{"id":6292,"date":"2022-08-04T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T04:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:55:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T11:55:56","slug":"purification-illumination-and-theosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/purification-illumination-and-theosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Purification, Illumination and Theosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purification,<\/strong> Illumination and Theosis<\/strong><\/p>\n

August 4, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transient all the misery, sorrow and pain in life, one can taste the sweet fruit of spiritual life. \u00a0Walking upon the narrow road of it in reality, love, peace and spiritual contentment, consume the esthetic mystical fare within Christianity.\u00a0 Those who fought and defeat enemy by the power of Gospel and Holy Cross just as our righteous father Abune Tekele Haimanot, have reached up to the last ladder of spirituality.<\/p>\n

It is certain we differ in our spiritualty and diligence. But with the talent bestowed from God, we shall inherit everlasting Kingdom. Mankind can be granted spiritual virtue as witness in the stories of saints in-scripted in holy scriptures.<\/p>\n

Father Michael Gillis, reverend in Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, explains the ladder as, \u201cThe metaphor of a ladder is often used to discuss the various stages or steps or transformations of\u00a0Christian life and growth.\u00a0The steps of the various ladders are sometimes expressed as virtues (obedience, patience, faith), sometimes in terms of experiences (tears, peace making, confessing) and sometimes as abstract nouns (purification, renunciation, detachment).\u00a0Sometimes the ladder has many steps, like the thirty in Saint John Climicus\u2019 Ladder of Divine Asscent. \u00a0Saint Benedict of Nursia describes twelve steps in the acquisition of humility. \u00a0Others have based their discussion of Christian growth on the nine Beatitudes mentioned by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter five. \u00a0Many have reduced the steps to three. \u00a0Perhaps the most famous version of these three steps in the Orthodox Church is quoted from Saint Maximus the Confessor in his Four Hundred Verses on Love in the second volume of the Philokalia. \u00a0These are Purification, Illumination and Theosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Michael noted also about Father Stephen Freeman famous explanation. He said, \u201che famously referred this way of thinking as a two storey universe. \u00a0In a two storey universe there is a God, but God is far away. \u00a0In a two story universe one must ascend up and out to God who comes down to meet us. \u00a0However, in a patristic understanding of God, a New Testament understanding of God, God is in our heart, in our midst. \u00a0God is not far away; God is near at hand. \u00a0The problem, however, is that we have become so alienated from ourselves that only with much difficulty are we able to perceive Him.<\/p>\n

In the one storey universe, the ladder, or steps of Christian development, identifies both the means and the markers of the return to one\u2019s own heart, one\u2019s true self, where one genuinely encounters God. \u00a0 \u00a0To return to the three stages mentioned by Saint Maximus the Confessor (and others)\u2013purification, illumination and deification\u2013we might say that the means of returning to one\u2019s heart begins with purifying one\u2019s life. \u00a0That someone is purifying his or her life, or seeking to be purified by the grace of God, is also a sign, a marker, that one is likely on the right path inward towards one\u2019s heart, to one\u2019s true self, to the place where one genuinely meets God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purification<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stage where saints purify entirely from sins and all harmful deeds is purification. It is feasible with the grace of God. It is the foremost and vital stage in spiritual life for those saints reaching up to this ladder.<\/p>\n

Illumination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saints reaching up to this ladder will be granted gift of seeing, of knowing or of understanding that comes from a source deeper than our rational faculty. \u00a0\u201cOne\u2019s participation in illumination is to apply what is newly seen or known to deeper levels of repentance and purification.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this stage they must confess and treading on very thin ice. As it said, \u201cEye has not seen nor ear heard\u2026But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit\u201d(2 Corinthians 2: 9,10). \u00a0It is witnessed by Saint Paul and other saints \u201cinexpressible words, which it is unlawful for a man to utter.\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:4)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Theosis or Deification<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theosis is the third stage in Christian growth refering to \u201cthe transformative encounter with God.\u201d \u00a0Saints at this ladder encounter with a spark, a spark from a very bright light which seems far away. \u00a0It is not far away: God dwells in our hearts by faith. \u00a0But it seems far away because of my blindness. \u00a0Or it is like the scent of a flower from a garden on the other side of a wall. As Saint John\u00a0the Apostle said, \u201cTo see God is to become like Him.\u201d (1 John 3:2)<\/p>\n

Father Michael explains as \u201cGod became man so that man, by grace, might become like God. \u00a0We must indeed become like God for Christ has promised mankind a relationship with Himself as intimate as a husband and a wife. \u00a0A man does not marry a rock. \u00a0A man marries a woman, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. \u00a0Christ has betrothed to Himself the Church, and during the engagement period, the time we have left on this earth, we are invited to be transformed into Christ\u2019s image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though it is the destiny of mankind to inherit the Kingdom of heaven through Christian life, the saints have reach up to up to the maximum ladder of spirituality and heaven even as living in flesh on earth.\u00a0 Their life became a witness to God\u2019s will and marvelous work upon His chosen children. This shall be exemplary His Glory and Kingdom.<\/p>\n

So brethren, it is our part to seek and crave for the life they lived in seeing the beauty of Heaven, hearing the hymns of Angel in Glorifying God and enriching eternal happiness.<\/p>\n

May it be God\u2019s will to live in His Kingdom, Amen1<\/p>\n

Source: Homily of Father <\/strong>Michael Gillis in Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transient all the misery, sorrow and pain in life, one can taste the sweet fruit of spiritual life. \u00a0Walking upon the narrow road of it in reality, love, peace and spiritual contentment, consume the esthetic mystical fare within Christianity.\u00a0 Those who fought and defeat enemy by the power of Gospel and Holy Cross just as our righteous father Abune Tekele Haimanot, have reached up to the last ladder of spirituality.<\/p>\n

It is certain we differ in our spiritualty and diligence. But with the talent bestowed from God, we shall inherit everlasting Kingdom. Mankind can be granted spiritual virtue as witness in the stories of saints in-scripted in holy scriptures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7055,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/7055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}