Holiness, Perfection,
Sanctification, Divinisation
“Without holiness no one
can see God” (Heb.12:16). “In this
way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the Devil: Anyone
not living a holy life is no child of God”. (1
John 3:10) “God has called us to become partakers of the Divine Nature”. (2 Pet. 1:3)
“It’s important to realize that there is only one choice, either to undergo complete transformation and enter heaven, or be eternally separated from God in hell. There are only two ultimate destinations, and if we want to enter heaven we must be made ready for the sight of God. Holiness isn’t an “option”. There are only saints in heaven; TOTAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOT AN “OPTION” FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THAT SORT OF THING, BUT IS ESSENTIAL FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH GOD.
Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which on one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)
The whole purpose of our creation, the whole purpose of our redemption is so that we may be fully united with God in every aspect of our being. We exist for union; we were created for union; we were redeemed for eternal union. The sooner we are transformed the happier and more “fulfilled” we’ll be. The only way to fulfilment of all desire is to undertake and complete the journey to God. (2)
“There can be no union with the divine without self-renunciation. For the New Ager, this consists in divesting the “unreal” personal self in order to unite with the impersonal Oneness, the divine universal Spirit. For the Christian, it means death to sin and life in conformity to God’s will (Eph. 4:22-24). This is the work of a life time, enabled and sustained by God’s grace. Those who die in the state of grace, but did not in this life achieve spiritual perfection, must undergo that process of maturation and growth towards full transformation in Christ, which the Catholic knows as “Purgatory.” Residual sin and its effects have no place in a Heaven of perfect love and communion with the Trinity (Rev. 21:27 –‘nothing unclean shall enter Heaven’)” (3)
Kocik refers above to Ephesians 4:22-24 which states: “You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth”.
In the same chapter 4 of Ephesians, St. Paul states ... “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love.” (Eph. 4:15f)
Union with the Prince of the Universe:
St Paul says “we are to grow up in every way...into Christ”... So C. S. Lewis can confidently write “What we have been told is how we people can be drawn into Christ - can become part of that wonderful present which the young Prince of the Universe wants to offer to His Father - that present which is Himself and therefore us in Him. It is the only thing we were made for.” (4)
C. S. Lewis here probably has St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in mind: “After that will come the end when Christ hands over the Kingdom of God the Father... and when everything is subjected to Him, then the Son himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to Him so that God may be all in all”. (1 Cor. 15:24; 28)
Return of the King:
The universal Catechism of the Catholic Church talks of the return of the King: “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is never the less yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the King’s return to earth”. (CCC 671)
To become a ‘little Christ’ we need to have the abundant life that Christ promised. Jesus stated: “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”. (Jn. 10:10)
Abundant Life
Obviously Jesus did not come so that we could have life as we know it because we already have life – we are alive; so He is clearly speaking about a life that we do not yet have and which must be obtained and He came to show us how to obtain it. So the importance of the Word of God which “teaches us to be holy”. (cf 2 Tim. 3:15). Of course we can admire God’s Word but not be able to keep it! (cf Rom. 7:18f). Solution? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” St. Paul triumphantly acclaims in Romans 7:25. But more accurately it could be stated: through the Spirit of Jesus Christ “who comes to help us in our weakness” (Rom. 8:26), day after day so no genuine Christian can say ‘I am as strong as an ox but when temptation comes I am as weak as a baby’! St. Paul often quotes the activity of the Spirit and the risen Christ in Romans (8:2; 9-11). And this Holy Spirit is “God’s gift to those who obey His Word”. (Acts 5:32)
The Gospel of St. John, chapter 10 vs. 10 could just as easily be worded: “I came so that you might have the Life of God” or “I have come that that you might have Life, the superior Life of God”.
Eternal Life Now:
This superior Life of God begins here and now on this earth: “Our new life comes from the presence of Jesus within us through his indwelling Spirit. We are given this new Life now, not just when our mortal bodies die. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of baptised believers “as having tasted the power of the age to come”. (Heb. 6:5)”. (5)
This is what Jesus means when He says: “This is eternal life: to know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. (Jn. 17:32) This is to ‘know’ in the Biblical sense of John 10:14. In Biblical language ‘knowledge’ is not merely the conclusion of an intellectual process but the fruit of an ‘experience’, a personal contact (cf Jn. 10:14-15; 14:20) and when it matures it is love (cf 1 Jn. 1:3). In Genesis Adam ‘knew’ his wife Eve and she conceived a son (Gen. 4:1). He who is united to the Lord becomes on spirit with Him. (1 Cor. 6:17) and we share in the divinity of Christ (2 Pet. 1:3) who humbled himself to share in our humanity. (Philippians 2:6f)
Divinisation (Theosis)
St. Athanasius (296-373) coined the phrase “The Son of God became man so that we might become God”. C. S. Lewis on first reading St. Athanasius’ book On the Incarnation said he was reading a “masterpiece”. In this apocalyptic age that we live in, a lot of people seem to be drawn to books on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell and Heaven (including Purgatory) and also on Divinisation or Sanctification. Jared Ortiz in his new book With All The Fullness of God: Deification in Christian Tradition (Fortress Press, 2021): shows that deification is an integral part of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and many Protestant denominations. How could it be otherwise if we read the Scriptures: e.g. “We shall be like Him” (1 Jn. 3:2) or “Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement without fear because even in this world we have become as He is” (1 Jn. 4:17). This is why so many Christians like C. S. Lewis ask for the intercession of the Saints on earth or in Heaven because they are “like Him” or “have become as He is”. He who is united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with Him (cf 1 Cor. 6:17)
So obviously he who is not united to the Lord does not become one spirit with Him! He is grieving the Spirit (Eph. 4:29f) or resisting the Holy Spirit as St. Stephen warns in Acts 7:51: “You are always resisting the Holy Spirit”. That’s why sanctification is so important: holiness is of the Holy Spirit and sanctification is of the Sanctifier. To delay or resist holiness or transformation is to sin against the Holy Spirit and “anyone not living a holy life is no child of God” - but a child of the Devil. (cf 1 John 3:10).
The Holy Spirit in the Spiritual Life:
God the Holy Spirit, being Himself the LOVE which “proceeds from the Father and the Son” is continually acting on the life of each Christian and on the entire Church. He has the protagonistic task of sanctifying us, that is, making us holy or better, making us “other Christs” and sanctifying the entire Church, Her Spouse.
His action in the spiritual life of a Christian is indispensable and innumerable:
- During Baptism, He dwells in our soul, giving us the sanctifying grace which make us Christians, children of God, brothers of Christ, and His temple, together with the cohort of graces and theological virtues.
- He makes us see God in everything, divinising not only our thoughts, words and actions but the sources of our action as well our intellect our will and our affectivity.
In the Catholic tradition coming under the sway of the Holy Spirit is called “docility to the Holy Spirit”. “Docility is an attitude which makes one truly want to be helped and guided by God the Holy Spirit, living in conformity with what He wants from us in each moment... Docility is a necessary condition for spiritual progress. (6) Relevant here is St. Paul’s demand: “We urge you to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live”. (1 Thess. 4:1)
Holiness is Happiness
“The happier you are in God, the holier you are. Most people tend to think that striving to be holy snatches away your happiness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because holiness is measured by your love for God. The greater your love for God, the greater your hatred for sin. God is the most valuable and majestic and wonderful thing in the universe. We were made to delight in Him. But when our hearts become enamoured by something other than Him, here’s what happens: we exchange Him for that thing. That what the Bible calls idolatry. You know why we make this exchange? Because we believe that thing will bring us more happiness than God. A soul completely satisfied and mesmerised by the beauty of God is wonderfully happy and stays far away from anything that could be sinful. Thus, that person is holy”.
(Jonathan Moseley,
Holiness is Happiness, WWW)
Without spiritual joy or
happiness or delight in the Lord we can be tempted to find illicit pleasure.
St. Francis said
“When the spirit is lukewarm
and gradually cooling to grace, flesh and blood needs seek their own. What is
left, when the soul finds no delights in spiritual things, but that flesh turns
to its own kind and the animal appetite uses the argument of necessity as an
excuse. Then the carnal sense shapes a person’s conscience”.
We are exhorted by St. Paul “to put off the old man and put on the new man” (Eph. 4:22) and we must think of ourselves as dead to sin and alive with a life that looks now towards God. (cf Romans 6:1f. and 8:11). There is no room for mortal or deadly sin (1 Jn. 5:16) as that kills the precious grace of sanctification, the work of “the sanctifying Spirit”. (2 Thess. 2:13f). Being docile to the Holy Spirit demands absolute purity (a gift of the Spirit) or for the carnal spirit of impurity or sexual arousal impedes the work of the “Spirit of Grace”. (Heb. 10:29)
The Biblical scholar Frances Hogan in her work Called to Holiness has I think a very helpful illustration on the caterpillar to illustrate how “the old man in us must give way before the new man in Christ. The lower nature must yield to the higher nature if we are to be more than just animals. Nature must give way to grace if we are to respond to the call to holiness. This is not so much a process of dying as a process of transformation”, Hogan maintains. “The caterpillar crawls on the ground, with its vision too narrow and limited for a higher life. Its existence is self-centred. It spends its time eating and growing, with no reference to other life forms around it. This process is so engrossing that it is unaware that it leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. One can trace it through the partial use of all the greenery in its path. This can be seen as a symbol of the irresponsible use of the resources of life. Besides, its life is both sluggish and slow. It is a consumer, not a producer”...
“Nevertheless, if it agrees to die to itself, it can be transformed into a very useful butterfly, and it will also be freed from all its constraints. It must weave a cocoon around itself, and cease all its former activities to concentrate its energy on the transformation of its whole being. Patience, time and the mysteries inherent in nature will do the rest. At the due time it emerges into a whole new life as a glorious butterfly, able to fly over all the places where it crawled before. Its ability to fly gives it a greater vision of life and its possibilities. It is now gloriously free. No longer does it leave a trail of destruction in its wake. On the contrary, it gives an essential service to flowers that depend on it for their life processes.
The caterpillar had to change in order to get its wings, and so do we, if life is not to fall on top of us a heavy weight that we cannot sustain. We must be transformed even for the sake of all other creatures inhabiting the planet, if we are not to continue to leave a trail of destruction behind in the deforestation of whole regions of the earth, in the destruction of species of animals every year, and of the environment itself. The other creatures need us, but as people who can fly spiritually, thus gloriously manifesting God’s presence in love and holiness, and restoring paradise to all. Romans 8:19-21 says this clearly: “the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed... (so that it) might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God”.
This transformation must be seen as vital both for individuals and nations, and as an essential service to the human race. Nature is filled with parables which proclaim the need for this death/life process. Jesus used one in John 12:24-26 referring to his own death/resurrection mystery which was to make transformation into holiness possible for everyone. “In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it. Anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”.
Here we are asked to consider the short and long term effects of our life decisions. If we live for the world and the flesh exclusively, then we do so at the cost of our salvation. But if, for the sake of the greater good, we are prepared to sacrifice temporary and ephemeral things in order to take care of the kingdom of God, we gain eternal life. In other words the loss is temporary but the gain is eternal. But if we live for the flesh only then the loss is eternal and the gain is even questionable in the short term”. (8)
Perhaps one of the most popular saints for all Christians was St. Francis is Assisi. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the Mirror of Perfection. He grew up in a part of Italy evangelised much earlier by Celtic monks who lived in great harmony with animals and nature and St. Francis imbibed that wonderful spirit. A contemporary wrote of him:
“For he had reached such purity that his flesh was in remarkable harmony with his spirit and his spirit with God. As a result God ordained that creation which serves its Maker, should be subject in an extraordinary way to his will and command”.
(St. Bonaventure,
Major Legend, Ch 5)
Hogan lists the means to holiness, of living a holy life: The Church, the Sacraments, the Eucharist, personal prayer, the Holy Scriptures, keeping the commandments, doing the will of God, service to one’s neighbour and carrying one’s cross in union with the Lord. She says this is not an exhaustive list (p.21)
1. The Church:
Is “the pillar and the ground of truth”. (1 Tim. 3:15) But not any church, only the church Jesus called ‘my Church’ built on the rock of Peter. This Jesus taught at Caesarea Philippi: (Mt. 16:10f) then a mass of idolatrous pagan temples with bizarre or immoral rites built round a great cave in the rock face called the “gate to the underworld” and Jesus promised in that hideous pagan place that the demonic occult world would never prevail against His “Church” (note singular, not plural).
The Bible tells us that God’s authoritative Word is to be found in the Church: her tradition (2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6) as well as her preaching and teaching ‘the magisterium’ (1 Pet. 1:25; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Mt. 18:17).
The ancient creeds note 4 marks of the Church: One (Eph. 4:5) Holy (Eph. 5:27) Catholic (Eph. 2:19) and Apostolic (Eph 2:20). Perhaps we can add a 5th mark to the Church: it is not exclusively pure but contains weeds and wheat, good and bad fish (Mt. 13:24f) until the Last Judgement!
2. Sacraments:
The word of God which is the ‘Sword of the Spirit’ (Eph. 6:17) lists no fewer than 25 references to the Sacraments in John’s Gospel alone, showing their importance. St. Leo the Great said: “what was visible in Christ passed over into the Sacraments of the Church”.
3. The Eucharist:
Jesus said that “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I abide in him”. (Jn. 6:56) In the same chapter 6 Jesus tells us four times that if we do not eat the holy bread and wine, we do not have life in us, we cannot be saved. Jesus may have been joking but we ignore the Word of God to our own peril. Jesus also said: “whoever eats me will draw life from me” (Jn. 6:57) – the very life of God. St Cyril said: “Wherefore with full assurance let us partake as of the Body and Blood of Christ: for in the figure of Bread is given to you His Body, and in the figure of Wine His Blood; that you by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ may be made of the same body and the same Blood with Him. For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because His Body and Blood are distributed through our members; thus it is that, according to the blessed Peter, we become partakers of the divine nature 2 Peter 1:4”
St Cyril of Jerusalem (c.315-386)
4.
Holy Scriptures:
5. Personal Prayer
Finally sanctification is often a quiet, hidden process but of course we have the fruits of the Holy Spirit namely love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self control (Gal. 5:22) to gauge and monitor how we are progressing. This quiet hidden process reminds me of the Parable of the Growing Seed: “a man sleeps, rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26f.). As a person grows in years the body grows weak but the spiritual self should be growing strong (2 Cor. 4:16) until one day we arrive at everlasting splendour or horror as C. S. Lewis suggests:
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendours” (Weight of Glory)
(St. Augustine. D.O.
II, P.600)
References:
1. Jerry Walls, C. S. Lewis Believed in Purgatory for Heaven’s Sake. www.
2. Ralph Martin, The
Fulfilment of All Desire, Emmaus Road, 2006, pages 1, 7-8
3. Fr Thomas Kocik, No
Other Gods... www.
4. C. S. Lewis, Mere
Christianity.
5. The Word Among Us,
April 1991, p. 31
6. www Catholics striving
for Holiness. orig.
7. www Jonathan Moseley,
Holiness is Happiness.
8. Frances Hogan, Called
to Holiness, Kolbe Press, Harare 1990.
Appendix 1:
Scripture Texts on Holiness or Sanctification
Ralph Martin above states that “holiness isn’t an ‘option’ for those interested in that sort of thing. But is essential for those who want to spend eternity with God”. The texts below support this.
We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (ccc):
‘God fashioned man with His own hands [that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh He had fashioned, in such a way that even what was visible might bear the Divine form’. (1)
The Spirit of the promise
Disfigured by sin and death, man remains ‘in the image of God’, in the image of the Son, but is deprived ‘of the glory of God’, (2) of His ‘likeness’. The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that ‘image’, (3) and restore it in the Father’s ‘likeness’ by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is ‘the giver of life’.
The holiness of God is the inaccessible centre of His eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls ‘glory’, the radiance of His majesty. (4) In making man in His image and likeness, God ‘crowned him with glory and honour’, but by sinning, man fell ‘short of the glory of God’. (5) From that time on, God was to manifest His holiness by revealing and giving His name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator. (6)
In the waters of Baptism, we have been ‘washed...sanctified... justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God’. (7) Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since ‘He is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and... sanctification’, (8) both His glory and our life depend on the hallowing of His name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition in the Lord’s Prayer.
“By whom is God hallowed, since He is the one who hallows? But since He said, ‘You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy’, we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, so that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually... We pray that this sanctification may remain in us”. (9)
1. St. Irenaeus, Dem.ap. II: SCh 62, 48-49.
2.
Rom. 3:23
3.
Cf. Jn. 1:14; Phil. 2:7
4.
Cf. Ps. 8; Is. 6:3
5.
Ps. 8:5; Rom. 3:23; cf. Gen. 1:26
6.
Col. 3:10
7.
1 Cor. 6:11
8.
1 Cor. 1:30; cf. 1 Thes. 4:7
9.
St. Cyprian, De Dom, orat. 12: PL 4, 543-544; Lev. 20:26
CCC 704/5; 2809/13
God said: ‘Let us make man in our own image and likeness’. (Genesis 1:26) Be holy for I Yahweh your God am holy. (Levit. 11:44; 19:2; 20:7)
Jesus said: ‘You must be perfect [or holy] as your Holy Father is perfect’. (Mt. 5:48)
‘If
you will be perfect’... (Mt. 19:21) ...‘to serve the Lord in holiness and
justice all the days of our life’. (Lk. 1:75)
Jesus said: Whoever eats me will draw life from me (Jn. 6:57) I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. (Jn. 10:10)
Jesus said: That they may all be one even as you Father are in Me and I in you that they also may be in us... may they be perfectly one... (Jn. 17:21f)
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him... (Rom. 6:8-11)
But now you have been set free from sin... the return you get is sanctification its end eternal life. (Rom. 6:22)
I appeal to you therefore brethren... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. (Rom. 12:1)
It is God Himself who called you to share in the life of His son. (1 Cor. 6:9)
He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. (1 Cor. 6:17)
And we with unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
As the body grows weak, the Spirit grows strong. (2 Cor. 4:16)
Let us wash off all that can soil either body or spirit to reach perfection of holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 7:1)
You must take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5)
Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. (Gal. 5:25)
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. (Eph. 1:4)
May the Father give you the power through His Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong... until you are filled with the utter fullness of God. (Eph. 3:16f)
In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ Himself. (Eph. 4:13)
Go on being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18)
I am quite certain that the one who began this good work in you will see it is finished when the Day of Christ comes. (Phil. 1:6)
Our life is a process towards perfection. (cf. Phil 3:7f)
Fill your minds, with everything that is true, noble, good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise, this do and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:8-9)
At one time you were far away from God and were His enemies... but now God has made you His friends in order to bring you holy, pure and faultless into His presence. (Col. 1:21f)
Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with Him. (Col: 2:6)
... put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col 3:14)
Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Col. 3:17)
God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctifying Spirit...He called you to this so that you should share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes. 2:13f)
May God so confirm your heart in holiness... (1 Thes. 3:13)
You must go on making more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live. (1 Thes. 4:1. J.B.)
What God wants is for you all to be holy. (1 Thes. 4:3f)
God has called us to be holy not to be immoral. (1 Thes. 4:6)
May God sanctify you wholly. (1 Thes. 5:23)
God chose you from the beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit. (2 Thes. 2:13)
God has saved us and called us to be holy. (2 Tim. 1:9)
All Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy...
This is how the man who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work. (2 Tim. 3:15)
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered and being made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (Heb. 5:8)
For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (Heb. 10:14)
STRIVE FOR HOLINESS WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD. (Heb. 12:14)
So you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. (Jas. 1:4)
Greetings to all who have been chosen by God the Father to be made holy by the Spirit. (1 Pet. 1:1f)
As obedient children... as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct since it is written ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’. (1 Pet 1:14f)
God has called us to His own glory... and become partakers of the Divine nature. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. [i.e. a life of moral excellence]. (2 Pet. 1:3f)
But whoever keeps His Word, in him truly love for God is perfected. (1 Jn. 2:5)
We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in Him is living the same kind of life as Christ lived. (1 Jn. 2:6)
We shall be like Him [i.e. partakers of divinity]. (1 Jn. 3:2)
Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of judgement without fear because even in this world we have become as He is. (1Jn. 4:17)
Jesus said SO FAR I HAVE FAILED TO NOTICE ANYTHING IN THE WAY YOU LIVE THAT MY GOD COULD CALL PERFECT. (Rev. 3:2)
Quotations:
“The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of the Spirit of God”.
(Blaise Pascal – philosopher)
VATICAN COUNCIL ON HOLINESS (The Second Vatican Council was the meeting of the worldwide Catholic bishops)
“Therefore all the faithful are invited and obliged to holiness and the perfection of their own state of life”.
(Lumen Gentium 42)
Pope John Paul II described the strive for holiness as “the most important demand of the 2nd Vatican Council”.
“The followers of Christ are to have the fruits of the Spirit for their sanctification”. (Cf. Gal. 5:22: Rom. 6:22)
(Lumen Gentium 40)
“The
Lord Jesus Christ is one, the one true Son, who is both God and man. He is not
deified as we are by grace, but rather is true God made manifest in human form
for us”.
(St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 374 to 444) D.O. 3 p 75*)
See also Sine-Glossa.blogspot.com
1. Baptism in the Holy Spirit
2. Confirmation
(abridged)
3. Confirmation
reflections
4. Desire for God
5. Life in the Spirit
Seminars
6. New life in the
Spirit
...
