Paul R Smith makes some interesting points about divinization. What does it mean? How does it impact our actions? What does it motivate us to share? [1]
” One of the earliest Christian beliefs was called deification, divinization, or theosis. It meant participating in God’s divinity by coming into the union with God that Jesus demonstrated. This results in our being one with God. It means knowing God like Jesus knew God. He knew that God was not only beyond him, and close to him, but that in some way God was him. He claimed to be acting and speaking on behalf of God. Like Jesus, we are also one with God. We are God’s mind, heart, hands, and feet here on earth today. Like Jesus, we are fully human and fully divine. We are God’s children, acting as full participants in our Father-Mother’s divinity by overcoming our mistaken identity that we are separate from God. This Oneness consciousness moves us to act as divine agents in healing the Earth, overcoming poverty, eliminating hunger, stopping oppression, and ending war. It motivates us to share the Good News that we all belong to God and one another.”
Just because we participate in God’s divinity does not mean we are God. We will never be God. We can however know God like Jesus knew God. I believe that my silent prayer practice, centering prayer, is my time to sit with Jesus. I enter silent union with God. I let go of me and open my whole being, my mind, heart and body to God who is beyond my thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. I empty myself so that God has the best opportunity to pray in me. I am both fully human and fully divine with a little “d”. I call it little “d” because I am not God but I participate in God’s divinity when God prays in me. I think the idea of God being within scares some people. God is not a distant God looking down at us. God loves us and is the breath within our very breath.
I arise from my silent sit ready to act on God’s Inner nudges. These Inner nudges are uniquely designed just for me. They are the actions God wishes me to take in the world just for that very day. Here are some examples that I have noticed from my silent sits: wisdom for daily tasks at work or at home, friends or relatives that I should reconnect with for breakfast, lunch or dinner, a spontaneous outing with my wife and children after work or on the weekend, a nudge to volunteer at the local soup kitchen or discover who my employer assists in the community so I can join this effort, a sit with my wife to talk or enjoy a good movie while we drink a cup of our favorite French press coffee.
Silent prayer unites me with God. Silent prayer spurs Inner actions that I make visible in my outer world. Silent prayer teaches me that God is always present: ahead of me waiting to meet me, walking beside me and resting within me. These presences of God stay with me as I arise from my silent sit and move through my daily tasks and duties. At any moment during the day, when I feel discouraged, tired, burned out, or frustrated, a silent pause will reconnect me with the beyond me, beside me and inner presences of God.
I agree with Smith. It is Good News! We belong to God. We belong to and with others. We are all one connected community: family, friends, neighbors, city/town, work environment, country, world. We are not alone. We have each other and God!
Go Further
Paul R Smith, Is Your God Big Enough? Close Enough? You Enough?: Jesus and the Three Faces of God
Paul R Smith, Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve
Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots
David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God
[1] Is Your God Big Enough? Close Enough? You Enough?: Jesus and the Three Faces of God by Paul R
Smith
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