A friend in need
My prayer to God always is this: (1) that Patrick Madrid will become born again and saved by what Christ has already done; (2) Envoy becomes history and goes down in flames due to its false gospel and teachings. Unfortunately many dear souls are perishing - going down in flames due to their faith in Church, works, and other beings aside from Christ Jesus. See John 14:6, Bible.
Bill Ogden, Pyr, PA

Sometimes you just gotta vent
I thought I had let my subscription to Envoy run out, but alas, another one showed up in my mailbox today. In spite of my reluctance, I read the entire issue. (I have developed the bad habit of reading a wide variety of topics in order to understand God and life better.) In any case, I feel compelled to comment on three articles.

Regarding Mary Beth Bonacci's "Sign of Peace" article: The chip on her shoulder is showing. Sometimes, that "lovey-dovey" stuff that married couples express during the sign of peace is the only thing keeping their marriage from running aground.

Regarding Eric J. Scheske's article "Does it Count?" Well done. I especially liked his reasoning tied in with St. Therese. She is my patron saint and I have tried to follow her example, but frankly, never thought to apply it to what I "get" out of Mass.

Regarding Jim Moore's "Aunt E.M.!" column: Huge sigh of relief here . . . he makes me want to just go up to my church right now and hand in my catechist license. I mean why should I pick up the slack and do the job that priests and nuns used to do?

Oh, wait, there aren't many of either around nowadays. And oh, wait, I'm supposed to use my gifts and talents to assist at Mass and in my parish community. And oh, wait, perhaps there are some of us who can serve God in a role of authority (as in teaching), while still remaining humble and allowing God to use us as He wishes. Pardon my sarcasm, but I think Jim's articles do more harm than good, and even though he tries to express himself with a little humor, he brings me down. That's all. Thanks for letting me vent.
MaryAnn Lockard

The Editor responds:
Wow! What a great letter. I appreciate your taking time to read the last issue (I hope you'll stay with us as a subscriber) and to share your comments with us. We really appreciate your input. Thanks again.
Patrick Madrid

He did it!
Just thought you'd like to know: After twenty-one marvelous issues, I finally did it! I got all twenty questions of the InQUIZition right (vol. 4.4)! Yeah! Keep up the great work, guys.
Donald Jacob Uitvlugt, via email

The Editor responds:
Way to go, Donald! We should have some kind of prize or lovely parting gift for this sort of occasion.
Patrick Madrid

A prisoner speaks out
Just like Mr. Tucker, I have just finished reading my first copy of Envoy. [See "As Received," Envoy issue 4.3.] I wish to express my thanks to whoever it was that made it possible for me to receive this magazine. You see, I am one of those inmates who receive this magazine. On that matter Mr. Tucker in his letter stated: "Don't send Envoy to prisons. They have enough problems . . ."

Mr. Tucker is right. We do have problems. And here in Oklahoma, the problem is getting anything Catholic to read. We have Protestant and anti-Catholic rhetoric up to our ears.

If Fr. Wilson's question-and-answer section seems to take a "holier than thou" attitude to him, then let me ask Mr. Tucker: What have you done for those in prison? There are eight prisons that I know of in your diocese. I am in one of them.

You are right, Mr. Tucker. We do have many problems, most brought on by our own bad choices. Please don't add to them by your rhetoric. Envoy is a fine magazine, and it should be in the hands of every Catholic in prison.
John Casteel, McLeod Correctional Center, Atoka, OK

But we are a silly bunch!
Just wanted to let you guys know that I really enjoy your magazine. I enjoy the articles and learn something new every issue. What I really like is the sense of humor you convey. I like the quizzes you include, the top ten list and all the humor infused throughout.

I'm not saying you're a silly bunch of guys, but I like the fact that you are able to convey the important stuff seriously and have some fun along the way. We have to be able to poke fun at ourselves, and you guys do a pretty darn good job of that. Recently, we hosted a retreat at our home and showed your magazine to the retreatants and the deacon. They loved it! They want more! They'll be subscribing! Thanks again for a job well done.
Rosie Geonnotti, via email

Are we "gods"?
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this wonderful magazine! It's fun to read but not shallow or lukewarm; you deal with issues head on, and I like that. In the March/April 2000 issue I found the "Live Long and Prosper" article about the "name it and claim it" mentality to be very informative. However, I run into a problem when Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., quotes Kenneth Copeland: "You don't have a God in you; you are one." "We are a class of gods!"

I understand that this statement is erroneous and does not square with our Catholic faith. We do not have God by the tail merely because we have great faith in Him. The problem comes in here: How does a Catholic deny Copeland's statement yet defend the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 460, where it quotes St. Athanasius: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God"?
I understand that the Church teaches that through God's grace and the Incarnation He imparts His divine nature to us so that we become true children of God. But isn't Athanasius stepping over the line when he says that we "become God"? How do we defend that statement to our Protestant brothers and sisters?
Laura Sobiech, via email

Paul Thigpen responds:
Your insightful question presses us to understand a critical difference between the Catholic Church's biblically rooted understanding of the glorious nature of salvation and the less-than-biblical doctrines on this subject often embraced by Protestants. The Catholic teaching, preached since the early centuries of the Church, is known as the doctrine of theosis or theopoiesis, a Greek word often translated "divinization" or "deification." It is affirmed at every Mass in the words of the priest: "Through the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity." Theosis holds a prominent place in Eastern Orthodox teaching as well.
St. Athanasius was the fourth-century author of the magnificent treatise On the Incarnation (from which your quote comes) and served the Church as the great champion of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as expressed in the Nicene Creed. He understood the nature of God and the implications of the Incarnation for humanity more profoundly than most of us. Yet even he wasn't the first to talk about theosis.

St. Athanasius merely echoed both the Scripture and Church fathers who came before him, using what was an undisputed doctrine, accepted even by the Arian heretics, as a way of arguing against their heresy. His language was later echoed by other Christian teachers, in particular the thirteenth-century master theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, as quoted in that same paragraph of the Catechism: "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."

This is, after all, the teaching of Scripture. When Jesus was accused of blasphemy for claiming to be divine, He answered by quoting the Old Testament: "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'? If He called them gods to whom the word of God came (and Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" (John 10:34-36). Clearly, Jesus is here affirming the earlier scriptural declaration that, rightly understood, at least some human beings can indeed truly be called "gods."

Still, that's a puzzling statement, so St. Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, helped illuminate Our Lord's startling declaration when he wrote: "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, 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" (2 Peter 1:3-4, emphasis added).

We become "gods," he explains, because we actually become partakers in the divine nature. And this is possible because in Christ, the nature of God Himself has been joined to the nature of humanity, and the resulting redeemed human nature, which is "in Christ," now has new possibilities. As the ancient theologians put it: What God is by His nature, we can become by grace.

What exactly are those "precious promises" that reveal what it means to partake in God's own nature? Look at the divine attributes, and you'll find that the redeemed (the saints) have been promised such attributes as a part of their ultimate perfection in Christ: Divine knowledge. "For our knowledge is imperfect . . . but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood" (1 Cor. 13:9-12).

Divine glory. "We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him" (Rom. 8:16-17). "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor. 3:18). "So I exhort the elders among you … as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed" (1 Pet. 5:1).

Divine authority. "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:12). "For the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 22:5).
Divine power. "He who conquers and who keeps My works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them … even as I myself have received power from My Father" (Rev. 2:26-27).

Divine holiness. "He disciplines us for our good, that we might share in His holiness. … Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:10, 14). "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). "But you have come … to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22, 23).

In short, says St. Paul, we are to be "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). Or as St. John sums it all up for us: "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
This is what is traditionally called the Beatific Vision, the vision of perfect blessedness. When we are finally perfected in heaven, we will at last see God face to face, and we will be like the One we behold - because we will share in His divine nature.

This insight into the glorious destiny that awaits the redeemed also helps us understand the Church's teaching about the Blessed Virgin Mary and the other saints. If we begin to appreciate what we are to become in Christ once we're perfected as saints, it's easy to accept that Mary and the other saints in heaven have the knowledge, power, authority, glory, and holiness to help us in miraculous ways. They share in God's own nature!

How does this doctrine differ from that of ancient Gnostics and contemporary Mormons and New Agers? First, these other groups claim that we are all "gods" (or a "part" of God) by nature. Salvation is thus simply a matter of realizing who we already are.

On the contrary, the Church insists instead that we are not divine by nature; we are by nature sinful creatures separated from God and headed for eternal misery apart from Him. Nevertheless, the Incarnation has given us - beyond our wildest dreams - the opportunity to become "gods" if we unite ourselves with Christ, and come to take part, through Him, in the very nature of God. It's a possibility open to us only through God's grace.

Second, Catholic teaching differs from these others in that it doesn't claim (as Eastern religions often do) that the saints are somehow "absorbed" into God so that they lose their identity, like a drop of water mingled with the ocean. Perhaps St. Athanasius' wording as translated here ("that we might become God") disturbs some Christians because it sounds as if it tends in this direction. But we need only read the rest of his writings to assure ourselves that in his thinking, to "become God" does not mean an absorption by Him with a resulting loss of identity, but rather a sharing of His nature as promised in the Scripture. The Greek term in St. Athanasius' statement (theopoiethomen) could just as well be translated "we might become gods," which is more in keeping with his other statements of the doctrine and with the biblical language cited above from the Psalms and the Gospel.

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"As Received," Envoy Magazine
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