Participating in the Divine

[boccaderlupo]

I wish to elucidate, so far as I can, a subject that is as subtle as it is profound. The infinite and bodiless Lord, who is beyond being, in His infinite bounty embodies and, so to say, reduces Himself so that He can commingle with the intelligible beings that He has created—with, that is, the souls of saints and of angels—thereby making it possible for them to participate in the immortal life of His own divinity. Now each thing—whether angel, soul or demon—is, in conformity with its own nature, a body. No matter how subtle it may be, each thing possesses a body whose subtlety in substance, form and image corresponds to the subtlety of its own nature. In the case of human beings the soul, which is a subtle body, has enveloped and clothed itself in the members of our visible body, which is gross in substance. It has clothed itself in the eye, through which it sees; in the ear, through which it hears; in the hand, the nose. In short, the soul has clothed itself in the whole visible body and all its members, becoming commingled with them, and through them accomplishing everything it does in this life. In the same way, in His unutterable and inconceivable bounty Christ reduces and embodies Himself, commingling with and embracing the soul that aspires to Him with faith and love and, as St Paul puts it (cf I Cor. 6:17), becoming one spirit with it. His soul united with our soul and His Person with our person. Thus such a soul lives and has its being in His divinity, attaining immortal life and delighting in incorruptible pleasure and inexpressible glory. — St. Macarius of Egypt, as paraphrased by St. Symeon Metaphrastis, The Raising of the Intellect

Buon Natale a tutti!