To "Make Men Gods"

I've written that "God's God, I'm not." (December 7, 2010)

That's quite true, of course.

On the other hand, there's something from yesterday's homily at Our Lady of Angels, here in Sauk Centre, Minnesota: We're not baptized into the attributes of God. We're baptized into the nature of God.

I did a little checking. Sure enough, it's in the Catechism:

"The Word became flesh to make us 'partakers of the divine nature':78 '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.'⁷⁹ 'For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.'⁸⁰ '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.'⁸¹"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 460)

This does not mean that now I think that I'm God, or so similar that the difference doesn't matter. I am not - emphatically not - like God in my attributes. The Catechism discusses God's attributes in 268-278, and elsewhere.

Back to me and God: I am not, putting it mildly, all-powerful and all-knowing. Good grief, I'm on medication to keep my brain working right, and depend largely on my wife to remember appointments. That's hardly a mark of omnipotence and omniscience.

We've been hearing about the Incarnation, too. (Catechism, 456-483 and elsewhere)

Then there's this paragraph, that I quoted in another post today:

"The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God (article 1); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude (article 2). It is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment (article 3). By his deliberate actions (article 4), the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience (article 5). Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth (article 6). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article 7), avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal son1 to the mercy of our Father in heaven (article 8). In this way they attain to the perfection of charity."
(Catechism, 1700)

The idea that humanity shares something with God is hardly a new one:

"God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them."
(Genesis 1:27)

I get a sense of awe - and puzzlement - when I think about the implications of "in His image."

Why God chose to make us this way, I don't understand. Which isn't surprising: God's God, I'm not. Sort of.

Finally, as I've said before, I'm "some guy with a blog." I'm a Catholic layman. I don't speak for the Church. Still, I try to be an informed layman.

Slightly-related posts:

• "Pride, It's Not Just a Group of Lions"
  (November 7, 2010)
• "Catching Up on Reflections from Our Lady of the Angels: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2007"
  (March 1, 2010)
• "Marriage, Catholic Beliefs, and This Catholic"
  (September 24, 2009)