DATE: January 15, 2003
FROM: Fr. John P. Grigus, OFM
Conv 
RE: Response to Immaculata article under magazine section
(Eucharist, God Among Us)
I would like to offer a response to those who asked for a clarification regarding the following statement which appeared in the January - February 2003 issue of the Immaculata Magazine in an article I wrote under the title, "The Eucharist, Pathway to Holiness":
As God became Man through the Incarnation, so now man becomes divinized, is given the grace to become God by participation without ever ceasing to be creature, through the Eucharist.
The explanation of the meaning of the words, "man becomes divinized, is given the grace to become God" is actually present in the sentence, though it might not be immediately apparently to those not familiar with the nuances of Catholic theology. By this is not meant that the very nature of man, human nature in general, somehow ceases to be human and becomes the nature of God but rather that it receives a share in the divine life (as indicated by the term "participation") in such a way that it acquires a God-like quality "without ever ceasing to be creature" . This is what the various saints and mystics call the process of "deification" or transformation which occurs through the activity of divine grace secured for us through the saving merits of Christ and principally communicated in and through the sacraments and, as I have tried to show in this article, most fully through the Eucharist.
Even though the statement, "man becomes divinized" or "God by participation" borders on the extreme, it in no way violates Catholic teaching so long as that ultimate distinction between the nature of God and nature of man is preserved, as I do through the addition of the words "participation" and "without ever ceasing to be creature", and the principle cause of this grace is attributed to God,s own initiative. With the necessary limitations stated, such strong language is oftentimes used by the saints and fathers of the Church themselves to highlight God,s gratuitness with respect to redeemed humanity,s ultimate destiny.
For example, I would like to refer the reader to the numerous selections taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which I have attached to this response in which similar if not in fact identical language is also used.
I hope that this clarifies the issue for you.
Sincerely in Our Lord,
Fr. John P. Grigus, OFM Conv
Director of Marytown's Perpetual Adoration Program
QUOTES TAKEN FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH
REFERRING TO OUR "PARTICIPATION" IN DIVINE LIFE
In reference to Mary,s Virginal Motherhood in God,s Plan
505 By his virginal conception, Jesus, the New Adam, ushers in the new birth of children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. "How can this be?"(Lk 1:34; cf. Jn 3:9) PARTICIPATION in the divine life arises "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". (Jn 1:13) The acceptance of this life is virginal because it is entirely the Spirit's gift to man. The spousal character of the human vocation in relation to God (Cf. 2Cor 11:2) is fulfilled perfectly in Mary's virginal motherhood.
The Meaning and Saving Significance of the Resurrection
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."[525] Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new PARTICIPATION in grace.[526] It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren."[527] We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation GAINS US A REAL SHARE in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
The Beatitudes
1726 The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, PARTICIPATION in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God.
The Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity
1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for PARTICIPATION in the divine nature:[76] for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.
The PARTICIPATION in the life of God through Grace
1997 Grace is a PARTICIPATION in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian PARTICIPATES in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son....
1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself....
1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul ... It is the SANCTIFYING or DEIFYING grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:[48]
The "Father"
2780 We can invoke God as "Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of
nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a PARTICIPATION in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that WE ARE BORN OF GOD.[32]
ON THE "DEIFICATION" OF MAN THAT OCCURS BY DIVINE GRACE
In reference to Original Sin
398 ... Created 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]
In reference to the dignity of the ordained priest
1589 (Quotes a reference attributed to St. Gregory of Nazianzus:) "Who then is the priest? He is] the defender of truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ's priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God's image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is DIVINIZED and DIVINIZES.[82]
In a section on Grace and Justification
1988 Through the power of the
Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin,
and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life ... By the
PARTICIPATION of the Spirit, we become communicants in
the divine nature.... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit
dwells are DIVINIZED.[St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1,
24: PG 26, 585 and 588]
---------------------------------------------------------------
Fr. John P. Grigus, OFM Conv
jpfriar@earthlink.net
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of the Immaculata. All rights reserved.
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