Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

As I continue to read Theology of the Body by Jean-Claude Larchet, I come across some very fine passages that clearly articulate the Orthodox understanding of our humanity. We need to read and absorb those deep insights, think hard about them, and then seek ways that we can apply this teaching to how we live our lives in the world. This is essential, for we live in a time of an almost radical reduction of our humanity; what Fr. Alexander Schmemann called an "anthropological minimalism." This minimalism permeates every aspect of the contemporary world, including what we call "higher education." We can appreciate the insights that we learn from the world around us and our education, but we turn to the "mind of the Church" to fully understand what and who we are. Be that as it may, in this passage Larchet offers us a fine summary of what the Tradition has always taught us about our creation "in the image and according to the likeness of God." 

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God made man not only in his image but according to this likeness: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." (Gen. 1:26). Most of the Fathers distinguish between these two notions; giving them different meanings. The image is actual, already realized; the likeness, on the other hand, is potential or virtual, something still to be accomplished. Whereas the image relates to our nature and is independent of our will- which is why it remains a permanent characteristic of every human being - the likeness relates to our person and depends on our choices, on the inclination of our will, on our way of life as shown in our moods, our inner states, and our actions. Yet the two concepts are not unrelated. On the one hand, it is the image that makes us aim at achieving this likeness and which, moreover, contains the necessary powers and means that it is our responsibility to make use of attaining it. On the other hand, the realization of the likeness corresponds to an actualization of the image's potential. In other words, to strive for the likeness enables us to accomplish, in our own person, our nature as humans, to flourish, and to realize ourselves fully.

For the Fathers, it is by means of the virtues that we can become like God, and it is in this likeness to God, acquired by a collaboration between free will and the grace given us that we can ultimately become a partaker of divine life - a participation to which we are both destined by our nature and called by personal vocation.

Theology of the Body, p. 27

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: ancientfaith.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

It is perhaps most obvious during Great Lent just how much our bodies participate in the very act of worship. We are now making prostrations and bowing deeply at the waist; services during which we do our best to stand are somewhat longer, and so forth. Of course, that is the "outward person" and not yet the "inward person." Those very practices can be lifeless if done somewhat mechanically. Yet, the point I am trying to make her very briefly is that we need to respect our "bodily nature" as integral to our very humanity. That this is expressive of a holistic Orthodox anthropology at its most complete. These are simply a few comments which are meant to preface a passage from the book Theology of the Body by the French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet. His book is a very thorough examination of the many-sided approaches to the human body and its relation to the "soul" and/or "spirit" which are essential for us to understand. Only then will we fully grasp our understanding and experience of human nature as created by God. 

The passage here is a nice summary of the over-all teaching of the Church on the body:

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The fact remains that original, authentic Christianity is, by its very nature, the one religion that values the body most of all. This is seen in the doctrine of creation, whereby the body too is deemed to be made in the image of God. Similarly, Christianity's portrayal of future life is one in which the body is also called to participate. Indeed, it is seen in its conception of the human person as composed inextricably of soul and body, and who thus does not simply have a body but in part is a body, marked by all its spiritual qualities. Without question, such exceptional value and significance accorded the body is linked to the very basis of Christianity - namely, the incarnation. It is a consequence of the fact that the Son of God became man, assuming not simply a human soul but a human body; that in this body he experienced what we experience; that in his person he delivered it from its weaknesses and ills, making it incorruptible, granting it eternal life; and that he gave it as food to his disciples and believers, making them partakers of his divinity, and of all associated blessing.

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From Theology of the Body by Jean-Claude Larchet, p. 11