The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification
110 The Son's Descent such universal beneficence is presented as God's love for his own, rendering them his children:
Even if one such were found who was willing to have coheirs, and he divided the inheritance with them, he would have less himself than if he had kept the whole. But the inheritance we look to, as coheirs with Christ, is not diminished by the crowd of people who are to inherit, nor does it dwindle because they have become so numerous; but there is as much when the heirs are many as when they are few, and as much for each individually as for all. See what love the Father has bestowed on us, says the apostle, that we should be called God's children, and so we are.68
The gifts of God are not lessened when distributed. Christians do not need therefore to compete against one another to guarantee their inheritance. The Fatherhood of God is for all. Christians can claim the title of God's sons and daughters even now because that is what indeed they have been made. Having said this, however, Augustine then concludes by quoting 1 John 3:1-2, that the fullness of our divine likeness will come only when we see God face to face. So, we hear Augustine stressing how God can rightly be called "Father," while also maintaining that the fullness of this adoption and the completeness of deification will take place only in heaven.
At John 20:17, Augustine easily finds warrant to account for this dual-paternity. Christ tells Mary Magdalene that he has not ascended ad Patrem meum et Patrem uestrum and it becomes obvious why, "He does not say 'our Father.' Therefore, in one way, 'my,' in a different way, 'your.' By nature, 'my,' by grace, 'your.' "69 In this way Augustine grounds human deification in the natural filiation of the Son without ever wrong-
68. en. Ps. 49.2; Boulding, Expositions (III/16), 381; adjusted; "Sed et qui in uenitur uelle, diuidet cum eis haereditatem, minus habens ipse diuidens quam si solus possideret: haereditas autem in qua cohaeredes Christi sumus, non minuitur copia possessorum, nec fit angustior numerositate cohaeredum; sed tanta est multis quanta paucis, tanta singulis quanta omnibus. Videte, inquit apostolus, qualem dilectionem nobis dedit Deus, ut filii Dei vocemur et simus"; CCL 38.576.
69. Jo. eu. tr. 121.3; Rettig, Tractates, 5.59.