Human Person is Deified in God’s Humanity
God became man, so that man might become God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son. Did he not give us everything with him? (OOCC, X, p. 357; STA, 386)
St. Vincent Pallotti believed that God created the world and placed the human person as the crown of creation because he loved him. Though he fell through his sin, God continued to love him so much that he sent his only-begotten Son to bring him back to his original state of godliness. Thus, God became a human being in Jesus Christ. According to St. Vincent, the purpose of Jesus accepting human nature and being born in this world was to help every person to become God-like. A human person could have never learned to be God-like unless God himself descended on the earth and taught him to be so. Jesus, in his life on earth, had shown the best way a human person should live and achieve divine glory though his humanity. Hence, it is proper to say that the human person is deified in God’s humanity. The fallen humanity could never have ascended to its original state of godliness unless God had descended to the human level and raised him to the state of divinity. Thus, for St. Vincent, Jesus descended to the world to teach every person to be divine by his own example of being human and to raise the human person to the level of godliness by the power of his grace. St. Vincent attempted to live the humanity of Jesus in totality so that he could become divine like him.
Do I acknowledge that Jesus, by his humanity, teaches me to be divine? Do I believe that Jesus descended into the world as a human being to raise me to the level of Godhead? Do I attempt to live the humanity of Jesus so that I can be divine like him?
Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. (Phil. 3: 20-21)