Talk 13

Brothers! Do you remember what creatures God created first of all? Since some probably do not remember, I will remind you that the Creator brought into being first of all beings akin to Himself in nature—spiritual creatures, invisible to our eyes, not subject to our senses, the Angels, or the Angelic world; and then already the visible, material creation, that is all the shining heavenly bodies, our earth with its waters, air, and all living creatures upon it. Such variety, such multitude of God’s creatures! “Since the first creatures were pleasing to God”—says Saint Gregory the Theologian—“He devises another world—the material one; and this is the harmonious composition of heaven, earth, and what is between them, wonderful in the beautiful qualities of each thing and even more worthy of wonder in the harmony and accord of the whole, in which both each relates to each other and all to all in beautiful proportion, serving the fullness of one world. And by this God showed that He is able to create not only what is akin to Him but also what is entirely foreign to Him in nature. Akin to Godhead are the intellectual natures understood only by intellect (that is, Angels), entirely foreign are the creatures subject to the senses (birds, fish, serpents, beasts), and from these latter even further removed from Divine nature are creatures entirely without soul and without motion” (plants, stones, earth, water, air, fire)163.

And so there was a time when the Son of God created the world which had not existed before. He spoke and all that pleased Him was accomplished during six days. “But when all this—earth, heaven and sea—had composed a world”—says Saint Gregory the Theologian—“there was needed a spectator of wisdom, the mother of all, and a reverent earthly king, that is, man was needed. Then the Son of God spoke: the vast heaven is inhabited by pure and ever-living servants, by immaculate minds, by good Angels, singers of praise, unceasingly hymning My glory. But earth is beautified with only irrational animals alone. Therefore it is pleasing to Me to create a race of creatures in which both would be contained—a race midway between the mortal and immortal, a rational man who would delight in My works, would be a wise keeper of heavenly mysteries, a great ruler of earth, a new Angel born from dust, a hymner of My power and My wisdom. Thus spoke the Son of God, and He creates a living being in which both are brought into unity—the invisible and visible nature—creates, I say, man; and taking the body from already created matter while placing life from Himself (what in God’s Word is known by the name of soul and the image of God), He makes as it were a second world—great in the small; He places on earth another Angel, composed of different natures, a worshiper, a spectator of visible creation, a keeper of intelligible creation, a king over earthly things, subject to the heavenly kingdom, earthly and heavenly, temporal and immortal, visible and intelligible”. Thus far Saint Gregory the Theologian164.

But let us listen on this very matter to the God-inspired Moses himself. When the earth was already adorned with all kinds of irrational creatures, then, says Moses, God said: “Let us make man in Our image and in Our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, the beasts and the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. And God created man in the image of God, created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them, saying: increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the beasts and the birds of the sky and all the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth”165.

So man was created in the image and likeness of God—created so that he might rule over earthly creatures, be a spectator of God’s works, hymn God, render Him the debt of love and gratitude for bringing him and all earthly creatures from non-being into being, and in all this find blessedness for himself here on earth—and after his earthly life ends, enter into the inheritance of future life, into communion with God.

“And God said: Let us make man in Our image and in Our likeness”. To whom, brothers, does the Lord God speak before making man; with whom does He take counsel; who are these Persons equal to the Creator in whose image He wishes to make man? These are two Persons of the Holy Trinity: the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. It is God the Father speaking with Them166. So, brothers, man was created in the image of the Holy Trinity. For this reason the Holy Fathers find in man as it were a certain imprint of the Trinity of Divine Persons: mind, word, and breath167. And it is no wonder, brothers, that we have such a strong love for the number three that we do many things in life three times. All peoples, even non-Christian ones, hold the number three in special honor and use. By this they honor, without knowing it, the Holy Trinity; the human soul secretly acknowledges through this God as its Creator in the Trinity.

“And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, the beasts and the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth”. In this, among other things, brothers, consists the image of God in man: just as God reigns over all creation—over heaven and earth and all living creatures inhabiting heaven and earth—so man too is placed by God as an earthly king or as it were a viceroy of the heavenly King. This is the first characteristic of the image of God, though it is now greatly disfigured in us. In the previous discourse we saw that man lost very much authority over animals after sin, that many beasts and serpents now even frighten him. Yet even now there remains some trace of authority in man over animals; at least even now, as the Holy Apostle James says, every nature of beasts and birds, serpents and fish, is tamed and has been tamed by human nature168. And this is accomplished by the power of human intellect and will, which also constitute characteristics of the image of God in man; because the Lord God also has intellect, only infinite, and a will, only all-holy and all-perfect—so that human intellect and human will are as it were a reflection of Divine intellect and Divine will. However, in man’s present state his intellect and will are corrupted, darkened by sin and passions, for which reason the enlightenment of intellect and the formation of will, its direction toward good, is commonly called education—that is, the restoration of the image of God in man, though it is seldom that educators and teachers manage to fully direct the will toward good if it has been thoroughly corrupted from its very beginning or from earliest childhood. Furthermore: man, for example, loves truth: and God also loves truth169 and commands earthly judges to judge with justice170; your heart is inclined to love that is reasonable and conscious: God is love Himself171: He loves all His creatures, and our love, for example, for parents, for friends, and parents’ love for us, is only a faint reflection of the love with which the Lord God loves us. Earthly parents often forget their children, but God will never forget us, His children by grace: “Even if she forgets him”—He says—“I will not forget you. Behold, I have written your walls on My hands and you are always before Me”172. Your thought flies in an instant across immense distances: this too is an image of Godhead, which is omnipresent. In general, whatever good is in you, whatever is morally right, this is a reflection of what is in God. Therefore the Lord God requires of man that he completely resemble Him as the image resembles the Original. For example, Christ the Savior says: Therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect173. Therefore no man, not even a savage, can exist without God; therefore man strives toward God. Let us then, brothers, strive with all our might to preserve in ourselves the image of God: in it is hidden the pledge of our blessedness on earth and in heaven. And what does the likeness of God consist in? The likeness to God or conformity to the Lord God consists in having a pure, luminous, God-enlightened intellect, such as the Prophets, Apostles and all the saints had; a will that chooses truth and good; a pure, sincere, good, simple heart. For this reason the Holy Fathers, who labored and labor to acquire such intellect, such will, and such heart more than all, were called and are called venerable fathers—that is, fathers venerable to God. And blessed, brothers, are the people who are venerable to God, whoever they may be: whether monks or living in the world: they shall see God face to face: we shall be like Him—says the Holy Evangelist John—for we shall see Him as He is174; Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God175—says the Savior Himself. And since it is our common duty to conform to the Lord, let us all endeavor, brothers, each according to his abilities, to succeed in conformity to the Lord. “And God created man in the image of God, created him: male and female He created them”. Just as the Lord took counsel in His trinitarian Council to create man, so He created him—that is, in the image of God; and moreover He created not only the male but also the female, because such is the universal law of generation and multiplication of earthly creatures—through the male and female sexes; and man, though by his soul he belongs to heaven, by his body belongs to earth, and therefore necessarily must, like many other things, submit to the universal earthly law. He created them male and female. He created the male thus: He took dust from the earth and breathed into the face of the formed human body the breath of life—that is, as Saint Gregory the Theologian says, He imparted to him His own Divine life, or sent into him a spirit which is a ray of invisible Godhead176.

“And man became a living soul”. From earth and from the Divine breath man became, by God’s omnipotence. And the first woman the Lord created thus: He brought a deep sleep upon Adam, and he slept—and He took one of his ribs and filled up the place of it with flesh instead, that is, filled with Adam’s own flesh the place left by the taken rib. “And the Lord God built the rib which He took from Adam into a woman and brought her to Adam”. From the rib taken while Adam slept, God created the first woman—so that all mankind would be as it were one body, and so that people could more easily care for and love one another. Having created the woman, God brought her to Adam who had awakened. Adam recognized that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh; he called her woman—because she was taken from man, and he foretold that in all times a man and woman would constitute one flesh, so that a man because of his attachment to his wife would leave his father and mother, strong and natural as is the love of children for parents. Thus were the first people created.

Now let us turn our attention to our body and soul and see what they teach us through their origin and structure; how we should conduct ourselves with them. Man’s body was created from earth. Behold, brothers, a truth humbling to our pride: our body is from that very earth which we tread upon with our feet. Indeed, from what does the body of a developing infant in the mother’s womb grow and develop? From the mother’s blood and fluids. And where do blood and fluids come from? From the food taken by the mother, and food comes from earth. And so you see, brothers, that our body is formed from earth. If men would more often remember this, how much they would diminish their pride, how many whims invented for the adornment and gratification of the body they would abandon! Then naturally many would reason thus: I am earth and ashes177: why then should I pamper my body so, why worry excessively about it, its nourishment and clothing, when it will return to earth again, when all my care and labor for it will be repaid only with loathsome decay and destruction? In general, an attentive man in examining the nature of his body, its structure, its purpose, its needs, easily comes to a humble opinion of himself. Our body is only a temporary earthly house for our soul, constructed by the action of Divine omnipotence. Most people do not know their own dwelling, its structure, the arrangement of its parts, though a man lives in it on earth for several decades: our body is nourished, grows, lives, yet we do not know how all this happens; we would not know when we need to eat and drink if hunger and thirst did not tell us; we would not know how to restore our exhausted strength if nature itself did not show us the means for this in sleep. In his body man is a very limited and weak being, and entirely not his own but God’s.

Yet despite the fact that our flesh is weak and created from earth, and infinite wisdom of the Creator is manifested in it—we should not utterly neglect our body: it is a beautiful, living instrument of our soul and a co-heir of the Kingdom of Heaven: together with our soul our body too will one day partake of eternal blessedness. “If you wish to know what kind of wisdom the One who created us possesses”—says Saint John Chrysostom—“think of what is made from clay: what else but brick or tile? And yet the great artist God from this very substance—from which only brick and tile are made—was able to construct an eye so beautiful that all who look upon it marvel, and to give it such power that it reaches with sight to so great a height of the air, and through a small pupil embraces such great bodies: mountains, forests, hills, seas, and sky. And what shall we say of the pupil and the power of vision? If one considers only the eyelashes of the eye—this seemingly most insignificant of all the members—one will see in them great wisdom of the Creator God. Just as the bristles on grain stalks, protruding forward like spears, drive away birds and prevent them from settling on the fruit and breaking the still very tender stalk: so also on the eyes the hairs of the eyelashes protrude like bristles and spears, they ward off dust, dirt and everything that troubles from without, and protect the eyelids from damage. You will see no less wisdom in the eyebrows. Who does not marvel at their position? They are not so prominent as to darken the eyes, nor are they sunk too deep inside; but protruding from above like a roof’s overhang on a house, they catch the sweat that flows from the head and prevent it from harming the eyes”178. To this we shall add from ourselves that the sense of sight is protected in us most carefully because it is the noblest and most active sense: through sight we know above all the glory of God: “When I see”—says the Psalmist—“the heavens, the works of Your hands, the moon and the stars, which You have established: what is man that You remember him”179? Hearing ranks second after it. And through it we know the glory of God, as well as who we are, for what we were born and live, what will become of us after death, and so forth. This happens especially when we listen attentively in church to the reading and singing or the preaching of God’s Word. Through hearing we gain many other various forms of knowledge. Speaking of sight and hearing, it is natural, brothers, to come to the thought that He who created hearing and sight, surely sees and hears all things Himself. Indeed, did He who planted the ear not hear, or He who formed the eye not see180? Oh! Surely He hears and sees all things, even what we think and feel, or will yet think and feel in the future. Let us then be careful in our thoughts, words and deeds. Much could be said about the wisely arranged structure of other parts of the body: the brain and its coverings, about the structure of the heart, and so forth, but it is time now to say something about the soul.

What then shall we say about it? If God showed such wisdom in the body: then certainly much more incomparably in the soul, which was created in the image of God. Let us turn our attention to the human intellect. What has it not done in the world through its own wit? It has penetrated in part into the starry world; it has observed and in part applied to its benefit the laws of nature: it has invented thousands of diverse arts; it has created various sciences; in general through its intellect it performs many great deeds. But unfortunately, among carnal men the power and work of intellect is directed more toward increasing the comforts and pleasures of temporal life rather than toward easing man’s ascent to heavenly, eternal life: carnal, sinful will has bent even the entire intellect toward earth, while the Christian should think above all about heavenly things. Man, for example, soars in an air balloon and hovers in it above all earthly things; or travels over water in a steam ship and with enormous force of steam plows through the liquid element; or with the same force of steam makes incredible weights roll along an iron road; or in a few moments or minutes transmits his desires or thoughts to people at great distances; or finally has found the means with little effort to extract from the earth as large a quantity of fruit as possible. All these discoveries do honor to human intellect, and nearly all are very useful. But far greater would be the honor to man if with all these inventions he crawled less along the earth in evil; if with the enlightenment of intellect he remained less in the darkness of destructive self-will and passions raging more violently now than at any other time—and if he soared toward heaven, his true homeland, growing wise in the means of salvation. You soar, man, in an air balloon, but only for a brief pleasure of spectators, not for their genuine benefit. The stylites elevated on pillars for the labors of virtue, or true monks who labored and labor on mountains and wherever, are far more honorable than you: in elevating themselves from the earth in body they elevated themselves in spirit—as much for their own spiritual benefit as for the benefit of mankind, from which crowds sometimes gathered from everywhere for instruction from God’s saints; but you either do not elevate yourself in spirit at all, or elevate yourself only in body, and only when flying. In the liquid element you make for yourself a swift path, or over land—on a machine set in motion by steam—you fly like an arrow: honor to you, or rather—glory to the Lord illuminating the minds of men to make many useful discoveries in nature rich with mysteries and through them to make our much-laboring life more convenient. But, man, where is your swift ascent to heaven, to your true homeland? You are swift on the earthly path; but how slow and often immobile are you on the heavenly one! However swift your earthly path, it carries you no further than earthly dwellings, no further than earth; yet a most necessary path to heavenly dwellings and to endless life awaits you! You have found the means through a long wire and the lightning-like current of a certain force in nature, despite great earthly distances, to transmit your thoughts to others in a few minutes; and this does you honor. But how great would your honor be if with like speed, or incomparably greater speed, you more often raised your mind and heart upward—to God, and were not strongly attached to the earth; if your intellect soared more often in eternity awaiting you; if with the speed proper to intellect you were more often carried in spirit—now toward eternal torments, now—toward unimaginable endless bliss! Yet you rarely think of this. Concerning the nourishment of your body and its adornment with clothing you exert all effort and always do for it in this regard more than proper; why then do you take such little care, or none at all, for the nourishment of your immortal soul with the incorruptible food of God’s Word, the Life-giving Mysteries, and prayer, for adorning your soul with the garment of good deeds? In all this the earthly mind alone is visible; but the Christian should think above all about heavenly things.

Let us remember more often, brothers, that we are by our nature—as says Saint Gregory the Theologian—both earthly and heavenly, both temporal and immortal; that here on earth we are only being prepared, and after death we shall be taken to another world. Therefore let us not prefer the perishable and temporal to the imperishable and eternal. Amen.