Humankind is a Microcosm of the Whole Universe
It has been said that humans are a microcosm of the whole universe because we have within ourselves the entire material world and with it all the noetic powers of the cosmos. Created as we were for immortality, it is our fallen nature that has separated us from that which God had intended for us. When we reach out for the healing that comes with living our lives in repentance, and growing in the transformational power of love, we see the order of creation in all its integrity and positive reality.
As we go deeper into this understanding of creation, we see that God has blessed the very existence of humanity, whereby the world is a revelation of God (Rom. 1:19-20). The world as cosmos has its own integrity, and is a mystery. The world as cosmos is a positive reality, and is the good work of the good God (Gen. 1), made by God for the existence of humanity.
This world is a revelation of God (Rom. 1:19-20), and its intelligent inhabitants (we humans) see it as cosmos, and come to learn about the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Energies. This cosmos is a coherent whole because all its elements are united and interrelated in time and space.
The creation of the cosmos is found not only in the fact that it was appointed by God to be the home for living beings. It was made by God to be the context for God’s Incarnation and humankind’s deification, and to be the beginning of the actualization of the Kingdom of God. The cosmos provides the stage upon which humankind moves from creation to deification, and ultimately, the whole of the creation is destined to become a transfigured world, since the salvation of humankind necessarily involves the salvation of its natural home, the cosmos.
According to the Church Fathers, “…Let us make man …(Genesis 1:26)”, shows that the creation of the human being was the result of a Trinitarian act, and that “man was made according to the image and the likeness of God”. This is to be understood in terms of Jesus Christ, since he is explicitly identified with it (2 Cor.4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3 ff). It is therefore clear that for mankind to be in the image of God means we are assimilated to Christ. It is by God’s grace, and not a matter of nature, because only Christ is by nature God’s image as God’s eternal and natural offspring, His only begotten Son.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Tuesday August 24, 2021 / August 11, 2021
10th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Food without Oil
Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Euplus of Catania (304).
Martyrs Basil and Theodore of the Kiev Caves (1098).
Venerable Theodore (in monasticism Theodosius) of the Kiev Caves, prince of Ostrog (1483).
St. John, recluse of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1867).
Virgin-martyr Susanna and those with her: Martyrs Gaius, pope of Rome; presbyter Gabinus, his brother and father of Susanna; Maximus, Claudius and his wife, Praepedigna, and their sons Alexander and Cutias (295).
St. Niphon, patriarch of Constantinople (Mt. Athos) (1515).
Venerable Passarion of Palestine.
St. Blaan, bishop of Bute (Dunblane), Scotland (590) (Celtic & British).
Commemoration of the Miracle (1816) of St. Spyridon (348) on Kerkyra (Corfu) with the Hagarenes (Greek).
New Martyrs Anastasius of Asomaton in Asia Minor and Demetrius of Lesbos (1816) (Greek).
St. Taurinus, first bishop of Evreux, Gaul (2nd c.).
Martyrs Neophytus, Zeno, Gaius, Mark, Macarius, and Gaianus (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
1 Corinthians 15:29-38
Effects of Denying the Resurrection
29 Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? 30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? 31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
A Glorious Body
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
Matthew 21:23-27
Jesus’ Authority Questioned
23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”
24 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.”
And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.