Theosis From The East

Theosis From The East
From the Hymns of St Ephrem the Syrian
4th Century

The Most High knew that Adam had wanted to become a god, so He sent His Son who put him on in order to grant him his desire.

Free will succeeded in making Adam's beauty ugly, for he, a man, sought to become a god.

Grace, however, made beautiful his deformities and God came to become a man.

Divinity flew down to draw humanity up.

For the Son had made beautiful the deformities of the servant and so he has become a god, just as he desired.

Far more glorious than the body is the soul, and more glorious still than the soul is the spirit, but more hidden than the spirit is the Godhead.

At the end, the body will put on the beauty of the soul, the soul will put on that of the spirit, while the spirit will put on the very likeness of God's majesty.

He gave us divinity, we gave Him humanity.

Quoted Hymns on Faith, Hymns of Paradise, Hymns on Virginity, and Nisibene
Hymns as found in The Luminous Eye - The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian
(1985 - Sebastian Brock - pages 152-154)