Gospel Commentary: Becoming God

By Fr. Paul Scalia
HERALD Columnist
(From the Issue of 1/10/02)

Our Lord was not baptized for the same reasons we are. For us, Baptism washes away original sin and gives us new birth as children of God. Christ, the Son of God from all eternity has no need of cleansing or rebirth. When Jesus came forward for baptism, therefore, "John tried to prevent him, saying ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’" Jesus receives baptism from John nonetheless, not because He needs it, but for our sake: to reveal Himself as the Christ and to institute the sacrament of Baptism. A prayer from the Mass of St. John the Baptist declares that John "Baptized Christ, the giver of baptism, in waters made holy by the one who was baptized." We best understand the mystery of the Lord’s Baptism, however, when we view it within the context of Christmas.

Mother Church celebrates Christmas from Dec. 25 through the Baptism of the Lord. These two events, our Lord’s birth and baptism, stand on either end of the Christmas season to reveal the purpose of God’s coming as man. On Christmas Day, He is born of the Virgin Mary: God becomes a "Son of man." This Sunday He is baptized to give us the sacrament of Baptism: man becomes a son of God. St. Augustine summarizes this beautifully: God became man so that man might become God.

"So that man might become God." God became man for this reason, and He gave us the sacrament of Baptism to accomplish it. Of course, this means not that we become little gods, but that we share in the one divine nature. St. Augustine’s phrase shocks us, however, because we seldom realize the purpose of our faith: to become God.

Our culture has a sadly truncated view of religion. Some see religion as simply a code of ethics or a system of morality. According to this thinking, all religions are basically the same: just a way of keeping people well behaved. The elements of religion then become mere sociological realities. Faith is just optimism, a creed just opinion. Baptism (and every sacrament for that matter) becomes only a ceremony of welcome or a rite of passage. Morality would be merely a way of behaving in this world and prayer just an exercise in self-reflection. The Baptism of the Lord reminds us that the Catholic faith is not just a matter of "doing good," but of being good and, even more, of becoming God.

"So that man might become God." Everything in our faith has this goal. The Christian life consists in allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us gradually into Christ. Baptism places divine life in our souls. We need to allow this divine life to grow to its fullness. Mother Church gives us the Creed, therefore, so that we can think with God. The sacraments nourish, heal and increase God’s life within us. By Christian morality, we live in the world as God Himself would — and did. By prayer, we enter into conversation with God and, even more amazing, into the conversation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Cardinal John Henry Newman, the great English convert of the 19th century, describes well the complete transformation that must occur:

Your whole nature must be re-born, your passions, and your affections, and your aims, and your conscience, and your will, must all be bathed in a new element, and reconsecrated to your Maker, and, the last not the least, your intellect.

The process of divinization, as its is sometimes called, never ends and must extend to every aspect of our being. All of us, not just part, must become God.

 Fr. Scalia is parochial vicar at St. Patrick Church in Fredericksburg.

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