29th Week after Pentecost. Holy Fathers 1-1-12
Man is created of the dust of the earth and a soul, which consists of the image and likeness of God.
The body is
subject to the
law of causality;
the soul has freedom
of choice and the
task of taking after
God. But Adam violated
God's commandment and
instead of taking
after God through obedience
and virtue, decided he wanted
instead to become
God himself. But he
found himself naked, and
sensing his guilt,
tried to hide and
fled from God.
God already knew
of his fall, and,
wishing to bring
him to repentance,
called him, “Adam,
where are you?”
The entire history of the human race is a flight from God.
As a result of the fall, passions filled the body. So that a person could resist passions, his soul was endowed with a conscience, through which God kept calling, “Adam, where are you? Come back to your creator.”
But people remained deaf. And in order to silence their conscience, they created gods in the image of themselves and brought them sacrifices.
Humans come with
the idea of God
built in, but serving
God requires spiritual
sacrifice, expressed
through piety. But
people often prefer
to live in sin.
This happened in times
past and continues
today. Sin crowds
out the feeling of
God. This leads to
fleeing from God.
Long ago this resulted
in idol worship.
The Holy Fathers are those people who did not flee from God, but rather sought Him: Through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire (Hebrews 11, 33-34).
The geneology of
the Savior, i.e., the
Holy Fathers, is the
history of God's calling
people back to Him through the Fathers,
“Adam, where art
thou (Genesis 3,9)?”
Finally, the Lord
descended to earth
as a God-infant
and again searched
for Adam: “Where art
though, Adam?” We
will soon celebrate
this event.
Fleeing from God
happens in our
day as well via
the theory of evolution,
whereby man is
only the highest stage
in a chain of
mechanical development.
When we sin,
we flee from God.
When we repent, we
return to God.
In the manner of the Holy Fathers, we shall seek God, in order to inherit salvation, for which the Lord was born as a baby. Amen.