67. Like Iron in Flame (Theosis)

forge metal fire

The goal of the Way is the salvation of soul and body. When Christ returns at the end of the age, all the dead will receive their immortal bodies through resurrection and, following the Judgment, everyone who belongs to Christ will enter into unending Life with Him. This is the fulfillment of salvation at the conclusion of time, but salvation is not just for the future. God has called us to experience salvation now, in this life, as a foretaste of the future Heavenly Kingdom.

We call the fullest experience of salvation in this life theosis or deification. Simply put, theosis means union with God. More precisely, theosis refers to the experience of being healed, transfigured, and united with the Holy Trinity through participation in the Divine Grace

If a cold piece of iron or steel is placed in a hot fire, the metal takes on the properties of the fire. The metal glows bright with light and radiates heat as flame. If the metal is removed from the fire, it returns to its dull, cold state. Gold may be purified in fire. The flame refines the precious metal by separating the pure gold itself from impurities. When participating in the Divine Grace, which is the Uncreated Fire, the Orthodox Christian experiences purification, illumination, and union with God. 

Christ Himself has shown us what the experience of human salvation looks like. At His Transfiguration on Mount Thabor, Christ revealed His Glory to Ss. Peter, James, and John. These three Disciples witnessed the God-Man Jesus Christ radiating, not with created light, but with Uncreated Light, that is, His own Divine Energy. Even His clothes were transfigured by contact with His Holy Illuminating Body. 

Transfiguration Theophanes Greek (15th_c,_Tretyakov_gallery)

Although the Divine Glory always shined brightly from Christ, the darkened eyes of human hearts were not capable of perceiving it. On the mountain, Christ opened the spiritual (noetic) eyes of His three Disciples so they could witness His Glory. Ss. Peter, James, and John did not just behold this vision with their physical eyes. The vision of the Uncreated Light is an internal experience that affects soul and body. 

Jesus Christ radiated with His own Divine Glory on Mt. Thabor because He is God by Nature.  (The Son of God is God in Essence with the Father and Holy Spirit.) For us, salvation means becoming by Grace what Christ is by Nature. In other words, salvation means participating in the Divine Energy so that we are healed, transfigured, perfected, united with Him, and know Him by experience. The true human being at the height of spiritual potential is one who has been united with God. To put it yet another way, Christ shares His Glory with us so that we may be like Him. Notice that union with Godseeing the Uncreated Lightbeholding the vision of Christ in Gloryknowing God with the heart, being like Christpartaking in the Divine Naturetheosisdeification, and divinization all describe the same experience. 

This is real theology, both practical and mystical. In our day, theology is often confused with the study of philosophy. A philosopher knows rational concepts related to God, but a true theologian is one who knows God by experience with his heart (nous) through prayer. 

The Way of salvation may be summarized like this: Always do what is in harmony with human nature and avoid whatever is in contradiction to human nature so that you may become what is beyond human nature.

Read: Matthew 16.28-17.1-9; Luke 9.27-36; Ephesians 2.1-10; 1 Peter. 3-9; 2 Peter 1.3-4, 16-18; 1 John 3.2; Revelation 21.22-27

 

Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees

66. Sun & Sunlight (Essence & Energy)

spring-tree-flowers-meadow-60006

 

The bright sun in the sky lies far beyond us in space. Standing on the earth, we cannot reach out and touch it no matter how far we stretch up toward this distant, untouchable ball of fire. (For perspective, consider that the sun is located 93,000,000 miles away or 150 million kilometers. The sun is also meltingly burning hot at 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit or 15,000,000 degrees Celsius). The sun itself remains unreachable and unknowable to us by our own direct experience. God is also unreachable and unknowable to us. More precisely, the Divine Essence is totally beyond our ability to understand, absolutely unknowable, infinitely distant (transcendent), entirely unreachable, and completely inaccessible to our experience.

God is the Existing One. Only He, the Uncreated God, exists by Himself. Everything else exists because He gave it existence by bringing it into being out of nothing. All things are contained within Him, Who alone Is without boundary and limit. The Divine Essence is so indescribably distant beyond imagination from the created universe that we refer to the Essence of God as even beyond Being and beyond Existence.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One in Essence, that is, One God. So, the Essence of God is Personalized in the Person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is no impersonal Divine Essence apart from the Persons. If you could know God in His Essence, then you would be God Yourself, equal to God in every way. As a new Divine Person – a fourth Person added to the Holy Trinity – you would then know God as God knows Himself (His Inner Self, so to speak). Of course, a created being cannot know or experience the the Uncreated Essence. Pantheism (the false belief that created things in the universe are divine) results from ignorance of the proper separation between the Uncreated Essence and created beings.

No one knows the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as thoroughly as they know one another because the three Persons share the same Uncreated Essence. They know each other on the level of Essence. Whoever we humans think that God is or think that God is like according to our human opinions, philosophical ideas, and creative imagination, the Divine Essence is not that. We really can say little about the Essence of God other than how far and untouchable from the created universe that the Divine Essence is.

If God is so completely unknowable and separated from us, how can we be saved? Here is the good news: God is unknowable and beyond, yet He is also knowable and near. 

Although we cannot know the sun by experience directly from our place on earth, we do experience the sun’s rays. We participate in the light of the sun and the warmth of the sun through its rays. Our experience of invisible ultraviolet rays enables our body to produce Vitamin D. We are nurtured by the distant sun through the sunshine that draws near to us on Earth. While God is also completely unreachable, unknowable, and untouchable in His Essence, we can know and experience Him by His Energy, which flows from His Essence. The Energy is not a created power that connects us with God, but God Himself. We call this Divine Uncreated Energy by such names as these: the Grace of God, the Glory of God, His Power, the Uncreated Light, the Divine Presence, Uncreated Fire, or Divinity. We refer to the Energy as God’s movement, operation, condescension, action, activity, or work within the creation. We can know nothing about God other than what He reveals to us about Himself, so since He reveals Himself through His Energy, then we may refer to the Uncreated Energy as God’s revelation to us. Sometimes we refer to the Energy as plural Energies since we can distinguish between the different ways a human being experiences the Uncreated Energy as Divine Life, Light, Wisdom, Love, Humility, Healing Power, Joy, Peace, and so on. 

Remember this: God is One. The Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is One Essence and One Energy. We cannot know God or experience God in His Essence, but we can know God and experience Him directly in His Energy. In fact, participating in the Divine Energy so that we are healed, transformed, and perfected by His Energy is salvation.

No analogies based on rational concepts or created things can succeed in explaining the Mystery of the Uncreated One. So, our use of the sun and its rays as a teaching concept to explain the distinction between the Uncreated Essence and Energies is helpful, but we should not overthink it. Analogies do not capture the Truth, but they keep us on the path toward the Truth so that we may pursue experiential knowledge of the Truth for our salvation.

Read: Exodus 33.1-23; Job 38.1-42.6; Matthew 11.27; John 1.18; 6.46 

 

Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees

65. Coffee and Tea (like You and Me)

pexels-photo-make tea 230477

If you want a hot cup of tea, place harvested tea leaves in a pot or cup. If you want a hot cup of coffee, grind the coffee beans and place them in a pot or filter.

Pour hot water over the tea leaves to make your cup of tea. Pour hot water over the coffee grounds to make your cup of coffee.

The preparation of your cup of tea requires union of the tea leaves with the hot water. Likewise, the preparation of your cup of coffee requires the union of the ground coffee with the hot water.

You will only fully become a true human person when you have been united with God. Only through the experience of the Divine Grace can you fulfill your purpose and destiny. If you are willing to be united with His Grace, God will extract your potential and perfect your qualities. Remember this: You are entirely dependent upon God to become who He has created you to be and to accomplish what He has called you to do.

 

Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees

 

64. The Overflowing Cup

clean-clear-cold-water- glass

Previously, I taught you to wash the inside of your cup. That is, cleanse your heart through repentance. You do not purify your heart so that it remains empty, but so that it may be filled. Through repentance, you make your heart hospitable to the Presence of God. By living the Way, may the Divine Grace, and everything good the Grace brings, overflow within you. 

Read: Psalm 23; John 4.4-14; Romans 15.13; 1 Peter 1.8

 

Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees

63. The Sacred Work of Women

800px-Righteous_Syncletica_of_Alexandria_(Menologion_of_Basil_II)

Both men and woman share human nature and the experience of salvation equally. God did not design men and women to be the same, but distinct, different, and complimentary to each other. Men cannot be mothers and women cannot be fathers. Men cannot give birth to children and women cannot hold the ordained Priesthood. Consistently throughout the history of both ancient Israel and the Church, God has called men to be Priests, but not women to be priestesses, which were part of pagan religious practice. Note that the feminine form of the word for Priest (presybter), which is Presbytera, is used within the Church. The wife of a Priest is called Presbytera as a sign of respect.

Women and men share in the same collective priesthood of the Church, which is the Body of Christ. Women have held, and still hold, a wide variety of responsibilities within the Church in support of the family, the community of the Faithful, and our neighbors in the world.

Who is regarded as the greatest of the Saints? A woman. We call her more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim and describe her womb as more spacious than the heavens. The Orthodox hold the Virgin Mary higher in honor than all others. She fulfilled her ministry on earth by being a mother, the Theotokos and Mother of God. She is extolled as our chief intercessor, our Champion Leader, who leads the Saints in prayer for the world before the Throne of God.

The Theotokos held a particularly unique calling and ministry, but what have other women done within the Church? Like the Theotokos, some women fulfilled their ministry through motherhood. Ss. Emilia, Nonna, and Monica, the mothers of Saints, nurtured their children in the Way. While the secular world often diminishes the significance of a woman being a wife and mother, the Church highly repects these honorable, uniquely feminine ministries. These roles are so important for women to do because only woman can do them.

Some women dedicated themselves to prayer for the world as monastics (nuns), either as hermits, like St. Syncletica, the Desert Mother, or in monasteries with other women. St. Brigid of Kildare in Ireland, St. Etheldreda in England, and St. Matrona in Constantinople, led monastic communities as Abbesses. The New-Martyr Elizabeth (grand-daughter of Queen Victoria), who was executed by Russian Communists, and the Martyr Maria of Paris, murdered by German Nazis, dedicated themselves to serving the poor.

Ss. Mary Magdalene and Susanna, with St. Joanna, who was the wife of King Herod’s steward, financially supported Christ’s ministry with His Twelves Apostles. St. Junia, alongside St. Andronicus, served as one of Christ’s Seventy Apostles. (The ministry of the Seventy is distinct from the ministry of the Twelve.) During certain historical periods, Deaconesses, like St. Olympia in Constantinople, were chosen from among older women (40 years or older) who lived a celibate life as unmarried virgins or widows. The Deaconesses assisted the Priests in their ministry to women.

Some Orthodox women, including the Empresses Ss. Theodora, Pulcharia, and Alexandra led nations as pious rulers. Some Right Believing Sovereigns, like St. Helen, mother of St. Constantine, and Olga of Kiev, mother of St. Vladimir, contributed to the spread of the Gospel among the people. St. Priscilla, with her husband, Aquilla, as well as St. Lydia, engaged in business while serving the Church. St. Photini of Samaria (known as the Samaritan woman in Scripture), St. Thekla, the first woman martyr of the Church, and St. Nina in Georgia, designated as Equals to the Apostles, courageously labored as missionaries.

St. Marina, shown in icons beating the Devil with a hammer, provides an image of spiritual strength. St. Katherine of Alexandria remains famous for her intelligence and skill defeating pagan philosophers. St. Ia of Beijing worked as a school teacher. Early Christian physicians included Ss. Philonella, Zenaida, and Hermione. The Great Martyr Anastasia of Sirmium is also associated with healing. In the Eastern Roman Empire, women physicians worked in hospitals, established in an Orthodox society. St. Kassiani the Hymnographer served God and the Church as a poet and musician. As iconographers, women have filled churches with sacred images. When Atilla the Hun approached Paris, St. Genevieve spoke courage into the hearts of men who wanted to run away in the face of danger. When Christians came under attack by the murdering Boxers, St. Maria of Beijing selflessly helped rescue fellow Chinese believers before her own martyrdom.

From ancient times until today, women have held a variety of important roles, formal and informal, alongside men within Christ’s Holy Church. One of the most important ministries of women, of course, is inner prayer. Whatever else is done, let prayer from a humble heart be the foundation and support of everything else.

Read: Luke 8.1-3; Acts 18.1-28; Romans 16.7; 1 Timothy 1.5

 

Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees