Category Archives: Theosis

Theosis

Sharing Christ’s Life

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Theosis, Thought for the Day, Transformation in Christ

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Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

Virtue and Grace

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Free Will, Theosis, Virtue

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The virtuous agent (person) shows the excellence that is possible in human behavior, just as a superior athlete shows what can be done in a particular game. Virtuous behavior shows how human nature is capable of acting, and it shows thereby what human nature is, since the nature of a thing is most truly displayed when the thing is working at its best.

The God of Faith & Reason, by Robert Sokolowski, p. 64

The Catechism tells us that virtue “is a habitual and firm disposition to do good.” (CCC §1833) In addition it says the “moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them.” (CCC §1839) The quote above gives us an excellent analogy to help us understand even better what virtue is. Comparing the virtuous person to a superior athlete we see first of all that we ‘learn the game’ of being virtuous through ‘education’ – by being taught by someone who already knows how the game is played. You may have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t know the rules of the game then you will never succeed. Likewise, we should all learn how to be virtuous.

Next, there must be the ‘deliberate acts’ of practicing what you have learned. Just because you have the talent and have been taught the rules does not mean you will succeed. If you stay in the bleachers and watch everyone else practice you will never become great. Likewise, we should all put into practice what we have learned about virtuous behavior.

Lastly, there must be ‘perseverance in struggle’. Even if defeat seems imminent you can never give up. Although I am not happy about the outcome of the game, the latest Super Bowl is wonderful example of this point. Let’s be honest: Seattle should have won that game on the final drive; but, that one player for the Patriots did not give up, caught an interception, and saved the game for his team. Likewise, we should never give up in our struggle against sin. Even if we have fallen into a particular sin a million times before that does not mean it will continue. Therefore, we must struggle against it.

But this is where the analogy breaks down because, unlike the world of professional sports, we have God’s grace on our side. We must remember that we are called not just to be virtuous; as Christians we are called to become like Christ. It is primarily through the Sacraments of the Church that we receive the grace that we need in order to become like Christ. In fact, without grace, becoming like Christ is not even possible because we, as creatures, cannot participate in the life of God unless He gives it to us. And thanks be to God He does give it to us. But there is a catch; even though He freely gives us His grace to help us become more like Christ, He does not force us to use it. Instead, we must decide to cooperate with God’s grace if it is to do us any good.

On Loving God and Our Neighbor

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Catholic Obligations, Eternal Life, Forgiveness, Loving our Neighbor, Salvation, Sermons, Theosis

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Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

October 26, 2014

 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” These words of our Savior, which we have just heard, are repeated at this parish everyday at every Anglican Use Mass. It is very good for us to hear these words at every Mass so that we are constantly reminded of our need to put God first by loving Him above all things; but, when something becomes so familiar to us we can develop a tendency to ignore its true meaning. What does it mean to love God with your entire being? This is a very serious question to which we must have the correct answer so that we can rightly order our lives toward God. But in addition, without the right understanding for the love of God we will not know how to keep the second of our Lord’s commands: to love our neighbor as ourselves. So, what does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul and mind? Before looking for the answer I want to address modern man’s take on this question.

 

In our secular and pluralistic society, modern man asks a similar but altogether different question. Instead of asking how to rightly love God, modern society demands an answer to the question “Why should we love God, if there is one? What has He ever done for us?” And even we as Catholics, and who claim to love God, don’t always prove it. Too often in our speech we say we love God, but in our actions towards Him we show a profound indifference. We let our lives get in the way of loving God by saying to ourselves – I just don’t have time go to Mass this Sunday, or to pray, or go to adoration, or to do some work of mercy. By so doing we functionally become agnostics because through our actions we ask the same question that our modern society constantly asks – why should we love God? Continue reading →

The Choice

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in God's Will, Salvation, Theosis

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Today is the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael – the Holy Archangels. And as I was praying this morning in preparation for Mass I was reflecting on how these Holy Archangels help to protect us from the Evil One and the angels that followed him in revolt against God. But as I was thinking about this it occured to me that we can be susceptible to a false understanding of good vs. evil. In fact, to put it in such terms as ‘good vs. evil’ can lead to the danger of thinking that evil is merely the “opposite side of the coin” to that which is good.

To this someone might reply, “But is not evil the opposite of that which is good?” To that question I would have to answer yes and no for the following reasons. First of all I would say yes, evil is the opposite of good because as Christians we are to do good and avoid evil. But even though, philosophically speaking, everyone pursues that which is good (but to be more accurate we must say that they pursue that which they think is good and about which they could very easily be mistaken) evil deeds are still done by countless numbers of people everyday. And it is this tendency towards sin, which runs throughout the whole history of mankind, that can lead us into a wrong way of thinking about evil.

When we reflect on the prevalence of evil deeds done by mankind it may appear that evil is a power more intense or stronger than the power of good. And it is to this way of thinking that I would have to say that evil is not the opposite of good. What I mean is that to see the prevalence of evil deeds in the world and to think of the situation in terms of ‘good vs. evil’ is a dualistic and non-Christian way of understanding the world we live in. We must remember that good and evil are not equal but opposite forces. After all, if they were equal but opposite then there would be no objective standard by which to say which side was ‘good’ and which side was ‘bad’. To put this in the form of a question: if good and evil were both equal, and therefore presumably co-eternal, then how could we determine which was good and which was bad? Quite simply – we couldn’t.

As a result, the only thing that really makes any sense is the Christian understanding of good and evil. God is all good. It is He who created everything and He created it good, as we are told in the book of Genesis. It was the rebellion of Lucifer, and the angels that followed him (all of which had been created by God as good creatures) that led to the introduction of evil into God’s good creation. The question may then be asked: why did God create Lucifer if He already knew Lucifer would rebel? But if we ask this question then we might as well ask why did God create anything at all? Ultimately, we cannot really answer that question. There was no need for God to create anything – but, He did. Out of the superabundance of His love He created creatures with which to share His love. But love can only be given freely and that freedom, which in itself is a good thing, implies a choice that can, and does, lead to evil.* What is this choice? It is the choosing of what we want instead of what God wants for us: Lucifer and his angels chose evil, Adam and Eve chose evil and we too, everytime we succumb to temptation, choose evil instead of that which is good. And what is that good which we should choose? Ultimately, the true Good that we all desire (and we desire it because God created us for it) is God Himself. And we, if we want to reach that ultimate Good, must in the day to day choices that we are presented with choose to do God’s will instead of our own. The Holy Archangels we celebrate today, along with all the other good angels, are there to help us when we choose that which is good but they cannot make the choice for us. We must decide to choose the good.

But that brings up a serious question because I have already mentioned that we can be mistaken about that which is good. Therefore, how can we choose that which is good if we can be mistaken about it? To answer this we simply need to remember that God is good and therefore, would not leave us without guidance. And this guidance He has sent to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Of course, we still make mistakes and that is why He left us the Sacrament of Penance. But the more and more we learn to follow Christ – to allow ourselves to be transformed into the image of Christ – the more we will not only know that which is good but also to choose it.

*This choice that can lead to evil is possible only for creatures but not the Creator. To go into the reasons why this is so would make this post too long. Perhaps a topic for another day.

 

The Deafness of Indifference

22 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Catholic Obligations, Eternal Life, Sermons, Theosis

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Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

September 21, 2014

There is one theme of today’s Gospel reading that is readily apparent: those who work in the Lord’s vineyard will all receive the same pay – that being eternal life. But it seems to me that there is a second, less obvious theme, which is what I want to discuss today.

The first thing to notice is that the owner of the vineyard goes out at the first part of the day to hire workers for his vineyard. Next, notice that he goes back at the third hour and sees others “standing idle in the market place” who he hires and sends into the vineyard. Then at the sixth and ninth hours the owner returns yet again and finds more workers who he hires and sends into his vineyard. Finally, at the eleventh hour, the last hour before the end of the day, the owner returns once again to the market place and finds others just standing around. He demands of them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” And they respond, “Because no one has hired us.”

It is at this point in the story that you can feel the tension, which has been building throughout the parable, reach its culmination. Here it seems the owner could have said with a sense of exasperation, “What do you mean by saying that no one has hired you?! I have come to the market place four other times looking for workers but you were too lazy to take any notice.”

But, even though these words were not spoken by the owner, they do seem to be implied by what he does say next, “You go in the vineyard too.” In order to understand what he is really saying we must understand the grammar of this sentence. First notice that the owner does not say ‘please’. And there is a reason for this: in the Greek the word used for ‘you go’ is an imperative. In effect, he is telling all those who are still standing around at the eleventh hour to get out there and do something! I would say it is not unlike when a parent has told their children to clean their rooms multiple times and then finally has to command them to do it. But even then, as we all know, children can be disobedient.

And what is the meaning of this secondary theme of the parable? How are we to understand it? First of all, it is obvious that the owner of the vineyard is God. And the workers in the vineyard are those who have received God’s call and responded to it by doing the work they have been hired to do. As for those in the market place, they represent the rest of mankind that has not yet responded to the call of God: that being those who have never heard the Gospel, or those who have heard it and rejected it. And the day in which the work is to be done represents our lives. By breaking the day up into the various hours our Lord is showing us that God is continually calling us to go out and do the work that He has for us to do. He is constantly pleading with us to not be idle. It is this sense of urgency that is reinforced by our Lord’s use of the imperative “You go into the vineyard too.” But, we must ask this question: why is there such a sense of urgency?

To answer this question we must look to what happened “when evening came” in the parable. The evening represents the end of this life that will come to each and every one of us. In regards to the end of this life, the Catechism tells us that “death lends urgency to our lives” and that “remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment.” It is this ‘bringing of our lives to fulfillment’ which is the reason that God is continually and tirelessly calling us into His vineyard to work. And this ‘work’ that He has given us to do is nothing less than preparing ourselves, and others through evangelization, for life everlasting. This work is accomplished through receiving the Sacraments, obeying the precepts and teachings of the Church, performing the spiritual and corporeal works of mercy, avoiding evil and doing good; in short, the work God has put before us is that of allowing ourselves to be transformed into the image of His Son. And this can only be accomplished if we heed God’s call, go out into the vineyard, and fulfill the purpose that He has for our lives.

But there is an alternative outcome which this parable does not address, but is addressed by many other parables. We are not told in this parable what happens to those who never responded to God’s call. What about those who just stood around the market place all day doing nothing? The owner of the vineyard will tell them, “Get out of my sight – you are not worthy of my generosity. All day I have called to you and you have not responded. But now, the day is over and there is no more work that can be done in order to receive what I was ready to give you. You have made your choice and it cannot be unmade.” If this sounds harsh then remember the parable of the sheep and the goats, or the parable of the wheat and the tares, or many other of our Lord’s parables. There will come a day for us when it is too late to accept what God is offering to us.

One of the main duties of the clergy is to share with God in this calling of people to go out into the vineyard and work. Therefore, I implore you to hear me: God has a unique calling for you, something that no one else can do in quite the same way. And that is why He is continually calling to us, shouting to us, and trying to break through the deafness of our indifference. This life does not last forever, but God does give each of us a lifetime to choose to follow Him. We cannot wait until the last hour is over because then it will be too late. Again hear the words of our Lord today, “You go into the vineyard.”

The (God-)Man in the Mirror

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Free Will, God's Will, Saints, Theosis

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(Jesus Christ) is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendour of eternal light, the mirror without spot.

Look into that mirror daily, O queen and spouse of Jesus Christ, and ever study therein your countenance, that within and without you may adorn yourself with all manner of virtues, and clothe yourself with the flowers and garments that become the daughter and chaste spouse of the most high King. In that mirror are reflected poverty, holy humility and ineffable charity, as, with the grace of God, you may perceive.

From a letter of St. Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague

In the above quote from St. Clare of Assisi we have an interesting analogy presented to us. Here she likens Christ to a mirror. I have seen analogies similar to this one, but only in reverse: that Christians are to be a mirror that reflects Christ back to the world. So, when I first read this from St. Clare I was a little puzzled at what she could mean. Then it occurred to me: what do we usually see in a mirror? The answer is ourselves. And yet to truly be a follower of Christ we cannot be turned in on ourselves in such a manner. And that is why she tells Blessed Agnes, as well as us, to “look into that mirror (that is Christ) daily.” It is through the daily acquiring of virtues that we must seek to become more conformed to the image of Christ.

But, we tend to fight against this idea of conforming to any image other than our own. In fact, too often we want the image of Christ to conform to our own idea of what He is supposed to look like. Sure, we want to become better people and be more Christ-like but we don't want it to be too hard and so we force Christ into the mold we have made for Him. We do this because we are scared that we will lose ourselves if we give ourselves over completely to Christ. And yet, that is what He has demanded of us. (“For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matt 16:25)

It is our own pride and willfulness that keeps us from conforming ourselves to Christ. But we must remember that God created our souls to be perfectly aligned with His own Divine Will and, therefore, if we hand our wills over to Him then it is impossible to lose ourselves. In fact, to hand ourselves over to God is the only way to become perfectly who we are and who God has always intended for us to be. It is only then that we will be able to look in the mirror and see ourselves transformed into the likeness of Christ.

 

What We ‘Will Be’

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Saints, Salvation, Stratford Caldecott, Theosis

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Yesterday was St. Jean Marie Vianney’s feast day. I had intended on posting this on his feast day but, as so often happens, other things got in the way. Below is part of a short biography – the rest of which can be found here.

St. Jean Marie Vianney (1786-1859) was born in a time of intense persecution of priests in revolutionary France. As a child, his parents helped to hide faithful priests and took their children to secret Masses in old barns and private homes. The young Jean Marie showed an extraordinary piety and love for the blessed Mother…Finally, at the age of 19, his father allowed him to study with a holy priest, Fr. Balley, who had survived the time of persecution. Yet, Jean Marie was already much older than his classmates and had great difficulty learning Latin. Later, after a brief and unsuccessful time in the seminary, he was allowed to complete his studies with his priest-mentor. Having failed twice in his examinations, he was finally allowed to take the examination in the supportive presence of Fr. Balley, and this time succeeded.

From the little that I know about St. Jean it appears that he knew early in his life what he was called to do – he knew he was to be a priest. Even though various circumstances kept him from pursuing the priesthood as early as he would have liked, he never gave up on God’s call for his life. And even through all the struggles he had in his studies and failing his examinations twice he still did not give up. When it appeared that everyone had given up on him, he did not give up on God’s call for his life.

But, in contrast to St. Jean Vianney’s life, let us consider the lives of those who do not hold fast to what God is calling them to do. I will explain what I mean by an example from my own experience. In a similar fashion to St. Jean, early in my own life I too felt called to some form of ministry within the Church. Although, I had no idea what that meant for my life because, at the time, I was Baptist and definitely did not feel called to be a Baptist ‘preacher’ (which is term we used instead of pastor). But because of this general sense of a vocation that I had, I assumed from an early age that I would one day go to seminary. And in preparation for seminary, once I entered my second year of college I started to study philosophy.

Now, when you are in college it is typical for people to ask you what you are studying. And whenever I was asked that question and responded, “Philosophy” I would commonly get responses like these: “What on earth are you going to do with that degree?” or “Can you make any money with a such a degree?” And even after I explained I was planning on going to seminary many people would still have a disapproving look on their face because of my choice of studies. Such are the dangers of pursuing what you feel called by God to do I suppose.

But eventually that whole mindset got to me – the pragmatic mindset that questions the value of the search for truth and the acquiring of knowledge simply because it has nothing practical to offer. This was part of the reason that I eventually stopped studying philosophy in college. (Although there were also other factors that led to my leaving the study of philosophy.)

Looking back at my life I can say that the point at which I stopped studying philosophy coincides with the point at which I started to lose the sense of a call from God; in other words, I lost my sense of purpose. This is evidenced by the fact that, after that point, I started little by little to lose any sense of direction in my life – I did not have any idea of what I was supposed to do or even of what I wanted to do. During this time I was just the same as the man who had been given one talent by his master but, instead of doing anything with it, he went and hid it in the ground. (Matthew 25:18) But of course we mustn’t hide our talent in the ground because we know what will happen to us if we do: we will be “cast…into the outer darkness (where) men will weep and gnash their teeth.” There is a question that may be asked, though: why is the punishment so harsh for not using the ‘talent’ that God gives you?

The answer to that question can be found in the following quote:

God creates in his eternity, where he already sees the intellectual creature as it ‘will be’ when it has arrived at deifying union with himself. Each moment of the intellectual creature’s actual journey to God is thus at once a new event and a deeper realization of what has always already been true.

The Radiance of Being p.174-5, by Stratford Caldecott

Christians know that God created mankind in His own image. We also know that God loves us. But we need to truly understand and believe these things, and the implications that come from them, if we are to understand the Parable of the Talents and the reason why we should not waste time as I did earlier in my life. We need to understand that God knows us and loves us as we ‘will be’ at the end of time – without all the sin and attachment to sin that we now suffer from. Yes, of course he loves us as we are right now, but how we are right now is not good enough! Jesus revealed to us the need to be perfect and that is what God expects from us. And in order to arrive at the destination of what we ‘will be’ at the end of time we must start our journey right now. Who we are here on this earth is intimately tied to who we ‘will be’ at the end of time. And our perfection then will reflect back to God something that no other creature will be able to duplicate. Out of His infinite love God desires for each of us to reach that perfection that already exists in His mind and that is why He is never satisfied with how far we progress here on this earth.

And it is that point that brings up a crucial difference between the life of St. Jean and my own life. St. Jean never ceased pursuing God’s plan for his life, although it may have been delayed by things out of his control. But I did leave God’s plan for my life behind, at least for a while. And I would imagine that there are many other people that have done the same thing in their own lives. And if that is the case for you as it was for me then bring to mind the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. In that parable there were many throughout the day that the owner of the vineyard noticed just standing around and doing nothing. And throughout the day the owner came back to these directionless and lazy people over and over again imploring them to go work: in other words, to put their talent to use. Some of them were like St. Jean – they immediately went out at the first part of the day when they were called. Others, like myself, were lazy and waited until much later. And why do we do that? Perhaps because we despair of ever being able to complete the task we have been assigned.

But just because we cannot reach that perfection that is expected of us here on this earth does not mean that we should just give up and wait around, doing nothing. The lessons we learn from the parables of the talents and the workers in the vineyard gives us proof. If we just sit on the sidelines of this life and don’t use that which God Himself has given to us then we are telling Him with our actions (or lack thereof) that we do not love Him. God created us to know and to love Him but we will never know or love Him unless we strive with our entire being to seek Him out. And our very being includes that special talent that God has given to each and every one of us. And from the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard we know that if we will heed the call of our Lord to go and work – to put to use that talent He has given us – then even if we do so at the end of the day we will receive our reward from Him.

In imitation of St. Jean Vianney, it would have been much better for me to immediately go into the vineyard and start doing the work God has called me to do. Nevertheless, I thank God that even though I gave up on Him during part of my life, He never gave up on me. There is so much time that I wasted, which I truly lament. And as a result of that wasted time there are things that I should have learned years ago that I am only just now discovering. But I let that loss spur me on to do right now what I can to fulfill that which God has called me to do. To do so is to begin to become what I ‘will be’ and in fact what I already am in the mind of God.

Union of Man with God

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Christian Unity, Liturgy of the Hours, Salvation, Theosis, Thought for the Day

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Just as the head and body of a man form one single man, so the Son of the Virgin and those he has chosen to be his members form a single man and the one Son of Man. Christ is whole and entire, head and body, say the Scriptures, since all the members form one body, which with its head is one Son of Man, and he with the Son of God is one Son of God, who himself with God is one God. Therefore the whole body with its head is Son of Man, Son of God, and God. This is the explanation of the Lord’s words: Father, I desire that as you and I are one, so they may be one with us.

From a sermon by Blessed Isaac of Stella, abbot

Emphasis in bold print is mine.