Who we areWhat we believe

Who is Jesus?

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, an obscure town in the present day Palestinian Territories about 2000 years ago. He shared the daily life and work of an ordinary home for the first 30 years of his life. For the next 3 years he went around the shore of Lake Galilee, teaching people about God his Father and healing the sick. He called 12 ordinary men to be his helpers.

Jesus had no money. He wrote no books. He commanded no army. During his life he never travelled more than 200 miles in any direction. He was executed by being nailed to a cross at the age of 33. Jesus' teaching challenged the religious and moral beliefs of his day.

Jesus claimed to be the only way to reach God and taught that his death was God's appointed means of bringing self-centred humanity back to God. Jesus also foretold that he would be raised to life again three days after his death on the cross. Indeed his followers did meet him alive again! These frightened and defeated men become fearless and joyful messengers.

Jesus taught us to trust in a loving and merciful Father to whom we should pray in faith for all our needs. He taught that as children of one heavenly Father we are all infinitely precious, and we should therefore treat one another with love, respect and forgiveness. He lived out what he taught by caring for those he met: by healing the sick, a sign of God's love at work, and by forgiving those who put him to death.

Today over 1 billion people throughout the world worship Jesus as divine - as the Son of God. Their experience has convinced them: that, in the wonders of the natural world we see God as our loving Father; in the living person Jesus we discover God as Son; and in our daily lives we encounter this same God as Spirit. Jesus is our way to finding God: we meet him in prayer and in reading the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and in the Sacraments of the church, especially in the Eucharist or Mass.

Christians are those who know what it means to meet the living Jesus. They have begun to experience how he can transform us. They believe that he alone has the key to human life.