The Scriptural Word and Vision

The theme we are engaged with this weekend was a topic for discussion that the Lord Himself was involved in towards the end of his ministry. St. John records for us in some detail the occasion when the Jews were demanding to know from Him: “Are you the Messiah?” and Jesus finds Himself in the midst of a dispute with them, when He boldly asserts:

^“I and the Father are one.”

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.  Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?  If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming’, because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (John 10:30-36)

The psalm verses that the Lord quotes in that exchange come from Psalm 82:6, which  runs as follows:

‘I said, “You are gods,
  sons of the Most High, all of you;
 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
    and fall like any prince.”’  (Psalm 82:6-7)

From that verse ‘you are gods’, it is clear that this was always in God’s purposes and part of His providential plan for the human race, beginning with Adam and Eve; He intended a final and glorious goal for the humanity He had created. He said: “you are gods.” That is to say, ‘you are divine.’ And indeed, if we ponder further the first story of Creation, we discover exactly the same understanding:

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image… 

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them.’
    male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Humankind always had a glorious future intended for them by God, but as we know human sin (the Fall) stepped in and spoilt that image in which we were created.

So, when Christ, the Word of God, came into the world at the Incarnation (John 1:1-18), He came for the purpose of restoring that fallen nature: to recover for the human race the image of God in which he was created. From St Paul, we learn and understand how that image was to be restored to us: through Christ Himself. Paul writes: “Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15); He is the Head of the human race.

So, throughout the New Testament, there follows the exhortation for all of us who believe in Christ (God’s Anointed Messiah) to become like Christ in our manner of life. Christ has taken to Himself our human nature, and in His Passion and Cross, He has taken that nature through the Paschal Mystery of His death and Resurrection, raising it in His glorious ascension, to the right hand of the Father, and thus transforming our fallen nature into a new creation. So, Christ’s risen, ascended and glorified nature has become the new human nature, which all humankind is invited and called to put on, sharing with Him His paschal mystery.

Whenever we listen to the letters of the New Testament, they all encourage us to conform ourselves to Christ. We are invited to ‘die to self’, to ‘renounce self’, and to ‘put off the old nature’ in order ‘to put on Christ’ (Colossians 3, see below), like taking off one piece of clothing and putting on another, the new nature of Christ. As Christians we all have work to do, and a journey to make: it is the work of being changed by God, transformed and transfigured from the old nature (human nature) into the new, into Christ.

Here are two examples from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.  (Colossians 3:1-4)

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  (Colossians 3:12-15)

The eucharist: Perhaps this work to ‘put on Christ ‘becomes even clearer in our understanding when we consider the sacraments and especially the sacrament of the eucharist. We hear from St. John’s Gospel lucid teaching about this, when the Lord feeds the crowds in the desert.

Speaking to the people when they asked Jesus ‘for a sign like Moses gave’, Jesus responds:

“It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:32-3, 50-1)

We receive the life of Jesus Christ – risen, ascended and glorified – into our own bodies, in every eucharist.

Let us listen carefully to what St. Nicholas Cabasilas (1319 – 1392), an Orthodox mystic and theologian, points out for our attention. He says that (I am paraphrasing him) ‘When we eat ordinary food, we take that food into our bodies, and it is changed into, and becomes our own body, as it strengthens and nourishes it. In the case of the eucharist, the exact opposite happens: when we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ, our own bodies are transformed, changed into That which we have received, into the eucharist’… into Christ…Christ, Who is both divine and human, God and man. We are in this way being transformed into Christ, into Him who is both divine and human.

St. Peter sums up all that we have been considering so far and makes the boldest claim yet:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

So we see as we pass through the Scriptures and especially the New Testament, there is this golden thread running through: how the human race is destined for a glorious goal, of divine life in God through Christ, by putting on His divine-human nature, and it is made visible and tangible for us in the eucharist as we eat and drink this daily.

This understanding, we have discerned through the Scriptures, of our being somehow taken into God, into His life, came to be given by the Fathers, using the term theosis ‘divinisation.’ It was expressed in the celebrated dictum of St. Athanasius: ‘God became man in order that man might become God.’

Our ‘Ascesis’ [= training]   

  If we want do something worthwhile and to become good at it, like learning to sing, or to play a musical instrument, or to become fit, we have to train for it; we accept some measure of effort and exercise. And so, it is exactly the same for the greatest gift given to human beings – the gift of eternal life given to the human race in Jesus Christ.

Now we have seen from a consideration of the Scriptures and the Fathers how it was established in the plan and foreknowledge of God that the human race was not only be ‘saved’ and ‘redeemed’ from the ‘fall’ of Adam (from self-destruction), but amazingly to be brought to share in the very life of God Himself, to theosis (deification).

How do we, ordinary Christians, experience this happening, as we go about our daily Christian lives of witness and prayer? Can we reach deification whilst on earth?… 

The Tradition in both the East and the West agree together on this, even though they use different theological terms to explain it. Fr. Gregory, leader of our community for many years, used to say that the spiritual Traditions of East and West agree together in this realm of spiritual growth, even if they use different theological terms. Fr. Sofrony (since 2019, St. Sofrony,) used to say that St. John of the Cross of the Western Tradition, was the closest to Orthodox teaching on the spiritual life.

In the West, following St. Augustine, and later developed by St. John of the Cross, there is an understanding of three stages in the spiritual life: of Purgation (or purification), of Illumination, and finally of Union. Experience teaches us that we should not think of these as rigid stages where you must complete one stage before going on to the next; rather they are elements of spiritual life that overlap one another. We are always in need of purification to our last breath, but on the way, we are given moments of deeper insight, increased spiritual Light to move forward, and the degrees of union then grow as both of these levels deepen.

The theological language in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition is familiar to us through the TLIG Messages, and from Vassula’s talk on Deification in 2004. They talk of apatheia or detachment, dispassion and impassibility. If these are to be understood as increasing degrees of detachment from the world, from the passions, and from our all-personal attachments, then the same rule applies. This purifying and healing work of God is going on in each one of us through the various testings, trials, and temptations of life, as God leads us away from attachment to the things of this world, and more deeply into Himself, into His Life in Christ His Son.

Purification, purgation, the ‘Day of the Lord’ the Day of Visitation, all refer to the purifying work of God directly on the soul, that enables us to see ourselves as God sees us. This is not a comfortable experience!  Nor is it like going to Confession. When we confess our sins, we look at ourselves, and notice this fault or that. But when God’s purifying fire enters the soul, it enables us to see ourselves with God’s eyes, as He sees us, and the sight is not a pleasant sight! We see ourselves as “poor, pitiable, blind, wretched, and naked,” to use the terminology St.  John the Divine uses in Revelation.

  When Vassula she came to us in our monastery, in Hove in 2004 described her experience in this fashion:

Vassula: ‘It’s the beginning of purification, and it never ends. … In fact, it is called “the Day of the Lord” when He visits you. It is purification, and I went through that for three weeks non-stop; …He didn’t give me the whole dose because I would have died. He gave it to me bit by bit, reminding me of things that I had done in the past, that offended God. Previously, I had seen them the way we normally see things here. But now I saw them with God’s eyes. Where I had thought they were tiny, little things, they were huge, and horrible in God’s sight. So, I really started to hate myself. I was telling my angel things as though I were in a delirium: “I don’t even deserve to be alive or… among people because my presence would only dirty them,” ….” It was horrible the way I felt about myself. It was awful, but I went through it.’

Illumination is the Light we are given by the Holy Spirit to see and understand the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, as they describe to us the spiritual life.

It is the Light given for discernment for our own lives and for those of others.

Union is spoken of by the Desert Fathers as being testified to by one quality in particular, the quality of Joy. It is through the experience of joy: joy in God for Who He is, and for all He does, despite what we are. This joy is important. Remember in the letter to the Hebrews, the author writes:

“…looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

It was through the Lord’s knowledge, knowing that He was restoring the entire human race to the Father, that brought about this joy in Him; and in my experience, He sends us the same joy to confirm to us that we are on the right path as well.

PRAYER AND MYSTICAL UNION

 How then do all of these considerations affect our life of prayer?

 Prayer is our relationship with God, with the Persons of the Holy Trinity. The TLIG Messages make that clear, for all three Persons speak to us. The TLIG Messages from the Holy Spirit are unique in the Church’s mystical history. There have never been such prolonged statements given to the whole Church on the part of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity … for that reason, we should pay still more attention to all that He says.

The Spirit is important because “he helps us in our weakness,” as St Paul reminds us: “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very  Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”…”according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-7)

For our Christian life is ‘hid with Christ in God’ as we heard earlier… Already our life is ‘inside God,’ inside Christ, for we are all ‘in Christ’, participating in God, in some degree, even now, of union with Him. We address the Almighty Creator and Ruler of the Universe as ‘our Father’, ‘dad’ or ‘daddy’, in response to the Father’s invitation for intimacy with Him. I know – and am sure many here will say the same – I would never have dared to call God ‘Dad’ without this confessed witness from Vassula.

When she talked to my community in 2003, she told us:

I was so happy, so overjoyed to be taken inside God, that I blurted out without wanting to: “Yes, Dad.” Then I said, “Whoops! This is the Creator who speaks to me, and I call Him ‘Dad’? How is it that I did not say ‘Father’ but ‘Dad’?” Immediately He said, “Do not fear, daughter, for I have taken this word, ‘Dad’, in my hand like a jewel”; and He loved it.

 All of these things we have been considering amount to ‘a vision’, together with a practical means of putting into effect all that we have understood: that human beings are called to life in Christ, and as we grow into Him Who is both God and man, going deeper into His Life, we in effect are becoming ‘God by grace’, as Jesus is ‘God by nature’.  Given also the outpouring of the Holy Spirit following Christ’s ascension, means that the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and dwell in us forever; and the answer to our question is clear: we are indeed called, invited and able by the grace of God to share in the life of God, true life in God, and to rule and reign with Him in this life and world. We are indeed called one and all to deification, but to seek to do so in the Spirit of the humble Christ, who emptied Himself in order to bring us salvation. (Phil. 2:5-11)

TLIG Messages that refer to this subject: November 2 1997; April 22 1998; March 9 1999; April 25 1999; June 21 1999; June 30 1999; April 24 2000; October 16 2000; May 5 2001.