Dr. Rafael Xavier Gonzalez
There’s little doubt that the two beliefs that make Catholicism Catholicism are the substantial presence (not just real) of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and Holy Mary as Mother of God and hence our true spiritual Mother. It was the great St. Bosco who had a vision two huge columns or pillars coming out of the sea. At the top of one pillar stood the Blessed Mother, with the words “Help of Christians” underneath her. On the other pillar was a very large Eucharistic host with the inscription underneath saying, “Salvation of believers”.
But there are two not so obvious essential Catholic beliefs that need to be stressed in our day because they have been almost forgotten it seems, namely, deification and satisfaction. Deification or divinization (Theosis in Greek) is what we are all called to do or rather become, as humans. We are called to become God, by supernatural grace. Saint Athanasius wrote: “The Son of God became man so that man might become God” (CCC #460). Saint Gregory of Nyssa would remind Christians: “Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none”. (CCC #2028). Of course this begins with the Baptism of the person.
Human nature has what is called obediential potency, a Thomistic philosophical concept that refers to our capacity or receptiveness to divine grace or supernatural influence. We have the capacity for the Divine, capax Dei, but we are not naturally identified with the supernatural. The Modernist, extremely progressive, view of man in so-called Catholic theology is rooted in an unsound blending of the supernatural and natural realms. Man is supernatural by nature, this being the root of all theological errors of today (and actually the past ones also). I am thinking of the Jesuits Karl Rahner’s “Anonymous Christian” and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s “Evolution of Man”, along with the Dominican Matthew Fox’s “Original Blessing” doctrine, among others, all built on an erroneous optimism towards man, naturally divinizing him.
There must be no confusion. The natural realm and the supernatural one, both being good and from God, have an (quasi) infinite gap between them regarding their value. For that reason, the difference is abysmal between a baptized person in the state of grace and an unbaptized person. We desperately need to recuperate the orthodox real distinction between nature and supernature, a doctrine left to us by St. Thomas. Supernature presupposes nature and perfects it, but it is still a different reality from the natural (the whole concept of a “pure nature” is interesting, whether it actually exists or not).
The baptized person is truly a son of God: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 Jn. 3:1) This is what separates Catholics from Protestants! As Catholics we do not equate a sort of legal adoption with Divine adoption, the former being pure fiction while the latter being a true adoption. In a mere legal adoption, the child’s being does not transform into the parent’s, but in Divine adoption, we are truly transformed, divinized. Objections to this doctrine is a very attack on Catholicism itself.
Our divinization by grace is the consequence of the Incarnation of Our Lord (check out my interview with Dr. Tsakanikas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MgMjGuPwsY):
“The two truths go hand in hand: God’s Incarnation and man’s subsequent elevation and participation in divinity by grace. God is not afraid of us! He loves us and will do anything it takes to help us freely choose to accept this great gift and share in his life. It is the lie of the devil that God was afraid of us ‘becoming’ more like God! God only wanted our increase in likeness as the image and likeness of God”.[1]
If one does not understand the doctrine of divinization, one cannot understand the Catholic doctrine on merit. As Catholics we can truly merit Heaven because of grace, being in the state of grace, which essentially has the function of divinizing us and hence our works. The conditions to supernaturally merit are that our acts must be good, free and done in the state of grace. For that reason, this merit is not a result of human effort alone, but a shared effort between God’s grace and the faithful’s collaboration (which itself is the fruit of grace).
A Catholic doctrine intimately related with merit is satisfaction, something that most Catholics either do not know of or do not live out in the practical life. According to Catholic teaching, in the words of St Thomas:
“In mortal sin there are two things, namely, a turning from the immutable Good, and an inordinate turning to mutable good. Accordingly, in so far as mortal sin turns away from the immutable Good, it induces a debt of eternal punishment, so that whosoever sins against the eternal Good should be punished eternally. Again, in so far as mortal sin turns inordinately to a mutable good, it gives rise to a debt of some punishment, because the disorder of guilt is not brought back to the order of justice, except by punishment”.[2]
So there is a twofold punishment that corresponds to any grave sin: eternal, because of the aversion to God and temporal because of the conversion to creatures. Now when we go to confession the eternal punishment is remitted but the temporal punishment (usually) remains, and hence we need to make satisfaction. The difference between satisfaction and merit regarding their conditions is that satisfaction must be a penal work, since it has to do with paying a debt we owe by voluntarily accepting the required punishment. External works as opposed to merely internal works, since they cause more suffering, are better works for satisfaction. Yet again, the life of grace must be reestablished by the Sacramental Confession before satisfaction can even be done.
To deny satisfaction is to fall into heresy, as it is clearly a truth of defined Divine and Catholic Faith. Check out Canon 13 from the “Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of Penance”, Chapter III, of the 14thSession of the Council of Trent:
“If anyone says that satisfaction for sins, as to their temporal punishment, is in no way made to God through the merits of Christ by the punishments inflicted by Him and patiently borne, or by those imposed by the priest, or even those voluntarily undertaken, as by fasts, prayers, almsgiving or other works of piety, and that therefore the best penance is merely a new life, let him be anathema”.
Hence the reality of indulgences as remission for the temporal punishment due to sin, declared by the Pope, who extracts from the spiritual treasury of the superabundant merits of Christ, Mary and all the Saints. I like to think of it as a spiritual bank with a surplus of merit just waiting to be applied. God does not need us but has willed our close collaboration. God has wished to have need of us in a way, as St. Paul wrote, “”I make up for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ” (Col 1:24).
It seems to me that in the approved apparitions of Our Lady, especially in Fatima, Holy Mary is constantly going back to this doctrine, to live it in the practical life. Make satisfaction for our sins by doing penance! (though penance is more specific than the broader satisfaction). What’s fascinating is that we can make satisfaction, not only for our sins, but for the sins of others as the Saints have done. I remember once reading how St. Ignatius of Loyola would deem essential for the holiness of a man, even more than merely having a prayer life, the living of a life of satisfaction by exterior works (of course animated by prayer). Let us educate ourselves and live up accordingly with God´s help.
[1] Matthew A. Tsakanikas, STL, STD, A Catechesis on Deification, Transfiguration & the Luminous Mysteries (Saint Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media, 2025), 6.
[2] Summa Theologiae, III, q. 86, a. 4
