Being like the divine is not our function, for is it the product of human ability, but it is part of the generosity of God who freely, at the birth of the first man, gave our nature a likeness to Himself.
The human effort extends only to this: the removal of the filth which has accumulated through evil and the3 brining to light again the beauty in the soul which we had covered over. It is such a dogma that I think the Lord is teaching in the Gospel to those who are able to hear wisdom when it is mysteriously spoken: "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). This saying shows, I believe, that the goodness of God is not separated from our nature, or far away from those who choose to seek it, but it is ever present in each individual, unknown and forgotten when one is choked by the cares and pleasures of life, but discovered again when we turn our attention back to it.
+St. Gregory of Nyssa, from Ascetical Works, On Virginity.
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