The way towards deification

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev

We see that Gregory regards the Incarnation of God as a pledge of the deification of the entire humanity and every human person. But how is this ideal of deification worked out in practice? What is the way towards deification for each particular person?

            First of all, the way is through the Church and the sacraments. According to Gregory, the Church is one body, which ‘receives cohesion and consistence by the harmony of the Spirit’ and which is destined to become ‘worthy of Christ Himself, Who is our head’.[1] It is within the Church that the human person can ‘bury himself with Christ, be risen with Christ, inherit Christ, become son of God and be himself named god’.[2] The true Church may not necessarily be numerous, it may be persecuted by heretics, deprived of its buildings and external grandeur, but if Christian faith is preserved in it undamaged, it remains a place of God’s presence, of the deification of the human person, a place where the Gospel is preached and where people ascend to heaven: ‘They have houses, but we the Dweller in the house; they have temples, we have God;[3] and besides it is ours to be living temples of the living God,[4] living sacrifices, reasonable burnt-offerings, perfect sacrifices, gods through the adoration of the Trinity’.[5]

            The salvation of the human person takes place in the Church through his participation in the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. In Baptism, he is reborn and recreated by the deifying energy of the Holy Spirit: ‘...The Spirit... deifies me through Baptism... From the Spirit comes our rebirth, from rebirth comes a new creating... He makes us His temple, He deifies, He makes us complete, He initiates us in such a way that He both precedes Baptism and is wanted after it’.[6] As to the Eucharist, here we ‘partake of Christ, partake of His sufferings and His godhead’.[7] While Baptism purifies one from original sin, the Eucharist makes one a participant in the redemption worked out by Christ.[8]

            Deification occurs because of one’s love for God. According to Gregory, ‘love for God is a way of deification’.[9] The end of this way is mingling with God, which is deification: ‘I am Christ’s possession: I have become a temple and a sacrifice, and I shall become god, when my soul is mingled with the Godhead’.[10]

            The way towards deification also consists of good deeds towards other people: ‘Show your zeal not in evil-doing, but in doing something good, if you want to be god’.[11] Philanthropic activity is assimilation to God: through being generous and merciful a governor can be a god to his subjects, a rich person to the poor, a healthy person to the sick.[12] Deification is not only an intellectual ascent. The entire life of a Christian should become the way towards deification through observing God’s commandments: ‘Be elevated in your life rather than in your thought. The former deifies, while the latter can lead to a great fall. Measure your life not according to a scale of insignificant things, for even if you ascend high, you will always be lower than (what is demanded) by the commandment’.[13]

            The ascetical life also contributes to the deification of the human person. Gregory speaks of the virgins as those who ascend to the heights of deification through their bodily and spiritual purity: ‘Around the light-bearing King, there stands a blameless and heavenly choir: those who haste from earth in order to become god, those who are bearers of Christ, ministers of the Cross, despisers of the world, who are dead for earthly things, who are anxious about heavenly realities, who are lanterns for the world, clear mirrors of light’.[14] The ascetical life, however, is necessary not only for virgins and monks: every Christian should be an ascetic, at least to a certain degree, if he wants to reach deification. In his Eleventh Discourse, which was dedicated to the feat of the Maccabees, Gregory admonishes his flock as follows: 

If we find enjoyment in the pleasures of the belly, if we take pleasure from transient things.., if we consider this a place for parties and not for temperance, if we hope to find here time for commerce and affairs and not for ascent and, may I dare say, deification, to which the martyrs are mediators,[15] then, firstly, I do not think that this is an appropriate moment... Secondly, I would want to say something more sharp, but will abstain from reproach out of respect to the feast. In any case, this is not what the martyrs are waiting from us, to say the least.[16] 

            Finally, the way towards deification consists of prayer, mystical experience, ascent of the intellect to God, contemplation of God. ‘What do you want to become?’ asks Gregory of his soul. ‘Do you want to become god, standing in light before the great God, rejoicing with the angels. Then go further, spread your wings and ascend upwards’.[17] Through prayer and purification of mind the human person receives the experience of the knowledge of God; this experience becomes fuller as he comes closer to the goal of deification: 

...(God) enlightens our governing faculty,[18] if it is purified, in the same manner as the speed of lightning enlightens our sight. I think that this is in order to attract us to God by something that is attainable, since what is totally unattainable cannot be an object of hope and attention, and in order to precipitate an admiration by what is unattainable, and to cause greater desire by being admired, and to purify by the desire, and to make divine by purification; and, when we have already become deified, to speak with us as God Who is united with gods and comprehended by them and known by them as also He knows those whom He knows.[19] 

            As we can see, deification, in Gregory’s understanding, is the highest stage of the knowledge of God, when the incomprehensible God becomes comprehensible, so far as this is possible for the human nature. Deification is also the goal of Christian ‘initiation’ through the sacraments. It is the completion of all ethical and ascetical efforts of a Christian. It is the peak of a person’s prayer and mystical life: it is here that unity between him and God takes place. Deification is salvation of the entire person, transfiguration of the intellect, soul and body. Becoming godlike, the human person brings profit not only to himself: he also reveals the Word of God to others.[20] Thus every Christian may contribute towards the attainment of the goal of existence of everything, which is salvation of the humanity, transformation of the universe, entering of all who are saved in the Kingdom of heaven, eschatological deification of all creation.