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Christian life is a life of friendship with God, ‘I have called you friends’ (John 15, 5). More, we are called to share the divine life itself in fellowship with Christ and as members of God's family; ‘God is faithful, by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Cor. 1, 9). He is our elder brother, ‘the firstborn among many brethren’ (Rom. 8, 29); we receive the spirit of adoption of sons, and are joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8, 15-7).
1 St Leo the Great, Serm. I de Nat. Dom.—Breviary lesson for Christmas Day.
2 Summa I-II, 113, 9, ad 2. On these words Cajetan comments: ‘Hold before your eyes by day and by night that the value of the divine grace in a single individual is greater than the natural goodness of the whole universe, in order that you may continually be aware of the damnation which threatens those who do not appreciate so great a gift’.
3 ‘Since reason is the root of human goodness, this goodness will be the more perfect the wider the grounds of action proper to man are subject to reason’ (I-II, 24, 3).
4 Cf. St Thomas, De Veritate 1, 10 ad 14.
5 St Thomas, Summa I-II, C8, 2.
6 Leo XIII, Encyclical Divinum illud, 9/5/1897.
7 St Thomas, Summa I-II, 112, 5.