Deification is the consequence of union with Christ, who acts together with the Father and the Holy Spirit: "Those who are vouchsafed to be united with Him (Christ) and to acquire Him with their head... they also become gods, like the Son of God. Oh miracle! Because the Father clothes them in the first garment, in the garment of the Lord, in which He was clothed before the foundation of the world. For it is said: "Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" – that is, in the Holy Spirit, Who also changes all of them in a divine way by a strange and ineffable and divine change."1173 Ave. Symeon says that it is possible for a person "to become a co-heir and accomplice with God, and not only to become a king, but also a god from God, and to rejoice with God forever and ever".1174 Here we are talking about deification even in this life. In other places, however, there is talk of eschatological deification, in which the saints will become like Christ. Then, "when opening the books of conscience of the saints... Christ God, hidden in them, will shine forth, as He shone forth before the ages from the Father, and the saints will be like the Highest".1175 The glory of the deified saints is compared to the eternal glory of the Son: "As never will the Father be unaware of the Son, or the Son of the Father, so never will the saints, who have become gods by having God dwelling in them, be ignorant of one another, but will see the glory of one another and of themselves, as the Son of the Father and the Father of the Son. What then and what will be the glory of the saints? What is the glory of the Son of God".1176 This will be in the age to come, but already now "He, God by nature, converses with the gods born of Him by grace".1177 The saints "theologically sing praises to Him Who, having made God, changed them".1178 However, it is possible to be "deceived by the hope of deification" and suffer a fall, as was the case with Adam, the "earthly man".1179 Nevertheless, St. Simeon calls on everyone, especially sinners, to hasten to deification by works of repentance. "Listen," he says, "you who have sinned God as I do, strive and run with good power to obtain and seize the substance of the immaterial fire, and by saying 'substance,' I have pointed out to you the divine essence, and to light the intelligent lamp of the soul, that you may become the suns that shine in the world, and those who are completely invisible in the world, that you may become as gods, possessing within you all the glory of God."1180 It is interesting to note here that first calling us to "seize" the divine essence, then St. Simeon speaks of the divine glory that lives entirely in us when we become "like gods."

Ave. Simeon is full of admiration for the miracle of the manifestation of God in man and for the fact that people take on a divine form. "Oh miracle! - he says. "O incomprehensible gift of goodness! That in the image of God there are men, and that the God who cannot be contained by anyone is formed in them, that the unchangeable, unchangeable by nature desires to live in all those who are worthy, so that each one has within himself the whole King, and the kingdom itself, and everything that belongs to the kingdom, and shines, as my resurrected God shone, more than the rays of this visible sun."1181 But this state is only the beginning of prosperity, which never ends: "For there will be no end to prosperity for the ages, for there will be a stop in growth to an endless end (????????? ??????) it would make the Incomprehensible completely incomprehensible, and the Unsaturable One satiating. But His fullness and the glory of light will be an abyss of prosperity and an endless beginning."1182

As always, affirming the conscious reality of deification even in this life, St. Simeon insists that its fullness belongs to eschatological infinity. The expression of St. Gregory of Nyssa ????????? ????? 1183, used here by St. Simeon, well conveys the metaphysical dynamism of his spirituality. St. Simeon speaks of deification after death in the following lines: "For even if God rests in the saints, the saints live and move in God, walking in the light as on the earth. Oh miracle! They will be after death as angels and as sons of the Highest, gods who dwell with God, who is by nature, who are like Him in position."1184 In another place, St. Simeon asks God: "How do You make people gods?" 1185 By grace, he himself replies in another place: "Who, having gained Christ, needs anything else of the goods of the present age? Has not he who has the grace of the Spirit in his heart acquired the revered Trinity, which dwells in him, illuminates him, and makes him a god?" 1186 In deification, man becomes Christ: "He renewed all of me, immortalized all of me, deified me all, and made me Christ".1187 Deification, in which man becomes god by grace and is essentially united with God, is an incomprehensible mystery: "Having been united," says St. Simeon to his interlocutor, real or imagined, "how can I tell you, Who is He who is united to me, and to Whom have I been united? I tremble and fear that if I were to speak, you, not believing it, would fall into blasphemy from ignorance... However, I and the One with Whom I have been united have become one, who shall I call myself? God, being double in nature and one in hypostasis, made me double. And having made it double, he gave me, as you see, double names. Look at the separation! I am a man by nature, but God by grace. See by what grace I call unity with Him sensually and intellectually, essentially and spiritually."1188

Deification is accomplished through repentance and communion of the deified Body of Christ.1189 The deification of the whole person, body and soul, which takes place in an ineffable way during communion of the Body and Blood of Christ.1190 In this case, man is completely changed and, immersed in light, acquires a divine mind.1191 The Holy Spirit, making us incorruptible, adores us if we imitate Christ: "Then the Creator... He will send the Divine Spirit, I do not tell you, another soul than the one you had,1192 but the Spirit, I tell you, is from God, and He will inspire, and dwell, and essentially dwell, and enlighten, and illumine, and refine all things, and make corruptible things incorruptible, and renew the worn-out house, I speak of the house of your soul... Together with it, He will make the whole body incorruptible, and He will make you a god by grace, like the Prototype."1193

Since deification is a consequence of the incarnation, it is clear that it could not be realized before the coming of Christ. "For who from eternity," says St. Simeon, having told of those who, through communion with the Heavenly Bread, became heavenly and incorruptible, "became such, I tell you about the sons of Adam, before the Lord of all things in heaven and on earth came down from heaven? This one took on our flesh and gave us the Divine Spirit... and He gives us all these things as God".1194 What happened in the Old Testament was only a symbol and a type, like Enoch and Elijah. "Thus those (Old Testament events) are only a symbol and image of these (New Testament), possessing incomparable superiority and glory, in so far as the uncreated surpasses in nature the created."1195 The reality of the Incarnation and the fact that we have put on Christ at baptism is a guarantee of the reality of man's deification. This state is conscious, but manifest only to God and to the one who is deified, but invisible to others. "But if (the Word)," says St. Simeon, "really became the Son of Man, then He undoubtedly truly makes you the son of God; if He has not become a body in the imagination, then we are not in any way in thought (only) a spirit... for when I was baptized, I put on Christ, not sensually, but at any rate intelligently. And if not God by grace and position, by feeling, knowledge and contemplation, he who has clothed himself with the Son of God? If in ignorance God the Word became man, then in ignorance (should) I also become God... For just as God was born without change as a man in the body and appeared to all, so He ineffably gives birth to me and makes me, who have remained a man, a god. And just as He, visible in the flesh, was not recognized by the multitude of people that He is God, so we, in that in which we were men, all of us, O miracle! are visible, and in what they have become by the grace of God, they are usually not visible to the majority. Only to those who possess the purified eye of the soul do we appear as in a spyglass, and for the impure neither God nor we are invisible, and we are never believed to have become such."1196

The deified see their Father, God: "For He, supersubstantial, previously uncreated, took on flesh and appeared to me created, Himself deifying me all that was strangely perceived... Now, if God, having become man... deified me, the accepted man, then I, having become a god by position, see God by nature, Him Whom no man has ever been able to see. Consequently, those who have accepted God by works of faith and become gods, born of the Spirit, see Him Himself, their Father, ever living in an unapproachable light. They have Him living constantly in themselves, and they themselves live in Him, who is utterly unapproachable."1197

In conclusion, it can be said that deification is a state of complete transformation of a person, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, when a person follows the path of God's commandments, acquires the Gospel virtues and becomes a participant in the sufferings of Christ. The Holy Spirit then grants man divine intellect and incorruptibility. Man does not receive a new soul, but the Holy Spirit essentially unites with the whole man, soul and body, makes him the son of God, a god by position, but man does not cease to be a man and a creature, even if he sees the Father clearly. He can be called a god and a man at the same time. Incarnation is the basis of deification, being also its goal. Deification became possible when the Word became flesh, took on our humanity and gave us His Divinity, and when man put on Christ in baptism. Deification is accomplished first of all by communion of the divine Body and Blood of Christ, and the ministers of the Eucharist are especially adored. Being a conscious spiritual state, clearly felt by those who experience it, deification forever remains a terrible mystery, surpassing human reason and unnoticed by most people. Those who attain it are extremely rare, although all those who are baptized are called to it. It is their fault if they deprive themselves of deification.