Thus the angels now enjoy what is also the intended goal of human life, the vision of God.  For nothing less than that is set before us, that we should see him and share fully in his life, and that our souls should be filled with the glorious Being of God as a crystal is filled with the light of the sun.

But before so a close a union is possible we must first have learnt to love the things which God loves and to hate the things which he hates.  Nothing that defiles, even to the most minute degree, can remain in the sight and presence of the all-holy God.  For so long as one’s mind and soul desires one thing that is contrary to the sanctity of God, then one is at variance with him.  

The spiritual state which each of us has to achieve is not a grubby white but the spotless purity of freshly fallen snow: the soul must be cleansed, not merely of the blots of sin, but of the most dilute stains.  And this is so for each one of us: Our Lord was not exaggerating when he told the crowds in Galilee, “Be perfect…as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NRSV, Matthew 5:48).