"Union with God is not a subsidiary issue in faith or doctrine. It is the basis of all faith and doctrine. It is the ultimate aim of God for sending His only Son to the world to become man."
+ Fr Matta El-Meskeen
Union with God
Fr Matta El-Meskeen
“Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us.”
(Jn 17.21)
“But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
(1 Cor 6.17)
Union with God, or theia henosis, is a concise theological term describing a state that Christ petitioned the Father to grant on our behalf: “that they also may be [one] in us” (Jn 17.21). This petition has been answered for us in the death and resurrection of Christ. We have thus become, according to the apostle Peter, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1.4).
The Church sets this aim before its children the moment they enter the baptismal font. According to St Irenaeus, “Through the Holy Spirit, we are raised up to Christ, and through Christ, we are raised up to the Father” (Against Heresies 5.36.2, ANF 1.567). Union here is manifested at three levels— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to St Athanasius, “We were made sons in Him” (Discourses 2.76, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.389). And union here signifies a firm establishment in an immortal and eternal sonship to God.
The writings of the great church fathers throw into sharp relief the new potentials that human nature as a whole has gained through the incarnation of Christ. There has occurred a change, which the Fathers term as deification, through the mediation of Christ. Human nature has undergone a heavenly re-creation from water and from the Spirit. It has achieved a state of union with God through grace: “For the Son of God became man that we may become God” (On the Incarnation 54, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.65).
Owing to the importance of this theological doctrine, which claims the possibility of mans deification, we refer briefly to some of the places where it is met with in the early Fathers:
- 1. St Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 124 (PG 6.765, ANF 1.262): “All men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having power to become sons of the Highest.”
- 2. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.1.1 (ANF 1.526).
- 3. Clement of Alexandria, The Protreptique 9.88; 11.114 (ANF 2.203).
- 4. St Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54.3 (NPNF, 2nd series, 4.65): “For he was made man that we might be made God.”
- 5. St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 9.23 (PG 32.109BC): “highest of all [gifts], the being made God” (NPNF, 2nd series, 8.16).
- 6. St Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Discourses 37 (PG 45.93—97): “The God who was manifested infused himself into perishable humanity for this purpose, viz. that by this communion with Deity mankind might at the same time be deified.” (NPNF, 2nd series, 5.506).
The following are some theological excerpts from the Fathers that deal with this major Orthodox doctrine:
93. I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father. (St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Magnesians 1.2, ANF 1.59)
94. For in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, except his own proper Word. What other person “knew the mind of the Lord,” or who else “has become his counselor” (Rom 1 1.34)? Again, we could have learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher and hearing his voice with our own ears, that, having become imitators of his works as well as doers of his words, we may have communion with him, receiving increase from the perfect one . . . who, redeeming us by his own blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave himself as a redemption for those who had been led into captivity... and redeemed them as his own property .. . giving his soul for our souls, and his flesh for our flesh. [Our Lord] has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by his own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at his coming immortality, durably and truly, by means of communion with God. (St Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.1.1, ANF 1.526)
95. Hail, O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than life here below. That light is eternal life, and whatever partakes of it lives, for this is the meaning of the new creation___He has changed sunset into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life; and having wrenched man from destruction, he has raised him to the skies, ... having bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, putting his laws into our minds, and writing them on our hearts. (St Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 11.114, ANF 2.203)
96. For he was made man that we might be made God; and he manifested himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and he endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 54.3, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.65)
97. For by partaking of him, we partake of the Father; because that the Word is the Father’s own. Whence, if he was himself too from participation, and not from the Father his essential Godhead and Image, he would not deify, being deified himself. For it is not possible that he, who merely possesses from participation, should impart of that partaking to others, since what he has is not his own, but the Givers. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, De Synodis 51, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.477)
98. For man would have not been deified if joined to a creature, or if the Son were not very God; nor would man have been brought into the Father’s presence, if he had not been his natural and true Word who had put on the body . . . so also man would not have been deified if the Word who became flesh had not been by nature from the Father and true and proper to him. For therefore the union was of this kind, that he might unite what is man by nature to him who is in the nature of the godhead, and that his salvation and deification might be sure. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourse II Against the Arians 70, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.386)
99. Therefore he was not man, and then became God, but he was God, and then became man, and that to deify us — . . . all that are called sons and gods, whether in earth or in heaven, were adopted and deified through the Word. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourse I Against the Arians 39, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.329)
100. Who will not admire this? Or who will not agree that such a thing is truly divine? For if the works of the Words godhead had not taken place through the body, man would not have been deified; and again, if the properties of the flesh (like death, for example) had not been ascribed to the Word, man would not have been thoroughly delivered from them. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourse III Against the Arians 33, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.411)
101 . For as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to him through his flesh, and henceforward inherit life everlasting. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourse III Against the Arians 34, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.413)
102. For he has become man, that he might deify us in himself, and he has been born of a woman, and begotten of a virgin, in order to transfer to himself our erring generation and in order that we may become henceforth a holy race, and “partakers of the divine nature,” as blessed Peter wrote. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Adelphos 4, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.576)
103. And we are deified not by partaking of the body of some man, but by receiving the body of the Word himself. (St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter 61 to Maximus 2, NPNF, 2nd series, 4.578-79)
We find that of all the church fathers, St Athanasius of Alexandria is the one who uses this theological term “deification” most frequently. He explains and highlights at every occasion the essential link between the incarnation of God and the deification of man.
But the deification (theopoiesis) that the Fathers had in mind does not mean the change of the human nature into a divine one. Rather, it means qualifying human nature for life with God in a communion of love. This is accomplished by lifting the serious barrier that severs the life of man from that of God—namely, sin. This takes place through our ablution and sanctification by the blood of Christ and our partaking of his Body. For this reason, deification— or union in its perfect sense as a life with God—cannot be fulfilled except at the resurrection from the dead. But we have been granted means of grace, commandments, and a divine power by which to conquer sin, the world, and the life of this age. We have thus a new door opened before us. Through this door we can have—here and now—a foretaste of the union with God in communion of love and in obedience.
Therefore, the union of man with God, or deification, is a legitimate aim to seek. This is due to the preexisting union between divinity and humanity in the incarnation. It is Christ, then, who has set it before us as an aim. Union here includes all the gratuitous means of grace—baptism, Holy Communion, and perpetual repentance. Union also includes struggles such as fasting, chastity, bridling of tongue and mind. It involves constant prayer as well, as acts of love and humility. It certainly includes as well God’s invisible succor to those who strive to reach him.
It is true that union with God is an ultimate aim that cannot be perfected except in the resurrection from the dead. But it is also the outcome of faith and works that must be completed here in this life.
In brief, union with God in the context of this life means a perpetual change from a life according to the flesh into a life according to the Spirit. This change we undergo every day and every hour in faith, effort, and tears. We have to conform to the will of God. We have to fulfill the demands of his kingdom as declared by the gospel.
What we have to bear always in mind about the potentiality of union with God is the person of Jesus Christ himself. It is through obedience and love to Christ that union with God is perfected. It is he who has first completed the union of divinity and humanity in himself to deliver it to us in a mystery of transcendent love.
In Christianity, union is a practical reality that we experience in our worship and love for Christ but cannot understand or grasp with our minds. According to human logic it is inconceivable. But according to the mystery of the incarnation and the experience of love and faith, it is the truth and a palpable reality.
Union with God is not a subsidiary issue in faith or doctrine. It is the basis of all faith and doctrine. It is the ultimate aim of God for sending his only Son to the world to become man: “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1.9-10).
So the mystery of union between mankind and Christ is the ultimate aim of the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection—nay, of creation in full.
Let us read what St Macarius the Great says in this respect:
104. Indeed, a great and divine work and wonderful is the soul... And in one word he created it such as to be his bride and enter into union with him so that he may inter-penetrate it and be “one spirit” with it. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 46.5-6, in Maloney, Intoxicated with God: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies o f Macarius)
We can thus see that union with God is the foundation of the Church and the mystery of the gospel. The work of the Church or the aim of the gospel is but calling mankind to faith in the person of the Lord Jesus. The action of faith in Christ and its ultimate aim are union of humankind in the mystical body of Christ. This union aims at manifesting the kingdom of Christ. It also aims at revealing the kingdom of saints. The kingdom of saints will reign in Christ, and Christ will reign in it. About this mutual reign or mutual inheritance, which expresses most strongly the union with God, St Macarius the Great says:
105. This also is what God, the lover of mankind, does to the person who comes to him and ardently desires him. But there is even much more. Impelled by love, he himself, by the goodness which is inherent in him and is all his own, enters with that person “into one spirit” (1 Cor 6.17), according to the apostolic saying.
When a person clings to the Lord and the Lord has pity and loves him in his coming and clinging to him, and when a person has the intention thereafter to remain constantly in the grace of the Lord, they become one spirit and one temperament and one mind, the person and the Lord. And though his body is prostrate on the earth, his mind has its complete conversation with the heavenly Jerusalem, rising up to the third [spiritual] heaven and clinging to the Lord and serving him there. And he, while sitting on the throne of majesty in the heights, in the heavenly city, is totally turned toward him in his bodily existence. He has indeed placed his image above in Jerusalem, the heavenly city of the saints and he has placed his own image of the ineffable light of his godhead in his body. He ministers to such a person in the city of his body, while he serves him in the heavenly city.
He has inherited him in heaven and he has inherited him on earth. The Lord becomes his inheritance and he becomes the inheritance of the Lord. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 46.3—4, in Spiritual Homilies)
From our Church heritage, we can infer that all the facts of theology revealed to the great theologian fathers, who were filled with the Holy Spirit, were actually proved by the simple ascetic fathers. This took place at the level of daily life, conduct, and personal experience in a most vivid and articulate manner. Through the example of these ascetic fathers, we are encouraged to believe and to trust that the Holy Spirit invites us as well to share in this holy and blessed communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
+ + +
Saying of the Desert Fathers On Union With God
St Macarius described this spiritual union with God as the holy matrimony of the soul and God: the soul as the bride and Christ as the heavenly Bridegroom. But this is not merely a simile. It is a real sacrament, which takes place between the devout soul and God, making them one spirit. Here are his words in this respect:
106. He is wounded with love for the heavenly Spirit, and through the grace that dwells within him, he burns with desire for the Heavenly Bridegroom. This stirs him to the perfect longing, the longing to be deemed worthy to enter into the mystical and awe-filled communion with him, in the sanctification of the Spirit.
The face of the soul is unveiled, its eyes fix upon the Heavenly Bridegroom: face to face in that ineffable light. Clasping him with full certitude of faith, he becomes conformed to his death. He yearns always to die for Christ. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 10.4, in Spiritual Homilies)
107. The soul whom Christ, the Heavenly Spouse, has asked to be his bride in a mystical and divine fellowship has tasted the riches of heaven. This soul ought to strive diligently, sincerely to please the Bridegroom, Christ . . . it should display the serenest modesty and love toward him, should behave becomingly in the house of the Heavenly King. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 15.2, in Spiritual Homilies)
108. Do you not understand that heaven and earth will pass away, but you have been called to immortality, to sonship; a brother and a spouse of the King?
In the life around us, all that belongs to the spouse, belongs to the bride as well, and so it is with all things that belong to the Lord, no matter how much they be, He entrusts to you. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 16.13, Spiritual Homilies)
In these words, St Macarius tells of the highest gift a Christian may receive. He who is sanctified by truth is counted worthy for this wonderful mystical union with Christ, a holy matrimony in the Spirit. The blessed communion with the Bridegroom and the heritage reserved in Christs glory are both his.
Here are some other meditations on this union by another saint:
109. Out of the mist of that light, where the Lord is said to dwell, the beams of mercy dazzle onto the mind deserving. The soul beholds the face of its Lord. It is delighted at the taste of his sweetness. It inhales his pure savor... It enters in and clasps him, not knowing how to depart except he thrust it away from union with him.
This is an imprisonment in a mountain of light, an engulfing in light. This is what the assumption will be, which is described as the vision of God s glory. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Visitations of the Spirit 3, “The degree of perfection,” in “Spiritual Elder”)
110. The union with your eternity is like the union of the members of the body with their head. But it is the grace of union with your glory and not with your eternal person or essence. It is for the sake of our joy, for we yearn to be changed into a glory such as yours. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Mystery of the New World, in “Spiritual Elder”)
111 . “Even as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us” (Jn 17.21). Blessed is he who has tasted this beatitude . . . Blessed is he whose soul, flesh and bones commingle with this delight. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Warm Pleasure which Commingles with Those Who Love God when They See His Glory, in “Spiritual Elder”)
112. Each one beholds you inwardly and rejoices at your beauty and marvels and thinks that you dwell in him alone. But in fact, in your perfection, you dwell in everyone... Each beholds you in his mind as perfectly present therein, while you are perfectly dwelling in all. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Revelations of Christ, in “Spiritual Elder”)
113. At that time they will become not clothed in light but they themselves will turn into light: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt. 13.43). There they will no longer see the likeness of God, but the glory of his Godhead. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Love of God, in “Spiritual Elder”)
114 . Their union with God is like the union of fire and iron. The iron retains its properties but it turns into fire, its nature becomes like that of fire. So do the righteous become like God in their nature. This is no lie: I truly assert, by reason of my intimacy with God, that oftentimes those who have attained a love for God see greater and more excellent things. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Love of God, in “Spiritual Elder”)
115 . Once divine light dawns upon the soul, once it unites with it, the soul mentally traverses the whole [physical] creation, in heaven or on earth, be they mountains or oceans or people or solid bodies. It beholds them as they really are. It becomes one with them in mental vision . . . From this theoria it ascends to the theoria of spiritual beings [which have no material substance], and then rises to the sphere of the Holy Light and this vision swallows up the soul. Everything other than that Light then disappears from its sight as if it never existed. The soul then forgets itself in its union with the glory of that Light. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Theoria which Severs the Mind from the World, in “Spiritual Elder”)
116 . Who can understand the mystery of union between the mind and God? The mind becomes confined within God, it shares the likeness of its Creator. It unites with his presence, the divine presence which, pervading all, is greater than all, is beyond all comprehension. What words can ever explain the manner of such union which engulfs the mind and so rids it of all thoughts of distraction, all earthly motion. (St John of Dalyatha, Homily on the Theoria which Severs the Mindfrom the World, in “Spiritual Elder”)
Union with God is the aim of the life of prayer and worship. It is a foretaste of the glory Christians will enjoy in the age to come. This St Macarius describes as “the mystical communion between the soul and the heavenly Bridegroom” and St John of Dalyatha describes as “the strong union which fastens the mind to God.” All these expressions articulate the powerful union of the soul and God into one spirit. This is the kingdom of God into which the gospel guides us. It is within us. Once we reach this state we will know what the meaning of perfect love is—love of God with all the heart, soul, and mind and love of neighbor as ourselves.
By union with God we transcend the limits of matter and reach beyond this visible world. This is what the Lord Jesus meant in his prayer to the Father when he said: “I am not praying for the world . . . I am no more in the world .. . I am not of the world .. . I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world . . . Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me .. . that they may be one even as we are one .. . even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee” (Jn 17).
Prayer is the journey to the kingdom: the arrival is union with God. The kingdom is not far from us, but is within us. The union with God that the saintly fathers experienced is the end of all endeavors: corporal acts of mercy, the labor of the soul, or perseverance in spiritual contemplation. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid for me the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim 4.7).
Those who are redeemed by the blood of the heavenly Bridegroom have an essential right of their own: the right to strive to reach a vital intimacy with God—an intimacy that transcends the present world.
Spiritual gifts are dispensed to us. What is needed is all our strength, will, and mind: the struggle to gain such gifts. Grace, always present with and within us, aids us in this struggle: “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts... So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Cor 14.1,12).
A spiritual gift is not to perform signs and wonders. It is to live for the Spirit and experience and taste his fruits. It is called a “gift” because it transcends the present world. But it does not transcend the afterlife; it is the very nature of the age to come. If then we are truly not of this world, as Christ wishes us to be, our conduct has to be identical with the life of the age to come. We should be bent on proceeding according to the standards of the Spirit and not those of this world. Our longing should always be for reaching God, for unity with him.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3—11).
This partaking of the divine nature to which the apostle Peter invites us is the same mystery that the apostle John unveils to us as the “marriage of the Lamb”: “ ‘Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Rev 19.7—8). What is the marriage ? Who is the bride clothed with fine linen bright and pure? “ ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb/ And in the Spirit he carried me away . . . and showed me the holy city Jerusalem . . . having the glory of God” (Rev 21.9, 10,11).
What is Jerusalem which has “the glory of God” but the Church? What is the Church but the congregation of saints? What is the glory which surrounds them but the power of their union with Christ? It is thus that the Christian church adopted in its earliest period this tradition describing the mystical relationship that binds the chaste soul to Christ: the soul is the redeemed bride adorned with sanctity. The Bridegroom is the Lamb slain for the souls he has betrothed for himself: “I will betroth you for me forever” (Hos 2.19); “For I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband” (2 Cor 11.2). As for the marriage, it is the union that exists between the soul and Christ.
117. He who truly loves God and Christ, though he may perform a thousand good works, considers himself as one who has done nothing because of his insatiable longing for the Lord. Let him tear down the body with fasts and vigils: in his own eyes he has never even yet begun to develop virtues. Let the various gifts of the Spirit, let even revelations and heavenly mysteries be given to him: he believes that he has acquired nothing because of his immense and insatiable love for the Lord.
Hungry, thirsty for faith and love, he daily perseveres in prayer. He has an insatiable desire for the mysteries of grace and for every virtue. He is wounded with love for the heavenly Spirit, and through the grace which dwells within him he burns with desire for the Heavenly Bridegroom. This stirs him to the perfect longing, the longing to be deemed worthy to enter into the mystical and awe-filled communion with him, in the sanctification of the Spirit.
The face of the soul is unveiled, its eyes fix upon the Heavenly Bridegroom: face to face in that ineffable light. Clasping him with full certitude of faith, he becomes conformed to his death. He yearns always to die for Christ. He certainly and completely believes that he will obtain liberation from his sins and his dark passions through the Spirit— so that, soul and body purified by the Spirit, he may become a pure vessel to receive the heavenly unction and become a worthy habitation for Christ, the noble heavenly King. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 10.4, in Spiritual Homilies)
118. A maiden, espoused to a wealthy man, may receive any number of gifts before the consummation: ornaments, clothing, or precious vessels. But she is not satisfied until the time of the marriage comes and she arrives at full communion. So also the soul, betrothed to the Heavenly Bridegroom, receives as pledge from the Spirit gifts of healing or of knowledge or of revelation. But it is not satisfied with these until it reaches the perfect communion, that is, of love unchangeable and unfailing. It frees from passion and agitation those who have desired it.
So also, an infant might be decked out with pearls and costly clothing. When it is hungry, it thinks nothing of the things it wears, it cares only for the breast of its nurse—how it may receive milk. So also consider it to be with the spiritual gifts of God to whom be glory forever. Amen. (St Macarius the Great, Homilies 45.7, in Spiritual Homilies)
Behold the Bridegroom is coming, See, O my soul, that you sleep not. . .
But watch that you may meet the Lord Christ with the oil of fatness
and that he may grant thee the true wedding of his divine glory.
(Midnight Office, First Watch, Coptic Canonical Hours)
SOURCE: Fr Matta El-Meskeen, "Union with God" in "Chapter 3: Beyond Prayer," Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way (New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2003) 103-115
