Can men become god?

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I got this from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature"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.For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."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.
What does it mean.
 
“God became man that man might become God.” In the West this is called “divinization” while the East calls it “theosis.” It means that we are to become “like God” in all but the nature of God (which we can never assume). By participating in the Divine Life of God we can take on much of what it means to be God. We can participate in salvation because it is through the Church that God continues His saving mission on earth. We can become creator through marriage and then giving life to children (procreation). We can forgive, we can love, we can literally “eat God” in Holy Communion and, thereby, become what we eat.

It does not mean that we become “a God” but, rather, that we are incorporated into the life of God.

Deacon Ed
 
Deacon_Ed said:
“God became man that man might become God.” In the West this is called “divinization” while the East calls it “theosis.” It means that we are to become “like God” in all but the nature of God (which we can never assume). By participating in the Divine Life of God we can take on much of what it means to be God. We can participate in salvation because it is through the Church that God continues His saving mission on earth. We can become creator through marriage and then giving life to children (procreation). We can forgive, we can love, we can literally “eat God” in Holy Communion and, thereby, become what we eat.

It does not mean that we become “a God” but, rather, that we are incorporated into the life of God.

Deacon Ed
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Thanks! 👍
 
God wishes us to share in the divine life of the Trinity…to “partake”, as the Catechism says, of their divine life. We will never be God, as we are finite creatures, while God is infinite. We will, however, participate in the divine life to a limited degree (which varies…Our Lady, of course, is as close to the divine as a creature possibly can be…other saints more or less so depending on their individual holiness) as true adopted sons and daughters of God.

God set our first parents apart from the other animals by giving them a share in His own divine life. Through disobedience, our first parents lost communion with the Trinity. To be born into orignal sin essential means to be born devoid of that participation in the divine life - to be spiritually “dead”. By assuming humanity, Christ was, through his passion, able to redeem man in order to grant us once again a share in the divine nature. In baptism we, as Scripture says, “put on Christ” and are given the Spirit of adoption - God infuses into our souls divine life (which we in the Latin Church call “sanctifying grace”). By adopting us as His sons and daughters through baptism, God begins a process within our souls that will truly transform us into the divine image of His one true Son, Jesus. It is through the gift of the eucharist in particular that this divine life is nourished and strengthened within our souls. You’ve probably heard the expression “you are what you eat”. Well…why do you think we “eat” the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus at every mass?

Of course in this life our sinful nature will always hinder this process. It is only at the resurrection that we will be fully and completely “remade” in the image of Jesus when our bodies and souls are glorified.
 
Deacon_Ed said:
“God became man that man might become God.” In the West this is called “divinization” while the East calls it “theosis.” It means that we are to become “like God” in all but the nature of God (which we can never assume). By participating in the Divine Life of God we can take on much of what it means to be God. We can participate in salvation because it is through the Church that God continues His saving mission on earth. We can become creator through marriage and then giving life to children (procreation). We can forgive, we can love, we can literally “eat God” in Holy Communion and, thereby, become what we eat.

It does not mean that we become “a God” but, rather, that we are incorporated into the life of God.

Deacon Ed
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But, Deacon, her quote from the Catechism (following) says: 460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”. So your statement that we become like God in all but the nature of God is not exactly right.

We do not, of couse, become God - there is only one God and it is not possible for us to be God…and your words “we cannot assume His nature” is correct, since that would be to become Him - however, we do share in that divine nature, through the merits of Jesus Christ - his life, passion, death and resurrection.

God bless…🙂
 
It’s from 2 Peter 1:3-4. We become partakers of the divine nature through Jesus Christ, who partook of our human nature.
 
alacoque said:
But, Deacon, her quote from the Catechism (following) says: 460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”. So your statement that we become like God in all but the nature of God is not exactly right.

We do not, of couse, become God - there is only one God and it is not possible for us to be God…and your words “we cannot assume His nature” is correct, since that would be to become Him - however, we do share in that divine nature, through the merits of Jesus Christ - his life, passion, death and resurrection.

God bless…🙂
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That’s why I qualified my statement. We do not assume the nature of God – we are always will be sharers of a human nature. What we do is participate in the divine life of God through the sacraments. In a sense, we “share” the nature of God through our incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ.

Deacon Ed
 
Deacon_Ed said:
That’s why I qualified my statement. We do not assume the nature of God – we are always will be sharers of a human nature. What we do is participate in the divine life of God through the sacraments. In a sense, we “share” the nature of God through our incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ.

Deacon Ed
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Thahks, Deacon…

I’m not sure and I’m going to research further…but I’m not sure that the life of God and the nature of God are, technically and theologically the same thing…

Maybe they are…I’ll be back…thanks for your response.
 
God is, and always will be, Three Divine Persons. When God the Son assumed human nature, he did not become a human person. Likewise, when we receive the divine nature, we will not become divine persons. In that sense, we do not become God, because we will remain our own persons.
 
God is perfection itself. We are all called on a journey to perfection. Will we ever attain total perfection? NO.
 
The Salt Doll, a story from the Song of the Bird might help.
The salt doll traveled the world in search of self. Finally, it come to the ocean. As it entered the ocean, it dissolved exclaiming “Now I know who I am.”
As Deacon Ed has stated, it is not that we become God any more than the salt doll became the ocean. We enter into the mystery of God, incorporated fully into the body of Christ.
Most of us are familiar with “If you want to be my disciple, then you must pick up your cross and follow after me.” There is a promise attached to “whoever leaves father, mother, brother, and sister for my sake.” That promise is that we will discover who we are.

The nature of Christ is that he became fully human. He experienced death. At the same time He remained God.
“If he were not God, Jesus would not be able to save us. If he were not man, then he could not stand in our place.” Deacon Ed, you might be able to help me with the source of this quote in response to the heresies that denied the dual nature of Jesus Christ.
 
DebChris said:
The Salt Doll, a story from the Song of the Bird might help.
The salt doll traveled the world in search of self. Finally, it come to the ocean. As it entered the ocean, it dissolved exclaiming “Now I know who I am.”
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**Ramana **

In Maharshi’s Gospel, Ramana said: “By constantly keeping one’s attention on the Source, the ego is dissolved in that Source like a salt-doll in the sea.”

**from Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna **

“Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it dissolved. Now, who was there to report the ocean’s depth? What Brahman is cannot be described. In samadhi one attains the knowledge of Brahman – one realises Brahman. In that state reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power to describe the nature of Brahman.”

**Germaine Hornsby (as told to her by Sandeep Chatterjee, who heard it at Gangotri in the Himalayas) **

A salt doll journeyed for thousand of miles and stopped at the edge of the sea. It was fascinated by this moving liquid mass, so unlike anything it had seen before. “What are you” asked the salt doll. “Come in and see” replied the sea with a smile. So the salt doll waded in. The further it went, the more it dissolved till there was only a pinch of it left. Before the last bit dissolved the doll exclaimed in wonder, "Now I know what I am ".
 
Jesus explained it best: “Abide in My Love, and I will abide in you.”
 
Eucharisted said:
Jesus explained it best: “Abide in My Love, and I will abide in you.”
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Euchristed: fyi, regarding you signature prayer to a patron saint for homosexual persons, the Catholic Church does not, at this point, have a designated patron saint for this specific sexual issue, but this site gives a list of patron saints for sexual temptations. A devotion to any of these saints, I’m sure, would be helpful.

fyi: saints.sqpn.com/patrons-against-sexual-temptation/

God bless…
 
Deacon_Ed said:
That’s why I qualified my statement. We do not assume the nature of God – we are always will be sharers of a human nature. What we do is participate in the divine life of God through the sacraments. In a sense, we “share” the nature of God through our incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ.

Deacon Ed
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I alway believe that we do became Gods… Well we are given share in the throne of god (rev. 3:21) that is what satan wanted to be god and seat in the throne of the most high… that is given to the saints theirfor gods ,well that is the logic i see… please correct me…
 
You are what you eat. Unlike normal food that becomes a part of who we are, when we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we become part of His Body. Christ dwells within us making us little christs, called to reflect His love to the world.

*When jesus Christ leads us to the holy table and gives us his own Body to eat and Blood to drink, he transforms us completely and changes us into what he is himself. Marked now with the impress of the royal seal, our clay is clay no longer, but itself becomes the very Body of the King; and it is not possible to imagine any state more blessed than this.

“This is the great mystery,” says St. Paul (Ephesians 5:32) referring to our union with Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is that mystical marriage, praised throughout the world, in which the bridegroom espouses the Church as his virgin bride. By this sacrament we are made “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone” (Genesis 2:23). Under normal circumstances, food is changed into the person who consumes it; fish, bread, and the like become human flesh and blood. But in Holy Communion the exact opposite happens. The Bread of Life himself changes those who eat, transforming them into himself*–Nicholas Cabasilas, a Medieval lay theologian

Source: The Anthonian, Summer 2009, although after reading the article I remember hearing it before.
 
DebChris said:
You are what you eat. Unlike normal food that becomes a part of who we are, when we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we become part of His Body. Christ dwells within us making us little christs, called to reflect His love to the world.

*When jesus Christ leads us to the holy table and gives us his own Body to eat and Blood to drink, he transforms us completely and changes us into what he is himself. Marked now with the impress of the royal seal, our clay is clay no longer, but itself becomes the very Body of the King; and it is not possible to imagine any state more blessed than this.

“This is the great mystery,” says St. Paul (Ephesians 5:32) referring to our union with Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is that mystical marriage, praised throughout the world, in which the bridegroom espouses the Church as his virgin bride. By this sacrament we are made “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone” (Genesis 2:23). Under normal circumstances, food is changed into the person who consumes it; fish, bread, and the like become human flesh and blood. But in Holy Communion the exact opposite happens. The Bread of Life himself changes those who eat, transforming them into himself*–Nicholas Cabasilas, a Medieval lay theologian

Source: The Anthonian, Summer 2009, although after reading the article I remember hearing it before.
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I see what you mean with the verse you posted the God and the church become one correct…
 
adolfo123 said:
I alway believe that we do became Gods… Well we are given share in the throne of god (rev. 3:21) that is what satan wanted to be god and seat in the throne of the most high… that is given to the saints theirfor gods ,well that is the logic i see… please correct me…
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A: We do SHARE, as you say, in the Divinity, Nature and Life of God (I don’ t know exactly what you meant by sharing in His ‘throne’, but assume that this is what you meant). However, it is erroneous to say or believe that we become “Gods”…first, because there is ONLY ONE God and cannot be GodS,plural…or many Gods; and, second, because it is the teaching of the Church that we SHARE, by the merits of Christ, in His Divinity, but do not become God ourselves.

I think this may be what you meant, but the way you stated it was a little confusing to me, so wanted to clarify… God bless you!
 
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