I have been sharing in this article the thoughts of Maximus the Confessor on divinization and spiritual progress. He taught that the experience of God is a type of knowledge that is based on active engagement or relationship with God that surpasses all reason. For Maximus this is expressed by resting in God or a type of participation in God which manifests itself beyond all conceptualization.
In union with God, the faithful finally possess not just a part of the fullness but rather acquire through participation the entire fullness of grace. Maximus celebrates the end, whereby the redeemed are now divinized by love and made like God by participation in an indivisible identity to the extent that this is possible. In the union that is beyond nature, the human being’s energies are no longer driven by nature but by God’s grace.
I realize that this may be difficult to truly comprehend. One of the problems is that the use of such terms as grace makes it all the more confusing. It would seem that Maximus is saying that the journey of life that we are on – and this may be a journey that lasts an eternity since human life is immortal – is one that brings us ever closer to union with God. This Union with God, I believe, means that we come to a true understanding of Who God Is and begin to experience the Union that exists between God and us.
Maximus, like the other Eastern Fathers who taught about Theosis, all suggest that this union with God does not come about from just keeping a set of laws. Rather Theosis requires our active involvement in coming to a deeper and more real relationship with God. This means not only living as Jesus lived but also reflecting upon our relationship with God and doing everything in our power to make the relationship real. So union with God does not come as some reward for not being bad or sinful, in the common understanding of these words. Union with God is the result of our efforts to be in a relationship with Him. Of course part of being in a relationship with Him requires us to live as Jesus lived and to live as God intended us to live when He created us.
Maximus writes: For what is more desirable to God’s precious one than to be divinized, that is for God to be united with those who have become god and by his goodness to make everything his own. God created us to be in union with Him. That is why the Church developed the concept of humans being the children of God. We have been made in His image and likeness. It will take an eternity to fully realize our union with Him and to become aware of our true relationship with Him. A real part of divinization is coming to know, within the limitations of our human capacity to know things, that we are one with God and that He, in His love for us, shares His very life with us.