I found this gem on Mark Shea’s blog, Catholic and Enjoying It!, and thought I would share it. Mr. Shea prefaced this quote from C. S. Lewis with one from St. Thomas Aquinas: “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in His divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made man, might make men gods,” a teaching enunciated before him by St. Augustine of Hippo and, before him, by St. Athanasius: “God became man so that man might become a god.”

I’m not the kind to make New Year resolutions, but the following is a notion that could be considered and adopted for anyone at any time. It’s a beautiful thought, and if we can keep it in mind and adopt it for our behavior, it certainly would make our lives more holy and happy.

God bless you all for a joyous and grace-filled 2018!

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection open to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendship, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors … Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”                                          C. S. Lewis

Think about that: A creature near worthy of worship, or a corruption worthy of a nightmare — “All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.” That is an awesome responsibility, and one to be taken seriously in considering how we interact with each other.

God is real. Heaven and hell are real. Am I helping my neighbor to glory or to corruption?

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.