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The deified soul is filled with God, permeated with Divine Light, Life, Power, Glory and Love. (Rosemarie Scott, “Grace and the Divinization of Humanity”)
[God] said that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him-for we can prevent Him if we choose-He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
… [God] has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers [Greek, koinōnos, “one having in common”] of the divine [Greek, theios, divine, godly, god-like) nature [“nature,” not in Greek]. (II Peter 1.4, ESV, Definitions, Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible)
Cynthia Bourgeault, a Christian contemplative and Episcopal priest, writing of her beloved one, Ralf, a Trappist monk and hermit, after he had departed to the Other Side:
… Rafe was for from a typical monk, and even among his brothers at St. Benedict’s Monastery, he was largely inscrutable. In all ways his passions ran huge: his passion for God, his passion for Truth, his passion for solitude, his passion for relationships. Out of the deep, paradoxical currents of his being flowed an exuberance for life that refused to stay confined. … Those with Sufi inclinations would recognize him instantly as a dervish … God-intoxicated…. (Love Is Stronger Than Death)
For some reason, some persons seem born with a marked inclination that can be described as “exuberance for life” and “God-intoxicated.” While some children are inclined in other ways, these children are inclined toward a spiritual passion that goes far beyond the normalcy generally associated with religion and spirituality.
There are persons, like Rafe, who are here to remind us of a Life that cannot be confined in the conventionality of religion and spirituality. These persons will always struggle, it seems, to be at home in institutional systems that define boundaries to the Divine. However, that is exactly part of their gift to us. They witness to the Life that religion and politics seek to confine. They embody the Life that is boundless. They suffer for this, yet, they live life more fully and deeply than most persons because of this. They often will struggle emotionally and, while knowing a deep intimacy with the Divine, will endure much sense of aloneness among others. However, this sense of aloneness nurtures more deeply the connection they have with the Creator and Creation. Only a deep trust in the love and justness of the Sacred allows them to dare to go on and know all will be well. Deeply, they know all is well, much more well than others around them can even begin to imagine.
Possibly, we need to all dare to be such God-intoxicated beings. I am speaking of being permeated by the Sacred, living so intertwined with Love that one, as the Eastern Church Fathers taught, experiences divinization (also called deification and theosis), or transformation into full participation in the nature of the Sacred.
Frankly, the “God” of most religion is much too tame and polite. And, thus, the adherents to such a “God” lack the Life that flows beyond the boundaries of the conventional. Thankfully, there are those among us to remind us, by example, that there is much freedom outside the religious walls erected in the pride and arrogance of the human person.
The last persons we should set forth as the norm of this Sacred are those persons who fit in the normalcy of religion. Neither do we need pay great respect to the eccentrics, but the ones that live a life so in Love with Love that Love seems to be the aroma we inhale when in their Presence deserve our respect and allowance to call us beyond religion to be saturated through-and-through with the Wine of Light.
Spiritual Exercises
1. Do you know someone who lives an unconfined Life?
2. What evidence do you find in the Gospel that Jesus lived an unconfined Life?
3. What would be entailed in your living a God-intoxicated life?
4. What is the difference between transcending the boundaries of religion and being a mere eccentric or rebel?
5. Is your community of faith God-intoxicated? Explain.
6. What is divinization?
7. Reflect on the opening quotes from Rosemarie Scott, C. S. Lewis, and II Peter? What do their words say to us?
Prayer
As the firewood is transformed into fire by fire,
transform me into Love by Love.
*Brian K. Wilcox
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
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