Saint Irenaeus, discussing the substance of our bodies and how the advent of the Logos/Word MADE THE IMAGE OF GOD IN US APPEAR CLEARER, writes: “Since Adam was molded from this earth in which we belong, the Scripture tells us that God said to him, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread until thou returns to the earth out of which thou was taken, for earth thou art and TO EARTH SHALT THOU RETURN’ (Genesis 3:19). If then, after death, our bodies return to earth to any other substance, it follows that from it also they have their substance. But if it be into this very earth, it is manifest that it was also from it that man’s frame was created; as also the Lord clearly showed, when from this very substance He formed eyes for the man to whom He gave sight. And thus was the hand of God plainly shown forth, by which Adam was fashioned, and we too have been formed; and since there is one and the same Father, Whose voice from the beginning even to the end iIS PRESENT WITH HIS HANDIWORK, AND THE SUBSTANCE FROM WHICH WE WERE FORMED IS PLAINLY DECLARED THROUGH THE GOSPEL, WE SHOULD THEREFORE NOT seek another Father besides Him, nor look for another substance from which we have been formed, besides what was mentioned beforehand, and shown from by the Lord. Nor should we look for another hand of God besides that which, from the beginning even to the end, forms us and prepares us FOR LIFE, and is present with His handiwork, and perfects it atter the image and similitude of God.
“And then, again, this Logos/Word was manifested when the Logos/Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, MAN MIGHT BECOME PRECIOUS TO THE FATHER. For in times long past, it was said that man was created after the image of God, but it was not actually shown; for the Logos/Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created–therefore, also did man easily, lose the similitude. When, however, the Logos/Word of God became flesh, He CONFIRMED BOTH THESE: FOR HE BOTH SHOWED FORTH THE IMAGE TRULY, SINCE HE BECAME HIMSELF WHAT WAS HIS IMAGE; AND HE REESTABLISHED THE SIMILITUDE AFTER A SURE MANNER, BY ASSIMILATING MAN TO THE INVISIBLE FATHER THROUGH MEANS OF THE VISIBLE LOGOS/WORD.
“And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested Himself, but He has done this also by means of His Passion. For doing away with the effects of that DISOBEDIENCE OF MAN which had taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree. ‘And having been found in fashion as a man, He HUMBLED HIMSELF AND BECAME OBEDIENT EVEN TO DEATH–INDEED, THE DEATH OF A CROSS’ (Philippians 2:8). He rectified that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree, THROUGH OBEDIENCE WHICH WAS WROUGHT OUT UPON THE TREE OF THE CROSS. Now He would not have come to do away, by means of that same image, THE DISOBEDIENCE WHICH H AD BEEN INCURRED TOWARD OUR MASTER IF HE PROCLAIMED ANOTHER FATHER. BUT INASMUCH AS IT WAS BY THESE THINGS THAT WE DISOBEYED GOD, AND DID NOT GIVE CREDIT TO HIS WORD, SO WAS IT ALSO BY THESE SAME THAT HE BROUGHT IN OBEDIENCE AND CONSENT AS RESPECTS HIS LOGOS/WORD… IN THE Second Adam (Jesus Christ), however, WE ARE RECONCILED, BEING MADE OBEDIENT EVEN TO DEATH.”
The blind man accounted all his life as though it were might, now “CONFESSED THEE, THE HIDDEN GOD’ (Pentecostarion, Tuesday of the Blind Man.) The Lord bestowed A TWOFOLD ENLIGHTENMENT UPON him who was deprived from his mother’s womb. We ask that He “ILLUMINE THE EYES OF OUR SOULS AS WELL, AND PROVE US TO BE SON OF THE DAY” [Pentecostarion, Tuesday of the Blind Man, Vespers Sticheron, Mode Plagal Four.] (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)
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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in Christ’s Holy and Glorious Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 