St Gregory Palamas

St. Gregory tells us that Christ is unique in that the union of human nature with His divine Person is hypostatic or in more modern terms, personal. But the consequence of this hypostatic union, namely, the exchange of the natural properties of each of His two natures, serves as a model for our own salvation and, of course, deification or Theosis. What is true of Christ’s humanity can also be true for us – by grace or by God’s help. It is a gift given to us by God if we freely and with faith give ourselves to the task of personal transformation.

This is how salvation, according to St. Gregory, is understood in the Eastern Church. It is not understood in merely moral or ethical terms, but as the attainment of Christ-like perfection. This is what is meant when we sing, especially at Baptism, All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, Alleluia. This is the purpose of human existence – to become by divine grace what Christ is by nature.

This is a high calling indeed, and one which only God Himself can accomplish in us. But it is attainable, and the Church sets before us the example of St. Gregory on the Second Weekend of the Great Fast, precisely in order to emphasize the importance of personal experience in the life of the Church.

On the first weekend of the Great Fast we will celebrate the Triumph of the True Faith which was achieved when iconoclasm was branded as heretical. We will celebrate the fact that, by keeping the Faith which those who have gone before us – the faith confessed by all those who through the ages have become Christlike – we too may come to know the Truth which is Christ. So, we receive our Christian Faith through those men and women who have successfully followed the WAY which Christ revealed to us. The teachings or doctrines of the Church are like a map that points us in the direction of salvation, of eternal union with God. We learn, therefore, from those who have been tried and tested, and who, by means of Christlike humility, have emerged from the good fight as victors. That is why, in his first sermon on the Transfiguration, St. Gregory writes: We believe what we have been taught by those enlightened by Christ, things which they alone can know with certainty.

I would encourage you to think about St. Gregory’s description of salvation during the Great Fast. It is the goal or this earthly life to become, by divine grace, what Christ is, by nature. The Great Fast is meant to help us actualize the potential God has given us to grow in His Likeness.