It is important to remember that the Greek Fathers stressed that in Christ Jesus we find man’s rightful place, “on the right hand of the Father,” sharing in the divine Life; but, as with the two natures in Christ, man has been called to be united with God without mixture or confusion of any kind, that is to say, we never cease to be   His creatures, since He alone is Uncreated. This fundamental distinction is, truly of inestimable significance in Patristic theology.

Because of the union of our human nature to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, human life takes on a whole new meaning. It literally reveals to us the connectedness between human life and God. The Greek Fathers explain how Jesus Christ is both God and man by talking about the interpenertration of the natural energy of each of the two natures in Christ in the other. While this, I am sure, seems very difficult to understand, the Fathers use a Gospel story as an illustration of this. The Gospel story is about the Lord’s Transfiguration on Tabor. In this story we first see Christ praying, performing, that is, an act which is proper to His human but not to His divine nature; while moments later, we find His humanity sharing in, indeed resplendent with, His divine glory, which is proper to the divine nature. St. Cyril of Alexandria describes the scene in this way: The blessed disciples slept for a short while, as Christ gave Himself to prayer. For He voluntarily fulfilled His human obligations. Later, on waking they became beholders of His most holy and wondrous change.

One spiritual writer points out that the union of the human nature in Christ is of course hypostatic, that is to say, that Christ is a divine Person, the Person of the Son and Word of God; but, it is equally important to note that the union of the two natures in Christ is also energetic. The significance of this energetic interpenetration of the divine and human natures in each other is of paramount importance for us human beings in that it forms the basis of our own union with God, which is also energetic and not essential or hypostatic. In other words, it proves to   us that the example of Christ is also realizable, also attainable, by us human persons, and that theosis to the point of divine perfection, far from being optional, is in fact and obligation. It is in this sense that the Fathers understand the exhortation: Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

I am sure that as I continue providing information, this will become clearer. I think the important thing to note is that God’s incarnation reveals the truth about our human nature.