We are to partner with Christ today to initiate and empower people to build intimacy with God through prayer. We are to enact generosity through table fellowship and feet-washing. We are the merciful face of God to dispense forgiveness and restoration (cf. Ludwig, 58-60). In other words, through partnership we become the veritable ink for God to write his love in people’s lives—to bring good news to the poor, healing to the sick, freedom to the captives, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18).

Partnership as a gift of God challenges our anxious need for certainty. Partnership with Christ accepts “God as a mystery and wonder and we respond with awe” (Ludwig, 62). Hence, we cannot play God but we can collaborate with God to liberate and empower others even in our fragility and vulnerability. We can only respond to this gift with gratitude and joy because God’s love is beyond measure. Freely we have received and freely we shall give. We respond to the love of God with our conscious effort to be the living tabernacles of Christ to distribute Christ to others in their own context.

While the effects of partnership are numerous, they include above all a participation in the very mystery of God. In other words through grace partnership with God divinizes us. Divinization is a life that visibly celebrates the gracious love and goodness of God. The self-donation of God transforms us in such a way that we act lovingly and justly to lead the world to God.

Work Cited
Ludwig, Robert, et al. Grace, Christ, and Spirit. Loyola University New Orleans, 2018.