My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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KNOW THE FAITH (IV)
SALVATION IS SYNERGY
We also understand salvation to be synergistic--it requires participation by God and man. This is not a just a fifty-fifty proposition but requires one hundred percent from God and one hundred percent from man. God plays the primary part by making it possible for man to be saved through His work of redemption and by His unending love and mercy. And God continually seeks man's salvation, awaiting his return like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal son. But man has an essential part as well, the part of cooperation and incorporation, since God has given free will to His creatures. God does not predestine anyone (Protestant theology) to salvation or condemnation; rather, He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4).
The Church has characterized the process of salvation in various ways. One of the most common models of what salvation is has been expressed as a progression in three stages:
Purification
Illumination, and
Sanctification (Deification or Theosis).
Purification of the heart, we are taught, is the first and most difficult stage of repentance whereby we seek to uproot every sinful passion from the heart so that the grace of God can do the work of transformation and healing. This is the very practical, daily effort to deny ourselves, to bear our cross while trusting in God, to keep Christ's commandments, and to conform our deeds, words, and thoughts to His will.
In his work, Indication of the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, Saint Innocent of Alaska provides a helpful description of self-denial: "To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits, to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts or desires; to suppress every evil thought; not to desire to do anything out of self-love, but to do everything out of love for God."
If God's grace is to penetrate and abide in the heart, the heart must be purified from evil desire. When a farmer seeks to plant a seed, he must first till or soften the soil. The same is true in the spiritual life. The Saints warn about the dangers awaiting those who claim to understand the things of God but have not "been previously purified in the soul and body, or at the very least are being purified." For they often become puffed up by pride rather than filled with grace. Saint Maximos the Confessor famously teaches, "Theology without practice is a theology of demons."
In Jesus' Parable of the sower and the seed, the heart is the ground and the seed is God's word of grace. A heart that is purified is the "good ground" (Matthew 13:8) that receives and grows the seed of the word of God. Jesus praises those who "hear [receive) the word of God and keep it" (Luke 11:28).
The purification of the heart occurs by God's grace through our obedience to His Commandments and our desire to "cast of the works of darkness" (Romans 13:12) in order to be unified to Christ. Saint John the Baptist is certainly an example of one whose heart was purified of evil desire and free of fear. The disciples of Christ were being purified in the three years they accompanied Christ in His Ministry; purification of the heart is also the purpose and goal of the period of preparation for baptism, known as the catechumenate.
Without purification from the influence of the sinful passions, the grace of God cannot fully illumine and sanctify the soul with its light and power. Saint Macarius the Great (300-390 A.D.) provides us with a representative teaching:
"Unless the man who is under the influence of the passions will come to God, denying the world, and will believe with patience and hope...such a man will never experience true life...the enlightenment of the Spirit will never shine in that benighted soul...and so come to know God of a truth through God's power and the efficacy of grace."
Those who have reached a state of comprehensive purification are also called "dispassionate," as they are no longer disturbed or swayed by passions. In that state, they begin to discern the spiritual reality (essence) of created things and enjoy enduring communion with God.
A heart that is purified can then be illuminated fully by God's grace. This condition of spiritual illumination is the second stage of the Christian life. To be purified and illuminated means are the pure of heart, / For they shall see god" (Matthew 5:8). The Church Holy Fathers teach that Adam and Eve were created in the spiritual condition of illumination. Therefore, Adam knew "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), though he was asleep when God formed her. When one is fully illuminated by God's grace, he has continual converse with God and continual prayer in his heart. (Source: Know the Faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers by Rev. Michael Shanbour)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George