Theological Tidbits

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.”

Created with personal souls, human beings are immortal—i.e., they do not cease to exist. Plants and animals cease to exist when they die, when their souls separate from their bodies. Since souls give life to bodies, when the souls of plants and animals separate from their bodies, their bodies cease to have life. Further, in this process, the souls of plants and animals also cease to be because they have no functions independent of their bodies. Unlike the plants and the animals, persons have the capabilities of thinking abstractly and choosing freely. They have the powers of mind and will. Since these two powers are spiritual, immaterial, and non-corporeal, they can function without the body. In fact, they survive even if the body does not. Therefore, human beings are immortal because they are persons, because they are created in the image and likeness of God.

All living beings have souls. However, not all living beings have personal souls, souls that possess the capacities of thinking and choosing, souls that give life to persons. The soul of a plant is merely vegetative. It enables the living organism to do only the vegetative functions. A plant takes nourishment, grows, and gives off waste. An animal possesses a sensory soul that enables it to perform the vegetative functions—which a plant can do—as well as the functions of the senses. Most animals see, smell, taste, hear, and touch. They have a memory and an imagination, and can move. The personal soul, unique to man, has all the vegetative and sensory functions, and also the personal ones. A human person has a mind and a will, powers of the personal soul, that enable him to think and to choose.

There could never be a human person without a personal soul. Thus, if Christians choose to accept the theory of evolution, they still would believe that when a suitable body had evolved, God infused into that body a personal soul. In other words, by giving man a personal soul, God gave him life and made him into the divine image and likeness—as distinct from all other bodied beings in the universe. Further, God’s creation of personal souls continues today. Every time a human being is conceived, God creates a personal soul that gives life to a human body.

The human body is the greatest of God’s material creations because it is the expression of a human person. When God created man, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Gen. 1:26). Among all the earthly beings God created, only man was created in the divine likeness—i.e., only men and women are persons and are reflections of the divine Persons. Thus, among all earthly bodies, only human bodies are the expressions of persons.