Beyond Salvation: Becoming One with the Lord

I know we have spoken at length about this (although John Paul II took over 100 general audience talks and multiple documents to fully set out the teaching, which George Weigel famously called "a kind of theological time bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences, sometime in the third millennium of the Church," that is, as part of the New Evangelization (Witness to Hope, p. 343)), but before concluding our consideration of the kinds of relationship we ought to have with Jesus, certain questions arise with respect to this notion of a "spousal relationship" with the Lord:

Why? What's the purpose in that? And isn't the idea more than a bit disrespectful and arrogant, if not blasphemous, seeking to drag the Almighty God down to our low level rather than our getting on our knees and bowing down in worship as we should, not even daring to raise our eyes to look upon His majesty?

Let me answer these questions with another question: Why did God become man?

To save us, of course, to reconcile us to God following the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. The name Jesus (Joshua or Yeshua in Hebrew) means "God saves." Jesus is our Savior, but redemption and salvation are not the only reasons for God becoming man.

The Lord is also Emmanuel, God with us. It seems that He became man also because He loves us and wanted to join us to Him more fully for its own sake. In other words, we are all called to a spousal-type of relationship with the Lord. Each of us is called to be joined with the Bridegroom Emmanuel. This is not to drag God down into the gutter with us, but to raise us up out of the muck to the sanctity which He always intended for us.

Pope Benedict speaks of the Annunciation as a marriage proposal --

This scene is perhaps the pivotal moment in the history of God’s relationship with His people. During the Old Testament, God revealed Himself partially, gradually, as we all do in our personal relationships. It took time for the chosen people to develop their relationship with God. The Covenant with Israel was like a period of courtship, a long engagement. Then came the definitive moment, the moment of marriage, the establishment of a new and everlasting covenant. As Mary stood before the Lord, she represented the whole of humanity. In the angel’s message, it was as if God made a marriage proposal to the human race. And in our name, Mary said, Yes. (Angelus, World Youth Day 2008, 20 July 2008)

There is much to consider in the Pope's words here -- that Jesus wanted to "marry" humanity. God wanted to establish, not merely a parental relationship with us, but a spousal relationship as well, the fullness of love in a communion of persons that is by its nature both unitive and fruitful. In love, He wanted to join fully with humanity, not merely spiritually, which is only partially, but in the fullness of our being, spirit and body, two become one, wholly apart from the issue of salvation. (See also CCC 456 et seq.)

We have need of a savior, of course, because of mankind rejecting God. Early on, Adam and Eve, not satisfied with being mere creatures, ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because they wanted to be like gods themselves. It was this Original Sin that ushered in death -- real death, not merely death of the physical body, but eternal death -- because the very nature of sin is to separate us from God, who is Life itself. Consequently, because He loves us, God sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, who is the salvation of the world.

The irony of Adam and Eve sinning by wanting to be like gods (which ultimately is the root of every sin that we commit) is that it didn't have to be that way. It did not have to be a sin. The irony is that God Himself wants us to be like gods! (CCC 460)

As St. Athanasius wrote, "The Son of God became man so that we might become God." (De Incarnatione Verbi Dei 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "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." (Opusc. 57, 1-4)

The problem is that we (mankind) wanted and want to be gods on our own terms. We want to be gods by our own will, by our own doing. We want our divinity to be self-actualized, without the involvement of He who is already God.

God does want us to be "gods," but He wants us to be gods on His terms, He wants us to be gods by His doing. Not because He is a "jealous God" who can't bear to have competition, but because He is Truth. He is the One and only God, thus, only He can make us like "gods."

For us to be gods on our own, by our own doing (or for us to be our own saviors, to attain salvation all by our own merits) would not be consistent with truth, it would be a lie, it would be contrary to the very idea of God. No, to be true, man can become gods only by the action of the God who is Truth.

We can become gods only by God joining us to Himself, by Him taking us unto Himself in the entirety of our being -- our soul joined to His Spirit, our body joined to His Body -- so that we are in Him and He is in us to such a degree that we truly are a loving communion of persons, no longer separate and apart, but two become one, not merely in a symbolic or poetic sense, but in a very real, authentic and true sense. In other words, since the word "marry" means to combine or join two things together so as to become one, we can become gods only by being so in and through Him, by God "marrying" us to Himself, by our having a "spousal" relationship with the Lord.

This is the eschatological destiny of the faithful. (Rev 19:7-9, 21; Eph 5:31-32) "Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ." (CCC 1026) Beyond salvation is sanctification, being made pure and holy so that we might be perfectly incorporated into the Lord, joined as one with He who is pure and holy Love and Truth and Life.

"Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect," Jesus said. Only God is perfect, but by joining fully in communion with Him, in allowing ourselves to be truly sanctified by the Spirit of Sanctification, one with Him, we can be made perfect as commanded by Jesus. The Lord does not demand the impossible of us, He makes the "impossible" possible. He makes us imperfect humans perfect -- the Bridegroom and only the Bridegroom, by joining us to Him, makes us like gods.

This is the ultimate eternal relationship with the Lord that we are called to, a relationship whereby

"totality embraces us and we embrace totality . . . It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time — the before and after — no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy." (Spe Salvi 12)

Having a Spousal Relationship with Christ

In the post below on St. Thérèse and marriage and family, we show that Blessed Pope John Paul II, in his theology of the body, which was discussed in a series of Wednesday Audiences, as well as various encyclicals, apostolic letters, and homilies, advanced the remarkable insight of "marriage as primordial sacrament." That is, in the outward visible sign of human marriage between man and woman, we see the primary model for the Triune God's plan for humanity.

The spousal meaning revealed in the human body by God, and the spousal imagery used in His divine pedagogy throughout Salvation History as recorded in scripture, shows that we are called, not to a mere generic kind of love of God, but most especially to have a spousal kind of love for Him, a complete gift of self in a dynamic loving communion of persons in one Body. The name Jesus (Joshua or Yeshua in Hebrew) means "God saves." Jesus is our Savior, but redemption and salvation are not the only reasons for God becoming man. The Lord is also Emmanuel, God with us. It seems that He because man also because He loves us and wanted to join us to Him more fully for its own sake. We are all called to this spousal-type of relationship with the Lord. Each of us is called to be a "bride" of the Bridegroom.

We are all called, each and every one of us?? I can understand how a woman might see herself as called to be a bride of Christ, I can even understand how a cloistered virgin nun, such as St. Thérèse, might see herself as being a bride, but men too? Isn't that confusing things a bit too much, isn't this a bit like the secular world out there which denies any sexual differences in favor of an androgynous society, not to mention sounding a bit like "same-sex marriage"? Isn't this taking the spousal analogy a bridge too far?

Yes, it cannot be denied that the secular world, with its dictatorship of relativism, has been quite successful in taking the truth of the human person and twisting and distorting that truth for various ideological purposes. So we must readily recognize that understanding the spousal analogy is now a bit more challenging. But included in this concept of "bride" are men as well, not just women. Perhaps we can get beyond our discomfort if we focus first on just exactly what a spousal love, or a spousal-type of love if you prefer, entails -- a full and complete gift of self, a fullness and purity of love that is so full and so pure that two are able to become one, that we are able to become one in and with God Himself.

Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1998)
Blessed Pope John Paul II

23. In [the Letter to the Ephesians,] the author expresses the truth about the Church as the bride of Christ, and also indicates how this truth is rooted in the biblical reality of the creation of the human being as male and female. Created in the image and likeness of God as a "unity of the two", both have been called to a spousal love. . . .

Since the human being - man and woman - has been created in God's image and likeness, God can speak about himself through the lips of the Prophet using language which is essentially human. In the text of Isaiah quoted above [Is 54:4-8, 10], the expression of God's love is "human", but the love itself is divine. Since it is God's love, its spousal character is properly divine, even though it is expressed by the analogy of a man's love for a woman. . . .

25. In the Letter to the Ephesians we encounter a second dimension of the [spousal] analogy which, taken as a whole, serves to reveal the "great mystery". This is a symbolic dimension. If God's love for the human person, for the Chosen People of Israel, is presented by the Prophets as the love of the bridegroom for the bride, such an analogy expresses the "spousal" quality and the divine and non-human character of God's love: "For your Maker is your husband ... the God of the whole earth he is called" (Is 54:5). The same can also be said of the spousal love of Christ the Redeemer: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16). It is a matter, therefore, of God's love expressed by means of the Redemption accomplished by Christ. According to Saint Paul's Letter, this love is "like" the spousal love of human spouses, but naturally it is not "the same". For the analogy implies a likeness, while at the same time leaving ample room for non-likeness. . . .

Christ has entered this history and remains in it as the Bridegroom who "has given himself". "To give" means "to become a sincere gift" in the most complete and radical way: "Greater love has no man than this" (Jn 15:13). According to this conception, all human beings - both women and men - are called through the Church, to be the "Bride" of Christ, the Redeemer of the world. In this way "being the bride", and thus the "feminine" element, becomes a symbol of all that is "human," according to the words of Paul: "There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).

From a linguistic viewpoint we can say that the analogy of spousal love found in the Letter to the Ephesians links what is "masculine" to what is "feminine", since, as members of the Church, men too are included in the concept of "Bride". . . . In the sphere of what is "human" - of what is humanly personal - "masculinity" and "femininity" are distinct, yet at the same time they complete and explain each other. This is also present in the great analogy of the "Bride" in the Letter to the Ephesians. In the Church every human being - male and female - is the "Bride", in that he or she accepts the gift of the love of Christ the Redeemer, and seeks to respond to it with the gift of his or her own person.

Christ is the Bridegroom. This expresses the truth about the love of God who "first loved us" (cf. 1 Jn 4:19) and who, with the gift generated by this spousal love for man, has exceeded all human expectations: "He loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1). . . . At the same time Christ emphasized the originality which distinguishes women from men, all the richness lavished upon women in the mystery of creation. Christ's attitude towards women serves as a model of what the Letter to the Ephesians expresses with the concept of "bridegroom". Precisely because Christ's divine love is the love of a Bridegroom, it is the model and pattern of all human love, men's love in particular. . . .

27. In the context of the "great mystery" of Christ and of the Church, all are called to respond - as a bride - with the gift of their lives to the inexpressible gift of the love of Christ, who alone, as the Redeemer of the world, is the Church's Bridegroom.

For a man to be a "bride" is not meant to emasculate him or to detract from his manhood, but to see that manhood in the proper light of placing himself in the position of servant. Far from holding themselves to be superior to women, men are called to raise themselves up to the dignity and "genius" of woman in their thoughts and actions of love (and, conversely, women are likewise called to recognize and live up to their own inherent dignity and genius as intended by God). Men, in addition to women, are called to give themselves to Christ "as a bride," not only in order to become one with the Bridegroom, but because it is from the "bride" that new life is born. Men too are called to become like the Blessed Virgin Mary, allowing themselves to become "pregnant" with Jesus in the "wombs" of their hearts so that they take Him with them in all their encounters with others. Filled with His Spirit, men too must help produce for Him new children of God through the Church's mission of witness and evangelization.

If you still do not like the term "spousal," if Blessed John Paul's explanation above isn't satisfactory, since he notes that it is a term of analogy and imagery, perhaps you would prefer to speak of having a Trinitarian-type of love, that we love Him as He Himself loves? God is Love and God is Truth. He is, by His nature, a relationship in loving communion of three persons in one divine being, the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father and this Love which proceeds from the Father and the Son is Himself the person of the Holy Spirit, a Trinity of three in one. And man -- male and female -- is made in the likeness and image of this divine Trinity. We are made to love as the Triune God loves within His being. This is what is meant by "spousal-type of love."

7. The fact that man "created as man and woman" is the image of God means not only that each of them individually is like God, as a rational and free being. It also means that man and woman, created as a "unity of the two" in their common humanity, are called to live in a communion of love, and in this way to mirror in the world the communion of love that is in God, through which the Three Persons love each other in the intimate mystery of the one divine life. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God through the unity of the divinity, exist as persons through the inscrutable divine relationship. Only in this way can we understand the truth that God in himself is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:16). . . .

Being a person means striving towards self-realization (the Council text speaks of self-discovery [Gaudium et Spes 24]), which can only be achieved "through a sincere gift of self". The model for this interpretation of the person is God himself as Trinity, as a communion of Persons. To say that man is created in the image and likeness of God means that man is called to exist "for" others, to become a gift.

This applies to every human being, whether woman or man, who live it out in accordance with the special qualities proper to each. . . .

29. The passage from the Letter to the Ephesians already quoted (5:21-33), in which the relationship between Christ and the Church is presented as the link between the Bridegroom and the Bride, also makes reference to the institution of marriage as recorded in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:24). This passage connects the truth about marriage as a primordial sacrament with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:27; 5:1). The significant comparison in the Letter to the Ephesians gives perfect clarity to what is decisive for the dignity of women both in the eyes of God - the Creator and Redeemer - and in the eyes of human beings - men and women. In God's eternal plan, woman is the one in whom the order of love in the created world of persons takes first root. The order of love belongs to the intimate life of God himself, the life of the Trinity. In the intimate life of God, the Holy Spirit is the personal hypostasis of love. Through the Spirit, Uncreated Gift, love becomes a gift for created persons. Love, which is of God, communicates itself to creatures: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). (Mulieris Dignitatem)

Understood in this Trinitarian way, any objection to the idea of a man having a spousal love of God should disappear. It means that that purity of love that is the longing of a husband to be in the presence of his wife, it means the fullness of love that is a complete gift of self, even to the point of laying down his life. This is the pure fullness of love that a man should have for the Lord, a love that is so pure and so full that it is both unitive, it creates communion with Him, two become one, and it is dynamic and fruitful -- from the fullness of such love with the One who makes all things new, new life bursts forth.
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See also, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the world, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect)

St. Thérèse and Our Relationship with the Lord

In the discussion following the first episode of Fr. Barron's Catholicism, where we noted that Christianity is primarily about establishing a relationship with Jesus Christ, and not merely adopting His ideas, we asked what type of relationship (or relationships) is that supposed to be? There are many types of relationships, many models to follow, but there is one in particular that we should consider, the one whereby we become one with the Lord, a fruitful loving communion of persons in one Body.

Today is the feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. Last year, Cinema Catechism showed the film Miracle of St. Thérèse in connection with our exploration of the theme of Marriage and Family. This is a theme that is just as timely now, perhaps more so given that this is election season, with marriage and family continuing to be under assault.

Although she remained in the cloister, St. Thérèse is the patron saint of missionaries, so in the New Evangelization, it is right that we should look to her example in how to better understand and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ with respect to the truth of marriage and the human person.

Marriage and Family: St. Thérèse and the Vocation to Love
originally posted October 7, 2011

This season of Cinema Catechism, we are exploring the theme of Marriage and Family, and the film for October is Miracle of St. Thérèse.

St. Thérèse?? OK, I can see what Thérèse Martin has to do with the family part -- she came from a very devout and pious Catholic family, her parents are both beatified, her four surviving siblings all went on to become nuns. But Thérèse was a cloistered nun, what does she have to do with marriage?

Quite a lot actually. True, she did not enter into a earthly human marriage with a man, but she did have a spouse. She loved with a spousal love in a spousal relationship. And to understand that, we must first understand the idea of "marriage as primordial sacrament," in the words of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

A "sacrament" is an outward visible sign of a mystical nonvisible reality. And in the marriage of man and woman, we see the primary model for God's plan for humanity.

Indeed, there is a spousal meaning revealed in the human body, as shown both in natural observation of the human body and as explained in the opening chapters of Genesis. "Man," male and female, made in the image of the Trinity, is by "his" nature a social being, made for relationship. It is not good that man should be alone -- in solitude, he is missing an essential element, he is incomplete. Man is made for relationship; hence he (singular) is made both male and female (plural). Thus, it is not just any relationship man is made for, where they (plural) are male and female (plural), but he is specifically oriented toward a spousal relationship, a loving communion of persons become one that is fruitful, just as the Trinity is a loving communion of three persons in one divine being who is procreative. Again, in the human marriage of man and woman, we see the primary model for God's plan for humanity.

In scripture, in the story of Salvation History, we can plainly see God's relationship with humanity in general, and Israel in particular, described in spousal terms. The Annunciation to Mary has often been described as a kind of marriage proposal by God to her, with Mary saying "yes" on behalf of all mankind. The first miracle Jesus performed was at a wedding, and many of His parables involved marital imagery. Jesus is, of course, the Bridegroom, having taken as His virginal Bride, the Church. And in the eschatology of the Book of Revelation, life after the resurrection of the body is described in the spousal terms of the wedding banquet of the Lamb. So, marriage is clearly the model by which to understand God's plan for us.

There is a spousal meaning to the human body, every human body. Since we all have a human body, we are all made for a "spousal" relationship of some sort, we are made to love and be loved in that pure and complete fullness of love that is both unitive and procreative, that involves a communion of persons that bears many fruits. This might manifest itself in the human marriage of the flesh, the marriage of a male and female, especially in the Sacrament of Matrimony, resulting in physical children. But it also manifests itself in the spousal relationship that a priest has, in the manner of Jesus, with His Bride, the Church, whereby, in that virginal marriage, there is a loving communion of persons that is fruitful, that results in spiritual children. Likewise, this spousal relationship might manifest itself in a spiritual marriage with Jesus, as we see with Sister Thérèse and other consecrated women religious.

But what about the rest of us? Those who are still "single," who have yet to discern their vocation (marriage or religious life) or who have discerned that they are called to marriage, but, for some reason, it has not happened? Or what about those with a same-sex attraction?

Single people have a vocation too, but it is not a vocation to solitude. It is not good that man should be alone -- in solitude, he is missing an essential element, he is incomplete. Each of these single people also has a spousal meaning in his or her very body. They too are called to that vocation which is the primary vocation of all -- the vocation to love. They too are called to love and be loved in a relationship of pure and complete love, the fullness of love with the Lord that is communion with Him and is fruitful. So, if they cannot enter into a human marriage, for whatever reason -- if, for example, they have not found anyone who wants to marry them or because they are same-sex attracted -- they are still called to a relationship of spousal love. If they wish to be true to the person that are made to be, even if they do not pursue the consecrated religious life, they should still seek to love the Lord and His Bride as a spouse loves his or her beloved, fully and completely, in a dynamic and fruitful loving communion of persons.

The Story of a Soul
St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Chapter 8
It was the Nativity of Mary. What a beautiful feast on which to become the Spouse of Jesus! It was the little new-born Holy Virgin who presented her little Flower to the little Jesus. Everything was little on that day except for the graces I received and the joyful peace I felt as I gazed at the stars in the evening sky and thought that I should soon ascend to heaven and be united with my divine Spouse in eternal happiness.

On September 24, I took the veil. . . . Eight days after I took the veil, our cousin, Jeanne Guérin, married Doctor La Néele. Some time later, as we were talking in the parlour, she told me of all the care she lavished on her husband. Her words stirred me and I said to myself: “It’s not going to be said that a woman will do more for her husband, a mere mortal, than I will do for my beloved Jesus.” I was filled with fresh ardour and made greater efforts than ever to see that all I did was pleasing to the King of kings who had chosen me as His bride.

When I saw the letter announcing Jeanne’s marriage, I amused myself by composing an invitation which I read to the novices to make them realize what had struck me so forcibly: how trifling are the pleasures of an earthly union compared to the glory of being the bride of Jesus.

ALMIGHTY GOD
Creator of Heaven and Earth
Supreme Sovereign of the Universe
and
THE MOST GLORIOUS VIRGIN MARY
Queen of the Court of Heaven
Announce to you the Spiritual Marriage of their august Son
JESUS
KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS
with
Little Thérèse Martin

now Princess and Lady of the Kingdoms of the Childhood of Jesus and His Passion, given to her as a dowry by her divine Spouse from which she holds her titles of nobility OF THE CHILD JESUS and OF THE HOLY FACE.

It was not possible to invite you to the wedding feast held on the Mountain of Carmel, September 8, 1890, as only the heavenly Court was admitted, but you are nevertheless invited to the At Home tomorrow, the Day of Eternity when Jesus, the Son of God, will come in the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead in the full splendor of His majesty.

The hour being uncertain, you are asked to hold yourself in readiness and to watch. . . .

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Read the rest of the original post and more from The Story of a Soul here.