MAN AS AN IMAGE OF GOD

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

MAN AS AN IMAGE OF GOD
By Archimandrite George Capsanis

The Orthodox theology of Christ as the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4) and of man as made: "according to the image of God" [Genesis 1:26] is fundamental to a proper understanding of what it means to be a human being. "Made according to the image of God," signifies both the origin and goal of our existence, our alpha and omega.

THE DYNAMISM OF THE IMAGE,
FREEDOM AND EROS

It has been correctly observed that ato be human is to be theological. Therefore "in order to live authentically, we must live every moment theocentrically."
If we deny God, WE DENY AND DESTROY OURSELVES. On the other hand, when we live for God, WE OPEN OURSELVES TO A PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMPLETION WHICH IS INFINITE. Human existence owes its dynamism and its greatness to its "iconic" character. So far as we "image forth" the wise and creative God, so far do we discover in ourselves the charisms of knowledge and creativity.

The same holds true to the quality of freedom to be the image of God who is free, means THAT WE POSSESS FREEDOM: LIBERTY. According to Saint Maximos the Confessor: "If we are made according to the image of the blessed and supersubstantial divinity, and if the divine nature is by definition free, then we too, as true image of the divine nature, are by nature free" (Saint Maximus the Confessor (AD 662). By the same reasoning, if our freedom is lost then we too are lost.

Saint Nicholas Cavasilas writes: "It is the same to say that ‘freedom is destroyed’ as to say: ‘the destruction of man.’ But what — more than anything else — manifests the imprint of God on the human soul is the power of desire (eros) the soul … and the impetus which a sanctified eros lends the soul in its movement towards its divine archetype. The Saints, especially Maximos the Confessor and Dionysios the Areopagite, understand this power of eroticism as not referring simply to human sexual desire.

To put it better, the sexual urge is an expression of that natural yearning which is implanted within us by our Creator, and leads us toward Him. To quote Saint Maximos once again: "At times scripture refers to God as desire (eros), and at other times as love (agape), and still other times as the desirable, and the beloved. Being Himself desire and love, he moves toward us while, as desirable and beloved, He moves all those creatures toward himself who are capable of desiring and loving. It is thus that the great apostle, Saint Paul, having come into possession of divine desire, and becoming a participant of the ecstatic power, cries out inspired, ‘ I live,’ he says, ‘yet not I, but Christ lives in me.’ He speaks as a lover and — as he says himself–as one caught up in the ecstasy of God. No longer living his own life, but instead that of the beloved, which alone is beauty surpassing speech."

Therefore, we understand the erotic power of the soul, at its deepest level, to be our thirst for the depths of our own being. That thirst can only be slaked when we achieve the goal for which we were made: UNION WITH OUR ARCHETYPE, WITH GOD — what the Orthodox Tradition calls "THEOSIS" ("DEIFICATION"),

We can find no rest in created things which pass away. Saint Nicholas Cavasilas says: "…the thirst of human souls requires infinite waters." Blessed Augustine adds:"Our hearts can have no rest until they rest in Thee." We were created to be UNITED WITH THE UNCREATED GRACE OF GOD, TO BECOME OURSELVES gods by grace. Here, in a single view, is the mystery of how we can understand the human being as one "commanded to be God." Saint Gregory Nanzianzos, called "the Theologian", writes on the mystery of man: "The Creator Logos/Word … fashions man as a simple being from both invisible and visible nature … and places him on earth as a kind of universe in miniature, another angel, a pilgrim blended of the two world, the overseer of the visible creation and the initiate of the spiritual, a king, ruling from above all things on earth… an animals, making its home here, yet translated elsewhere and — the goal of the whole mystery–by his yearning for God, he is made God."

LOSS OF THE IMAGE,
AND ITS RECOVERY IN CHRIST

With the fall of man, the image of God in him is darkened. Human nature, according to Saint Cyril of Alexandria, has been ‘infected’ by sin. As a result of this illness, that within us which is ‘according to the image’ is incapable of fulfilling itself, of becoming the likeness of God. Jesus Christ, as the radiant and unchanged icon of God, and as the Archetype of man, RE-ESTABLISHES THE FALLEN IMAGE OF ADAM WITH HIS SAVING ECONOMY. HE REVEALS OUR ORIGINAL BEAUTY. HE IS ALSO THE GOOD TEACHER WHO RE-ORIENTS, DRAWS, AND GUIDES US TOWARD OUR DIVINE ARCHETYPE.

The Church summarizes the salvation effected in Christ in her liturgy. An example, from the Vespers (Esperinos) of the Holy Transfiguration (August 6th): "Transfigured, Thou hast made the nature darkened in Adam radiant once again, O Christ, transforming it into the glory and brilliance of the Godhead." When we thus become: "CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST" (Romans 8:29), we come into possession of our own true form, our genuine humanity.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THEOSIS (DEIFICATION)

In the Mysteries (Sacraments), THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN THROUGH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BECOMES A TRUE COMMUNION OF LIFE, OF RESURRECTION, OF TRANSFIGURATION, OF OUR TRANSFORMATION INTO CHRIST, AND OUR THEOSIS (DEIFICATION). In this way our likeness to the image becomes actual rather than potential. The believing, faithful, and struggling human being is deified. DEIFICATION (THEOSIS) is not some idealistic desire, BUT A REALITY.

First, to be deified was the Most Holy Mother of God. According to our theologians She alone is found at the boundary beyond created and uncreated nature. She alone is god directly after God, and has the second place after the Holy Trinity.

The Saints possessing divine eros have also been deified. All the Saints live the saying of Saint Ignatios the God-bearer: "My eros has been crucified." The relation of the Saints to God is erotic, i.e., desiring or yearning not simply ethical. The grace of deification shines in their faces, and is revealed in their bodies which SMELL SWEETLY, GIVER FORTH MYRRH, REMAIN UNCORRUPTED, AND WORK MIRACLES. The Orthodox Church is the place and fellowship OF THEOSIS (DEIFICATION).

Whatever takes place in Orthodoxy is deifying, i.e., GIVEN TO BRING US INTO COMMUNION WITH GOD. The holy icons of Christ, of the Mother of God, of the Saints, and all the decoration of our Orthodox Churches declare that, truly, "GOD HAS BECOME MAN IN ORDER TO RAISE ADAM UP A GOD." THEOSIS (DEIFICATION) is possible because GRACE IS AN UNCREATED AND DIVINE ACTIVITY, ABLE THUS TO DEIFY US. DEIFICATION is effected by God and "suffered" by man. Deified man is purified from the passions. Attending to the prayers of the heart, he receives an experience of divine grace which refreshes and comforts him. A most exalted experience of theosis (deification) is the vision of the light of Mount Tabor, the UNCREATED LIGHT. Deified people not only see this supernaturally, but indeed they are themselves beheld within it — as has been witnessed to in the lives of many Saints. [Resources:  The Eros of Repentance]

(To be continued)

______________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +

With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George