Why did Jesus come into the world?

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In a recent homily, our congregation was told that Jesus came into this world “to heal the world of its divisions”. At my parish, I hear a lot of talk about how it is important that we all get along and that ALL should be able to come to the table etc… (allow intercommunion), and we need to be accepting of everyone. Apparently, many believe that the teachings of the CCC can be divisive, especially the teachings of morality.

I have two questions-----
  1. In your opinion, or in the Church’s opinion, what are the three main reasons Jesus came into the world? Support with scripture, CCC etc…
  2. Did Jesus come into the world to heal the world of its divisions? If the healing of the world’s divisions was not one of the main reasons (as the homilist seems to think), then please support your claims with scripture, CCC or teachings from the fathers, etc…
Thanks.
 
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Journeyman:
In a recent homily, our congregation was told that Jesus came into this world “to heal the world of its divisions”. At my parish, I hear a lot of talk about how it is important that we all get along and that ALL should be able to come to the table etc… (allow intercommunion), and we need to be accepting of everyone. Apparently, many believe that the teachings of the CCC can be divisive, especially the teachings of morality.

I have two questions-----
  1. In your opinion, or in the Church’s opinion, what are the three main reasons Jesus came into the world? Support with scripture, CCC etc…
  2. Did Jesus come into the world to heal the world of its divisions? If the healing of the world’s divisions was not one of the main reasons (as the homilist seems to think), then please support your claims with scripture, CCC or teachings from the fathers, etc…
Thanks.
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To open the gates of Heaven that had been closed since the sin of Adam…
 
When God came down and took upon himself our human nature and united it with his
divine nature you had in that union two natures (divine and human). Because of
that union, human nature can now do something which of and by itself it could
not do.

Therefore, once God took upon himself our human nature he could act in our name
and every one of the actions of Christ’s human nature had an infinite value.
Not a sigh, a word, a tear, a step, of that human nature was inseparable from
the person of God. That is why one breath of God made man would have been
enough to have redeemed the world. Why? Because it was the breath of God and
therefore had an infinite value.

But why then did God suffer so much when He took upon himself our human nature?
Well, because God’s love knows no limits and the only way to prove perfect love
is by a surrender of all that one has and so, God took upon himself our human
nature and he said, “He loved us unto the end, even unto death!”

Now you see the beauty and the majesty do you not? When he became man in
Bethlehem and took upon himself the form of a babe what did we have? He who
made the world was born in it. Maker of the sun, under the sun, molder of the
earth on the earth, ineffably wise, a little infant. Healing the world, lying
in a manger, ruling the stars, nursed by his mother. God becomes man. Divinity
incarnate, eternity time, Lord scourged, King crowned with thorns and if you
were the only person in the world who ever lived and sinned, he would’ve come
down to this earth and died and suffered, just for you alone…That is how much
he loves you!

----Fulton J. Sheen

God Love You…
 
Jesus Himself said that He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword. He is a dividing line.

now, we as His followers are to work for peace. we are to reach out in love and bring the grace and peace of God into the lives of those we see everyday.

but the reason Jesus came into the world was to bring salvation. in john 3, He says He didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, because the world was condemned already. but that He came into the world to bring salvation. to bring life, and life more abundantly.

why do you ask for three?
 
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Journeyman:
  1. In your opinion, or in the Church’s opinion, what are the three main reasons Jesus came into the world? Support with scripture, CCC etc…
Click to expand...
I like the way Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, answers your first question in Luke 1:68-75:
68"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, 69and has raised up a horn of salvation for us [Jesus Christ] in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we should be saved from our enemies [satan, sin and death], and from the hand of all who hate us; 72to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, 73the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, 74to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church answers your first question in paragraphs 456-460:
I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
456. With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”
457. The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us
with God, who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our
sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world”, and “he
was revealed to take away sins”[1 Jn 4:10; 4:14; 3:5]:
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Saviour; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?[St. Gregory of Nyssa, *Orat. catech.15]

458. The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God’s love: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”[1 Jn 4:9] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”[Jn 3:16]
459. The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”[Mt 11:29; Jn 14:6] On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: “Listen to him!”[Mk 9:7; cf. Deut 6:4-5] Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: “Love one another as I have loved you.”[Jn 15:12] This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.[Cf. Mk 8:34]
460. The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:[2 Pet 1:4] “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.”[St. Irenaeus, *Adv. haeres. 3,19,1] “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”[St. Athanasius, De inc., 54, 3] “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”[St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57:1-4]
​
 
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Journeyman:
In a recent homily, our congregation was told that Jesus came into this world “to heal the world of its divisions”. At my parish, I hear a lot of talk about how it is important that we all get along and that ALL should be able to come to the table etc… (allow intercommunion), and we need to be accepting of everyone. Apparently, many believe that the teachings of the CCC can be divisive, especially the teachings of morality.
. . .
2) Did Jesus come into the world to heal the world of its divisions? If the healing of the world’s divisions was not one of the main reasons (as the homilist seems to think), then please support your claims with scripture, CCC or teachings from the fathers, etc…
Click to expand...
Invite everyone to the parish picnic but only the worthy to receive the Eucharist. Remember what happened to the man who came to the wedding feast who had no wedding garment. (Matt 22:1-14) St. Paul said:
27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. 30That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (1 Cor 11:27-30)
Regarding Jesus coming to heal our divisions, the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism says:
What has revealed the love of God among us is that the Father has sent into the world His only-begotten Son, so that, being made man, He might by His redemption give new life to the entire human race and unify it. (2)
However, regarding intercommunion, the Decree says:
Yet worship in common (communicatio in sacris) is not to be considered as a means to be used indiscriminately for the restoration of Christian unity. There are two main principles governing the practice of such common worship: first, the bearing witness to the unity of the Church, and second, the sharing in the means of grace. Witness to the unity of the Church very generally forbids common worship to Christians, but the grace to be had from it sometimes commends this practice. The course to be adopted, with due regard to all the circumstances of time, place, and persons, is to be decided by local episcopal authority, unless otherwise provided for by the Bishops’ Conference according to its statutes, or by the Holy See. (8)
. . .
These Churches [of the East], although separated from us, yet possess true sacraments and above all, by apostolic succession, the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are linked with us in closest intimacy. Therefore some worship in common (communicatio in sacris), given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church authority, is not only possible but to be encouraged. (15)
 
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Journeyman:
In a recent homily, our congregation was told that Jesus came into this world “to heal the world of its divisions”. At my parish, I hear a lot of talk about how it is important that we all get along and that ALL should be able to come to the table etc… (allow intercommunion), and we need to be accepting of everyone. Apparently, many believe that the teachings of the CCC can be divisive, especially the teachings of morality.

I have two questions-----
  1. In your opinion, or in the Church’s opinion, what are the three main reasons Jesus came into the world? Support with scripture, CCC etc…
  2. Did Jesus come into the world to heal the world of its divisions? If the healing of the world’s divisions was not one of the main reasons (as the homilist seems to think), then please support your claims with scripture, CCC or teachings from the fathers, etc…
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Two points:

The Incarnation was originally intended to unite Human nature with God so that Man could share in the Divine. Christ is the bridge between God and Man.

Because of the fall of Adam. Man needed redemption and forgiveness. Since Man offended God a Man needed to seek forgiveness through a sacrifice. The offering neeed to be greater than the offense. But no single human could offer this. Only the God-Man, Jesus Christ could do this. True God and Perfect Human.

He came to “heal the world of divisions” is a weak way of saying He came to redeem us and obtain the possibility of forgiveness for our sins.
 
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