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and the separation of sinners from the saints and the just retribution rendered
to each’.50 The whole Liturgy is movement and orientation, towards a past
brought into the present, and within a present, to experience a future taste of
unending blessing and ful?lment in God. The opening and closing of doors
signi?es a passage from the old into the new, from the corruptible to the intel-
ligible world.

        As perhaps expected with Maximus, especially when we consider some
of the details of his thought on dei?cation (theosis), in The Church’s Mystagogy, it
is clear that it is through the Liturgy that the human being, the human soul,
becomes dei?ed. Here, in the Liturgy, he receives true spiritual communication
and is strengthened in his desire for God. However, unsurprisingly, his thought
here is much more subtle and complex. Certainly, it is true that the human soul
is transformed through the Liturgy, for the Holy Spirit is specially present in
the Liturgy,51 but Maximus also has something of ‘levels’ or ‘natural aptitudes’
in mind.52 For the purposes of this study, however, it is su?cient to only high-
light that the Liturgy is at the centre of man’s dei?cation. Ultimately, it is ‘by
Holy Communion of the spotless and life-giving mysteries we are given fellow-
ship and identity with him by participation in likeness, by which man is
deemed worthy from man to become God.’53 This, the Holy Communion,
Maximus makes clear is the foundation of our hope and promise of a share in
the future age, but here, the commitment and action of our faith is also em-
phasised. He writes, ‘for we believe that in this present life we already have a
share in these gifts of the Holy Spirit through the love that is in faith, and in
the future age (…) we believe that we shall have a share in them (…) according
to the steadfast hope of our faith and (…) the promise to which God has com-
mitted himself.’54 It is perhaps typical of Maximus’ thinking that our use of
freedom and the applying of ourselves to know God are always held in view of
our ultimate destiny. His division of ages might also feature here, for now is the
age of our ascent to God, thus emphases on our e?orts to respond to the new-
ness of life granted in Christ, seem natural here.

50 Saint Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy, from Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1985),
p. 209.
51 Saint Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy, from Selected Writings, p. 206.
52 Saint Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy, from Selected Writings, see pp. 206-211, here Maximus
speaks of the ‘active ones’ and of ‘natural contemplation’, making a connection between the Liturgy
and Hesychasm.
53 Saint Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy, from Selected Writings, p. 207.
54 Saint Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy, from Selected Writings, p. 207.

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