Theological Tidbits

Human beings are not only called to express their own personhood through their bodies, they are also invited to manifest God. As images of God, we are called to act as God acts. In other words, we are called to love as God loves. Since we have bodies, we are called to express love in and through our bodies. When our bodies express love, they not only manifest human personhood, but they also become physical images of God—i.e., signs of God: “The body also participates, in its own way, in the dignity of the ‘image of God,’ just as it participates in the dignity of the person” (John Paul II). As the expression of a human person and a physical image of God, the human body is a unique creation.

It is quite clear that every human person is a spiritual being. Our thoughts and choices are spiritual, immaterial and non-corporeal. However, each one of us also has a body that is physical, material and corporeal. Further, the body is not something added to each of us as an afterthought. Rather, our bodies are given to us to express our persons. As embodied persons, we are different from all material things and from all other personal beings. We differ from inanimate things, the plants and the animals because we are persons—images of God. We differ from all the other persons in the universe—the three Persons in God and the angels—because we have bodies. Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is God and He has a body. However, He has a body because He assumed human nature. It is as a man, in His human nature, that He has a body. As God, in the divine nature, He remains spiritual, immaterial and non-corporeal. We are unique. There are no other creatures comparable to human beings. There are no other enfleshed spirits or spiritualized bodies in the universe. Only human beings are persons with bodies. We are the only beings who can express personhood in a physical way.

It is possible for us to choose freely not to act as God acts. When we do not act like God, we are, in effect, trying to become something we are not. We are trying to shape ourselves into something other than images of God. In addition, acting contrary to the very beings we are fills our consciousness with a confusing array of experiential data. Thus, when we analyze this data to gain a knowledge of ourselves, we see an inadequate and marred image of God. The attempt to determine and, subsequently, to know ourselves as something other than images of God never completely succeeds. When we sin—i.e., when we act contrary to the very beings we are, we tarnish or wound ourselves. We try to do the impossible—i.e., we try to destroy our likeness to God. Sin is a suicidal act.

For good or for ill, we become what we do. We can choose to become more God-like or less God-like. Since God creates all men and women in His image and likeness, He invites each one of us to holiness, but He does not force it on us. He not only invites, He offers us the means: grace. But like the call or invitation, the means, God’s grace, is never forced on us.

The evil of sin affects human beings far more than God. Through our freely chosen acts, we shape and subsequently come to know ourselves. We can freely choose to shape ourselves more and more like God or more and more unlike God. We can come to know ourselves as images of God or as misshapen images of God. E.g., a Catholic who attends Mass on Sunday acts as God created him to act—i.e., to love God. However, such a Catholic is also aware that he is worshipping. In a sense, he watches himself as he attends Mass. His self-awareness of his own act remains with him even after Mass has ended. Clearly, then, his self-awareness—i.e., his consciousness, of his own acts “contains” every act that he has freely chosen. This consciousness is part of him. In worshipping he shapes his self-awareness, and in the process he shapes himself. He shapes himself as one who acts as God acts. He becomes more like God. Further, our self-awareness is also a source of our self-knowledge. After the worshipping Catholic has shaped himself as a worshipper, he knows himself as a worshipper. Thus, through our freely chosen acts, we form our consciousness, we determine ourselves, and we can come to know ourselves through an examination of the experiential data found in our consciousness. As images of God, we are invited to shape ourselves more and more into God-like creatures through God-like acts. Further, we should come to know ourselves as images of God through our God-like actions.

In addition to grace, freedom is necessary for love. God willed that there should be realized in the world true love which is possible only on the basis of freedom. Since God gave us both freedom and grace for love, grace does not destroy our freedom. Thus, even with grace, man has the capacity to accept God and His holy will—love, but also the capacity to oppose it—sin. Clearly, God was willing to risk the horrendous evil of sin for the sake of love. In other words, it was more important to God that there be love in the world through freedom than the fact that those beings, created as images of God, may abuse their freedom against the Creator. This “risk” by God allows us to view dimly the incredible importance of love.

God did not only create us with the capacity for grace—but He also gives us the gift of His own life. Since God created man in the divine image and likeness, He created him to act as He acts—i.e., to love. Human persons cannot love as God loves without grace because lacking grace, we would not share His ability to love. Common experience provides an analogy. At times, we want our pets to act as we act—e.g., we want them to celebrate a birthday party with us. They cannot because they do not share human life. To act as we act, our pets would have to share human life. In a similar way, if we are to act as God acts, we must share the divine life. Therefore, God blessed man not only with the capability of grace—but also with grace itself. We, through grace, are at one and the same time human and divine. Unlike the animals who cannot simultaneously share animal life and human life, we can simultaneously share human life and divine life. Of course, we are divine in a different way and in a different sense than we are human. Through grace, we are capable of acting as God acts. We are capable of doing what God created us to do—i.e., of loving Him, and ourselves and others through Him.

God created us in His image and likeness as immortal persons. Since we are images of God, we should act as God acts—i.e., we should love as He loves. God loves Himself and all other persons. We are called to love God and through Him ourselves and all other persons. Thus, God made us so that we can relate to Him and through Him to others on a personal level. If we had not been created in the divine image, we would not have minds and wills. We could not love God on earth or in heaven because we would be incapable of knowing Him—the foundation of love—or choosing Him—the means of love.

In making us in His likeness, God made us for heaven, for salvation. By God’s creative act, human persons are “capax Dei”—fit for God. Making us in the divine likeness, God made us able to share the divine life—i.e., grace. As St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “the soul is naturally capable of grace because it is made in the image of God.”