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October 23, 2006

By the Mingling of this Water. . .

The Eucharistic prayer and symbols are enormously powerful. When the priest mixes water into the wine and says the prayer over the mixed elements, we are to begin to understand a great mystery.

I thought about this while at Mass the other day. When we are in Christ, we are like the chalice of wine and water--a great majority of divinity with our small humanity enfolded within. However, we are a living water. Most of us prefer to stay in the vessel from which the water is poured. If a drop or two of wine should enter that water, so much the better, we wouldn't mind at all. But to become utterly transformed, utterly surrendered, utterly other--for most of us that is a terrifying prospect. We would pray that He would mingle a little divinity with our humanity, while devotion to Christ constantly reminds us that "I must decrease that He might increase." We abandon our preferences for the faults of humanity in assuming the divinity we are meant to be. In some mysterious way we participate in divinity--I can't explain it, but Tom at Disputations might be helpful in understanding this. I only know that it has been taught faithfully by the Church through the ages. In some way we are divinized in our surrender. IF we surrender.

(Note: Post has been changed to accommodate comments received that pointed out a serious error. Hopefully the change does not significantly interfere with lucidity; however, even if it does, it is better than promulgating error.)

Posted by Steven Riddle at October 23, 2006 9:24 PM

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Comments

We abandon our humanity in assuming the divinity we are meant to be.

Did Jesus abandon His humanity?

Posted by: Tom K. at October 24, 2006 10:34 AM

Dear Tom,

Thank you for the correction. It is a poor choice of words and perhaps is better substituted with "abandon our proclivity for giving into the promptings of original sin." That is more what I had in mind--not that we are no longer human, but the fallen part of that humanity exercises less influence over us than it does before our "restoration."

Does that make it better, or could you possibly suggest terminology that is more appropriate?

Thank you.

shalom,

Steven

Posted by: Steven Riddle at October 24, 2006 11:20 AM

Steven:

That's fine by me.

I think, what with "a man like us in all things but sin," there's not really anything properly human we need to "abandon." What is abandoned is sin, as you say. Our humanity gets, what, maybe "transcended"? "Ordered toward" divinization?

Posted by: Tom at October 24, 2006 11:37 AM

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