4th Sunday of Lent - Theosis

Thoughts for the Week - Divinization: It’s for You!

The Greek word theosis, often used by the Eastern Fathers of the Eastern Church, is probably best translated as ‘divinization.’ Although usually taught in the more mystical and Trinitarian Eastern church, it was largely lost in the more practical, carrot-on-the-stick emphasis of the Western Church.  So let’s reintroduce this Gospel “pearl of great price” into the Western char he's and to the secular seeker.  As Simone Weil said in various ways, it is much easier to make non-Christians into Christians that to make Christians into Christians.  Cradle Christians are almost totally preconditioned to the carrot-on-the-stick-model.

Consider this quote of Pope John Paul II in 1995:  “The venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches, that is the teaching of the Cappadocia Fathers on divinization (theosis), can be summarized in the thought already expressed by St. Irenaeus at the end of the second century:  ‘God passed into people so that people might pass over to God.’”  Pope John was surely acknowledging that the Western church, both Catholic and Protestant, had largely lost its belief in divinization or had even denied its possibility.  No wonder we suffer from such universal lack of self-esteem and cultural self-loathing.

The shining and oft-quoted “proof text” here is 2 Peter 1:4b, “through this gift you are sharers in the divine nature itself.” We had through our form was merely human, but Jesus came to tell us that our actual form is human-divine, just as he is.  He was not much interested in proclaiming himself the exclusive or exclusionary son of God, but he went out of his way to communicate an inclusive sonship and daughterhood to the crowds.  Paul uses words like “adopted” (Galatians 4:5) and “coheirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) to make the same point.  

“Full and Final Participation” was learned from Jesus, who clearly believed that God was not so much inviting us into a distant heaven, but inviting us into the divine nature as coparticipants.  Remember, I am not talking about a psychological or moral wholeness in human persons, which is never the case, and why many dismiss this doctrine - or feel incapable of it.  I am talking about a divinely implanted “sharing in the divine nature,” which is called the indwelling spirit or the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16-17).  This indwelling is finding your True Self, your Soul, and you will have found an absolute reference point that is both utterly within you and utterly beyond you at the every same time.  “My deepest me is God!” St. Catherine of Genoa shouted as he ran through the streets of town, just as Colossians had already shouted to both Jews and pagans, “The mystery is Christ within you - your hope of Glory!” (1:27).  This awesome and even presumptuous message of divinization is supported by Genesis 1:27 and 5:2 where we are told that we are “created in the image and likeness of God.”    Adapted from Richard Rohr