By Allowing Himself to Be Made Son
“The thrilling part is that this triumph of Yahweh, whom all the nations now adore, took place in the utter humiliation of the Cross. In order to explain how this could be so, the hymn opens up that perspective on humanity as a whole which has been our topic. Verse six, alluding to a version of the Adam myth in the book of Job reminds us that man wishes to be God. Nor is this desire of his entirely misconceived. Yet man pursues it in the style of a Prometheus, hunting the prey which is equality with God, taking it by violence. But man is not God. By making himself like unto God he sets himself over against truth, and so the adventure ends in that nothingness where truth is not. The actual God-man does just the opposite. He is God’s Son, his whole being a gesture of gratitude and self-offering. In reality, the Cross is but the definitive radicalization of that gesture which the Son is. Not the grasping audacity of Prometheus but the Son’s obedience on the Cross is the place where man’s divinization is accomplished. Man can become God, not by making himself God, but by allowing himself to be made ‘Son.’”
[Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology, 64–65 (w/ a reminder about the Posting-Is-Not-Total-Agreement policy of this little blog)]
