When we look at how Jesus is the Son of God we first we have to remember that the Blessed Trinity is one God in three divine persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father is the first person of the Trinity who begets the second person of the Trinity. We say this every week in the Creed as we profess: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God…” This does not mean that God the Father created God the Son, because we also profess in that same Creed: “…begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father…” These are important distinctions. The whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit have always existed outside of space and time. They are God (one), who is eternal, but God is also a relationship of three persons.

So, what do we mean when we profess that Jesus is the begotten Son of God and that he was not made? To beget something means to make it your own, or in this case, to become the Father of someone (like adoption). God the Father didn’t make Jesus Christ because Jesus is God and therefore always existed as God; BUT, the first person of the Blessed Trinity took on the title and responsibility of a Father and begot the second person of the Trinity as a Son. Their roles and responsibilities are different; therefore, their primacy is different (read St. Bonaventure for more on this topic). God the Father sets the tone, law, and boundaries for the whole universe. God the Son, Jesus Christ, follows and is obedient to God the Father (Luke 22:42 & Philippians 2:8). Obviously, God the Father has primacy over God the Son and since it’s God the Son who promises to send the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity), then God the Son has primacy over the Holy Spirit.

To be clear and fair, everything I have taught in this letter comes from the writings and teachings of St. Bonaventure, a great thinker in the Franciscan tradition. If anyone reading this is a lover and disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dominican tradition, you may be a little lost. St. Thomas Aquinas was not a fan of giving the Blessed Trinity a hierarchy, rather, St. Thomas liked to just say the three persons of the Trinity are equal in that they are all Love in essence. St. Thomas isn’t wrong; he couldn’t be more correct! “God is Love!” (1 John 4:8) My only problem with St. Thomas is that he stopped thinking about the Trinity once he landed on God is Love. Get ready for my unpopular opinion: St. Thomas Aquinas isn’t always the best thinker. Please forgive me since I know many Catholic schools teach Thomistic Theology, but the Franciscans have been doing it better for centuries, especially St. Bonaventure.

All this to say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus is God! Jesus is the second person of the Blessed Trinity who has always existed and always will exist. What is cooler still is that God the Son takes on human flesh when he is made incarnate! Infinity is dwindled to infancy on that silent night in Bethlehem. God loves us so much that he becomes human to walk our walk, talk our talk, and even die our death so that we can one day share in His resurrection from the dead. The incarnation is a beautiful gift from the Blessed Trinity which is why we celebrate it with great solemnity every year.