We Share in His Divinity - Just What Does This Mean?

In this week’s "Living Jesus Chat," sponsored by the Visitation Sisters, we raise the below questions:

1. Although He knew the mission for His life and He was one with the Father, why did Jesus still ask for the cup to pass from Him and simultaneously surrender to the will of the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane?

2. Would the Annunciation and life of Mary and Jesus have been different if Mary’s words, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) at the Annunciation had been more along the lines of, “It is my will to accept this child given by God”?

3. As Jesus suffered and died on the Cross, although he had already given His will to the Father, why did he still have to “give up his spirit” (Mt 27:50)?

4. After the Resurrection, which was clearly Good News, the Disciples were still perplexed as to what was happening. We take for granted that we have two thousand years of history, saints, and theologians to explain the Resurrection to us but the Disciples did not. Even with the joy of the Resurrection, it was most likely still unfamiliar and strange to the Disciples. How would they have to surrender to God’s will in the middle of this joyous yet mysterious occasion?

"Living Jesus" Chat

Visitation Sister: Hello! Today is the worldwide day for vocations! How have you been??

Linda: Too busy.

Linda: Stressfully busy.

Visitation Sister: Hello, Anne and guests.

Cindy: Thank you.

Visitation Sister: We will begin.

Visitation Sister: Question 1. Although He knew the mission for His life and He was one with the Father, why did Jesus still ask for the cup to pass from Him and simultaneously surrender to the will of the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Visitation Sister: I am thinking His Humanity had something to do with this!

Anne: That is what I was thinking too, Sister.

Linda: Jesus has two wills, God and man.

Linda: His human will said ‘wait a minute’.

Visitation Sister: and it served as a prime example for us in our suffering.

Linda: But it gave in because He always does what he knows God the Father wants.

Visitation Sister: His surrender was complete - no reservations, after He united with His Father’s will.

Visitation Sister: Any other thoughts on this?

Anne: I think complete and total surrender must involve self-emptying….

Linda: Yes, it’s hard to do.

Visitation Sister: Often we hold back or reclaim what we gave.

Anne: Yes.

Linda: But Bishop Barron said God just wants what we have. He wants us to give it to Him and He will make it grow many times.

Ben: Hi, everyone!!! God Bless You!!!

Linda: It’s sharing our self with Him, and we are no longer empty but full.

Visitation Sister: Profound- yes. Hi, Ben.

Denise: Hello, everyone.

Linda: He gave the example of St Francis.

Visitation Sister: Which example?

Linda: He had little and God made so much of what he did for him.

Linda: Building a giant order out of poverty.

Linda: Or feeding everyone out of a few loaves and fishes.

Linda: Give God what you have, and he builds it into miracles.

Visitation Sister: Each of our lives can have evidence of some miracles, no?

Ben: Remember scripture where the one man says he will help but never helps and the other man says no but does what needed to be done? Obviously, the man who said no first but did the job did the Father’s Will. Perhaps she was illustrating this Parable in reality!!!

Visitation Sister: Thanks, Ben!

Linda: The people praying the rosary in front of an abortion clinic were attacked by a politician and suddenly the next day thousands were saying the rosary at the clinic.

Ben: Hi, Rebecca! Ordered John 17 book!!! Thanks for tip!!!

Linda: The one movie Unplanned is causing so many pro-choice people to turn around to pro-life.

Visitation Sister: Power of examples and advice.

Visitation Sister: Question 2. Would the Annunciation and life of Mary and Jesus have been different if Mary’s words, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) at the Annunciation had been more along the lines of, “It is my will to accept this child given by God”?

Rebecca: Hello, everyone.

Linda: A child is not a thing to accept. It is a person already made by God.

Linda: BVM surrendered everything.

Linda: Total unconditional.

Visitation Sister: Mother Mary’s will was also so united to God that I do not think she could use the words “my will.”

Rebecca: Interesting question.

Linda: She is full of Grace.

Denise: Thoughtful question. What Mary said was obedience and surrender.

Linda: She has all the power of God by accepting the Grace.

Ben: Complete Childlike Faith, Trust in God, and Complete Humility!!!

Linda: So perfect she could not die.

Linda: She was assumed.

Visitation Sister: The angel Gabriel I read in a book recently said “full of grace” because her fullness surprised him.

Visitation Sister: That was the author’s thought.

Anne: I like that.

Linda: The rest of it…. the Lord is with you…. He was there before she said yes.

Rebecca: Assumed into heaven. That’s why some call her “death” “dormition” — sort of “falling asleep.” I don’t know. The theology around this is complicated and varies between the Eastern and the Western Rites.

Visitation Sister: I like the idea that Mary was at Ephesus.

Linda: If you are sinless you cannot die.

Visitation Sister: Hi, Kate.

Visitation Sister: Jesus did.

Linda: Jesus died because He took our sin.

Kate: Hi, Sister! I’ve been having internet issues for weeks. I may disappear!

Linda: He died for us to make us Divine.

Rebecca: Linda. Christ was sinless, but he really did die. But rose from the dead.

Linda: Rebecca, He took our sin…. He died for us.

Linda: He did not die on His own.

Ben: It must be difficult for God’s Holy Angels to assist us when we are struggling Spiritually. When Gabriel saw Mary and her complete Trust in God what Brilliance that must have been for this Mighty Angel of God!!!!

Visitation Sister: Oh, that’s what you meant?

Linda: Death is punishment for sin after the fall…. Blessed Mother never sinned.

Ben: Hi, Kate! God Bless You!!!!

Kate: Hi, Thank you, and you as well!

Linda: She could not die. Jesus died for us. He accepted God’s will to do it for us.

Visitation Sister: Question 3. As Jesus suffered and died on the Cross, although he had already given His will to the Father, why did he still have to “give up his spirit” (Mt 27:50)?

Ben: Complete Victory for God when Jesus gave His life for us on the Cross.

Linda: His Spirit is the Holy Spirit which gives life, how could he die if He kept it?

Rebecca: Linda, do you think that Mary did not participate fully in Christ’s Death on the Cross, though she was not physically nailed to the cross. I’m wondering what authors you’ve been reading. We are called to participate in the Divine Life, but we will never become Divine. That’s how I see it.

Denise: True it is, our will can no more die than our soul, yet does it sometimes go out of the limits of its ordinary life, to live wholly in the Divine will. This is when it neither wills nor cares to desire anything at all, but gives itself over totally and without reserve to the good pleasure of the Divine Providence, so mingling and saturating itself with this good pleasure, that itself is seen no more, but is all hidden with Jesus Christ in God, where it lives, not it, but the will of God lives in it…. St Francis de Sales.

Ben: Soo that He could rise from the dead on the Third Day and complete God’s Plan of Salvation!!!

Denise: Amen!

Linda: At Mass they say we share in His Divinity.

Denise: Copied from our reading today.

Linda: Rebecca it is in the Bible.

Rebecca: Profound, Denise.

Anne: 2 Peter 1:4.

Visitation Sister: What is biblical? Lost the thread!

Linda: Mother, that we share in His Divinity.

Linda: Because of his Death.

Rebecca: I thought you said, Linda, we BECOME Divine. “Share in” as in the Mass, or “participate in” as I said are not the same as “become” Divine.

Linda: We do.

Linda: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the Divinity of Christ”.

Rebecca: “who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”

Rebecca: No problem with that.

Visitation Sister: This is when I wish I studied theology.

Visitation Sister: What about deification?

Ben: Who Humbled Himself to Share in Our Humanity!!!! Totally Amazing what Jesus has done for Us!!!

Linda: Mother, you have studied it!

Rebecca: But if we claim to BECOME Divine, that’s a whole different thing. A serious distortion, I’d say. In fact SIN — the very SIN — if only wished or confused — of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Denise: And I believe, Satan.

Linda: No, Rebecca, it is acceptance of a gift from God. Angels are Divine and they envy us.

Rebecca: What Satan used to scare or tempt Eve into eating of the fruit of the Tree that God forbade them to eat of.

Linda: We are not trying to be God we are sharing His eternal life.

Linda: We are accepting Grace, an undeserved gift.

Linda: This is not sin.

Rebecca: Angels, according to Catholic teaching are NOT Divine. They are creatures of God, just as we are. But without human bodies and without some of our weaknesses.

Linda: This is what Jesus came to do for us to fix sin.

Linda: Divine means having eternal life.

Visitation Sister: Where does Jesus’ Resurrection fit into all this?

Linda: Jesus overcame death.

Ben: Our enemy made a choice to separate himself from God! His only relief now is to try to destroy us. That is why Jesus wants us all to be one!!!! Complete Protection from the enemy, a vicious predator!!!

Linda: He made death lose its power.

Rebecca: To take away sin....

Denise: We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.” CCC 392.

Linda: We are going to be like God.

Linda: We can be like God.

Linda: We can share everything God gave his son.

Linda: We are his children.

Linda: Jesus did it for us.

Linda: Prodigal son are treated like the faithful son.

Denise: Sister, may I post question 3?

Visitation Sister: yes, Denise.

Rebecca: Jesus overcame death. But Divine means God. Not God like in having everlasting life. That is offered to us. We Worship the Divine Being, God. When we worship ourselves or THINGS, we SIN.

Denise: As Jesus suffered and died on the Cross, although he had already given His will to the Father, why did he still have to “give up his spirit” (Mt 27:50)?

Linda: Divine means like God, angels are Divine.

Ben: We are unprofitable servants. We just continue doing what God wants us to do!!!

Linda: Have Faith in what Jesus came to do….

Visitation Sister: I think, Linda answered Question 3 a while ago - we can’t die if the spirit remains united to the body.

Linda: We belong to God; He is our Father. We are made in His image. We are made to be like Him. This is what he wants for us.

Denise: I must have missed.

Linda: It is not a sin to think we can be like him through His intervention.

Visitation Sister: Question 4. After the Resurrection, which was clearly Good News, the Disciples were still perplexed as to what was happening. We take for granted that we have two thousand years of history, saints, and theologians to explain the Resurrection to us, but the Disciples did not. Even with the joy of the Resurrection, it was most likely still unfamiliar and strange to the Disciples. How would they have to surrender to God’s will in the middle of this joyous yet mysterious occasion?

Linda: They were confused, and Jesus said He would send them His Spirit. Then they understood at Pentecost. Before that they were afraid and confused.

Visitation Sister: The will to believe in the resurrection.

Linda: They needed the Holy Spirit to do it.

Rebecca: Linda, I must respectfully disagree with you. SOME angels did what God willed; SOME did not, and those angels we call devils. They, too, are spirits with everlasting life. And brilliant at confusing us, at bringing darkness into our lives. They are the spirits of LIES of deception. They can even quote Sacred Scripture to deceive.

Linda: The devil is Divine too.

Linda: Divine means having eternal life according to Sr. Margaret Mary.

Linda: The Angels have free will.

Linda: They can be good or bad, but they do not die they are spirits that go on forever.

Ben: The Disciples chose to continue to seek to know God!!! Others that fell away chose to separate themselves from God and go their own way!!!

Linda: Jesus said hell was made for devils.

Visitation Sister: We are all eternal beings – our spirits/souls are.

Linda: They will be there for eternity.

Ben: God gives us the Freedom to follow Him or to walk Away!!! Perfect Love!!!!

Visitation Sister: And after the resurrection of the dead, our bodies in some way too.

Linda: Our bodies will rise and go to heaven too.

Linda: The whole world will be remade and will be perfect.

Anne: Goodnight all.

Ben: Where else would we go, Jesus? You have the Words of Eternal Life!!!

Visitation Sister: Blessed week to all. Tomorrow’s a jubilee here!

Linda: What jubilee?

Denise: Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Good night all. God bless.

Kate: Good night, Everyone and God Bless.

Rebecca: Come, Holy Spirit!

Rebecca: Fill the hearts of your faithful.

Rebecca: And enkindle in them the Fire of your Love.

Denise: Amen.

Ben: Amen!!!!

Join Our Chat!

Did you enjoy this discussion? Please share it with your friends by using the social buttons below. And why not join our chat this Sunday? Go to the Visitation Sisters’ “Living Jesus Chat Room.”