St. Symeon the New Theologian ca. 949-1022
What is the purpose of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos which is proclaimed throughout the Scriptures, about which we read and which yet we do not recognize? Surely it is that He has shared in what is ours so as to make us participants of what is His. For the Son of God became the Son of Man in order to make us human beings sons of God, raising us up by grace to what He is by nature, giving us a new birth in the Holy Spirit and leading us directly into the kingdom of heaven. Or, rather, He gives us grace to possess this kingdom within ourselves (cf. Lk. 17:21), so that not merely do we hope to enter it but, being full possession of it, we can affirm: ‘Our life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3). (Practical and Theological Texts, 108)
