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Theosis is personal communion with God “face to face.”[2] To the Western mind, this idea may seem incomprehensible, even sacrilegious, but it derives unquestionably from Christ’s teachings.
All attempts to understand Christ’s message from a purely rational standpoint will remain partial and incomplete.[21]
Christ’s message was so profound and revolutionary, that it can be said that humanity failed to grasp both its magnitude and its simplicity.
St. Paul alludes to this when he says, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
If he does not relate correctly to this basic issue, then he will also fail in life’s particular purposes, for what meaning can a particular purpose have if human life as a whole has no meaning?
He wishes him to be a god by Grace.
as St. Gregory the Theologian says in his characteristic way. He is the only being that is distinguished from all else in creation, because he is the only one which can become a god.
Having been endowed “in His image,” man is called upon to be completed “in His likeness.”
Perhaps it is very daring for us even to say or think that our life’s purpose is to become gods by Grace. However, neither the Holy Bible nor the Church Fathers have hidden this from us.
Since man is “called to be a god” (i.e. was created to become a god), as long as he does not find himself on the path of Theosis he feels an emptiness within himself... he feels that something is not going right, so he is not joyful even when he is trying to cover the emptiness with other activities.
He may numb himself, create a glamorous world, or cage and imprison himself within this world, yet at the same time he remains poor, small, limited. He may organise his life in such a way that he is almost never at peace, never alone with himself. Surrounded by noise, tension, television, radio, continuous information about this and that, he may seek to forget with drugs; not to think, not to worry, not to remember that he is on the wrong path and has strayed from his purpose.
they desired to become gods not through humility, obedience, or love; but through their own power, their own willfulness–egotistically and autonomously.
the essence of the fall is egotism.
This new root, the new man, is the God-Man, Jesus Christ, the Son and Logos of God, who incarnates to become the new root, the new beginning, the new leaven of humanity.
No longer can anything cut human nature off from God. Now, after the incarnation of the Lord –no matter how much we as men sin,* no matter how much we separate ourselves from God– if, through repentance,* we wish to unite again with God, we can succeed. We can unite with Him and so become gods by Grace.
He is the new Adam who rights the wrong of the first Adam.
The work of the new Adam pre-supposes the work of the new Eve, the Panagia* who put right the wrong done by the old Eve.
Therefore, as the first human person who achieved Theosis –in an exceptional and, of course unrepeatable, way– the Lady Theotokos* played a role in our salvation which was not only fundamental, but both necessary and irreplaceable.
“She leads those being saved,” according to another fine expression by a theologian of our Church.
Therefore, she is praised by our Church as “more honourable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim.”
symbolises the descent of Heaven to earth;
She is “the bridge by which God descended,” and again, “she who conducts those of earth to Heaven,” the Platytera of the Heavens, the space of the uncontainable, who contained the uncontainable God within herself for our salvation.
But this union with Christ is not external, nor is it simply moral.
The Church is the body of Christ, the real body, not a moral one, as some mistaken theologians have written, not having looked deeply enough into the spirit of the Holy Church. Despite our unworthiness and sinfulness, Christ takes us Christians and incorporates us into His body.
he does not confess, does not take Communion, does not live a spiritual life, he is a dead member of Christ’s body, but when he repents, he immediately receives divine life.
What a great blessing that we commune through the immaculate Mysteries!
Man cannot ask anything more of God than what he receives from Christ in Holy Communion.
It is possible that we weak and sinful men go through crises and difficulties from time to time within the Church. It is possible for scandals to happen in the bosom of the Church. All these happen in the Church because we are as yet on the way to Theosis, and it is very natural that human weaknesses still exist.
So, whatever may happen, we will not leave the Church, because only within it do we find the path to Theosis.
So we unite with God through His uncreated energies, and not through His essence. This is the mystery of our Orthodox faith and life.
What then, according to them, remains as the purpose of human life? Simply moral improvement. If man cannot be deified with divine Grace and divine energies, what purpose does his life have? Only that he becomes morally better. But moral perfection is not enough for man. It is not enough for us simply to become better than before, simply to perform moral deeds. We have as our final aim to unite with holy God Himself. This is the purpose of the creation of the universe. This is what we desire. This is our joy, our happiness, and our fulfillment.
A Christian is not a Christian simply because he is able to talk about God. He is a Christian because he is able to have experience of God.
And just as, when you really love someone and converse with him, you feel his presence, and you enjoy his presence, so it happens in man’s communion with God: there exists not a simple external relationship, but a mystical union of God and man in the Holy Spirit.
because without humility, how will you acknowledge that the purpose of your life is outside yourself; that it is in God?
He believes that he can be perfected by his own efforts; defined by his own efforts; deified by his own efforts. This is the spirit of contemporary civilisation, contemporary philosophy, contemporary politics: to create an even better world, even more just, but to do this autonomously, by oneself; to create a world which will have man at its centre with no reference to God; with no acknowledgement that God is the source of all good.
Theosis must have constant humility,
In order to find himself continuously on the path of Theosis, he needs to depend on the Grace of God.
beginning our daily struggle in Christ with repentance and much patience.
Much effort is required, so that gradually our inner wasteland is cleansed from the thorns and stones of the passions so that it can be cultivated spiritually, and so that the seed of God’s logos may fall and bear fruit.
Great and continuous effort towards ourselves is necessary for all this.
All the virtues are aspects of the one great virtue, the virtue of love. When a Christian acquires love, he has all the virtues.
All the evils within us spring from selfishness, which is a diseased love for one’s own self.
Without asceticism, there is no spiritual life, no struggle, and no progress.
We obey, fast, keep vigil, labour with prostrations, and stand upright, all so that we may b...
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According to them, in the psyche you can distinguish intelligent and passible parts.
The intelligent part is cleansed by watchfulness, which is the continuous guarding of the nous from thoughts, keeping the good thoughts and rejecting the bad. The passionate part, again, is cleansed by love. Finally, the desiring part is cleansed by self-control. All these parts are both cleansed and sanctified by prayer.
Through asceticism and prayer, the heart is cleansed of the passions, the spark of Divine Grace is rekindled, and the faithful Christian feels Christ in his heart; the centre of his existence.
Concentrating our nous, we immerse it in our heart, and then pay attention to make sure it is not busy there with other things and ideas, good or bad; that it is busy only with God.
In a quiet room (perhaps after some spiritual reading, or after lighting a small oil lamp in front of the icons and burning incense), as far as possible away from noise and activity, and after other considerations and thoughts have fallen quiet, they should sink their nous into the heart by saying the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” How much peace and strength the psyches draw from the silence of God! How much this strengthens them during the day so that they can keep themselves peaceful without nervous tension and anxiety, but have all their forces united in harmony!
This is the second stage of Theosis, called “theoria,” in the course of which man, having already been cleansed from the passions, is illumined by the Holy Spirit, is made luminous on the way to becoming deified.
