Divinization CCC - 460

[thecone137]

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 is the Catholic understanding of divinization as it relates to Adam and Eve? I’m trying to understand if that means something similar to Adam and Eve’s original state of nature, or something more.

Follow-up:** If divinization means something more, then why didn’t God create Adam and Eve in that better state?**

 

[twf]

It definitely means something more. Our Lady, who is the perfect “type” of deified humanity, far surpasses in glory the original state of Adam and Eve, and far surpasses the glory of all the angelic hosts. God knew Adam and Eve would fall, and in His infinite love and compassion, brought something even greater out of their sin. We won’t fully understand these mysteries this side of heaven, but we have to remember that the Incarnation is key here. The Son of God became the son of man so that the sons of men might become sons of God…in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the union, the marriage, of Divinity of Humanity was realized in the person of Christ Jesus, the Man-God. In the mass the priest prays by this mingling of water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.
"What has not been assumed has not been healed;
it is what is united to his divinity that is saved. . ."
St. Gregory of Nazianzus.
Our Lord died in His humanity, and He rose in His humanity, and He ascended to glory in His humanity. In the person of Christ, human nature has been perfectly united to the Divine nature. This was not possible prior to the Incarnation. The Church, as the mystical perpetuation of the Incarnation, the body of Christ, continues to unite humanity to Divinity.

At the Easter Vigil the Church sings:
*O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault
that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
In Christ, we are seated in glory at the right hand of God, for Christ is both truly God and truly man. *

 

[Richca]

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 is the Catholic understanding of divinization as it relates to Adam and Eve? I’m trying to understand if that means something similar to Adam and Eve’s original state of nature, or something more.

Follow-up:** If divinization means something more, then why didn’t God create Adam and Eve in that better state?**

It is through sanctifying grace that we are made partakers of the divine nature. Sanctifying grace is a supernatural gift which God infuses into our souls such as at baptism or in the sacrament of penance if we have had the misfortune of losing it through mortal sin. Adam and Eve were created by God with sanctifying grace which the CCC states as the state of original holiness and justice. They lost sanctifying grace along with other gifts God bestowed upon them when He created them when they disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve pass on to all their children a state of human nature without the supernatural and preternatural gifts God created them with and which gifts He intended to be passed on to all their children if they had kept God’s command.

 

[thecone137]

It definitely means something more. Our Lady, who is the perfect “type” of deified humanity, far surpasses in glory the original state of Adam and Eve, and far surpasses the glory of all the angelic hosts. God knew Adam and Eve would fall, and in His infinite love and compassion, brought something even greater out of their sin. We won’t fully understand these mysteries this side of heaven, but we have to remember that the Incarnation is key here. The Son of God became the son of man so that the sons of men might become sons of God…in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the union, the marriage, of Divinity of Humanity was realized in the person of Christ Jesus, the Man-God. In the mass the priest prays by this mingling of water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.
"What has not been assumed has not been healed;
it is what is united to his divinity that is saved. . ."
St. Gregory of Nazianzus.
Our Lord died in His humanity, and He rose in His humanity, and He ascended to glory in His humanity. In the person of Christ, human nature has been perfectly united to the Divine nature. This was not possible prior to the Incarnation. The Church, as the mystical perpetuation of the Incarnation, the body of Christ, continues to unite humanity to Divinity.

At the Easter Vigil the Church sings:
*O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault
that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
In Christ, we are seated in glory at the right hand of God, for Christ is both truly God and truly man. *

If divinization means something more, then why didn’t God create Adam and Eve in that better state?

 

[thecone137]

It is through sanctifying grace that we are made partakers of the divine nature. Sanctifying grace is a supernatural gift which God infuses into our souls such as at baptism or in the sacrament of penance if we have had the misfortune of losing it through mortal sin. Adam and Eve were created by God with sanctifying grace which the CCC states as the state of original holiness and justice. They lost sanctifying grace along with other gifts God bestowed upon them when He created them when they disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve pass on to all their children a state of human nature without the supernatural and preternatural gifts God created them with and which gifts He intended to be passed on to all their children if they had kept God’s command.

Do you mean to say that the divinized state is equivalent to Adam and Eve’s original state? The other reply said that they are not equal, and if not equal then for what purpose did God not create Adam and Eve in the divinized state in the first place?

 

[Richca]

Do you mean to say that the divinized state is equivalent to Adam and Eve’s original state? The other reply said that they are not equal, and if not equal then for what purpose did God not create Adam and Eve in the divinized state in the first place?

The same supernatural gift of sanctifying grace which we receive in baptism is the same supernatural gift Adam and Eve were created with and which gift makes us partakers of the divine nature. We will not be restored to the original state of Adam and Eve before their fall until the resurrection on the last day whom besides
the gift of sanctifying grace had other gifts from God such as immortality and not subject to suffering.

 

[thecone137]

The same supernatural gift of sanctifying grace which we receive in baptism is the same supernatural gift Adam and Eve were created with and which gift makes us partakers of the divine nature. We will not be restored to the original state of Adam and Eve before their fall until the resurrection on the last day whom besides
the gift of sanctifying grace had other gifts from God such as immortality and not subject to suffering.

If our restored states are no better than Adam and Eve’s original states(if I understand you correctly), how are we any less prone to sin and end up in the same situation all over again?

 

[Aloysium]

If our restored states are no better than Adam and Eve’s original states(if I understand you correctly), how are we any less prone to sin and end up in the same situation all over again?

A couple of thoughts from a random internet Catholic:

As far as I understand we are not really less prone to sin. This is a bit complex and I don’t have enough time, space or the background to get into the nuances. Christ becomes our sin, dies to it and is resurrected. We are redeemed.

Through the sacraments, prayer, charitable works, loving God and our neighbor, repenting our sins - participating as a member of God’s church, we grow in Christ - divinization.

Adam and Eve chose not to submit to God, who is truth and goodness - I am not sure what you mean by creating them in a better state.
Are you suggesting that we should not be free, that we should never know love.
Because there is choice, the possibility of sin arises.
Sin entered the world, God sacrificed His Son, that we might be saved.
Love is given. The Beatific Vision is the encounter with God when we have surrendered all that we are to Him, our creator. We are all loved by God.
With Jesus, the incarnate Son, in us we attain the loving filial relationship that was meant for us.

You seem unsatisfied with some very good answers thus far.
If you can provide a clue as to where you are coming from and what you hope to achieve through your questioning, it would be easier to understand what specifically you are asking.
For example, if you are asking about what the Church teaches, you could indicate what you believe.
It would be easier to answer your questions by comparing and contrasting.

 

[fhansen]

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 is the Catholic understanding of divinization as it relates to Adam and Eve? I’m trying to understand if that means something similar to Adam and Eve’s original state of nature, or something more.

Follow-up:** If divinization means something more, then why didn’t God create Adam and Eve in that better state?**

Its a matter of the will, where all sin lies. Adam sinned-he reached out and ate the forbidden fruit in an act of disobedience-because he willed to do so. Had he reached out and eaten from the Tree of Life, if he’d have turned more towards God instead of away from Him, he’d have been aligning his will with God’s and would’ve been divinized then, which was Gods intention from the beginning. Instead Adam had to take a detour, out of Eden, into a world where the consequences of his disobedience would be known, where he could come to learn of his need for God, having come also to know of Gods goodness, trustworthiness, and love, so that he, Adam, might come to will rightly, turning back fully to God where He then can do His work in him. Our wills, oriented correctly, are a component of our justice, our perfection, and God won’t violate them. Adam had to learn to love and want God for himself, with the help of grace, in order to be capable of being divinized. ‘Remain in Me…Apart from Me you can do nothing’ , Jesus tells us in John 15. But Adam wanted to be “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”. Here’s another paragraph from the Catechism that teaches about divinization:

398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of 398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”.279

 

[thecone137]

A couple of thoughts from a random internet Catholic:

As far as I understand we are not really less prone to sin. This is a bit complex and I don’t have enough time, space or the background to get into the nuances. Christ becomes our sin, dies to it and is resurrected. We are redeemed.

Through the sacraments, prayer, charitable works, loving God and our neighbor, repenting our sins - participating as a member of God’s church, we grow in Christ - divinization.

Adam and Eve chose not to submit to God, who is truth and goodness - I am not sure what you mean by creating them in a better state.
Are you suggesting that we should not be free, that we should never know love.
Because there is choice, the possibility of sin arises.
Sin entered the world, God sacrificed His Son, that we might be saved.
Love is given. The Beatific Vision is the encounter with God when we have surrendered all that we are to Him, our creator. We are all loved by God.
With Jesus, the incarnate Son, in us we attain the loving filial relationship that was meant for us.

You seem unsatisfied with some very good answers thus far.
If you can provide a clue as to where you are coming from and what you hope to achieve through your questioning, it would be easier to understand what specifically you are asking.
For example, if you are asking about what the Church teaches, you could indicate what you believe.
It would be easier to answer your questions by comparing and contrasting.

As mentioned previously, the first few replies seemed inconsistent -

one said divinization = Adam and Eve original state (gift of sanctifying grace)
another said divinization > Adam and Eve original state

Just looking for clarity, but I think fhansen helped by repeating that divinization is greater than our original states and used the learning argument to explain our necessity to begin in a non-divinized state.

As for my purpose of inquiry, I am studying the Christological debate between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius, and the heart of the matter seemed to be Soteriology. Cyril thought man needed to be divinized, while Nestorius thought that man needed to be humanized (restored back to original state). I wanted to understand what divinization was in contrast to our original states as perfected human creations.

I understand that Church History doesn’t belong in the philosophy forums, but if I could grasp an understanding of divinization then I could better understand the Christology behind it.

 

[thecone137]

Its a matter of the will, where all sin lies. Adam sinned-he reached out and ate the forbidden fruit in an act of disobedience-because he willed to do so. Had he reached out and eaten from the Tree of Life, if he’d have turned more towards God instead of away from Him, he’d have been aligning his will with God’s and would’ve been divinized then, which was Gods intention from the beginning. Instead Adam had to take a detour, out of Eden, into a world where the consequences of his disobedience would be known, where he could come to learn of his need for God, having come also to know of Gods goodness, trustworthiness, and love, so that he, Adam, might come to will rightly, turning back fully to God where He then can do His work in him. Our wills, oriented correctly, are a component of our justice, our perfection, and God won’t violate them. Adam had to learn to love and want God for himself, with the help of grace, in order to be capable of being divinized. ‘Remain in Me…Apart from Me you can do nothing’ , Jesus tells us in John 15. But Adam wanted to be “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”. Here’s another paragraph from the Catechism that teaches about divinization:

398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of 398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”.279

Thanks!

 

[Aloysium]

. . . Instead Adam had to take a detour, out of Eden, into a world where the consequences of his disobedience would be known, where he could come to learn of his need for God, having come also to know of Gods goodness, trustworthiness, and love, so that he, Adam, might come to will rightly, turning back fully to God where He then can do His work in him. . .

What ‘cone’ said.
Thanks.

 

[Richca]

As mentioned previously, the first few replies seemed inconsistent -

one said divinization = Adam and Eve original state (gift of sanctifying grace)
another said divinization > Adam and Eve original state

Just looking for clarity, but I think fhansen helped by repeating that divinization is greater than our original states and used the learning argument to explain our necessity to begin in a non-divinized state.

As for my purpose of inquiry, I am studying the Christological debate between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius, and the heart of the matter seemed to be Soteriology. Cyril thought man needed to be divinized, while Nestorius thought that man needed to be humanized (restored back to original state). I wanted to understand what divinization was in contrast to our original states as perfected human creations.

I understand that Church History doesn’t belong in the philosophy forums, but if I could grasp an understanding of divinization then I could better understand the Christology behind it.

As I have already said in a previous post, God’s gift of supernatural sanctifying grace makes us partakers of the divine nature. This is a gift superadded to human nature which elevates human nature to a supernatural state and a participation in the divine nature. This is why sanctifying grace is called a supernatural gift because it is something added over and above pure human nature.
Now, God created Adam and Eve with sanctifying grace along with other preternatural gifts and as such they were divinized upon their creation. By their disobedience to God’s command in the Garden of Eden, they lost sanctifying grace along with immortality and not being subject to suffering which is symbolized by their being kicked out of the Garden of Eden where they enjoyed intimate communion with God.
So, the original state of Adam and Eve before the fall was divinized because God created them with sanctifying grace and in original holiness and justice. You may be confusing human nature by itself with human nature with the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace which gift is not due to human nature in itself but it is a free supernatural gift from God and which elevates our nature to a participation in the divine nature. God did not create Adam and Eve in a state of pure nature but with the gifts of original holiness and justice.

 

[Aloysium]

. . . So, the original state of Adam and Eve before the fall was divinized because God created them with sanctifying grace and in original holiness and justice. . .

If you refer back to 398 of the CCC: “. . . Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory.”
We weren’t quite there in Eden. It could have been; but, it is through the incarnation of the Word, and the sacrifice of the Lamb, that we can “be like God”, with God, and “in accordance with God”.