Theological Virtues
One
Adopted Children of God
The phrase “Children of God” has become so common that we tend to take it for granted. We hear that we’re God’s sons and daughters over and over, and perhaps it’s got to the point where it doesn’t make much of an impression anymore.
But maybe it helps to remember that we’re not automatically God’s children by birth, we become His children by adoption through Baptism.
God is God. We’re creatures. We don’t proceed from Him like the eternal Son. He has graciously chosen to adopt us as His own, into His life and His love by Baptism.
And the difference between getting adopted and staying orphans is one that makes all the difference in the world.
Two
Children of God vs. Waiting to be Children of God
Now there’s a sense in which everybody is a child of God but there’s also a sense in which everybody isn’t a child of God
Suppose a couple has visited an orphanage, chosen a child to adopt, and is in the process of filling out the paperwork and paying the fees. Of course, the couple loves that child, has chosen that child, and wants that child to be part of their family and to share in their life. But until it’s official, until the orphanage releases the child and the couple is granted rights over that child, they can’t bring that child home with them to share in their life.
So too with the unbaptized, with those who have not been brought into God’s family.
He loves them, He has chosen them, and He’s doing everything He can to bring them into His family but until they’ve received the grace of baptism, He can’t bring them into His community to share in His life.
Three
Sharing in God’s Being
There are many amazing benefits of being baptized.
The Catechism (1263) says that by Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. (1265) Baptism also makes us an adopted son of God who has become a partaker of the divine nature. God uses the sacrament of Baptism to fill our soul with Himself, the gift of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – giving us a real participation in His divine nature so that we are not just children of God as an expression – but we really share in God’s divine life.
With God living in us we have the power to live and act as sons and daughters of God through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
(CCC 1257) The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.
The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but He Himself is not bound by His sacraments.
Four
Sharing in God’s Activity
One of the most dramatic differences that happens when we’re adopted by God through the grace of Baptism is that we get to share in God’s activity. We get to do things that only God could do by nature.
When a father lets his little son sit on his lap in the car and hold the steering wheel as they slowly go down the driveway, the child is being allowed to do something that’s totally beyond a child’s natural capacities.
So too, by the theological virtues, by Faith, Hope, and Charity, we can do things that are beyond our human nature.
By the gift of faith, we share in God’s knowledge. By hope, we can desire God as our ultimate happiness and strive for union with Him above all else. By charity or love we share in God’s love, and so makes us capable of living both God and neighbor selflessly and sacrificially, for their own sake. In supernatural ways, in a way that no ordinary creature can do.
We don’t realize it, but by faith, hope, and charity, we’re already living as God’s children, sharing with our Father in the activity that properly belongs to Him.
Five
Non-Christians don’t Have the Theological Virtues
Just as non-Christians haven’t been adopted by baptism yet, so they do not have a supernatural religion which can give them a share in the theological virtues.
Faith is a share in God’s knowledge by belief in His Supernatural Revelation. So by definition, Muslims don’t have the theological virtue of faith, because the revelation they believe isn’t supernatural.
Hope is the striving to share in the eternal life of the Trinity. So by definition, Buddhists aren’t people of hope, because they aren’t striving to share in Trinitarian life. They can’t aim for divine life because they don’t know what divine life is.
Charity means loving God intimately, and for His own sake. So by definition, Hindus don’t have charity, because they don’t have an intimate filial relationship with their Father because they don’t know about the Father
Remember, as Jesus says, you can only know the Father through the Son – and if they don’t accept Jesus, they can’t know and love the Father.
These religions may have natural virtues, which are admirable – but they don’t give supernatural virtues because they aren’t supernatural religions.
We pray that God gives them the grace of adoption in His own way, but the religion itself cannot bring them this new life.
So we must never take our sonship for granted. We Christians, those of us who have been born again by water and the Holy Spirit as God’s children, we must never take our adoption for granted, nor should we forget how important it is to help bring all those who haven’t been baptized, those beloved by God into their true adoptive home.
In the meantime, as we go over the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, remember that these are not virtues we’ve earned, or created in ourselves through our own efforts. These are the gracious gifts God has given to us, the children He has adopted out of pure love and generosity. And these are the gifts which, if we protect and cultivate them, will bring us to eternal happiness.