Joe Versus the Volcano: Émile Mersch

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Émile Mersch - adoptive sonship

Fr. Émile Mersch (1890-1940) on adoptive sonship and divinization:

The Word is united to us in order to unite us to Him and to transform us into what He is, that is, to make us sons of God, not by nature, like Him, but by grace; to stamp us with His form and character of Son.

Thus through One, He has taken up His abode in us all. ...

This is the great Christian truth: the Son was made man that in Him and through Him, men might be adopted as sons.

By our participation in the only-begotten Son we become adopted sons, truly and "physically."

This shows clearly that He is the Son in the full sense of the term, that is, by nature.

[...] As the Fathers repeat so often, we become by grace what Christ is by nature.

Christ is the Son by nature, and He is God because He is the Son.

The grace we receive ought to make us sons, that is, adopted sons, who are divinized because we are adopted.

Our divinization comes from our adoption, and our adoption is no less sublime than our divinization; the excellence of both is derived from that of the sonship of God the Son.

[...] He has made us His own beloved children by sanctifying us in His well-beloved Son.

Émile Mersch: The Theology of the Mystical Body (B. Herder Book Co., 1952; originally published in French c. 1940), pp. 347-8, 372, 374; quoted here by Carl E. Olson.

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Cyril of Alexandria

"After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do only by sharing in the Holy Spirit....When the time came for Christ to ascend to his heavenly Father, it was necessary for him to be united through his Spirit to those who worshipped him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith."

Basil of Caesarea

"Just as when a sunbeam falls on bright and transparent bodies, they themselves become brilliant too, and shed forth a fresh brightness from themselves, so souls wherein the Spirit dwells, illuminated by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual, and send forth their grace to others. Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God."

Benedict of Nursia

"We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that ‘the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every place’. But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God. To that end let us be mindful always of the Prophet's words ‘Serve the Lord in fear’, and again, ‘Sing praises wisely’, and ‘In the sight of the Angels I will sing praise to Thee’. Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in the sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice."