Union, Unity, Oneing, & Theosis-Intro

Gregg’s Reflection

Thomas Merton’s Unitive Experience one afternoon in Louisville reintroduced the idea of Union with God to new generations who were unfamiliar with the writings of the saints and mystics.

Merton described it this way Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

I was always a bit confounded about the Unitive verses in Scripture such as “I and the Father are one.” When you look at Scripture and the voices of the saints and mystics, the idea of Theosis becomes real.

Wikipedia defines it this way:

Theosis or deification ( "making divine"), is a transformative process whose aim is likeness to or union with God, as taught by the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church; the same concept is also found in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, where it is termed "divinization". As a process of transformation, theosis is brought about by the effects of catharsis (purification of mind and body) and theoria('illumination' with the 'vision' of God). According to Eastern Christian teachings, theosis is very much the purpose of human life. It is considered achievable only through synergy (or cooperation) of human activity and God's uncreated energies (or operations).

This idea was lost to much of the Western church for a thousand years, but the Eastern Orthodox church never lost this powerful theology. Is this idea foreign to you? Read along and wade into the path of Union, what Julian of Norwich called Oneing.

Find the full post here.

Journaling Prompts

What would it look like to move beyond worshiping Christ to becoming like him? If you believed God was walking around looking out through your eyes, how would it change your life? Consider engaging with your pastor or priest to flesh out this idea.

Scripture

I and the Father are one.

John 10:30

That they may all be one, as You are in me and I am in You, may they also be in us, that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and You in me, so they may become completely one.

John 17:20-23

Anyone united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with Him.

1 Corinthians 6:17

It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

Galatians 2:20

Ancient Writings

We awaken in Christ’s body, as Christ awakens our bodies. There I look down and my poor hand is Christ, He enters my foot and is infinitely me. I move my hand and wonderfully my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him. I move my foot and at once he appears in a flash of lightning.

Do my words seem blasphemous to you? Then open your heart to Him. And let yourself receive the one who is opening to you so deeply. For if we genuinely love Him, we wake up inside Christ’s body, where all our body all over, every most hidden part of it, is realized in joy as Him, and He makes us utterly real. And everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged is in Him transformed. And in Him, recognized as whole, as lovely, and radiant in His light. We awaken as the beloved in every last part of our body.

Symeon the New Theologian, Hymn 15

The mystical life begins in Christ, who manifests the union of humanity and divinity. But, we, who are mortal creations, are invited into this unity (by ‘experience’) so that we may find stability, abiding and joy in our participatory relationship with Him. 

Maximus the Confessor, McColman, Christian Mystics 580,662

The fruit and the purpose of prayer is to be Oned with and like God in all things.

Julian of Norwich, Meditations w/Julian of Norwich, Brendan Doyle p. 70

Our soul is oned to God, unchangeable goodness, and therefore between God and our soul there is neither wrath nor forgiveness because there is no in between.

Julian of Norwich, Brendan Doyle, Meditations with Julian, p. 77

In the prison of union, the soul is fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards things of this world and in respect of herself. She is utterly dead to things of this world and lives solely in God. Thus does God, when he raises a soul to union with himself, suspend the natural action of all her faculties. God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way, that when she returns to herself, it is wholly impossible for her to doubt she has been in God, and God in her.

St. Teresa of Ávila, William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 408-409

Modern Writings

I work at preparing my mind, my spirit for the moment when God comes to himself in me. When it happens, I experience His presence. In it, I hear His voice in my own tongue. The center is God coming to Himself. At these moments, it may easily seem to me that all there is, is God.

Howard Thurman: Essential Writings p. 46.

It is only in the awakening of the contemplative spirit, of a transcendent consciousness, that we come to a vision of unity.

Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, p. 264

The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 25

The union of the Christian with Christ is a mystical union in which Christ Himself becomes the source and principle of life in me. Christ Himself “breathes” in me divinely in giving me His Spirit.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 159

The promise is that we are developing our capacity as human beings to do the things that God does with the greatest of ease: to forgive, to show compassion, to respect everyone, and to experience oneness with everyone.

Thomas Keating, Reflections on the Unknowable

When we learn to descend with our mind into our heart, then all those who have become part of our lives are led into the healing presence of God and touched by him in the center of our being. We are speaking here about a mystery for which words are inadequate.

It is the mystery that the heart, which is the center of our being, is transformed by God into his own heart, a heart large enough to embrace the entire universe. Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all hunger, loneliness, and misery, because God’s heart has become one with ours.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 7/20/20

The path of knowing involves emptying the mind, which leads to union. The path of being involves filling the heart, which leads to union. Here the two begin to merge as love and wisdom into a larger experience of self. For when the heart is open and the mind is clear, they are of one substance, of one essence.

Stephen Levine, Who Dies, p. 69

Contemplative minds and hearts such as those of Francis and Clare are alone prepared to hand on the Great Mystery from age to age and from person to person. The utilitarian and calculating mind distorts the message at its core. The contemplative, nondual mind inherently creates a great “communion of saints,” which is so obviously scattered, hidden, and amorphous that no one can say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” but instead it is always “among you” (Luke 17:21)—invisible and uninteresting to most, but obvious and ecstatic to those who seek (see Matthew 22:14).  

Richard Rohr, CAC Morning Devo, 10/4/24

The goal of the spiritual journey is to discover and move toward connectedness on ever new levels. We may begin by making little connections with other people, with nature and animals, then grow into deeper connectedness with people. Finally, we can experience full connectedness as union with God.

Richard Rohr, CAC Daily Devotion, 6/1/20

Faith is to trust that an intrinsic union exists between us and God; contemplation is how we can experience this union. Any authentic knowing of God happens when you have just allowed God to know and love you-exactly as you are. 1 Cor 13:12 “Then you know as fully as you are known.”

Richard Rohr

Our Union with others is essential to our union with God, and our union with God is essential to our union with others. Neither one supersedes the other; rather, each presupposes the other. Each one properly pursued leads to the other. If Christian service is authentic, it gradually deepens our desire to see directly the face of God reflected in the faces of our brothers and sisters.

James Finley, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, p. 40-41

The very nature of God is to seek out the deepest possible communion and friendship with every last creature on this earth.

Catherine LaCuna