My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
OUR HUMAN IDENTITY IS GOD-GIVEN AND
SACRED.
"Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness" [Genesis 1:26].
Man is not one in nature with the Holy Trinity. But he was made in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity; and he was made male and female. Therefore, THE DIGNITY OF EACH MAN AND EACH WOMAN IS THIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS.
God formed Adam’s body out of "dust from the ground" (2:7) The "breath of life" (2:7) is the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life {the Creed), God breathed the breath of life into man’s body, and he became "A LIVING SOUL" (2:7). Therefore, Adam was a living soul because he possessed a body, a soul, and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
This is the true identity of man. It is very clear how he came to be and that God created him, and God made him a living soul. For the authentic Christian, there is no confusion, and there is no identity crisis at all. This is who man is. There is no other identity for him and no power on earth can alter this very fact. And "as many as received Him, to them the gave the right to become children of God" [John 1:12]. Man realizes his true identity in the Christ. There is no identity for man apart from Him. It is no wonder, therefor, that the world struggles with Jesus’ identity. Who is He? Is He God? Is He man? Both?
However, an atheistic society is not simply seeking answers to these questions, instead is waging war against the dignity, msn’s identity, and his very nature. Not only does it wage a ruthless war but it is determined to erace God from man’s existence. The evil one has the audecity to wage war on God Himself and His creature, man. He is fully aware that he cannot destroy God and therefore he is using man’s own weaknesses, lack of faith, passions, defective reasoning, pride, disobedience, greed, hunger for power and control, to separate him from his Creator. He has deceived man to believe that he is not what he believes he is. In other words to doubt his very nature, dignity, origin, and Creator. It is a deliberate assault on man’s humanity. The result of this attack on man is to create confusion and terror.
What we are currently witnessing is that the evil one has declared open season on mankind by slandering and blaspheming God, by the killing of the innocents, the destruction of the family, by destroying trust among people, by depriving children of their innocence, by lying of one’s gender, by creating doubt of what is natura and questioning of what is true, by destroying man’s ability to discern between good and evil, by clouding man’s mind with evil thoughts, by taking away man’s freedom to act, by undermining man’s need of faith in God and in himself, by removing virtue, values, precepts and priciples from society, by destroying education, by discouraging man to be good and do good, and by wanting to turn God’s world of love, of peace, and holiness and light, to a place of darkness, suffering, hopelessness, misery, and finally hell itself.
But according to our Our Orthodox Christian Faith God the Holy Trinity made man in His image and likeness. "Then the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man He formed. Besides this, God caused every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food to grow from teh ground…Then the Lord God took the man He formed and put him in the garden to tend and keep it… And the Lord God said, ‘it is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him…Then the Lord God built the rib He took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to him. So Adam said ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was take out of Man." (Genesis 2:8-23). Why is there a concerted effort to erace man’s memory, his true origin, his very beginning of life, created by the Almighty God?
Our Lord Christ, by His Death and Resurrection, conquered the devil and death, freeing mankind from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15) and making possible a more complete communion between God and man than ws ever possible before. This communion allows people to become "patakers of the divine nature" ( 2 Peter 1:4), to transcend death, and ultimately, all the consequences of the Fall. The grace of Christ heals the will of those who return to Him through repentance, so they might freely pursue God do His will.
Man’s goal is deification (theosis). Theosis is our becoming more like God through His grace. Concerning the motive for the creation in the mind of God, the Orthodox Confession and the Larger Catechism express it thus: The world was created by God "so that other beings, glorifying Him, might be "participants of His goodness." In Orthodox doctrine, this participation ultimately means deification (theosis), which is man’s UNION WITH GOD and PARTICIPATION IN GOD’S LIFE THROUGH THE Divine Uncreated Energies. Man was created to be THE LINK BETWEEN THE VISIBLE CREATION AND GOD THROUGH HIS OWN DEIFICATION (THEOSIS). That is man’s only goal.
Today man is encouraged not to strive for theosis (deification) and union with God but to run away from His Creator. The suffering of the human race began with the appearance of moral evil and are the consequences of sin, which entered into our life a that time. "The essence of evil consists in the violation of God’s will, the commandments of God, and the moral law which is written in the human conscience. This violation is called sin.
Saint Gregory Palamas writes: "The Lord patiently endured for our sake a death. He was not obliged to undergo, to redeem us, who were obliged to suffer death, from servitude to teh devil and death, by which I mean death of the soul and body, temporay and eternal. Since He gave His Blood, which was sinless and therefore guiltless, as a ransom for uw who were liable to punishment because of our sins, He redeemed us from our guilt. He forgave our sins, tore up the record of them on the Cross and delivered us from the devil’s tyrrany (cf. Col. 2:14-15). The devil was caught by the bait. It was as if he opened his mouth and hastened to pour out for himself our ransom, the Master’s Blood, which was not only guiltless but full of Divine power. Then instead of being enriched by it he was strongly bound and made an example in the Cross of Christ {Homilies, vol. 1, pp. 200-201).
______________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +
With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 