“Pray then like this: Our Father…” (Mt. 6:9)
M. Eugene Boylan writes that “the proper foundation of devotion is dogma,” and this principle follows for divine filiation. Divine filiation is our state as children of God by adoption. The concept goes by other terms sometimes, such as “spiritual childhood” or “divine sonship.”
Without too deeply broaching the mystery of the Trinity, divine filiation refers to our adopted sonship of God united in Trinity, rather than just God the Father as a distinct person from the Son and Holy Spirit. Relatedly, the Baltimore Catechism teaches, “When we say ‘Our Father’ in the Lord’s Prayer we address Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost united in the adorable Trinity.”
Divine filiation was revealed and actualized by Christ in the Incarnation. While Christ frequently refers to Himself as the “Son of God,” Giulio Maspero observes, “He always distinguishes his own filiation from that of his disciples.” Jesus is the Son of God the Father by nature of the Trinity, while we are children of God through adoption.
Just as Jesus fulfilled the law (cf. Mt. 5:17), He fulfilled our relationship with God from the people to the personal. Maspero writes, “In the Old Testament, God had revealed his oneness and his love for the chosen people: Yahweh was like a Father. But after having spoken many times through the prophets, God spoke through his Son (cf. Heb. 1:1-2), revealing that Yahweh was not only like a Father but is the Father (cf. Compendium , 46).”
We become adopted children of God through our Baptism. While God is our Creator and the Creator of all which has existed, exists, and will exist, God is our Father through our re-creation in the sacrament of Baptism. Born of our natural parents in the flesh, we became their children; reborn of the spirit in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we become God’s children (cf. Jn. 3:1-21). As such, divine filiation is intimately related to our justification. Pope St. Pius V affirmed this when he wrote, “Justice is a grace infused into the soul whereby man is adopted into divine sonship.”
Just as the Christian religion “must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture” (Dei Verbum 21) alongside Tradition, Scripture unites the dogmatic and devotional within the concept of divine filiation. Our divine filiation yields numerous spiritual fruits, including a confident, interior peace in conjunction with faith, hope, humility, and contrition. These converge within all forms of prayer.
The Our Father exemplifies divine filiation through adoration and petition as “the Spirit of adoption stirs up in our hearts seven petitions, seven blessings” (CCC 2803). We should maintain perfect confidence in the fulfillment of our petitions (insofar as they correspond to the will of God), as Christ explained in paternal terms: “For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” (Mt. 7:8-10).
Divine filiation assures us of the fulfillment of our penitential petitions for forgiveness as well. Baptism leaves an indelible mark on our soul, and we remain His children even if we reject Him through mortal sin. He always maintains desire for relationship with His children, as signified in the father’s relationship with both sons in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (cf. Lk. 15:11-32). We return to Him through confessional absolution just as we were reborn in Him: in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He desires a relationship with everyone (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4), even with those who have not yet become His children through Baptism.
Christ teaches about the necessity for true spiritual childhood for our salvation (cf. Mt. 18:2-4). This includes a humble awareness that all things a child possesses are provided by his parents, and all we have which is God was a gift provided by God our Father (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). As such, we owe Him both thanksgiving and the honor naturally due to our parents (cf. Ex. 20:12).
May we possess the peace in knowing how to pray to our Father, who knows us personally and desires a relationship with each of us. May we love Him with the simplicity and daring of children who alone desire the affection of their parents.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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