Liturgy and Divinization

How the Liturgy is Ordered toward our Partaking of the Divine Nature

Introduction

In this essay, I will examine the relationship between the Liturgy and divinization (sometimes referred to as deification, participation, theosis, and divine sonship - what St. Peter calls “partaking” or “sharing” in the Divine Nature in 2 Peter 1:4). I will focus primarily on the writings of Joseph Ratzinger regarding divinization and the Liturgy, especially in his work The Spirit of the Liturgy. I will begin by briefly looking at the natural desire of man for union with the divine and how he can attain this, according to the pagan, Jewish, and early Christian perspectives. Next, I will examine sacrifice, which for Ratzinger, is at the heart of all worship. Sacrifice usually has a negative connotation for modern man, but Ratzinger sees it differently, especially the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, which is re-presented at every celebration of the Liturgy. Sacrifice is the means by which man is able to come into right relationship with God and the action that is needed in order for man to attain union with God and be divinized. In the final section of the essay, I will briefly look at the importance Ratzinger places on the eschatological orientation of the Liturgy. I will use the words deification and divinization interchangeably throughout the essay.

I: Natural Desire for Communion with Divinity

In his discussion of the philosophical foundations for leisure, Josef Pieper notes that leisure is ultimately for the sake of celebration. He acknowledges that these celebrations are based then on worship. Pieper continues to explain a central element of the pagan conception of worship: “The origin of the arts in worship, and of leisure derived from its celebration, is given in the form of a magnificent mythical image: man attains his true form and his upright attitude 'in the festive companionship with the gods.'”¹

Here Pieper is referring to the idea of divinization – though not a Christian one. This worship on the part of pagans cannot ultimately fulfill this desire for “communion” with the gods because it is not revealed by God as are the rituals of Judaism. Because of this, Ratzinger writes that “When God does not reveal himself, man can, of course, from the sense of God within him, build altars 'to the unknown god' (cf. Acts 17:23). He can reach out toward God in his thinking and try to feel his way toward him. But real liturgy implies that God responds and reveals how we can worship him.”² This means that any attempt at communion with the “gods” that is not based on revelation, such as that given by God to Judaism, will ultimately never attain this union.

Even in the early Church, St. Paul had to exhort the Corinthians to refrain from eating food sacrificed to idols for he saw it as a participation or union with demons:

So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I mean that what they sacrifice, [they sacrifice] to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. (1 Cor 10:19-21)

St. Paul was greatly concerned because he viewed the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ as an actual participation in or communion with Christ's Body: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16) Indeed, deification was a major topic of discussion for St. Paul, especially in his discussion of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians. Commenting on this passage, the notable Pauline scholar, Michael Gorman, sheds some light on St. Paul's thought:

Paul says that whenever one participates in any kind of worship, particularly a sacred meal, one becomes an intimate partner with the deity (10:18)-or, if the deity does not exist, with the demonic power behind it (10:20-21). This was true of Israel's sacred meals, it is true of meals in pagan temples (called the 'god's supper'), and it is true of the “table of the Lord” or “the Lord's supper” (10:17, 21, cf. 11:20). For Paul 'participation' is the very heart of the spiritual and cultic, or liturgical, life.³

This view of participation would go on to greatly influence the Church's gradual development of its teaching on deification, especially the idea that participating in the sacred meal is central to deification or participation with God.

St. Thomas Aquinas also notes this desire for communion with God or the gods in the philosophical terms of happiness and beatitude. He writes that all men desire to be happy. Perfect happiness, however, does not consist in any earthly thing but only in God Himself:

Now the object of the will, i.e., of man’s appetite, is the universal good; just as the object of the intellect is the universal true. Hence it is evident that naught can lull man’s will, save the universal good. This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God alone; because every creature has goodness by participation...Therefore God alone constitutes man’s happiness.⁴

Since all men have a natural desire for happiness, and this happiness consists in God Himself, man will inevitably try to reach this union with God. The pagans tried to do this in imperfect ways with their rituals and liturgies. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people tried to do this through their sacrifices in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and then later on in the Temple in Jerusalem.

For Pieper and Ratzinger, therefore, true worship, which is ultimately ordered toward union with God, must be revealed, it must be given. Both Pieper and Ratzinger believe that the way in which man is deified is through the Liturgy and the Sacraments – the most perfectly revealed worship which culminates in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and His Sacrifice made on the Cross: “And for the Christian, there is, of course, no doubt in the matter: post Christum there is only one, true and final form of celebrating divine worship, the sacramental sacrifice of the Christian Church.”⁵ It is with the Sacrifice of Jesus made in the New Testament that the hopes and desires of the pagans and the Jewish people are fulfilled.