Encountering the Mystery through Deification
A Trappist monk once said that the spiritual life "consists not so much in being good as in becoming God." Do you dare to believe it?
N.B. For the past couple of months, my friends on Patreon and I have been exploring the question “What is mysticism?” by drawing on the wisdom of Evelyn Underhill and Bernard McGinn. While I believe it is impossible to ever nail down a topic as nuanced as mysticism in a single definition, I think we can explore a variety of ways to at least approach the topic, if not definitively define it. This is the final of five posts where I offer brief invitations for some of the different ways people like you and I might be able to encounter the mystery at the heart of mysticism: a mystery that can never be fully captured in words or earthly ideas (Note: if you’d like to join this conversation with me in monthly Zoom meetings, join Patreon by clicking here).
Perhaps the Ultimate Way to Encounter the Mystery: Deification
Christ has given us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become participants of the divine nature. — II Peter 1:4
Christian life consists not so much in being good as in becoming God. — Michael Casey, OCSO
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey suggests that influential business leaders “begin with the end in mind” — that one of the keys to professional success is having a sense of where you want your career to take you. There are probably as many possible ends or goals for our professional lives as there are people — some of us want financial success, a sense of personal accomplishment, a legacy to hand on to our children, and so forth. Covey’s point is simple: know what you want, for that knowledge will help to guide you to the kind of success that matters to you.
What is true for our working lives is, I believe, also true for anyone seeking to live a mystical life—and seeking to encounter the divine. We, too, are wise to begin with the end in mind.
What mystics from generation to generation have reported to us, is that the “end” of mysticism is nothing less than the unitive life: divine union, or becoming one with God. Indeed, this “end” of mystical spirituality is so essential that it has its own theological terminology: in Greek, theosis; in Latin, deification: these words basically mean “to be made God” or, more gently stated, to become one with God.
And unless you think this is just some strange idea from ancient times, Trappist monk Michael Casey bluntly said, “Christian life consists not so much in being good as in becoming God” — writing in the early 2000s!
Many people drawn to contemplative or mystical spirituality are inspired by their own heartfelt desire for an experience of God, or an experiential relationship with God, or, in the end, an experience of such complete, nondual identification with God that we can only speak of this using language of oneness and of union. In words from the Bible attributed to St. Peter, our “end” as contemplatives is nothing less than partaking in the divine nature (of God).
Is it being too obvious to suggest that the experience of oneness with God, however that may come about, is yet one more way for us to understand mysticism, to “encounter the mystery”?
Granted, many people, perhaps most, have not experienced such nondual union, regardless of whether they have wanted it (or even conceived that such an end is possible). Even when people do have some sort of extraordinary, unitive encounter with the mystery we call God, they often don’t know how to put it into words, so it in essence remains unspoken, and therefore perhaps unrealized.
Perhaps we need to consider that the desire for union with God may be, in a surprising way, a sign that God is already present in our lives and hearts, even if we don’t feel that presence at all. Which, of course, brings us right back to the beginning of this series. Perhaps deification is the ultimate encounter with God, but perhaps most of us only find deification through the mysteries of desire, delight, darkness and discipline.
Shunry Suzuki once wrote, “Enlightenment is not some good feeling or some particular state of mind. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.” It’s a provocative statement: to meditate is to be enlightened. One does not meditate to attain enlightenment; one meditates to remember or realize what one already is.
In other words, to walk a mystical path is to be immersed in divine union. Our desire, discipline, darkness and delight are all opportunities for us to realize, or remember, who we truly and already are: ones who are one with Love.
No matter how we comes to this, may we receive this encounter with consciousness and compassion. Amen.
Quotation sources: II Peter 1:4; Michael Casey, OCSO. Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology; Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice (Kindle Editions).