Divinity or Narcissism?

 

October 2, 2023

Hi!  How is each and every one?  Today, October 2, we celebrate the 95^th Anniversary of the Foundation of Opus Dei, Work of God.  Though relatively young, it has reached a milestone in 95 years (a child of 95 years).  God is good; has always been good.  As the Founder of Opus Dei always said, Opus Dei is a story/the history of God’s mercy.  What matters most of all is that you and I experience God’s love at every moment of our daily life from the time we awake to the time we go to sleep.  He is watching over you and myself all the time.  God is our Father and you and I are his beloved children.  Hence let us always be very childlike!  The more of a child the better!  Always in need of God’s love and provident care. For without God you and I are nothing. Are you convinced of that truth?  Then apply all the effort to be a child of God the Father. I am very convinced!

Fra Angelico’s Baptism of Christ

 From Wikipedia: Divine filiation implies divinization: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God"(Athanasius of Alexandria)^[5] "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Peter 1:4). "By Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other Christs"(St. Cyril of Jerusalem)^[6]

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What is the meaning of narcissism? The dictionary defines it as follows:

nar·cis·sism

/ˈnärsəˌsiz(ə)m/

noun

1.      excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance.

o    PSYCHOLOGY

selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.

o    PSYCHOANALYSIS

self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder.

 could we continue this topic on divinization or narcissism (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 1)?

As amazing as this divine promise to transform us into gods is, it’s critical to recognize that we neither can claim this divinity for ourselves nor can we generate it on our own.  Divinization is a gift that we receive as we run with abandon into the loving arms of the God who made us and who longs to complete his miraculous work in us.  Only by acknowledging this truth can we avoid confusing God’s promise of divinization with simple New Age self-aggrandizement.

Building on this, there are three points that theologian Peter Kreeft says separate the Christian view of divinization from the New Age pretense of a quasi-divine humanity:  piety, objective morality, and worship (1988).

National Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Piety compels the Christian to proclaim that there is something greater than we are.  For the most part, New Agers and neopagans believe that humans are divine on our own merits (Zeller, 2014).  But the Christian view of divinization recognizes that we do not claim divinity as an essential dimension of humanity.  “If you, Lord, keep account of sins, who could stand?” (Ps 130:3).  Christians recognize that especially in light of the Fall, humanity is deserving of anything but deification.  It is only through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we are able to achieve the greatest of heights, daring to look God in the eye and see him, not as our Master, but as our “friend” (Jn 15:15) with whom we can rightfully expect to enter into a total union through his infinite, divine mercy.

Second, Christians acknowledge an objective morality.  New Agers believe in many moralities and a multiplicity of truths.  The moral reasoning of the modern neopagan represents a polytheism of “many gods, many goods, many moralities” (Kreeft, 1988).  In the New Age model of human divinity (or divine humanity), I am the author of my own truth, not God.  It is my self-anointed right to pretend that I am capable of making reality whatever I say it is simply by closing my eyes and wishing on myself.

Wikipedia

By contrast, the Christian acknowledges that there is a natural, objective order to the world, which was ordained by God, and to which his children are obliged to adhere, not out of a sense of slavish devotion to alien rules, but so that we might fulfill our incredible destiny to become gods through God’s grace.  Our ability to accomplish this awesome task depends in large part on our active participation in this divinely created moral order because “nothing unclean can enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Rv 21: 27).

National Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The third point that distinguishes the Christian notion of deification from the New Age notion is that the modern neopagan fails to worship anyone, ultimately, besides himself.  He takes his de facto divinity for granted and demands that you acknowledge it too despite the fact that there is no evidence of godliness in his person or his behavior.  He believes he can do what he will—even if it hurts you—because he is divine, the master of his own destiny, and responsible only to his own personal sense of self-fulfillment.

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In contrast, the Christian approaches the notion that he is destined to become a god with a sense of wonder, awe, amazement, gratitude, and not a little bit of fear born of the recognition that there are serious forces at play within this promise.  And yet, even that understandable fear is cast out by the perfect love (see 1 Jn 4:18) that flows from the heart of the God who calls to us, runs to meet us on the road, and wraps his finest cloak—his divinity—around us (see Lk 15:22).

Scepter Publishers

The Christian call for each person to participate in God’s plan to make men gods is not an exercise in narcissism or wish fulfillment.  It does not serve as a get-out-of-morality-free card.  It is an invitation, rooted in the love of our heavenly Father, for each one of us and extended to all of humanity through the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, it is an invitation God has been extending to humanity since the beginning of time.

I have nothing more to add except to reiterate the invitation God is extending to you and me once and again. The question now is how do I go about considering God’s invitation when you and I are kind of lost about that invitation? How do I begin talking to God about His invitation?  Just be simple and like a child, go and ask God about it. Tell him to make you see and make you understand and make you accept and acknowledge and say yes, I want to be the child you want me to be.  Lead me on. Then listen to whatever God may tell you there and then and at every moment of the day after.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,

Guadalupinky