The pattern of the relationships between properties as defining the identity and nature of something is not limited to physics. We can see it almost everywhere we look where “meaning” is required. For example, human language is organized the same way. The meanings of words (the subatomic particles or building blocks as it were of language) are dependent upon the context in which they are used. A word’s meaning is dependent upon how it is used in a sentence, while the meaning of a sentence is affected by the paragraph in which it exists. The paragraph is in turn defined by how it is related to the larger work. A work can even take on a different meaning depending upon how it exists within the broader culture.
Not surprisingly, computer languages have a lot of grammatical, syntactical, and organizational similarity to human language. It is becoming increasingly clear that genes within living things are organized similarly to computer languages, which in turn have much in common to human languages. There are hierarchical orders of regulatory information within genomic DNA that guide the proper functioning of the cell. They provide the overall organization to the “work.” It is not uncommon for the same gene to perform different functions within the same species and also in entirely different species. The “meaning” or “nature” of an individual gene is not fixed. Everything in the genome of living things depends upon context and relationship.
The genome then shares frequently used regulatory and expressed sequences among a variety of genes, maintains discrete “functions” or “services,” provides formatting and indexing codes that allow the cell to express specific modules of genetic information in response to various needs and stimuli. It maintains similar hierarchical “files within folders,” organizational systems to optimize access and retrieval of stored data, and much more.
Beyond languages, the Trinity itself is organized around the relationships among the divine Persons. There is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that proceeds as the Relationship or Communication between them. In the case of the divine relationships, they are fixed; their identities never change. They are eternally the same. However, other personal beings and physical things, particularly ones in sequential time, can change their identities as they change their relationships. In the realm of the supernatural, not only the identity, but the nature of things can change when relationships change. Examples of changing relationships changing the identities of physical things (e.g., entangled subatomic particles) and human beings (e.g., changes in family relationships) are commonplace. But, how about examples from Scripture of a change in a relationship changing not just the identity but the nature of something?
The nature of the mortal resurrected body of Christ was changed to an immortal glorified body simply by being put into a new relationship with the Father. Mary Magdalene is not allowed to touch his immediately resurrected corpse in the Garden of Gethsemane,
“Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).
However, she and others are welcome to “handle” his glorified body once he has “ascended to the Father” and has appeared in “another form.”1 Evidence of a difference between the newly resurrected body and the body after it had “ascended to the Father” can be found in Mark’s gospel. Mark writes that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene in one form and then later appeared to others, presumably the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13), in “another form.”
Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept… After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking in the country (Mark 16:9-12).
The word translated as “form” in the original Greek is morphe, it is also used in Philippians 2:6 where Paul writes that Jesus “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” The “form of God” alluded to by Paul is divinity as opposed to Jesus’s humanity. Jesus demonstrates in this post-resurrection sequence of events that his human body when ascended and placed in relation to the Father is transformed into a glorified body — another “form?”
Mary could not touch his resurrected but as yet unglorified body because it was intended as the ultimate sacrificial offering by the Son to the Father. Just like all offerings, it needed to be undefiled and could only be touched by a priest. After it was offered by the High Priest Jesus himself and placed in the presence of the Father, it was then glorified permanently outside of time and impassable; it could then be touched as in the Eucharist and shared and consumed by those who are without serious sin and ritually pure.
“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet (Luke 24:39-40).
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:27).
At the consecration2 of the Eucharist at Mass, the bread and wine are put into a new relationship to Christ the Son by the in persona Christi priest himself. Being specifically placed in a new relationship to God the Son, the nature of those common items, bread and wine, transform into something different—the glorified body and blood of Jesus Christ, the incarnated Son.
However, the priest himself became something different through his own priestly consecration. By being put into a new relationship with Christ, he was transformed from a mere man to a priest who not only can act, but actually is in persona Christi at the moments he performs his priestly work.
Similar transformations occur as a result of each of the sacraments. They place us into a specific new relationship with Christ that transforms us in the way appropriate for that sacrament. For example at baptism, we are put into a new relationship with Christ where we become a part of his supernatural body.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
Clearly then, our very nature has been fundamentally changed by baptism from individual mortal men to members of a supernatural glorified body. What holds us in relationship, the “glue” is the very same supernatural Relationship, the Holy Spirit, that binds together the blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit is of course Love. Love is a self-giving relationship that can only occur between rational persons, not things.
Paul also writes, “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14). In the original Greek, the word used here for love by Paul is agape (which as we will discuss later in the context of Peter’s three denials) means the perfectly self-giving love of God, not mere attraction or affection. The word he uses for bond is sundesmos, which is not the mere sticking together of things, but rather describes a uniting principle. It is also the Greek word for a ligament which is the connective tissue that holds the bones or members of a body firmly together. He further describes agape as a “perfect” bond. The word for perfect used here is teleiotes which describes moral and spiritual perfection. We know from logic and Revelation that the bond of perfect divine love between the persons of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit.
The ligament holding us together as members in Christ’s glorified and supernatural body is not just any love, but the same personified supernatural Love that holds the Trinity itself together and embraces us into it. That is why baptism is an absolutely essential requirement for salvation—with no exceptions. Without this “one Spirit” ligament, we are not part of Christ’s body here and cannot be part of it in heaven, which is the extension, the continuation, and the perfection of our earthly lives and bodies. It is our own mortal body, just as it was Jesus’ own mortal body, that continues on and is glorified and deified.3 If we are not “members” of his body in this mortal life, we cannot continue on to glorification and deification with him. The glorification of Christ’s body is the glorification of all of its members. His is the only glorified body that can be deified, because his body is already divine as well as human. Our bodies are only glorified by participation as members in the Son’s incarnated body. Those who are not members of his body but retain their own independent body separate from his cannot be saved and glorified, for it is only through being part of Christ’s glorified body that we are glorified. There is no other mechanism by which glorification and deification can occur. Those who keep their bodies separated from and independent of his in this life remain that way when their bodies continue on into the next.4 That is why Jesus says, “But whoever denies Me before men him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). And, “He who receives you receives Me and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (Matthew 10:40). Jesus does not, cannot recognize those who are outside of him, who deny him, and are not part of him. It is only the incarnated and glorified Christ who stands before his Father, with no one else except those who participate in his body.
Wherever one Person of the Trinity is present, all three Persons are present. The baptized are drawn into the Son’s incarnated body and held there by the Communication and Relationship which is the Holy Spirit. The purity of God cannot coexist with impurity. Therefore, a proper baptism must also be an exorcism.5 The impurity caused by Original Sin must be cleansed by the Holy Spirit, which is signified by the use of water in the sacrament. However, water is also inextricably linked with life and the Holy Spirit as we shall see later.
Note bene: Jesus “Ascending to the Father” here is different from THE Ascension that occurred 40 days after Easter ending his post resurrection appearances (Acts 1:3).
"Consecration” comes from the Latin con (with) and sacrare (sacred), which means to "to make or declare sacred.” Sacred things are things that are set aside exclusively for God. Sacred or holy things belong to God. In other words, they are in an exclusive relationship with God. It is the relationship to God that changes and makes them special and different. The word “blessed” can have a similar meaning as consecration. “Blessed” can simply mean to offer a special favor, but also can mean to set aside for God. Even in the most quotidian uses of the word, when we give someone or something our blessing, we aren’t just wishing them well, we are indicating that we are invested in them — in other words that we are creating a relationship. Blessing as consecration is the sense of the word Matthew uses in describing Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper,
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’” (Mathew 26:26).
That is why Jesus’ tomb had to be empty on Easter morning. It is the same body that is resurrected, ascends to the Father, is glorified, and then returns.
There are no sacraments in heaven. They are not necessary. All of the preliminaries are accomplished in this life — only perfection exists in heaven where everything is in perfect relationship to the Father. “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30).
Msgr. Charles Pope, “Should the Church Consider Reintroducing the Exorcism Prayers in the Rite of Baptism?” accessed March 8, 2025, https://blog.adw.org/2014/01/should-the-church-consider-reintroducing-the-exorcism-prayers-in-the-rite-of-baptism/.