I'm not going to overthink this one. Immortal means not mortal. Jesus is not mortal, so he's immortal.

Seems to me that an immortal is a mortal(human being) who can never die, whether we are talking about the physical body and/or the soul. So the Saints could be considered to be immortal by the grace of God. However, it doesn't seem right to claim Jesus is immortal since he was never a mortal(human being). Jesus had a human nature, but remained Divine in "person" and in 'being". That being said, it seems that only the term Eternal can apply to Jesus since Jesus had no beginning, has no end, and was never a mortal.

The Divine Mercy prayer calls God by the term "Holy Immortal One",... Sister Faustina from my understanding received that prayer from Jesus himself when he appeared to her.

Also, from my understanding, before Vatican II the Divine Mercy apparition occurrence was being condemned by the Church, but later was revived by John Paul II.

So, what are your thoughts on this?

Jesus is GOD

God died on the Cross.

It's a bit challenging for us in our way of thinking to accept some things without getting a little uneasy. Remember, it is the Muslims who claim that Jesus did not die on the Cross, but somehow appeared to die on the Cross. Some of them say it was a vision, but not real, other Mohammedans say that it looked like Jesus but wasn't really him, others say that someone took his place. They have various versions, but they come down to a denial of the Church's teaching, that God died on the Cross.

We have theologians who speculate that it was not absolutely necessary for Jesus to die on the Cross, for even one drop of his most precious Blood would be sufficient to redeem a thousand worlds. But that Jesus chose to suffer and die for our redemption, and this shows his infinite love for us, as it was something that he did out of free choice, and God's will.

God endured death on the Cross, and then, resurrected, shows us that he has conquered death, that we might learn this way that eternal salvation is victory over eternal death.

It is very popular these days for people to laugh at hell, or to pretend that it's not important. This is a huge accomplishment of the devil. How foolish it is for man to scoff at hell and refuse to believe the revelation of God, for it is only in this short lifetime that we have, when we can grow in grace, by doing penance and believing what we have been given at such a price, the blood of martyrs and of Jesus crucified. For once we have died, it's too late then, and we will face eternity with the consequence of our folly.

Now is the time of salvation!

However, it doesn't seem right to claim Jesus is immortal since he was never a mortal(human being). Jesus had a human nature, but remained Divine in "person" and in 'being". That being said, it seems that only the term Eternal can apply to Jesus since Jesus had no beginning, has no end, and was never a mortal.

I'm sorry, but you are quite mistaken.  Our Lord is a human being.  He is fully man. He has a human nature and a Divine nature.  If He isn't mortal, He could not have died.  But he did die, didn't He?  Or are you saying He didn't experience a mortal death on the Cross, that He just seemed to be dead, feigning death, as it were?  

Mortal comes from the Latin, mors, meaning death.  A mortal experiences death.  He took on a mortal, flesh body, meaning that it would die.  On the third day, His human soul reentered his dead, mortal, flesh body and it became reanimated, and 40 days later He ascended into Heaven.  On the last day, our immortal souls will reenter and animate our mortal bodies, and we will be judged.  If you deny Our Lord's humanity, you will be cast into the pit prepared for Satan and his minions.  This is the heresy of monothelitism, the denial of Our Lord's human nature.  Just thought I'd let you know.

Pax Christie,

Brian

I was just browsing the net, and I ran across this thread here.  I don't think anyone mentioned this yet:  Jesus' human nature was created.  If it were not, He would not be true man.

That's all.  I signed up just to make this one post.  I hope I did not break any etiquette by doing so.

I think you may be right, nobody has mentioned that the human nature of Jesus was created. He "became man" at a point in time (the Annunciation) but He always was, is now, and ever shall be God.

BTW Welcome!

Quote from: Deliveringit1

However, it doesn't seem right to claim Jesus is immortal since he was never a mortal(human being). Jesus had a human nature, but remained Divine in "person" and in "being." That being said, it seems that only the term Eternal can apply to Jesus since Jesus had no beginning, has no end, and was never a mortal.

I'm sorry, but you are quite mistaken.  Our Lord is a human being.  He is fully man. He has a human nature and a Divine nature.  If He isn't mortal, He could not have died.  But he did die, didn't He?  Or are you saying He didn't experience a mortal death on the Cross, that He just seemed to be dead, feigning death, as it were?  

Mortal comes from the Latin, mors, meaning death.  A mortal experiences death.  He took on a mortal, flesh body, meaning that it would die.  On the third day, His human soul reentered his dead, mortal, flesh body and it became reanimated, and 40 days later He ascended into Heaven.  On the last day, our immortal souls will reenter and animate our mortal bodies, and we will be judged.  If you deny Our Lord's humanity, you will be cast into the pit prepared for Satan and his minions.  This is the heresy of monothelitism, the denial of Our Lord's human nature.  Just thought I'd let you know.

Pax Christie,

Brian

This post by Deliveringit1 is a great example of the confusion wrought in the wake of the unclean spirit of Vatican II. In an attempt to mollify the heretics, the English version of the Creed for Sunday Novus Ordo services was changed sometime in the early 1970's; "We believe..." was followed by "...one in being with the Father." Those were mistakes, and note, they have been corrected as of November 2011. Now it says "I believe..." and "...consubstantial with the Father." There is a world of difference between one in being and consubstantial.

The post above has remained Divine in "person" and in "being." Jesus remained a fully divine person and a fully human person. There is no separation between his human nature and divine nature, but we can distinguish between them. They are possessed by one person. We call this unity of person the Hypostatic Union. His divinity is consubstantial with the other 2 Persons of the Blessed Trinity. The divinity of Christ is not something we can separate, but we can distinguish it. To say "divine in being" is inviting confusion and error, or at least misunderstanding.

Brian is correct in saying that Jesus was mortal. He was mortal by choice, and he then became immortal. If he was not once mortal he could not have died on the cross. But just as his divine nature took on a human nature at his incarnation, so too his mortal human nature took on immortality at his resurrection, and we are promised the same thing at the resurrection of the dead. Our bodies, our flesh, shall rise again from the dead on the last day.

The mistake of saying that Jesus had no beginning and was not mortal is rooted in the mistake of saying that he is "one in being with the Father." The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is not the Father.

A half truth is a whole lie.

Jesus is NOT one in being with the Father.
Jesus IS consubstantial with the Father.

Doesn't immortality imply creation? Souls are created and immortal. Yet Jesus is uncreated and is thus eternal.

God the Word is an eternal spirit, eternally begotten of the eternal Father.  But He took a human nature.  We know by Catholic Faith that this nature was a true human nature.  As such it is a created nature.

Therefore Jesus Christ has a human body and a human soul.  This union of flesh and spirit is called man.  Now this particular Man is the Person Jesus Christ, who possesses the spirit of God.

Jesus' human nature initially consisted of created mortal body and created immortal spirit.
His divine nature eternally consists solely of spirit.

The Person of the Word, then, possess human body, human spirit, and divine spirit.

His human soul was mortal, and thus able to be separated from his body by death.

But His eternal, divine and immortal spirit was united hypostatically and inseparably to his human body and his human soul.  Thus in death, the body of Jesus, the corporeal part of his human nature, though dead and devoid of a human soul, was still united to the divine and ever living spirit of God, in the unity of Person we call the Hypostatic Union.

Thus God died, not in His divine nature, but in his human flesh.  The Person of the Word died bodily (His body and soul were separated) for our sins.

The human soul of Jesus, which preached to the spirits that were in prison, was not dead, but as all human souls, was created immortal in time.  It too was united inseparably to the divine spirit of God in the Person of the Word.

In the resurrection, Christ put off his bodily mortality.  Christ is now and forever more immortal in His created human flesh.

His human soul was mortal, and thus able to be separated from his body by death.

Correction:  His human soul was immortal, but able to be separated from His body by His bodily death.