The Wonderful Gospel Truth Most of Us Ignore: We Are Not Merely Saved but Also Deified

Sometimes certain familiar phrases from the Mass will leap out at you. One phrase in Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John stands out for me every time I hear it the end of traditional Latin Masses,“. . .as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.” Does that ever make you wonder, as it makes me wonder, what will it be like to become a son of God? Obviously, “sons” as used here does not mean only members of the male sex. All who believe in His name and live according to the will of God will share in His divine life. Mary, the Mother of God, is the living proof of woman’s divinization. She was conceived without sin, lived always in perfect harmony with God’s will, and her body has been assumed into heaven. In her union with God she became the first to be divinized. She is the fulfillment of the promise of divine adoption, and she fully shares in God's divine nature, as far as any created human can become like God. As the First Chapter of John verse 2 also says:

Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is.

Think of what these promises mean. We are now the sons of God. We don’t see yet what we shall become, but when He appears we shall be like to Him. At the end of Dante's La Divina Comedia in the last canto of Paradiso, Saint Bernard’s prayer to the Virgin Mary praises her because through her the Son of God became a human being and through her human beings come to the Son. And St. Bernard said:

"Lady, you are so highly placed and helpful,
Whoever seeks grace and does not call on you
Wants his desires to fly up without wings."

Only with the help of Mary's intercession we will become like God as Mary is now like Him. -------- These are some reflections that made me jump at the chance to review a collection of essays titled, Called to Be the Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification, which I'm now getting back to after a long delay. --------- Image: Mary in Glory, Paradiso XXIII, Gustave Dore