Jesus Christ possessed Free
Will, but He could not do Evil,
since to be able to do Evil is a Defect,
and not a Perfection of Liberty.
10 Q: Are the Son of God and the
Son of Mary One and the
Same Person?
A: Yes, the Son of God
and the Son of Mary are
One and the Same Person, that is,
Jesus Christ, True
God and True Man.
11 Q: Is the Blessed Virgin the
Mother of God?
A: Yes, the Blessed Virgin is the
Mother of God, because she
is the Mother of Jesus Christ,
Who is True
God.
12 Q: How did Mary become the
Mother of Jesus Christ?
A: Mary became the Mother
of Jesus Christ solely through the Operation
and Power of the Holy Ghost.
13 Q: Is it of Faith that
Mary was always a Virgin?
A: Yes, it is of Faith that the Most
Holy Mary was always a Virgin,
and she is called the Virgin of
Virgins.
The Fourth Article of the Creed
1 Q: What are we taught in the Fourth Article:
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried?
A: The Fourth Article of the Creed teaches
us that to Redeem the world by His Precious Blood,
Jesus Christ Suffered under Pontius
Pilate, the Governor of Judea, Died on the Tree of the
Cross, and, on being taken down there from, was buried.
2 Q: What does the word Suffered denote?
A: The word Suffered denotes all the
Pains endured by Jesus during His
Passion.
3 Q: Did Jesus Christ Suffer as
God or as Man?
A: Jesus Christ Suffered
as Man alone; as God He could neither
Suffer nor Die.
4 Q: What Class of Punishment was that of the
Cross?
A: The Punishment of the Cross
in those days was the Cruelest and the most Ignominious
of all Punishments.
5 Q: Who was it that Condemned Jesus
Christ to be Crucified?
A: He who Condemned Jesus Christ
to be Crucified was Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea who,
though recognizing His Innocence, cravenly yielded
to the Threats of the people of Jerusalem.
6 Q: Could not Jesus Christ have freed
Himself from the hands of Pilate and the Jews?
A: Yes, Jesus Christ could have freed
Himself from the hands of Pilate and the Jews, but knowing it was
His Eternal Father's Will that He should
Suffer and Die for our
Salvation, He voluntarily submitted; nay,
He Himself went-forth to meet His
Enemies and freely permitted Himself to be taken and led to
Death.
7 Q: Where was Jesus Christ
Crucified?
A: Jesus Christ was Crucified
on Mount Calvary.
8 Q: What did Jesus Christ do while on the
Cross?
A: On the Cross Jesus Christ
Prayed for His
Enemies; gave His own Most Blessed Mother
as a Mother to Saint John, and, in his person, to all of us; offered up
His Death in
Sacrifice; and Satisfied the Justice
of God for the Sins of
Men.
9 Q: Would it not have been enough for an Angel to come and
make Satisfaction for us?
A: No, it would not have been enough for an Angel to come and make
Satisfaction for us, because the Offense
given to God by Sin was, in a certain sense,
Infinite, and to Satisfy for
It a Person possessing Infinite Merit
was required.
10 Q: To Satisfy Divine Justice, was it necessary that
Jesus Christ should be both God and Man?
A: Yes; to be able to Suffer and
Die it was necessary that Jesus Christ should be
Man; while for His
Sufferings to be of Infinite Value it was
necessary that He should be God.
11 Q: Why was it necessary that the Merits of
Jesus Christ should be of Infinite Value?
A: It was necessary that the Merits of
Jesus Christ should be of Infinite Value, because
God's Majesty, which had been Offended by
Sin, is Infinite.
12 Q: Was it necessary for Jesus Christ to
Suffer as much as He actually did?
A: No, it was not absolutely necessary for
Jesus Christ to Suffer as much as
He did, because each of His Acts being of
Infinite Value, the least of His
Sufferings would have sufficed for our Redemption.
13 Q: Why, then, did Jesus
Suffer so much?
A: Jesus Christ Suffered
so much in order to Satisfy Divine Justice
all the more abundantly; to display His Love for us still more; and to
Inspire us with the Deepest Horror of
Sin.
14 Q: Did anything remarkable happen at the Death of
Jesus Christ?
A: Yes, at the Death of Jesus
Christ, the Sun was darkened, the
Earth trembled, Graves opened and many of the Dead arose.
15 Q: Where was the Body of Jesus
Christ buried?
A: The Body of Jesus Christ was buried in a New Grave, hewn out
of a rock, on the mount not far from where He
had been Crucified.
16 Q: Was the Divinity separated from the
Body and Soul of Jesus Christ
by His Death?
A: The Divinity was separated from neither
the Body nor the Soul
of Christ in Death; only the
Soul was separated from the Body.
17 Q: For whom did Jesus Christ
Die?
A: Jesus Christ Died
for the Salvation of all Men, and made
Satisfaction for all.
18 Q: If Jesus Christ Died
for the Salvation of all Men, why are not all
Men Saved?
A: Jesus Christ Died
for all, but not all are Saved, because not all will acknowledge
Him; all do not observe His Law; all do not avail themselves of
the means of Salvation He has left us.
19 Q: To be Saved is it enough that
Jesus Christ has Died for us?
A: No, it is not enough for our Salvation that
Jesus Christ has Died for us; it is also necessary that the
Fruit of His
Passion and Death be applied to each one of us, which is accomplished
especially by means of the Sacraments instituted for this end by
Jesus Christ Himself; and as many either do not receive the Sacraments
at all, or do not receive Them well, they thus render the
Death of Jesus Christ useless in their regard.
The Fifth Article of the Creed
1 Q: What are we taught in the Fifth Article:
He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the Dead?
A: The Fifth Article of the Creed teaches
us that the Soul of Jesus Christ, on being
separated from His Body, descended to the
Limbo of the Holy Fathers, and that on the Third Day
It became United once more to His
Body, never to be parted from It again.
2 Q: What is here meant by Hell?
A: Hell here means the Limbo of the Holy Fathers,
that is, the place where the Souls of the Just
were detained, in expectation of Redemption through Jesus
Christ.
3 Q: Why were not the Souls of the Holy Fathers
admitted into Heaven before the Death of
Jesus Christ?
A: The Souls of the Holy Fathers were not admitted
into Heaven before the Death of
Jesus Christ, because Heaven was closed by
the Sin of Adam, and it was but fitting that
Jesus Christ, Who reopened
It by His Death, should be
the First to enter It.
4 Q: Why did Jesus Christ defer His
Own Resurrection until the Third Day?
A: Jesus Christ deferred His Own
Resurrection until the Third Day to show clearly that
He was really Dead.
5 Q: Was the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ like the Resurrection of other Men who had
been raised from the Dead?
A: No, the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ was not like the Resurrection of other
Men who had been raised from the Dead, because
He rose by His Own Power, while the
Others were raised by the Power of God.
The Sixth Article of the Creed
1 Q: What are we taught in the Sixth Article:
He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the Right Hand of God, the Father Almighty?
A: The Sixth Article of the Creed teaches
us that Jesus Christ, Forty Days after
His Resurrection, ascended of Himself into
Heaven in the sight of His Apostles;
and that while as God He was equal to His Father
in Glory, as Man
He has been raised above all the Angels and
Saints, and constituted Lord-of-All-Things.
2 Q: Why did Jesus Christ remain
Forty Days on Earth after His Resurrection before ascending into
Heaven?
A: After His Resurrection Jesus Christ remained
Forty Days on Earth before ascending into Heaven, to prove by
several apparitions that He was truly risen, to instruct the Apostles
still further, and to confirm them in the Truths of Faith.
3 Q: Why did Jesus Christ ascend into
Heaven?
A: Jesus Christ ascended into
Heaven: (1) To take possession of the
Kingdom He had Merited by His
Death; (2) To prepare the place of our
Glory, and to be our Mediator and
Advocate with the Father,
(3) To send the Holy Ghost upon His Apostles.
4 Q: Why is it said of Jesus Christ that
He Ascended, and of His Most
Holy Mother that she was Assumed, into
Heaven?
A: It is said of Jesus Christ that
He Ascended into Heaven, and of
His Most Holy Mother that
she was Assumed, because,
Jesus Christ, being Man-God,
Ascended into Heaven by His Own Power;
but His Mother, being a Creature,
even though the greatest of all Creatures, was taken up into Heaven by
the Power of God.
5 Q: Explain the words: Sitteth at the Right Hand of God, the
Father Almighty.
A: The word Sitteth signifies the
Peaceful possession which Jesus Christ has of
His Glory; and the words: At the Right Hand of God, the Father Almighty,
denote that He has a Place of Honor above
all Creatures.
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The Divine Person of Jesus Christ;
In the Sepulchre were Jesus'
Body and His Divinity.
