The Western Church has often focused on the person of Jesus Christ by emphasizing the justification and salvation won for us by his life, death, and resurrection. While these are important truths that must continually be proclaimed, there is yet another truth which the Eastern Church stresses and we often neglect. The Eastern Church reminds us that the Holy Spirit has been poured forth into our hearts and divinizes us. We are no longer mere humans because the Spirit of God dwells in us. This life-giving Spirit transforms us and allows us to be partakers in the divine nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). The Eastern fathers continually remind us that God became human so that humans might become God. Let us remind ourselves of Christ’s gift of the Spirit as Pentecost approaches. May the Spirit elevate us to the image of the Son and may this Spirit restore to creation the unity which Adam lost.
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June 2011
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