Transformation, Divinization, Fire-Intro
Gregg’s Reflection
Fire is a wonderful image of God. Fire turns everything into itself. John of the Cross describes it this way,
He consumes infinitely, burning with great vehemence, and transforming into himself all he touches.
Fire transforms substance to energy. God transforms being into Spirit. It is a totally different picture than the ‘burning in hell’ images I got from Baptist theology so dominant in the South. We live in the Wildland Urban Interface, where fire has been feared and fought for 100 years, to disastrous consequences,
Until my exploration of contemplative literature, the idea of Divinization, or Theosis to use a theological term, were completely foreign to me. I had a chance to ask Richard Rohr about this at a Living School symposium. He said the reason I had not heard of this is that “It was lost to the Western church for 1000 years. The Eastern Orthodox Church never lost sight of this.”
Thomas Merton was the modern figure who did so much to bring contemplation and the deeper journey into God back into the Western mind. Until I was exposed to these ideas, I could not comprehend the idea of Divinization.
In Christian theology, divinization or theosis, is the transforming effect of divine grace, the spirit of God. Although it literally means to become divine, or to become God, most modern Christian denominations do not interpret the doctrine as implying an overcoming of a fundamental ontological difference between God and humanity; for example, John of the Cross (AD 1542–1591) indicated that while "God communicates to it [the individual soul] His supernatural Being, in such ways that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has", yet "it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before".
Saint Augustine tells us:
I heard your voice from on high, “I am the food of the strong. Grow and you will eat of me. And you will not change me into yourself, like the food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.”
So, read on and wade into the depths of transformation possible for humans as we walk with God. See the full post here.
And, here is an audio introduction:
Journaling Prompts
We are made in the Image of God. As a child of God, what would it look like to you to grow into the likeness of God? How will you be ‘Transformed by the Renewing of your Mind’ as Paul exhorts us in Romans? How does your image of what Jesus was trying to teach us change when you think of Theosis or Divinization?
Scripture
The Lord your God is a consuming fire.
Deuteronomy 4:24
I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.
Luke 22:49
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
God works salvation in, and we work salvation out. God initiates transformation by stimulating our desire to follow him, inspiring acts expressing that desire, providing strength to persevere, and so on. We, in turn, respond by deciding to follow, acting on God’s inspiration, and choosing to persevere.
Bible notes on Philippians 2:12-13
Our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:29
God is not a consuming fire in the sense of punishment or torment, but as the purifier of faith, burning away the dross of cowardice, double-mindedness, disbelief, and whatever would obstruct eternal fellowship with God, so the Sanctifier and sanctified shall be one forever.
RENOVARE Bible notes on Hebrews
You had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith-being more precious than gold, that, though perishable, is tested by fire. 1 Peter 1:6-7. God’s love is cleansing, fiery, astringent. At times God will place is in what seems like a furness-not to harm us, but to cleanse and refine our faith, so that only what is genuine remains.
Bible notes on 1 Peter 1:6-7.
Ancient Writings
In the beginning there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God, and afterwards, ineffable joy. It is like this who wish to light a fire; at first they are choked by the smoke and cry, and by this means obtain what they seek (it is said: Our God is a consuming fire, Heb 12:24); so we also must kindle the divine fire in ourselves through tears and hard work.
Amma Syncletica, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Trans Benedicta Ward, p. 231
What God is by nature, we become by Grace.
St. Athanasius, Martin Laird, Ocean of Light, p. 135
I heard your voice from on high, “I am the food of the strong. Grow and you will eat of me. And you will not change me into yourself, like the food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.”
St. Augustine, Confessions, Bernard McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 317
God draws a person out of his human mode into a divine mode, out of all misery into divine security. Here a person becomes so divinized that everything he is and does God does and is in him. And he is lifted up so far above his natural state that he becomes through grace what God in his essence is by nature to be in this stage is the deepest ground of genuine humility.
Johannes Tauler, McGinn, Essential Writings of the Christian Mystics, p. 183
The place which Jesus takes in our soul he will nevermore vacate, for in us is his home of homes, and it is the greatest delight for him to dwell there. . . . And the soul who contemplates this is made like [the one] who is contemplation.
Julian of Norwich, The Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 53
Our Lord God is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24) and his power is infinite. He consumes infinitely, burning with great vehemence, and transforming into himself all he touches. He burns everything according to the measure of its preparation, some more, some less. It consumes not the spirit when it burns, but rather delights and deifies it, burning sweetly within according to the purity of their spirits. The divine fire came down at Pentecost, not consuming the soul, the burning does not distress it but gladdens it; it does not weary it, but delights it, and renders it glorious and sweet.
St. John of the Cross, McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Meditation, p. 214-215
Modern Writings
This dynamic of emptying and transcendence accurately defines the transformation of the Christian consciousness in Christ. It is an emptying of all the contents of the ego-consciousness to become a void in which the light of God or the glory of God, the full radiation of the infinite reality of His Being and Love are manifested.
Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, p. 75
God created the world for the purpose of divinizing his creation by making it become his own body, with Jesus as head and we as members.
Raimon Panikkar, Sutra 8, p. 177
The closer one approaches this transformation in the sense of identity, the more one will be able to do the divine act of radiating being and love energy to all beings of the world.
Beatrice Bruteau, Prayer and Identity
If what you attempt is not to change yourself but to observe yourself, to study every one of your reactions to people and things, without judgment or condemnation or desire to reform yourself, your observation will be nonselective, comprehensive, never fixed on rigid conclusions, always open and fresh from moment to moment. Then you will notice a marvelous thing happening within you: You will be flooded with the light of awareness, you will become transparent and transformed.
Will change occur then? Oh, yes. But it will not be brought about by your cunning, restless ego that is forever competing, comparing, coercing, sermonizing, manipulating in its intolerance and its ambitions. No, the transforming light of awareness brushes aside your scheming, self-seeking ego to give Nature full rein to bring about the same kind of change that she produces in the rose: artless, graceful, unself-conscious, wholesome, untainted by inner conflict.
Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love, p. 83-84
When the heart sighs, and begins its surrender to suffering, hell dissolves before our eyes.
Stephen Levine, Who Dies, p. 68
If the Gospel isn’t transforming you, how do you know that it will transform anything?
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, p. 270
Strategies for staying on the path of transformation:
Read good books, especially biographies of people you admire
Gaze at art, listen to music
Pray and meditate regularly to clean your lens so the images of soul can appear
Learn from the negative as well as the positive
Make use of practices that engage the right brain, where soul can speak to you more spontaneously
Spend a lot of time in nature
Keep a journal, uncensored, not for anyone else to read
How do I go to a place where soul can speak?
Richard Rohr, On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 358
Because the humanity of Jesus is our humanity, what happens in Jesus is our destiny as well— transformation and union in God.
Ilia Delio, Christ in Evolution, p. 96
To embody union with God is to discover these beautiful characteristics emerging from within and slowly transfiguring us into the very image and likeness of God himself.
Carl McColman, Christian Mystics, p. xix
The philosopher: Macrina explains why suffering is an incidental consequence to the soul being drawn to God’s blessedness by making a comparison to smelting gold. When a person wants to refine gold out of the rock it is mixed with they place it in the fire. The fire is not prepared for the sake of the gold but rather for the removal of everything else which is mixed with it. As the unrefined ore is placed into the fire, the gold naturally feels the presence of the heat but it is not injured by the fire. The more unhealthy junk we have accumulated in our souls the more time we must spend in the purifying fire. But this is an unavoidable suffering as the evil within us boils to surface and is cleansed away. The purpose of the fire is never revenge but always healing. As the gravity of God’s blessedness pulls us into the holy of holies we experience the pain of the sin we have accumulated being torn away from us. But in the end we emerge as pure gold, the same pure gold which was always inside us, and which you might say is the true essence of who we are.
Justin Coutts, In Search of a New Eden, 2/13/22
Mystics and sages of all traditions speak of the inner fire, the divine spark hidden in our very cells and in all that lives. This flame of love is the pure presence of God.
Paula D’Arcy, “A Surrender to Love,” Oneing, Spring 2017