As may have become obvious to those who read all the various articles in my Bulletin, it is quite clear that the Eastern Church sees the goal of life’s journey as each person’s acquisition of the Mind of Christ. Jesus Christ is the proto-archetypal man. He reveals to us not only perfect God, but also perfect man, as man is intended to be, showing us the potential of everyone born into this world. This potential is to have the “fullness of the Godhead dwelling in us” (Col 2:9), not by nature, but by Grace, so “that we might become partakers of the Divine Nature (II Peter 1:4) and truly be “temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 6:19). To deny the Lord Jesus Christ is to deny our true selves, “hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). The purpose for which we were created is that we might know God and through this knowledge (communion) become eternal, sharing in God’s very life.

Hopefully, the above makes sense to my readers since I have, during the past, tried to present theosis in several different ways. I have repeatedly suggested that we must learn how to think like Christ and to replace any attitudes of mind that we have which are not in concert with the attitudes of Christ.

Indeed from the first moments of our life within the Church we have heard this. At baptism the Church proclaims: All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ! The only things of Christ that we can put on are, of course, His ways of thinking and behaving.

How do we do this, you may ask? First we must realize that our thinking has a huge impact on how we live and act. Indeed our thoughts determine our lives and we must realize that modern media does much to shape our ideas and thinking. We must, constantly examine the way we think, realizing that we are susceptible to the great influence that our society has on our ideas about life. We must continuously work at attempting to put on Christ – and put off old ways of thinking, habits and perspectives. Only the radical change afforded to us by profound repentance has the potential to remake us in the likeness of Christ.

Again, this process of growing in Christ’s likeness requires that we constantly reflect upon how we think and act and continuously make small adjustments so that we truly can say that we are one with the Mind of Christ. It is, of course, all a matter of personal choice. We are called to voluntarily do these things.