THE INNER STREAM OF LIFE

THE INNER STREAM OF LIFE


THEOSIS [..] is a word beloved of many of the Greek Fathers which, when put into English as 'Deification' or 'Divinization,' still is not simple to grasp. It opens out historically from the Biblical idea that the destiny of humanity is to share the life of God, to be "partakers of Divine nature" in St. Peter's expression; to be "changed into the same image [of God] from glory to glory" as St Paul said. St. Paul also, in saying that the whole universe awaits the full coming of age of humanity, suggests that Theosis goes beyond the individual and is inseparable from the ends of all things and all the worlds.

It is then such a large subject that it can be entered from almost any
point, but clearly one aspect of the question is that of the inner life of each of us in relation to God... Though we do not know ourselves, in the end one can aspire to please God, and "I believe that the desire to please you in fact pleases you." {Merton]

Now this raises the question of why our aspiration to please God should in fact please Him. It cannot be that the Deity is like some vain potentate wishing to hear flattery from his subjects. Rather it must be that praise, thanksgiving, acknowledgement, or Eucharist, if you will, are pleasing to God because they are what Life is made up of; praise is the inner stream of life of all the worlds, and God is pleased because in entering the stream of seeking to please and to praise we are entering what is His very own life, than which there is no other, the life of the One who, after each day of creation and each moment, says "it is good," Himself the maker within the stream of praise.



Bishop Seraphim Joseph Sigrist
Retired bishop of Sendai (Japan)
"L'Chaim, Theosis as Life"
Preface to the papers of the Alexander Men meetings
New York, July 20-24, 2007
From: BECOMING DIVINE - Essays on Theosis in Honor of Father Alexander Men
Editor, Bishop Seraphim Joseph Sigrist, Copyright 2007, pages 9-10