Participating In the Divinity of Jesus

As Christians we know at baptism we became  the sons and daughters of God. Many of  the Church Fathers  expressed this belief in a dimension that vastly exceeded this. St. Athansius said:  “God became man that man might become God.”  St. Thomas Aquinas and many other Saints have expressed this same thinking in different ways. Writing in Bible & Life a Korean pastor writes about this divinization and wants us to meditate on its meaning.

At the offertory of each Mass when the celebrant pours the wine into the chalice he will then pour a few drops of water into the wine which is a sign of our humanity joining the divinity of Christ represented by the wine. While doing this the celebrant recites the prayer: "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 is said quietly at the Mass and since the congregation is usually singing at this time few are familiar with these words. What we do in symbol we believe happens at each Mass:  we participate in God's divinity and at the Communion we approach the altar to receive him in the Sacrament. Once this sinks in we can't help but be absolutely astonished  by what we believe.

One day when saying Mass he recalled thinking that  when he was pouring the water into the wine he was being mixed in with the wine.  The few drops of water would be embraced by the wine He prayed that he and his life would change by the happenings on the altar. 

At each Mass we are not only offering up the bread and wine but we are putting ourselves on the Paten. Each Mass is a time for a change in our lives. After the resurrection  we see the big change in the apostles. They were afraid, all the doors locked, and with the encounter with Jesus all changed, Death was no longer fearful, the apostles really became what they were meant to be-- men on fire with the Gospel message.

Each Sunday at Mass we offer not only bread and wine but also our monetary gift which symbolizes our sweat and difficulties of life,  they also go into the basket. He concludes the article by wanting us to remember that Jesus became man to enable us to participate in his divinity.