by Owen Vyner | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
(Mng. Editor’s note: This article was submitted before the new translation of the Roman Missal became the version presently being used.)
Introduction
The great German scholar, Romano Guardini, stated that it is only the faith of Christianity that reveals a correct understanding of the person. 1 Based upon the liturgical principle, lex orandi, lex credendi, we can add that the prayer of the Church is the ultimate source of a proper anthropology. As such, the foundation for an authentic vision of the human person is the liturgy.
When we turn to the liturgy to understand who man is, we see that, on multiple occasions, the liturgy employs the use of the word, adoption, and its derivatives, to refer to man’s relationship with God. However, the 1973 ICEL translation of the Missal translates adoptionis filiorum, more often than not, as “children,” and at other times, the term is not even translated. With the new translation of the Roman Missal imminent, it will be very interesting to see how the Latin word, “adoption,” is ultimately rendered. If it is translated as “adopted sons,” as opposed to “children,” then the faithful will hear that we are not children of God, in some sort of natural sense; but rather, we have been gratuitously adopted in the Son. This will have ramifications for an understanding of the human person.
In order to explicate these potential anthropological ramifications, this article will examine a theology of divine adoption in scripture, the teachings of the Church, and in the work of Blessed Columba Marmion. It will then discuss how this theology is made manifest in the Church’s liturgy.
Theology of Divine Adoption
The notion of divine adoption is a key concept in St. Paul’s theology. In five separate passages, he refers to Christians as having received the Spirit of adoption as sons (c.f. Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). St. Paul explains that we have been predestined to be adopted sons in the Son, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through receiving “the Spirit of adoption of sons,” a completely new life is bestowed upon the Christian, fundamentally changing his existence. As a consequence of this filiation, the Christian is now able to address the Father as Abba, the same term of intimacy by which the Son addresses his Father (cf. Mk 14:36). Thus, through adoption, the Christian is drawn into the Son’s own relationship with the Father.
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