Excerpts from
an audio recording of Archimandrite Zacharias of Elder Sophrony's monastery in
Tolleshunt Knights.
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| Saint Sophrony the Athonite. |
The force of the truth of these words struck deep in my heart. We
often encounter, in ourselves and in others, the attitude which suggests that
Salvation is something that we can leave until later; once, that is, we have
taken care of more pressing matters. Father Sophrony's perspective was quite
different, however. By pointing to the incomparable difficulty of attaining to
Salvation, he was clearly placing it at the very top of our list of urgent
priorities. And when one pauses to consider all the great achievements of
mankind, past and present, whether they be of a scientific or literary
character, in the world of politics or finance or physical endeavour. Father
Sophrony's words seem bold and even provocative—a hard saying (John 6:60)—but
nevertheless fundamentally quite true.
Upon later reflection, I realized that the reason why Father
Sophrony's words rang so true that day is because of the wealth of meaning
which Salvation has for us in the Orthodox Church. By others, Salvation is
often understood simply in terms of "deliverance from sin and its
consequences and admission to heaven," in terms of escaping damnation,
that is, and reaching a safe place where we can no longer be tormented by the
enemy. According to the Fathers of the Church, however, Salvation is not so
prosaic a matter, for it involves the "theosis" (the deification or
divinization) of the entire human person in Christ; it involves, that is,
becoming like unto Christ to the point of identity with Him; it involves
acquiring the mind of Christ (as Saint Paul affirms in the second chapter of
the First
Epistle to the Corinthians, verse sixteen), and indeed it
signifies the sharing in His very Life.
Christ is the measure of all things, both divine and human. Since
the divine Ascension, our human nature has been raised up to the right hand of
God the Father. As Father Sophrony points out, in His divine Person, the Son
and Word of God was of course always seated on the right hand of the Father,
being con-substantial with Him. The divine purpose for the human race, however,
is seen in the union of our human nature to the divine Person of Christ, the
Second Person of the Holy Trinity, in its being raised to the right hand of the
Father.
St Paul, the great Apostle of the Word of God made flesh,
identifies the divine purpose of the Incarnation with our adoption as sons of
God: But
when the fulness of the time was come. God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons. God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son;
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Gal. 4:4-7).
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Father Zacharia serving the Holy Liturgy in Mount Athos. |
In Christ Jesus, therefore, we encounter both true and perfect God and true and perfect man. In other words, we see in Him not only the great God and Saviour (Tit. 2:13), but also what or who we have been called to become—sons and heirs of God the Father. St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, in refuting the heresy of the Gnostics of the second century, described the divine purpose succinctly thus: "If the Word is made man, it is that men might become gods."
And the champion of Nicene Orthodoxy, Athanasius the Great,
writing in the fourth century, reaffirms the Biblical and Irenaean position:
"God became human," he says, "that we might be made gods" (autos
gar enanthropesen, ina emeis theopoiethomen). "God became human that we might be made gods." What a
daring statement! But what exactly does it mean for us to become gods? Can we
created mortals become uncreated and immortal? Is this not an impossibility? An
impiety? Or even a blasphemy? In what, then, does our becoming gods, our
deification or divinization—our theosis—consist?
As Archimandrite Sophrony explains in his spiritual
autobiography, We Shall See Him As He Is: "Christ manifested the perfection of the Divine image in man
and the possibility for our nature of assimilating the fulness of divinization
to the very extent that, after His ascension. He placed our nature 'on the
right hand of the Father.'" Note here that the expression "on the right hand of the
Father" (ek dexion tou Patros) denotes
nothing less than equality with the Father. Thus, since the time of the divine
Ascension of Christ, our human nature has been deified in Him, and raised up to
the right hand of God the Father.
Significantly, however, Archimandrite Sophrony also adds the
following: "But even in Him our
nature did not become one with the Essence of the Uncreated God. In Christ,
incarnate Son of the Father, we contemplate God's pre-eternal idea of
man." So, in Christ Jesus we find man's rightful place, "on the
right hand of the Father," sharing in the divine Life; but, as with the
two natures in Christ, man has been called to be united with God without
mixture or confusion of any kind, that is to say, we never cease to be His
creatures, since He alone is Uncreated. This fundamental distinction is of
inestimable significance in Patristic theology.
Nevertheless, in the union of our human nature to the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity, we also see what in theological terminology is
called the communicatio idiomatum, that is, the exchange of natural properties belonging to each of
Christ's two natures. This may also be described in terms of the
interpenetration of the natural energy of each of the two natures in Christ in
the other. As a simple illustration of this we have the
Gospel narrative of the Transfiguration in Luke 9:28, where we first see Christ
praying, performing, that is, an act which is proper to His human but not to
His divine nature; while moments later, we find His humanity sharing in, indeed
resplendent with His divine glory, which is proper only to the divine nature.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria describes the scene in this way: "The blessed disciples slept for a short while, as Christ
gave Himself to prayer. For He voluntarily fulfilled His human obligations (ta
anthropina). Later, on waking they became beholders (theoroi) of His most holy and wondrous change."
Staretz Sophrony points out that the union of the human nature in
Christ is of course hypostatic or prosopic, that is to say, that Christ is a
divine Person, the Person of the Son and Word of God; but, it is equally
important to note that the union of the two natures in Christ is also
energetic. The
significance of this energetic interpenetration of the divine and human natures
in each other is of paramount importance for us human beings in that it forms
the basis of our own union with God, which is also energetic and not essential
or hypostatic. In other words, it proves to us that the example of Christ is
also realizable, also attainable, by us human persons, and that theosis to the
point of divine perfection, far from being optional, is in fact an obligation.
It is in this sense that Staretz Sophrony understands the exhortation: Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt.
5:48).
Father Sophrony also highlights another mystery concerning the
Life of Christ on earth as a model and pattern for our own Life in Christ. This
is revealed in the fact that even with the human nature of Christ we may
observe a certain growth or dynamism, or, as Holy Scripture puts it, a certain
“increase:” And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and
in favour with God and man (Luke 2:52). Thus, before all
things had been fulfilled, even after the hypostatic union of human nature to
the divine Person of the Word; even after His assumption of our humanity into
His divine Person; even Christ, in His human aspect, appears as increasing in
perfection. Hence, He also undergoes temptations (Luke 4:1-13, Hebr. 2:18); and
even reached the point of agony (Luke 22:44). This, as Father Sophrony remarks,
is due principally to a certain division which may be observed in Christ before
His glorious Ascension, owing to the asymmetry of His natures. Following His
Ascension, and the sitting of Christ the Son of Man on the right hand of God
the Father, we have the new vision of the Christ-Man as equal to God, not of
course according to His nature, but according to His energy.
Father Sophrony cautiously notes, however, that this does not
refer to Christ's hypostatic "aspect," for the pre-eternal and
uncreated Word remained such even after His Incarnation. Nevertheless, in the
human "aspect" of His union and existence, we find once again the
model and pattern for our own Life in Christ, for, as Staretz Sophrony puts it:
"Christ is the unshakable foundation and the ultimate criterion for
the anthropological teaching of the Church, Whatever we confess concerning the
humanity of Christ is also an indication of the eternal divine plan for man in
general. The fact that in the Christ-Man His hypostasis is God, in no way
diminishes the possibility for us humans to follow His example (cf. John 13:15),after which in
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren (Hebr. 2:17).
"If it is true that Christ is the 'Son of Man,'
consubstantial with us, then it follows that everything that He accomplished in
His earthly life must likewise be possible for the rest of the 'sons of
men.'" And for this reason, Father Sophrony adds that "if we confess
His full and perfect theosis, it behoves us also to hope for the same degree of
theosis for the saints in the age to come." The fundamental theological concern behind all that we have said
so far is soteriological, that is to say, it concerns our Salvation in a most
fundamental way. Why? Because of the simple fact that we cannot live with
Christ if we are not like Him in all respects. As the great hierophant John the
Theologian and Evangelist proclaims: We know that, when he shall appear, we shall
be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (1 John 3:2-3).
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"Take eat, this is my body," "Drink of this all of you, this is my blood" |
We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. So, if we wish to be eternally with Christ, we must become like Him; and this process of becoming Christlike, this purification, invariably involves repentance—a fundamental change in our whole way of life, in our very "mode of being."
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, in his Hymn no. 44
reiterates this point in the following way:
The Master is in no way envious of mortal men that they should appear equal to Him by divine grace, neither does He deem His servants unworthy to be like unto Him, but rather does He delight and rejoice to see us who were made men such as to become by grace what He is by nature. And He is so beneficent that He wills us to become even as He is. For if we be not as He is, exactly like unto Him in every way, how could we be united to Him? How could we dwell in Him, as He said, without being like unto Him, and how could He dwell in us, if we be not as He is?
And again concerning the awesomeness of our inheritance, the great
Paul, in Romans, writes the following:
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ, if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:16-18).
Father Sophrony also makes another very interesting and important
observation concerning the example given by Christ and our own theosis or
deification. He points to the fact that even though the deification of Christ's
human nature was, as Saint John Damascene says, effected from the very moment
in which He assumed our nature, nevertheless Christ as Man shied away from
anything which might give the impression of auto-theosis, that is to say,
self-deification or self-divinization. That is why we see the action of the
Holy Spirit underlined at His Holy Birth: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee...
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God (Luke 1:35); also, the Holy Spirit descends upon
Christ at His Baptism in the Jordan (Matt. 3:15); and concerning the
Resurrection, the Scriptures speak thus: God, that raised him up from the dead, and
gave him glory (1 Pet. 1:21); and finally, Christ Himself,
teaching us the way of humility and how always to ascribe glory to Our Heavenly
Father, says: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not
true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness
which he witnesseth of me is true (John 5:31-32).
The same movement may be observed in the Divine Liturgy. The Words
of Institution—"Take eat, this is my body," "Drink of this all
of you, this is my blood"—by themselves are not
regarded as sufficient to effect the consecration of the Holy Gifts; they must
be accompanied by the Epiklesis, the invocation of
the Holy Spirit, precisely in order to avoid any notion of self-deification, to
avoid, that is, giving the impression that simply by speaking the words which Christ
spoke, we are able to transform the
Holy Gifts into the precious Body and Blood of Christ. (Of course, at the heart
of this movement lies the truth that the action of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
is always one and the same: the Three Divine
Hypostases always act together, always act in unison, which is an expression of
Their consubstantiality.) Thus, it behoves us to beseech God the Father to send
down the Holy Spirit, by Whose power the change of the bread and wine into the
Body and Blood of Christ is effected.
Reference:
https://orthochristian.com/80597.html