ON THE GRACE OF GOD

"How shall we escape," asks the Holy Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews, "if we neglect so great salvation...?"  For according to the Holy Fathers of the Church, salvation consists not merely in God's formal, legal pardon of our sins, that we might "go to heaven" when we die.  It is, rather, that we might become (according to the words of St. Peter) "partakers of the divine nature," transformed by divine grace into His sons and daughters.  As the Holy Fathers affirm, God became man, that we sinful ones might become gods by grace.

But what, precisely, is this grace by which we hope to be transformed?  It is not, contrary to the teachings of the Latins, something God creates and adds onto our human nature. It is, as St. Gregory of Palamas expounds, the uncreated energy of God, His Holy Spirit imparted to the heart that has been purified and delivered from every worldly attachment and thereby rendered worthy of true and eternal life in God's heavenly Kingdom.

By grace, the eternal and living God is closer to the human soul than the very air we breathe.  Like red hot iron that has been plunged into a fire, the all-consuming fire of God's love draws us into a communion so deep that it is no longer possible to distinguish that boundary that separates the merely human from the divine.  

Because, as St. John the Theologian assures us, God is love, the fire of divine grace enkindles in the heart a love so intense that it utterly consumes every egotistic, self-centered thought and desire that lurks in our fallen human nature.  And so it is that we cease to exist as individuals intent on fulfilling our self-centered wills, striving above all else to fulfill God's will for our life.

This is, to be sure, a lofty goal--which most of us are far short of achieving.  But if the goal we set for ourselves were to be anything less than this, it would hardly be worth striving for.  The glory and honor God holds in store for those who love Him and fulfill His commandments in this earthly life can clearly be attained by no other means than a total and unconditional dedication of our lives to Jesus Christ--the Lord, God, and Savior of the human race.