The Beatitudes

A Pathway to Theosis

Christopher J. Mertens

• Publisher: Orthodox Logos
• Year: 1905
• eBook ISBN: 9789492224095
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Mankind is created in the image and likeness of God for the purpose of sharing in the Divine Life and participating in the blessedness of the infinite glory and goodness of the Holy Trinity. This Beatific Vision is not seeing God in His essence, but rather seeing God by possessing Him within oneself. Communion with God is attained through the cooperation of the divine and human will, whereby the follower of Jesus Christ puts on Christ through the sacraments of the Church and imitates the life of Christ through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Jesus describes in the opening words of His Sermon on the Mount all that produces beatitude. The very intent of the Beatitudes is to issue the Father’s divine call for man to enter in the blessedness of the Divine Life. Therefore, the Beatitudes illuminate the pathway to theosis (“deification” or “divinization”), which is a journey of eternal progress in the virtuous life by which a perpetual transformation is made into the likeness of God from glory to glory. The Scriptures and the patristic writings of the Church Fathers provide the theological foundation of this book, the objective of which is to provide a guide for the soul to consciously advance in the spiritual life toward the divine goal of theosis in a step-by-step, concrete way.

Dr. Christopher J. Mertens is a deacon in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He serves at the parish of Saint Basil the Great in Hampton, Virginia. He received a master’s degree in Applied Orthodox Theology from the Antiochian House of Studies in partnership with the Saint John of Damascus School of Theology of the University of Balamand in the Republic of Lebanon, under the aegis of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. He is a Knight of the Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch. He holds a PhD in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a Senior Research Physicist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. His areas of research are space weather and geospace environment modeling, galactic and solar cosmic rays, space and atmospheric ionizing radiation and dosimetry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on his scientific research. He is a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Metal and numerous other professional awards. Father Deacon Christopher and his wife, Rhonda, reside in Toano, Virginia. They have two adult daughters and two grandchildren. Publishers Maxim Hodak & Max Mendor

Introduction

Beatitude is the possession of all that is good, from which nothing is absent that a good desire may want¹. Blessedness is the state of beatitude which is unconditional happiness and contentment. The one thing truly blessed is God Himself, for blessedness is God’s way of being. “The Lord God is blessed; blessed is the Lord from day to day” (Ps. 67:19-20 [The Orthodox Study Bible]). The nature of the Godhead is inaccessible and unknowable to the created order (e.g., John 1:18; I John 4:12; I Tim. 6:16). Nevertheless, whatever the Divine Life may be in its ineffable and incomprehensible goodness, it is beatitude. The beatitude of God is an inexpressible beauty, which is very grace, wisdom, and power; it is the true light, which is the fountain of all goodness, and mighty above all else; it is the one thing lovable which is always the same, always rejoicing in infinite happiness².

Man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Discerning the ways in which man is the image and likeness of God has long been a subject of intense investigation in the writings of the Church Fathers and in Scripture itself. According to the Book of Wisdom, “God created man for immortality and made him an image of His own eternity” (Wisd. of Sol. 2:23). The image of God is what forms the ontological basis of man’s relationship to God³ (cf. Gen. 2:7). To summarize St. Gregory of Nyssa, “the soul of man is created in the image of God as a mirror reflecting Him.”⁴ The likeness of God is a dynamic realization of the capacity of man to bear the image of God and increase in His divine glory and goodness⁵. As a result, God has sown within each human being all the gifts, in seed-like form, which form us in His image and lead us toward His likeness⁶. Being made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-28), man is called to the blessed life (Gen. 2:7-8; 3:8, Ps. 132:3), to the extent that he freely participates in the true beatitude (Eph. 1:3-6; 2 Pet. 1:2-4), as a communicant of divine grace⁷.

The Only-Begotten Son, who fashioned man’s soul in the likeness of the only Blessed One (Gen. 1:26-28; Col. 1:15-17), describes in the opening words of His Sermon on the Mount all that produces beatitude (Matt. 5:3-10). The beatific form is communion with God, as St. Gregory of Nyssa exclaimed: “The Lord does not say it is blessed to know something about God, but to have God present within oneself.” ⁸That beatitude is the fulfillment of the divine call of man as the attainment of union with God is made explicit by the Apostle Paul: “To them [the saints] God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery [of salvation] among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27; see also John 14:14-21; 17:3; 20:26). Therefore, the Beatitudes illuminate the pathway to theosis⁹ (“deification” or “divinization”), which is a journey of eternal progress in the virtuous life (Matt. 5:48) by which a perpetual transformation is made into the likeness of God “from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

Theosis is a complex term with both anthropological and economic components. Norman Russell provides a definition that nicely synthesizes the teachings from Scripture and the Church Fathers:

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Theosis is the restoration as persons to integrity and wholeness by participation in Christ through the Holy Spirit, in a process which is initiated in this world through our life of ecclesial communion and moral striving and finds ultimate fulfillment in our union with the Father – all within the broad content of the divine economy¹⁰.

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The word theosis is formed from the Greek word theoo, which means “to make god”¹¹. Theosis was first used in the fourth century by St. Gregory of Nazianzus. However, the word theosis encompasses an understanding of the purpose and process of man’s deification that is traced back to the second century Church Fathers and the New Testament writers themselves. Sts. Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus of Rome, and Irenaeus of Lyon discussed various aspects of theosis as they reflected on the significance of Christ in the Scriptures. The most frequent biblical texts used by the Church Fathers to support their teaching on deification are: Ps. 81.6, “I said you are gods” and

2 Pet. 1:4, “partakers of divine nature.” These passages were consistently quoted from the beginning of the Church as referring to theosis¹². The quotation from Psalm 81 is much older and the most important. The earliest Christian text to quote this passage is the Gospel of John (John 10:34-36). St. John the Evangelist, Sts. Irenaeus of Lyon and Clement of Alexandria, all base their interpretations of this text on an earlier Jewish tradition¹³. St. Athanasius in the fourth century rephrased the earlier assertion made by St. Irenaeus concerning Christ¹⁴, which is now referred to as the “exchange formula”: “He [Christ] became human that we might become divine.” The passage from the second epistle of St. Peter (2 Pet. 1:4) was not often quoted until applied by St. Cyril of Alexandria to the Christological debates of the fifth century. In all these writings, it is said that the divine nature that man shares is not the essential Being of God, but God’s attributes of glory and goodness¹⁵. From the time of St. Irenaeus in the second century to St. Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century, the Church Fathers saw theosis as summarizing the very purpose of the Incarnation: the self-emptying love of God (kenosis in Greek) evoking a fervent human response (theosis), the result of which is the divinization of the human person mirroring the humanization of the divine Word¹⁶.

The very intent of the Beatitudes is to issue the divine call for man to enter into the blessedness of the Divine Life via an eternal journey of the soul to blessed union with God. The very meaning of the Beatitudes is to illuminate the pathway to theosis by providing a step-by-step guide on how to advance to ever greater participation in the Divine Life.

In the preface to the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-2), Jesus went up the mountain for two reasons¹⁷. First, to fulfill the messianic prophecy of bringing the “good tidings” of the gospel (Luke 2:10-11; Isa. 40:9): “O You who bring good tidings to Zion, go into the high mountain; O You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up Your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God’”. Secondly, the proclamation of the “good tidings” from the “high mountain” is an invitation to all people to ascend the mountain with Him, to leave the low-ground of superficial and ignoble living, that one may reach the spiritual mountain of sublime contemplation¹⁸. The divine word also says, “many Gentiles shall travel and say, ‘Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will proclaim His way to us, and we shall walk in it’” (Isa. 2:3), in order that God may be “beheld” by His people (cf. Isa. 40:9).

Furthermore, by ascending the mountain, Jesus showed by symbols and actions that He is the One who handed down the Mosaic Law on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19-20). At the same time, He is the One who is the author and the inaugurator of the New Covenant¹⁹. The blessings of the New Covenant are received by ascending the mountain. Moreover, the mountain is ascended by imitating Jesus Christ in what is possible for human nature – i.e., the dispositions and actions expressed in the Beatitudes – in order that the followers of Christ “may be partakers of the diving nature” through these “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Pet. 1:4; Isa. 2:3; 40:9), having put on the blessed form. The words of the Psalmist prefigure the blessedness of the good tidings of the divine call proclaimed by Christ in the Beatitudes when he says, “for there [the mountains of Zion] the Lord commanded the blessing and life forever” (Ps. 132:3).

Human nature is made to assimilate itself to the divine nature through theognosis²⁰ (cf. John 10:34-35; 2 Pet. 1:2-4). Thus, the reality of theosis is possible for every person, provided the gifts of the image of God are cultivated (Mark. 4:1-9, 13-20). Consequently, theosis is achieved little-by-little through the step-by-step deification of human nature. This divine adoption is the calling and purpose of mankind²¹. However, human nature has been mortified in its state of separation from God through the Fall and individual sin (Rom. 3:23, 8:20). The good tidings of the gospel is that the potential to become like God was restored through the re-creation of humanity realized only by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-17). The redemptive work of the Incarnate Word once again opens the way for human beings to the achievement of theosis²². The Incarnate Christ brings us again to the Father and presents us with the potential of realizing the likeness of God (John 17:3, 9-11). The purpose of Christ’s redemption of mankind is to restore the potential for theosis through union with the Holy Trinity (e.g., Gal. 4:4-7)²³. Thus, there is an unending transformation into the likeness of God as man stretches beyond his nature to ever-greater participation in the Divine Life²⁴ through deifying grace (John 17:6-26; Eph. 1:3-6, 17-23; 2:22; 3:14-19; 4:11-13; I Pet. 1:3-4).

Theosis is objectively offered to us by the Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected, Ascended God the Word. In Christ Jesus man finds his true place, “on the right hand of the Father” (cf. Mark 16:19; John 17:24), sharing in the Divine Life. In the same way that the two natures of Christ are united without confusion, man never ceases to be His creatures. God alone is Uncreated and Pre-eternal²⁵. It is the Holy Spirit who subjectively transmits to humanity what is offered to us objectively by Christ (Gal. 4:6-7). Theosis, therefore, is achieved by uniting to our Lord Jesus Christ in baptism through in the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-39; Rom 6:3-11; 8:1-17; Gal. 3:26-29; Col. 3:6-15), to the glory of God the Father (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1-2; Titus 3:4-7). Our human nature is restored and vivified by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5) through faith in Jesus Christ and by imitating His Life (John 3:14-16; 14:6), elevating us to knowledge of the Father (John 17:3) through the Mystery of the Church (Matt. 16:13-19; Eph. 2:19-22; 4:4-5, 11-16; 1 Cor. 12:12-14), which is communion with the Holy Trinity²⁶.

Theosis is once again within the reach of all who “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:1-10). Assimilating to the likeness of God by becoming Christlike requires a purification of the passions, cultivation of the virtues, and living according to the commandments of Christ²⁷. If we wish to be with Christ, we must ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Ascent of Moses
• 3. Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
• 4. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
• 5. Blessed Are the Meek
• 6. Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
• 7. Blessed Are the Merciful
• 8. Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
• 9. Blessed Are the Peacemakers
• 10. Participation in the Eighth Day
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Book Endorsements
• Notes
• About the Author