Our Lady of the Holy Rosary — St. Richard Catholic Church

"There is only one problem on which all my existence,
my peace, my happiness depend: to discover myself in
discovering God. If I find Him I will find myself and if I
find my true self I will find Him.”

― Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

"FULLY HUMAN, FULLY DIVINE"

How do you view your humanity?

We proclaim as Catholic Christians that Jesus the Christ is fully human and fully divine, like us in every way except sin. Jesus became human “so that we might become God” (See CCC, nos. 456-483). In emphasizing Jesus’ divinity, we may unknowingly reject or diminish Jesus’ and our humanity.

Instead, we may seek to re-create ourselves through disguising ourselves with items such as our dress or cosmetic surgery in order to create an image of ourselves as we want to be perceived. To avoid ridicule or rejection, we may become noncommittal in expressing our opinions or beliefs, or to “join the crowd” to become invisible as individuals.

As stated by Fr. Michael Casey OCSO, a Trappist Monk, in his book Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology:

God became completely human, omitting nothing that belongs to our human nature. [Jesus Christ] is without sin, because sin does not belong to our nature….If we do not accept our own concrete humanity, we will be less capable of appreciating the humanity of Jesus. Otherwise our love and admiration for him may take the form of refusing to see in him the qualities we experience most in our own humanness. We project onto Jesus a “perfection” that is, in fact, incompatible with humanity. Jesus becomes more like an angel than a man. By thus making the incarnate Word superhuman— one who was only slightly like us— we deny the reality of the self-emptying of the Son of God. We also weaken the link that our common nature gives us. If my humanity was not good enough for Jesus, if his divinity required something better, then how can it be said of him that he was “like us in all things— excluding sin”?....Christ became human so that we might become divine, that we might see and learn from him the infinitude of love of which the human heart is capable….The incarnation makes no sense without the corresponding doctrine of our divinization. God’s Son descended so that we might ascend, that we might share the divinity of him who humbled himself to share our humanity.

The paradox in acknowledging this doctrine of divinization, according to Fr. Casey, is that “only by becoming divine can we begin to be fully human.” Religion is called upon to help the “transformation of sinful humanity” to become “fully human” like Jesus.

Therefore, we are called to let Jesus model for us what it means to be fully human. In Jesus we see a human being who is centered on doing God’s will, aware of the present moment, humble, loving, welcoming, inclusive, caring, compassionate, self-sacrificial, courageous, who challenges injustice despite the cost, and who has many other virtues. We become more divine as we become more fully human like Jesus.  

Reflect on Your Experience

Do you try to reject or diminish your humanity in any ways as stated above?

How does Jesus model for you what it means to be “fully human”?