Two errors are often made with regard to understanding this calling: The first assumes that Sainthood is some intangible ideal that we could never hope to achieve, even with God’s help. This error assumes that Saints are a relic of some distant and legendary past: more myth than reality. We look in us and around us and in our judging spirit we can be convinced that this must be the case, we find ourselves giving up even before we’ve even started in earnest to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to learn God’s love, to struggle to grow and to heal.
The second error is to make the opposite assumption and presume on God’s grace with the thinking that no matter, we’re already Saints and that our work of cooperating with the Holy Spirit is already done—or, at least, far advanced. In other words, we take on the attitude that we’ve already ‘arrived.’ Things are ‘comfortable’ the way they are and there’s no need for change. Both errors are tragic, tragic, in that they distort the truth of what Sainthood and deification really means and its absolute relevance for our own lives, here and now.
The reality is that our journey toward healing from our sin-sickness (which is the journey for all of us) is just that, it’s a journey; it involves growth in our relationship and communion with God. Now, this journey is hard, it demands we take up a cross, denying ourselves, battling our passions, our self-will; it’s struggle. But without struggle, we don’t make progress over them. There’s no such thing as an “arm-chair” Christian when it pertains to growing in our faith.
When we speak as Orthodox about our understanding of salvation, we use the term deification (theosis in Greek) to describe our journey of growth in holiness and participation in the life of the Holy Trinity. St. Athanasius puts it this way, God became human that we may become divine. St. Athanasius wrote in the 4th century that, “God became man that we might become divine.” (On the Incarnation, 54).
Our journey of deification or theosis, Sainthood, can sometimes be comparable to standing in the midst of a raging river. The world around us is that river. Anyone who’s been in such a river knows that you really can’t stand still: either you’ll quickly be swept away by it –or—with much struggle, you’ll fight the current and head upstream.
More than anything else, God desires our transformation into those near angelic beings, the Saints, He’s created us to become, so that we can commune with Him who is Himself holy. He desires we be glorified through relationship with Him, not only for our own healing and salvation, but also so we can witness His life and truth to this corrupt world in such great need.
Similarly, St. Paul urges us, to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God…” He continues, saying, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2)
We come to know this perfect will of God through the Church Christ has left us. We don’t come to know that will on our own or on our own terms. As Metropolitan Hierotheos puts it, “The Church is the spiritual hospital that heals man… The Church aims to lead man to theosis (deification).” That is her loving purpose, given to her by God as the Body of Christ.
But only those willing to submit to transformation into Christ’s likeness through the healing and progress that He gives us through the Church and her Sacraments and prayers, continue on the path of deification. God, in His great love and mercy for us, offers us, the tools, the means, to change, to be, as St. Paul puts it, “transformed,” not in the image and likeness of the culture, the world, that’s perishing, but in the likeness of Him who is Eternal Life, Jesus Christ.
In our Orthodox worship, we’re surrounded in the holy icons by the “great cloud of witnesses” of which St. Paul speaks. Their example of Christ-likeness, self-denial, bold witness, and love, encourage us and spur us on in our own struggles for theosis. They serve as examples to us of the truth that God is glorified in His Saints, that He delights in adding us to the icons, to that “great cloud of witnesses,” made up of every race, class, place, and time since the world began.
The Saints testify to the reality of God’s work of healing, of salvation, the reality of this calling at work not just in the past, but now, in this present hour—at work in you and in me—to make us each into the fullness of the godly man or godly woman, adopted children, He’s called us to be.
So, today we examine our own lives. We ask ourselves where we are on this journey, this pilgrimage to Sainthood. Have we let anything come between us and that holy calling, any worldly preoccupations or priorities? Are we satisfied with giving God worship once a week? How strong is our daily prayer life? How hard are we struggling for healing from our passions? Do we submit ourselves to Christ and His Church or prefer our own way, our own will? Are we regularly prioritizing our life in God the Holy Trinity above all else?
If we’re to receive our crown, Christ admonishes us today to love and confess Him before all others, just as have the Saints—no matter the costs. If we are to find ourselves in full communion with God in that life, we make our life with God, our worship of Him, our steady progress in healing and growth in the knowledge and love of Him, our chief aim here and now.
St. Paul gives us this roadmap to our theosis in today’s Epistle, urging us first to, “lay aside… the sin which so easily ensnares us.” In other words, recognize and confess our sins, give them over to Christ. And then, he urges us to persevere, saying: “…Run with endurance the race that is set before us.” We discern with God’s help, often through the Sacrament of Confession, those things that we need to turn away from: vices, passions, patterns of behavior—all that “ensnares us.” We may need to actively pray against them and confess them for years, but with that cross comes healing, perseverance, growth, and victory. That is the journey of deification. We grow closer to God in His love and truth as we “run with endurance” this race of faith set before us.
Keeping our focus on Jesus Christ and submitting ourselves to Him in His Church, we gain courage to stay the course; we’re emboldened by the witness of the Saints and their prayers for us. Through our struggle, we grow and heal to become who we’re created to be. Christ promises us: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit everlasting life.”
Here’s part of what that means: if we want to love those near and dear to us, we learn to love God first, we ‘own’ our calling to sainthood. We don’t let what is popular or what our culture says trump the truth God has authored and entrusted to us. He is the Author of love. He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” As we are schooled in God’s love, we learn how to love our family, friends, neighbors, even our enemies. As we learn to love God above all, we find ourselves desiring life with Him more than everything else this world offers, we desire to become the Saints He’s graciously, lovingly called us to be. We are transfigured step by step, growing closer to God. In turn, those around us are enabled to grow and change with us. And so, we see the “great cloud of witnesses” at work, growing. May this be our holy desire and may you and I continue this journey of deification and salvation, always looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Holy Saints of God, pray for us sinners!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday of All Saints
June 30, 2013
