Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
8. The Image of God
Mormonism: God has a tangible body of flesh and bones
(GP
Chapter 1)
Catholicism:
- In No Way Is God In Man's Image. God Is Pure Spirit.
- Man is Created In the Image of God But God Is Not In The Image of Man
- Man Is In The Image Of The Son. Man Is Body And Spirit.
- God's Word Allowed Himself To Be Seen And Heard In Theophanies
- In The Body of Jesus We See Our Invisible God Made Visible
In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes (CCC370). There is only one true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple (CCC202). God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your glory above the heavens" [Ps 8:1; Sir 43:28]. Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable" [Ps 145:3]. But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause of all that exists, God is present to his creatures' inmost being: "In him we live and move and have our being" [Acts 17:28]. In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self" (CCC300). The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure..." [Deut 4:15-16]. It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works" [Sir 43:27-28]. He is "the author of beauty" [Wis 13:3] (CCC2129).
God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, imagebound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God--"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"--with our human representations. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God (CCC42). Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision": How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God,... to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends (CCC1028). Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart. "Our Father who art in heaven" is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them. "Heaven" could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries (CCC2794).
Moses and Elijah had seen God's glory on the Mountain (CCC555). When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name "the LORD" [YHWH]" [Ex 33:18-19]. Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God [Ex 34:5-6; 34:9] (CCC210). "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" [Ex 33:11]. Moses' prayer is characteristic of contemplative prayer by which God's servant remains faithful to his mission. Moses converses with God often and at length, climbing the mountain to hear and entreat him and coming down to the people to repeat the words of his God for their guidance. Moses "is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly, not in riddles," for "Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth" [Num 12:3,7-8] (CCC2576). Elijah, like Moses before him, hides "in a cleft of he rock" until the mysterious presence of God has passed by [Kings 19:1-14; Ex 33:19-23]. But only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought; "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ," crucified and risen [2 Cor 4:6; Lk 9:30-35] (CCC2583).
God fashioned man with his own hands [that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh he had fashioned, in such a way that even what was visible might bear the divine form (CCC704). The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life... The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: I am the first and the last (CCC359).
The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit: [1 Cor 6:19-20; 15:44-45] (CCC364). The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature (CCC365). The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material", can have its origin only in God (CCC33).
In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person [Mt 16:25-26; Jn 15:13; Acts 2:41]. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, [Mt 10:28; 26:38; Jn 12:27; 2 Macc 6:30] that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man (CCC363). Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people "wholly", with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and blameless at the Lord's coming [1 Th 5:23]. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit" signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God (CCC367). Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God (CCC382).
Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead (CCC357). Endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul, the human person is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake. From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude (CCC1703). Of all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator". He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity (CCC356). The human person participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection in seeking and loving what is true and good (CCC1704).
Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God," in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God," [Rom 3:23] of his "likeness." The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that "image" [Jn 1:14; Phil 2:7] and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life" (CCC705). Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty [Ps 8; Isa 6:3]. In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God" [Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23; Gen 1:26]. From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator [Col 3:10] (CCC2809). The communion of the Holy Spirit [2Cor 13:14] in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin (CCC734).
Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God's Son made man, the "image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first-born of a multitude of brothers and sisters (Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:29) (CCC381). Jesus' baptism proclaimed the mystery of the first regeneration, namely, our Baptism; the Transfiguration is the sacrament of the second regeneration: our own Resurrection. From now on we share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments of the Body of Christ. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ's glorious coming, when he "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body" [Phil 3:21]. But it also recalls that "it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God" [Acts 14:22] (CCC556).
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself: [1Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4] [God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature.... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized (CCC1988). It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," [Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4] that man has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God (CCC1701).
When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name "the LORD" [YHWH]" [Ex 33:18-19]. Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God [Ex 34:5-6; 34:9] (CCC210). Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him in its shadow (CCC707). Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai [Ex 24:15-18], at the tent of meeting [Ex 33:9-10], and during the wandering in the desert [Ex 40:36-38; 1 Cor 10:1-2], and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple [1 Kings 8:10-12] (CCC697).
The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to live. God reveals himself in order to save them, though he does not do this alone or despite them: he calls Moses to be his messenger, an associate in his compassion, his work of salvation (CCC2575). "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" [Ex 33:11]. Moses converses with God often and at length, climbing the mountain to hear and entreat him and coming down to the people to repeat the words of his God for their guidance (CCC2576). Finally, taking the desert road that leads to the place where the living and true God reveals himself to his people, Elijah, like Moses before him, hides "in a cleft of he rock" until the mysterious presence of God has passed by [1 Kings 19:1-14; Ex 33:19-23]. But only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought; "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ," crucified and risen [2 Cor 4:6; Lk 9:30-35] (CCC2583).
Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God... and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled (CCC1159). In the body of Jesus "we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see." The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son (CCC477). The apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature" [Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3.] (CCC241).
At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature (CCC479). Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was finite (CCC476). St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure (CCC53).
In Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" [Heb 1:3; Col 2:9] (CCC2502). His deeds, miracles and words all revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" [Col 2:9] (CCC515). Christ's whole earthly life - his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being and speaking - is Revelation of the Father. Jesus can say: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father", and the Father can say: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" [Jn 14:9; Lk 9:35; Mt 17:5; Mk 9:7] "my beloved Son" Because our Lord became man in order to do his Father's will, even the least characteristics of his mysteries manifest "God's love... among us" [Jn 4:9] (CCC516).
"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" [Mk 16:19]. Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys [Lk 24:31; Jn 20:19, 26]. But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity [Acts 1:3; 10:41; Mk 16:12; Lk 24:15; Jn 20:14-15; 21:4]. Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right hand [Acts 1:9; 2:33; 7:56; Lk 9:34-35; 24:51; Ex 13:22; Mk 16:19; Ps 110:1]. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul "as to one untimely born", in a last apparition that established him as an apostle [1 Cor 15:8; 9:1; Gal 1:16] (CCC659).