Catechism Article 460

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In Article 460 of the catechism, St. Athenasius and Thomas Aquinas say that man might become God or made gods. What does this mean? Should I take it literally? What does the Church say about this???
New Catholic… need help
Thanks, Debbie
 
debbie_webb said:
In Article 460 of the catechism, St. Athenasius and Thomas Aquinas say that man might become God or made gods. What does this mean? Should I take it literally? What does the Church say about this???
New Catholic… need help
Thanks, Debbie
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It refers to what Paul calls growing up to “the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of thestature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). When we lose our lives in Christ, we find them. It does not refer to becoming God the Father almighty. But when glorified in heaven, we are in a sense “divinized” – made like him, as John states.

The Eastern Churches have a stronger focus on this concept than we have in the West and have some marvelous theology based on it.
 
We talk a lot about salvation here and with protestants, it’s the whole question “are you saved”?

IMO, that is a superficial question, because our real supernatural end is to share eternity in the inner life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It is the eternal self-giving love of the Trinity that is our supernatural end, and it is from that perspective that we should be viewing our faith and our daily faith walk.

We get in the mindset of “getting to the finish line”. But it’s far more than that. It is about an eternal love relationship.

Once I started to view my faith from that perspective, it fundamentally changed the way I experience my faith, especially the Sacraments, which are the means of sharing in CHrist’s divine life.

When reading Scriptures from the perspective of Theosis, it brought a fundamental change in my understanding of Scripture.
 
Remember the amazing statement in 2 Peter 1:

*"3: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

4: by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature."*

We will each partake of the nature of God. Whatever that means exactly, it is a remarkable thing!
 
debbie_webb said:
In Article 460 of the catechism, St. Athenasius and Thomas Aquinas say that man might become God or made gods. What does this mean? Should I take it literally? What does the Church say about this???
New Catholic… need help
Thanks, Debbie
Click to expand...
Debbie, this is accomplished by grace. By our adoption into Christ we become so identified with Him that as we grow in grace our thoughts and actions, all that composes our being, become more and more divine. The Father is transforming us through the power of the Holy Spirit to be true images of His Son so as to participate in His Divinity.

St. John of the Cross, in his The Living Flame of Love, writes this:
. . .all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God. For the soul, like a true daughter of God, is moved in all by the Spirit of God, as St. Paul teaches in saying that those who are moved by the Spirit of God are children of God himself [Rom. 8:14].
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Accordingly, the intellect of this soul is God’s intellect; its will is God’s will; its memory is the memory of God; and its delight is God’s delight; and although the substance of this soul is not the substance of God, since it cannot undergo a substantial conversion into him, it has become God through participation in God, being united to and absorbed in him, as it is in this state. Such a union is wrought in this perfect state of the spiritual life, yet not as perfectly as in the next life. Consequently the soul is dead to all it was in itself, which was death to it, and alive to what God is in himself. Speaking of itself, the soul declares in this verse: “In killing you changed death to life.”
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The soul can well repeat the words of St. Paul: I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me [Gal. 2:20]. The death of this soul is changed to the life of God. We can also apply the words of the Apostle absorpta est mors in victoria [1 Cor. 15:54], as well as those the prophet Hosea speaks in the person of God: O death, I will be your death [Hos. 13:14]. In other words: Since I am life, being the death of death, death will be absorbed in life. Copyright 1991 ICS Publications.
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karmel.at/ics/john/fl.html
 
Thanks so much for the comments, scriptures, links and help. Our catechism class will be discussing this and other articles tomorrow night - I tend to take things so literally that reading this article really threw me. This web-site is quite a gift. Thank You.
Debbie
 
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