#participationist soteriology

[locustheologicus]

"SO FAITH BY ITSELF, IF IT HAS NO WORKS, IS DEAD." -JAS. 2:17

The title of this post is my blog’s tag-line, this quote from St. James’ epistle that Catholics have used as a counter-point to the Protestant position that justification is by faith alone. Bishop Barron helps clarify this Catholic position in the Word on Fire video above. Barron clarifies that Paul in fact never says that we are justified by faith alone? “What does Paul in fact say?” Bishop Barron tells us, “What matter is faith expressing itself in love.” 

In defending this position he highlights other Pauline positions including Philippians 2:12-13 - “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and work for his good pleasure.”

Bishop Barron is making a point of defending his point against arguments that he is promoting a form of pelagianism and as he does so articulates that the Catholic conviction recognizes that this cannot happen without the grace of Christ living in us. Barron reminds us that according to Paul the ceremonial and dietary precepts of ancient Israel does not bind us to salvation but Paul does tell us that the moral law remain. Barron goes back to defend the call to love God and neighbor as a way to participate with Christ and here he again reacts again the concern that he is promoting pelagianism. In doing this he reminds us that:  

Love is not a feeling, it i is not just a benevolence, not just a sentiment, To love is to will the good of the other as other. Can you do that apart from grace? I think the answer is no.  

One other point I want to add here, while Bishop Barron defends himself against pelagianism I feel that he would very much see the Catholic position accepting divinization (deification) and a participationist soteriology. The link I added here shares the insights from my research on this traditional model for salvation for early Christianity. Deification/divinization is the model that many early Christian theologians adopted whereby Christ’s redemptive act reminds us of our original divinity and invited us to participate with this act of grace to live out our divinity. I would be interested in seeing him address this topic directly but in the defense he offers above and in raising this passage from St. Paul’s epistle to the Phillippians and Matthew 25 I personally cannot see how he would disagree with this model. 

One of my favorite patristic quotes for this model comes from St. Gregory of Nyssa who describes the climb that we are invited to do and tells us how Moses shows us the way.

Scripture teaches us by these things the nature and the number of things one must accomplish in life before he would at some time dare to approach in his understanding the mountain of the knowledge of God, to hear the sound of trumpets, to enter into the darkness where God is… The knowledge of God is a mountain steep indeed and difficult to climb - the majority of people scarcely reach its base. If one were a Moses, he would ascend higher and hear the sounds of trumpets which, as the text of the history says, becomes louder as one advances. (The Life of Moses, #152 and 158)

The Christian path is the one that chooses to follow Christ and accepts his invitation to be one with him and God the Father. Divinization teaches us that we are invited to to become one in all and of all, this is where we accept the grace that Chist gives us to let the Divine Will reside in us. The moment we do this however we are compelled to participate in this mission to serve one another and co-redeem the world with Christ. So what James expresses in my favorite tag-line is that the proof of our Christianity does not exist with simple declarations or ritual practices but in the way we serve one another and call on each other to recognize thier own God’given dignity. This is the moral code, the works, that continues to make a demand on us, that we become a witness to the love of God and others. In this way, we participate in climbing the mountain along with Moses, the prophets, and the saints who have gone before us.  

[locustheologicus]

Participationist Soteriology and a Return to Divinization

Some time ago I attended Mass and heard an interesting sermon that made me think of one of my favorite theological topics. In the sermon the Pastor encouraged the congregation to engage the larger community in coming back to Church in this post-pandemic reality. This was a good and necessary message but what surprised me was that in making this request the Pastor invoked Augustinian theology on the importance of the Church as the vehicle for God's grace. This itself is good but what made me cringe was the implication that we are completely dependent on God's grace alone for salvation and because this is the case we are in absolute need of the Church to attain true salvation. A metaphor was used regarding our dependency on God's grace, from the mountain that we are not able to climb God (through the Church) comes down to offer the grace we need.

I think it was very appropriate for this Pastor to call for the congregation to become evangelist for their own neighbors in bringing people back to Church. At that time many of the Covid-19 restrictions were being pulled back. I am sure he was not the only one to take the liturgical opportunity to do this. But as a staff of Catholic Charities and as a professor of Catholic theology and its social teachings I think that there is a formational opportunity here that was completely missed. This is a time to call the faithful to Mass, the sacraments, and the communal celebration of the Eucharist, but with so much social and economic challenges facing us this is also the time to call on the faithful to participate in their own salvation by engaging in acts of charity and justice. To embrace our Catholic social tradition and respond to the social principles. This would have been a great opportunity for parishes to promote our participationist soteriology.

Soteriology is a theological term that refers to the study of salvation. Throughout our tradition there have been many different perspectives on how we can achieve salvation. Penal substitution refers to the model that the Protestants generally adopted in which Christ saves by substituting himself on the cross for the justification of "the elect." Our faith in Christ's redemptive suffering and our submission to this divine grace is what brings salvation. Deification (also known as divinization) is the model that many of the Eastern Fathers adopted whereby Christ's redemptive act reminds us of our original divinity and invited us to participate with this act of grace to live out our divinity.

It is ironic that the Pastor who gave this one sermon used the metaphor of climbing the mountain since one of the main promoters of this soteriological model, St. Gregory of Nyssa, used the very image of Moses climbing the mountain and participating with God to bring about the liberation of Israel.

Scripture teaches us by these things the nature and the number of things one must accomplish in life before he would at some time dare to approach in his understanding the mountain of the knowledge of God, to hear the sound of trumpets, to enter into the darkness where God is... The knowledge of God is a mountain steep indeed and difficult to climb - the majority of people scarcely reach its base. If one were a Moses, he would ascend higher and hear the sounds of trumpets which, as the text of the history says, becomes louder as one advances. (The Life of Moses, #152 and 158)

Participationist soteriology and divinization is very much a part of western Catholic tradition as it is for our eastern Orthodox brethren. The book, "Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition," edited by Jared Ortiz, describes this development which is often ignored in our western spiritual and theological tradition. Both St. Ambrose and St. Leo, for example, preached on both the "formula of exchange" and the imago dei in order to promote one's participation in the divine nature. The formula of exchange refers to the famous quote attributed to St. Athanasius, "God became human so that humans could become God." St. Ambrose would reflect on the paradox of the poverty of Christ in his treatise "On Noah" to promote this formula.

God, however, since he is everlasting, transfers the inheritance of his divine substance to just men and he himself, while being in need of nothing, gives what is his without any cost [to himself] of giving. The partakers of his goods do not weigh him down, and he enjoys his goods more by as much as we use them. Accordingly, the Lord Jesus became poor, although he was rich, so that we might be enriched by the poverty [2 Cor 8:9] of him who fulfilled each covenant with his own blood, so that he might make us co-heirs of his life and heirs of his death, by whom we have both fellowship [consortium] in life and the advantage of his death. (Ortiz, pg. 140)

St. Leo on the other hand would preach on the consequence of the imago dei for our humanity in a sermon he gave during an advent fast.

We shall come to the realization that human beings have been formed according to the image of God precisely with a view that they might imitate their Designer. Our race has this dignity of nature, so long as the figure of divine goodness continues to be reflected in us as in a kind of mirror. Indeed, the Savior's grace re-fashions us to this image on a daily basis [cotidie]. What fell in the first Adam has been raised up in the second. But our being re-fashioned has no other cause than the mercy of God. (Ortiz, pg. 221)

St. Augustine's famous debate with the British Monk Pelagius moved the Catholic Church in another direction. The belief was that our human nature and the original grace of free will was so corrupted that only by an absolute dependence on God's grace can we hope to achieve salvation. This emphasized the ransom soteriological model that was more in vogue in the west.

St. Augustine's writing deeply influenced western culture and religiosity. Fortunately St. Gregory the Great was able to mitigate this particular contribution for the Catholic west. Being a monk himself St. Gregory believed that humans could adopt ascetic practices and develop virtuous habits to mitigate the effects of sin in our lives. In an article written for "The American Benedictine Review" titled The Soteriology of Pope Gregory I: A Case Against the Augustinian Interpretation, George Demacopoulos tells us:

Gregory's view is distinctly participationist; like Cassian, Benedict and others, he believed that salvation requires a combination of grace and human initiative. Throughout his corpus, the Pope advances his position in two ways: he explicitly describes the potency of free will and subtly implies the eternal rewards that go to those who perform good works. (ABR 54:3 Sept. 2003, pg. 321)

If we look at the Moralia and his book on Pastoral Care we will see how St. Gregory is constantly promoting the virtuous and ascetically balanced life. As if going full circle we can see how St. Gregory the Great will bring back the metaphor of Gregory of Nyssa, the image of Moses ascending the mountain, to highlight our participation in salvific process.

So God's voice is heard as if of 'a light breath,' in that the Divine Being never imparts Himself as He is to those that contemplate Him while still in this life, but to the purblind eyes of our mind He discovers His brightness [claritatem] but scantily. Which is well represented by the very receiving of the Law itself, when it is said that Moses ascended, and God descended upon the Mount. For 'the Mount' is our very contemplation itself, whereinto we ascend, that we may be elevated to see those things which are beyond our frail nature; but the Lord descends thereupon, in that, when we advance much, He discloses some little concerning Himself to our perceptions, if either 'little' or 'somewhat' can be said to be in Him, Who, being always One and abiding the Same, cannot be understood by parts, and yet is said to be participated by His faithful servants, whereas 'part' is nowise admissible in His Substance. (Moralia, 5:36:66)

Notice how St. Gregory does not keep us on the base of the mount even though, on our own, we cannot achieve the fullness of grace. For St. Gregory the idea is that God does not preordain grace to some group of "elect" (as Augustine suggested), but that God responds and validates our desires and actions with his Grace. As we ascend the Mount the Lord descends, and "discloses some little concerning Himself". This again is the formula of exchange, as God's divinity descends into our humanity (through Christ) so to does our humanity ascend to God's divinity. Thus we participate with God in the work of promoting personal and social salvation.

While St. Gregory the Great, perhaps concerned with being identified as a Pelagian, maintains the distinction of God's substance from our own nature, he nevertheless does bring the Catholic faith back to a participationist soteriology. As we know, the Protestant Reformation would restore St. Augustine and tweak the Ransom soteriological model to Luther's Penal Substitution model, which I mention above. Nevertheless the Catholic west would theologically maintain some aspect of Divinization and Participationist Soteriology. Unfortunately we have minimized it as part of our formation to the laity and this, I feel, has diluted any emphasis we hope to give to the social teachings of our Church and our mission of charity and justice. For these teachings to hit home the faithful must feel that we are called to participate in the mission of Christ. Participationist soteriology and the concept of divinization can help us achieve this.

Now may be a good time to reassert this model and to bring back a salvation process that highlights a healthier theological anthropology. An anthropology that affirms the imago dei and can once again recognize, and perhaps even utter, the "formula of exchange."

[locustheologicus]

Franciscan Theology and Spirituality

With the feast of St. Francis approaching I want to explore and share both the core theological premise and spirituality of a Catholic charism that I love. Fr. Casey, OFM, tells about the incarnational worldview that is at the center of Franciscan Theology. The incarnation being the self-revelation of God within the context of creation.

Of course the incarnation extends far beyond just the person of Jesus for Franciscans as we can see all the way back in St. Francis himself an incarnational worldview towards all creation. God's image and creative goodness can be known through all that is made. I can hardly think of a spirituality with a more positive outlook on creation than the Franciscans. More than just nature enthusiast or tree huggers there is acute sense in our theology that the immaterial, eternal God can and has become present in the finite world. The trees and the earth, water and air, every atom and molecule in existence is infused with the goodnes of God's creative power and holds the potential of God's presence.

This is why Franciscans theology tends towards a form of process theology and panentheism. I theological perspective that I agree with. They have no problem in seeing the Divine incarnationally expressed throughout creation. St. Francis' famous Canticle of the Sun testifies to the incarnational worldview. This leads to two other theological principles. It theologically embraces divinzation which Fr. Case names in the video. The idea that God's own goodness and will resides within each of us. Recognizing the divine spark that exist within all creation allows for a theology that also embraces participationist soteriology, where we particpate with the divine for our own salvation and the redemption of the world.

As for the spirituality, we can look to the Franciscan lifestyle of living out their poverty and detachment from material goods as the center of their spiritual charism. Last year, during an important anniversary for the Franciscan family, Pope Francis offered the following exhortation.

And so I say to you: do not hesitate to go out into the world in “fraternity” and in “minority”, sharing the blessedness of poverty, becoming an eloquent evangelical sign and showing our times, sadly marked by wars and conflicts, selfishness of all kinds and logic of exploitation of the environment and the poor, that the Gospel is truly good news for man, so that he may rediscover the best direction for building a new humanity, together with the courage to set out on the journey towards Jesus, who “though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, so that we might become rich by his poverty” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9).

As we approach the feast day of one of our greatest saints, St. Francis of Assisi, let us reflect on the new humanity that he helped promote by modeling the life of Christ in the time and place that St. Francis lived. His way is the path of a participationist soteriology, where he freely participates with God's grace to transform lives and society by examples of mercy, charity, and justice. Prayer and preaching have their place, but St. Francis and the Franciscans teach us to be models and witnesses of God's grace to others.

As part of my own spiritual devotion I wear the Tao cross necklace with the three knots representing the evangelical counsels. This reminds me to be a lived witness to the Gospel message. It reminds me to strive for:

Poverty - a call to live a simple lifestyle that receives gifts graciously and for the purpose of serving a wider community,

Obedience - reflecting all that i do as serving the greater glory of God (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam)

Chastity - relational fidelity to those entrusted to me, both in my family and to the wider community that I serve.

[locustheologicus]

The Active Contemplative

The documentary “Libres” shares an interesting study on monastic life. Those who know me know that I am drawn to the monastic ideal and structure. I believe that the ascetic lifestyle does free us from worldly attachment in order to focus on the ultimate meaning of life, our life in God. As I think about the monastic ideal I want to reflect on the contribution this has for social ministers and the mission of the Church. 

I have recently been enjoying a book that considers the voices of five patristic authors who struggled with this question as they developed their own form of pastoral care and leadership. In the cases of Athanasius of Alexandra, Gregory Nazianzen, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Gregory the Great we see them reflect on the right balance of leadership and their attempt to develop a sense of mission for the early Catholic/Christian community. The question of balance was between the contemplative lifestyle and the life of active service to the people of God. The underlying spirituality is one I had addressed before, divinization or participationist soteriology.

Athanasius maintained that “God became man so that man might become God.” According to Athanasius, human nature, like creation itself, is good. Through the Incarnation, the Logos restores the possibility of the divine-human communion that was blocked by Adam’s fall. But concomitant with that grace afforded by the Logos, it is necessary for humanity to participate in the process of salvation. Thus, for Athanasius, free will contributes to the ongoing relationship between the individual and God. (Demacopoulos, pg. 24)

So these authors believed that a soul was obligated to contemplate the nature of the divine but they were also obligated to be actively involved with bringing about the Kingdom of God here on earth. This was identified quite clearly as pastoral care or the service of charity. Jesus, as the Logos, opens the path to our salvation but in his ministry to the people (forgiving, healing, feeding, and teaching) he also shows us the way. Jesus invites us to take part of the Imitatio Dei which is expressed in both words and deeds, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). This was the participation that was expected of all good followers of Christ who choose to deepen their relationship with God. 

During the time of these authors (4th - 6th Century AD) The monastic movement had exploded on the scene, partly as a reaction to the political corruption of the clergy after Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the center of Imperial politics. St. Gregory Nazianzen considers the question of the contemplative/active balance in light of this situation. 

My mind was in the midst of a noble conundrum because I was searching for the most excellent pursuits. I had long ago decided to cast aside completely all fleshy things, and now the resolution pleased me more. But as I considered the possible ways to holiness it was not easy to find the better or more serene.... Finally, after much wandering between the two [life of action and life of contemplation], I came to this solution because it brought a calmness to my soul. I had observed that those who enjoy the active life do good to some of the people they encounter but to themselves they do no good because they are twisted about by the anxieties that disorder their serenity. On the other hand, those that remain detached are somehow more stable and in noetic stillness see God. But being alone, their charity is lamentable since their lives are anti-social and harsh. I chose a middle way between [a life that was] unfettered and one that was integrated, one that combined the contemplation of the former with the service of the latter. - St. Gregory Nazianzen (Demacopoulos, pg. 64) 

Nazianzen’s solution is to insist on the balance as the proper way to fulfill one’s discipleship in Christ. As you can see, Nazianzen believed that the contemplative needs the active and vice versa. It’s not just a question of balance, for those of us who are active and dedicated to a life of service Nazianzen believes that contemplation is in fact necessary in order to not get caught up with the anxieties of the world. Pope Gregory the Great was very attentive to the pastoral care of a community in crisis. Charitable and healing ministries were in great demand during the pandemic and economic catastrophe of late 6th century Italy. With great detail St. Gregory the Great described his own personal experience of this form of social anxiety. 

I am so shaken in this position by worldly cares that I am unable to steer into port this old and decaying ship that I have received by the hidden dispensation of God. Now the waves rush in from the front, now heaps of foamy sea swell up from the sides, now the tempest continues from behind. And disoriented by all of this, I am compelled to turn into the very face of the opposing waters, sometimes turning the ship aside to avoid a head-on collision with the waves. I lament because through my neglect the sea of vices increases and the storm attacks the vessel as the already decaying planks sound of a shipwreck. With tears I recall that I have lost my calm shores of stillness [quietis], and with sighs I see the land at a distance that I am unable to grasp because of winds blowing against me. (Gregory the Great, pg. 146)    

The social ministries of the Church are expressions of charitable actions. These are the expressions of actions that have been part of the Church’s mission since the time of Christ and the early Church. Certainly the Church sees this as essential parts of her mission but as we see from the patristics they advocated for this to be balanced with ascetic (contemplative) practices of prayer, fasting, simple living, and discernment. These spiritual practices would guide the active social minister to the fundamental meaning of why we do what we do. These practices also grants us the grace to have the necessary virtues of compassion, patience and hope, virtues necessary for us as we accompany the people we serve. Pope Francis advocates for us to strive for this balance in our own day. With perhaps greater distractions from prayer and contemplation he also suggests that we include a fast from technology as part of our contemporary ascetic practices. In his exhortation on Holiness, Gaudete et Exsultate, he, like Nazianzen above, says that contemplation is empty without charitable action. But in the same way Pope Francis also recognizes that our actions are deficient if not guided by a contemplative spirit.    

This does not mean ignoring the need for moments of quiet, solitude and silence before God. Quite the contrary. The presence of constantly new gadgets, the excitement of travel and an endless array of consumer goods at times leave no room for God’s voice to be heard. We are overwhelmed by words, by superficial pleasures and by an increasing din, filled not by joy but rather by the discontent of those whose lives have lost meaning. ....As a result, we come to resent our mission, our commitment grows slack, and our generous and ready spirit of service begins to flag.  - GE, #29 & #30

The name of the documentary is called “Libres” which means freedom. This is not the freedom that is typically understood here in the United States. The monastic/ascetic ideal of freedom is freedom from the material attachments of this world which distract us from finding meaning in who we are as sons and daughters of God. The question of the balance between the active and contemplative life continues to vex us (and maybe it should always do so) especially in light of the our technological habits. In the area of active social ministry we need to recognize the gifts that a discerning/contemplative can offer us before we grow swept away by the anxieties of this world. I will look forward to seeing this monastic documentary with an eye on how the monastic gift can help guide our charitable actions. 

[locustheologicus]

Divinization and the Eucharistic Revival

I have been offered the opportunity to reflect and offer a message as part of the speakers corps for Loyola Press. This is an amazing opportunity to engage in the most powerful sacrament that we Catholics have which is at the center of our Catholic identity. As a Catholic who devoted to our teachings and especially our Catholic social tradition I generally appear within the progressive wing of our community. Nevertheless the Eucharist brings all Catholics together under the banner of the Body of Christ. The Holy Eucharist, for me, is the tie that binds our community of faith and for the next three years the Church will be focused in promoting this sacrament which is recognized as the source and summit of our Catholic faith. 

Here in this video our Brooklyn Bishop, Robert Brennan, asks us to commit to three activities during this process: Pray for this endeavor, Participate in different events, Be attentive to a diocesan event in 2023. The Bishops have developed a web resource to help us do all three activities:  https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/

Much of what I have seen and heard so far from this revival is for Catholics to adopt a more intentionally devotional practice in revering the Eucharist. We are invited to go to Adoration, attend a Church procession, or simply to adopt a more reverential attitude when taking communion. This is absolutely necessary and important. I know that there will be much emphasis on the reality of receiving the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ when we partake of the Eucharist. For us Catholics this is not merely a symbolic remembrance, but a real participation into the body of Christ, as real for us as it was for the Apostles.  We will certainly be made aware of this during this time and I have already heard this from our clergy. 

But there is a component to this Eucharistic revival that I don’t hear to much of even though it can be found in the Bishops central document for this revival. The document is called The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church and the component I am referring to is in the section titled the “Transformation in Christ”. I am referring to the social and personal commitments that flow from partaking in the body and blood of Christ and how the Eucharist transforms us to be one with Christ. This is precisely what I will highlight during this Eucharistic revival. Every Catholic should know, or be at least reminded, that the gift of actually receiving the body and blood of Christ is an invitation to become Christ to one another. That is a transformative commitment that is very much expected of all of us as we take the Holy Eucharist. I often tell people, if the point of going to Church is to receive and be nourished by the body of Christ it is so that we can then become the Church (the body of Christ) to others after we leave. Church never ends, it is not just the one hour we spend on Sunday with a community of faith. That hour is a sacramental hour for us, within the context of the community of faith (the body of Christ) as we then become the embodiment of the sacrament to others, to our families, to our co-workers, to our clients, to the strangers we meet. This is what is expected of us as we take the Body of Christ, to be Christ to others. 

This transformation identifies with a salvation method (soteriology) called divinization or participationist soteriology and I am thrilled to see that this document and this revival identifies with this method. 

The salvation offered in the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ is nothing less than sharing in the very life of God, in the communion of love among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is no greater gift that God could possibly give us. In Christ, we are sharers in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). The Church Fathers referred to this participation in the divine life as “divinization.” The eternal Son of God made this possible by becoming man and uniting humanity to his divine Person. St. Augustine explained, “the maker of man was made man, so that man might be a receiver of God.” In fact, Pope Francis reminds us that “in the bread of the Eucharist, ‘creation is projected towards divinization, towards the holy wedding feast, towards unification with the Creator himself.’”

I have a deep passion for promoting this soteriological model because I believe it was the emphasis that Christ and the early Church had for the emerging Christian community. An emphasis that became over spiritualized and in some respects forgotten. The emphasis moved towards emphasizing the divinity of Christ and in doing so we forgot how much Christ emphasized our own relationship with the divine. This is what is called divinization and defined by the quote that Pope Francis mentioned above which was said by Athanasius, Augustine and Aquinas. The way we tend to hear this famous quote is “God became man so that man might become God.” I offer the following previous posts on the concept of divinization:

Participationist Soteriology and a Return to Divinization

TRIADOSIS: Understanding Participationist soteriology through the relationship of the Trinity

Deification and the Spirituality of the Force

In the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist this soteriology and commitment to our divinization is recognized when the clergy mixes the water with the wine and says the following words “By 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.” This sacramental moment articulates the “formula of exchange” and commits us to participate in the Divine nature of Christ. Back in the third century the theologian, Cyprian of Carthage, helped develop this sacramental mystery.

For Christ bore the burden of us all, having borne the burden of our sins. And so we can see that by water is meant God’s people, whereas Scripture reveals that by wine is signified the blood of Christ. When, therefore, water is mixed with wine in the cup, the people are made one with Christ and the multitude of believers are bonded and united with Him in whom they have come to believe. And this bonding and union between water and wine in the Lord’s cup is achieved in such a way that nothing can thereafter separate their intermingling. Thus there is nothing that can separate the union between Christ and the Church. (Ortiz, pg. 80) 

The Church here refers to the sensus fidelium, the people of God, and Cyprian’s teaching is that through our faith in the Eucharist we are bound to God in such a way that we become transformed by it. In accepting the body of Christ we accept His invitation to the imitation dei, to “be perfect, like your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). The document on the Mystery of the Eucharist reminds us that the Holy Eucharist is the vehicle for this transformation to occur. As I mentioned above, in accepting the body of Christ we become the body of Christ to others. I want to highlight this section (paragraphs 34-43) and I hope that we all read and reflect on the transformative effect that the Eucharist has.  

The personal and moral transformation that is sustained by the Eucharist reaches out to every sphere of human life. The love of Christ can permeate all of our relationships: with our families, our friends, and our neighbors. It can also reshape the life of our society as a whole. Our relationship with Christ is not restricted to the private sphere; it is not for ourselves alone. The very solidarity or communion in Christ’s self-giving love that makes the Church and makes us members of the Church orders us beyond the visible community of faith to all human beings, whom we are to love with that very same love that forms our communion with the Lord. Otherwise, if we do not love all human beings in this way, our communion with the Lord is impaired or even contradicted. This love extends particularly and “preferentially” to the poor and the most vulnerable. We all need to be consistent in bringing the love of Christ not only to our personal lives, but also to every dimension of our public lives. #35

With all this in mind perhaps it would be good to keep reflecting on this insight from Pope Francis as we embrace this Eucharistic revival. Let us never forget that the Eucharist, like good medicine, is meant to heal and transforms us. It is meant to heal our broken humanity and transform us to share in the divinity and mission of Christ so we can be Christ for others.  

[locustheologicus]

TRIADOSIS: Understanding Participationist soteriology through the relationship of the Trinity

The above video from Bishop Robert Barron describes the immanent Trinity as developed by St. Augustine in his book De Trinitatis. Based on the definition of God as love this concept considers God as existing within a dynamic of divine relationships: God the Father is the Mens (mind) of God, God the Son is the Noticia Sui (self-knowledge) of God, and the Holy Spirit is the Amor Sui (self-love) of God. As Karl Rahner describes it in his book The Trinity:

There is a real difference in God as he is in himself between one and the same God insofar as he is - at once and necessarily - the unoriginated who mediates himself to himself (Father), the one who is in truth uttered for himself (Son), and the one who is received and accepted in love for himself (Spirit) - and insofar as, as a result of this, he is the one who can freely communicate himself. (Rahner, pg. 102)

This is as best as we have been able to comprehend the concept of God. Recognizing God's existence as deeply rooted in love we Christians recognize God as a self-subsisting dynamic of relationship. We typically say that the Trinity is three persons in one God which is a very limited way of comprehending this. In the above description each person of the Trinity is seen as a "Distinct manner of subsisting" (Rahner, pg. 109). Keeping in mind the Thomistic definition of God as a self-subsisting process of being - Deus Sit Ipsum Esse Subsistens then each person is a specific manner of how God subsists within himself (immanent Trinity) and self-communicates God's self throughout creation (economic Trinity).

The "immanent Trinity" refers to the internal dynamic of relationship within God whereas the "economic Trinity" refers to the way that the Trinity works in providing salvation and redemption. Eduard Borysov uses the term Triadosis to describe the participationist soteriology where the Trinity works with all creation and alongside each and everyone of us to produce the salvific effect.

Participationist Soteriology refers to the idea that salvation (soteriology) occurs through our own active participation (free will) with God's grace. Christianity has many soteriological models that developed within its long history but the early Church adopted this model of salvation which was also called divinization or Theosis, that is to become like God. This is best represented in the phrase that Athanasius, Augustine and Aquinas used which is "God became human so that humans might become God." Borysov exchanges Theosis for Triadosis to emphasis not only that we become like God but that we become like the Trinity; in other words, to be like God is enter into a dynamic of relationships both divine and human. If we accept our divine nature as adopted sons and daughters of God we cannot do this in isolation. To be like God is to enter into a mystical relationship with the One whose very essence is relational (God) and of course each other. To say each other is not only to say our fellow human community but also all that fall under creation whose author is God and who shares in the dignity of its maker.

Borysov emphasizes the contribution of the Cappadocians in developing this notion of Triadosis. He specifically sites the contribution of Gregory of Nazianzus in connecting the economy Trinity to our participation with God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) for the purpose of bringing forth the salvation of ourselves and creation.

The light of the Trinity, like the sun, illumines all created things, especially reasonable beings, which by faith become godlike through the real and ever-growing deifying vision and union with the Trinity (Or. 21.1; 38.11; 39.9; 40.5). Gregory the Theologian considered the soul's earthly transformation the beginning of eschatological deification, "To become god, having been made a god, it is true, but filled with the supreme light, of which we only taste the firstfruits here below, and even at that, with smallness: such will be the reward for your sorrows" (Carm. 10:140-143; PG 37:690). Once the purified reach the state of eternal perfection, they will be able to know fully as they are fully known (1 Cor 13:12), being Spirit-enhanced to gaze at the greater illumination of the divine light (Or. 28.17). Hence, in Gregory, one finds the fully developed doctrine of the Trinity that interweaves with soteriology, and more precisely, with deification as participation in the life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Borysov, pg. 71)

Boryson neatly describes the implication of this soteriological approach and what this means for our Christian identity.

If human beings were created in the image of the truine God, then the realization of this image means people are saved and transformed in communion with other persons divine and human. Believers experience transfiguration not in the likeness of God as an abstract divine being, but in the likeness of a personal God, who is the Trinity. To rephrase a patristic dictum: a human being was created in the image of the divine community to achieve by grace likeness to the divine persons in the community of equal human persons, the church. This is the nature of triadosis, which is not an infringement on divine status or identity, but a true communion of persons.

As Bishop Barron tells us in the video above, the Holy Trinity is a faith concept and it is ultimately shrouded in mystery. Reason cannot give us a full and comprehensive understanding of who God is or how God works within creation (as the humorous video below attest to). Christ and his church have revealed to us a God whose very nature is intensely relational and based on a shared love for all creation. Reason informed by faith however does allow us to know and appreciate our own humanity and the social implications of who we are in relationship to God and creation.