see also the post on Union with Christ here : http://nannykim-catholicconsiderations.blogspot.com/2012/08/union-with-christ.html
below from http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2009/09/horton-on-being-made-one-flesh-with-christ/
Ultimately, we do not need mere benefits: we need nothing less than to be made partakers of the divine nature in order to enter into divine life and obtain the Beatific Vision. We need to be joined ontologically to the divine nature, as Christ is ontologically joined to human nature. Even the presence of the Spirit with or in us does not entail that we have been made partakers of the divine nature, because the Spirit is present everywhere, and yet not everything is a partaker of the divine nature. What we need is real participation in Christ’s divine nature, through participation in His human nature; this is the meaning of John 6. And through our Eucharistic participation in the one Bread which is Christ Himself, we who are many are one Body, which is His Mystical Body.2
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In the Catholic tradition, by contrast, we are co-workers with Christ precisely because we are truly members of His Mystical Body. We are truly the hands and feet of His Mystical Body, of which He is the Head. By denying that we are Christ’s hands and feet, and by appealing to the idea of covenant, Horton seems to conceive of the union of Christ’s people with Christ as merely a stipulation of the divine will, not an ontological union, not a “fusion”, as he put it. But the Church’s tradition handed down to us from the early Church Fathers maintains that Christ took on human nature, so that we might become partakers of His divine nature, through union with Him. As St. Athanasius said:
“For He was made man that we might be made God.” (On the Incarnation, 54.3)
[Many more quotes given in the article]
There is no indication in Horton’s statement that through the sacraments we become partakers of the divine nature, as St. Peter stated in 2 Peter 1:4. But, if we are not made partakers of the divine nature, then there is no need for Christ to have become a partaker of human nature. The whole point of Christ becoming a partaker of human nature was so that we, through ontological union with Christ, could become partakers of His divine nature. That is the purpose of the divine promises, to bring about this ontological union between Christ and His Bride, as one flesh.
.............................just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the Church. (Eph 5:22-32)
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to deny that Christ is one flesh with His Church is to claim that a husband has greater unity with his wife than Christ has with His Church. But according to St. Paul the union of husband and wife is a type, and the type is never greater than that which it typifies. Therefore, if the husband is one flesh with his wife, then it is false that we through our incorporation into Christ’s Mystical Body do not become one flesh with Christ. We are members of His Mystical Body with which He is one, and which is also His Spouse. That one-flesh union of Christ with His Spouse is perfected at His return, when we shall see Him face to face. But even here and now, through our baptism we are incorporated into His Mystical Body, and thus made “one flesh” with Him. The two becoming one flesh began at the incarnation. We do not become His hands and feet only at the Parousia; we become His hands and feet at our baptism, when we are washed by His Spirit and made members of His Body, the Church. Through the Eucharist we feed on His body, blood, soul and divinity, and in this way are granted to participate in His human nature and in His divine nature. If we were not made one flesh with Christ, we would be lost, because only through the hypostatic union can we participate in the divine nature. Only by union with His flesh do we, through the hypostatic union of the God-man Jesus Christ, participate in His divine nature. And only by participating in the divine nature can we enter into eternal life.
Catholic Encyclopedia, article Supernatural Gift(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06553a.htm)
A supernatural gift may be defined as something conferred on nature that is above all the powers (vires) of created nature. When God created man, He was not content with bestowing upon him the essential endowments required by man’s nature. He raised him to a higher state, adding certain gifts to which his nature had no claim. They comprise qualities and perfections, forces and energies, dignities and rights, destination to final objects, of which the essential constitution of man is not the principle; which are not required for the attainment of the final perfection of the natural order of man; and which can only be communicated by the free operation of God’s goodness and power. Some of these are absolutely supernatural, i.e. beyond the reach of all created nature (even of the angels), and elevate the creature to a dignity and perfection natural to God alone; others are only relatively supernatural (preternatural), i.e. above human nature only and elevate human nature to that state of higher perfection which is natural to the angels. The original state of man comprised both of these, and when he fell he lost both. Christ has restored to us the absolutely supernatural gifts, but the preternatural gifts He has not restored. …
The absolutely supernatural gifts, which alone are the supernatural properly so called, are summed up in the divine adoption of man to be the son and heir of God. This expression, and the explanations given of it by the sacred writers, make it evident that the sonship is something far more than a relation founded upon the absence of sin; it is of a thoroughly intimate character, raising the creature from its naturally humble estate, and making it the object of a peculiar benevolence and complaisance on God’s part, admitting it to filial love, and enabling it to become God’s heir, i.e. a partaker of God’s own beatitude. …
Divine adoption is a new birth of the soul (John 1:12-13 and 3:5; 1 John 3:9; 5:1; 1 Peter 1:3 and 1:23; James 1:18; Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:5). This regeneration implies the foundation of a higher state of being and life, resulting from a special Divine influence, and admitting us to the dignity of sons of God. “For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son; that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren” (Romans 8:29). cf. also 2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 3:26-27 and 4:19; Romans 13:14. As a consequence of this Divine adoption and new birth we are made “partakers of the divine nature” (theias koinonoi physeos, 2 Peter 1:4). The whole context of this passage and the passages already quoted show that this expression is to be taken as literally as possible not, indeed, as a generation from the substance of God, but as a communication of Divine life by the power of God, and a most intimate indwelling of His substance in the creature. Hence, too, the inheritance is not confined to natural goods. It embraces the possession and fruition of the good which is the natural inheritance of the Son of God, viz., the beatific vision.
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