Lesson Three: The Divine Rod
What is man, if you do not visit him? Therefore do not forget the weak. Remember, O Lord, you made me weak, that you formed me from dust. How can I stand, if you do not constantly look upon me to reshape this clay, so that my strength emanates from your face? When you hide your face, all things are less "(Psalm 103.29). Turn to me and watch me because your eyes are fire, burning my sin cleanse me and lights me up by shining the brightness of your image imprinted in me. (Prayer of St. Ambrose, as amended by me).
the first chapter of Genesis - the priestly tradition - the creation of the universe shows us that man is the crown, the second chapter of Genesis - Yahwist traditional - will immediately focus on 'man, in his summing up the meaning and purpose of creation. The second chapter summarizes the work of creation in the previous two and a half verses: "When the Lord God made the earth and sky, no bush country on earth, no herb of the field was checked - for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on earth and no one to till the soil and the water was rising from the earth channels to irrigate the whole land "(Gen 2.4 b-6).
We can say that the first chapter paints a picture of the relationship between God and the cosmos in general, urging the man to relate to it through the eyes of God and the benevolent gaze of God, while the second chapter paints a picture of the specific relationship God has with man, has the special care that puts God in creating man.
the Earth with the divine breath
If the first chapter represents the work of creation as word of God, the second chapter with a more coarse language, is God's work as a make: God made man - and literally the Earth : hā'āḏām - from the earth hā'ăḏāmâ . Only later, the generic name with the definite article become a name own without the definite article (Gen 4:25). But the specific human, which is not said of other animals or other creatures is that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." The second text of Genesis means that the first human dignity, man into his nostrils the breath of the divine, a spark of life different from animal life.
Who is right, anthropology biblical ol'antropologia New Age?
Biblical anthropology is very real and very sober, but do not overdo it exalts man, and already in verse 7 have a description of the two symbolic resources from which flows the human: the earth and sky. There is no dualism, but there is not an abuse of a component on the other. Man is earth, but it has a divine breath, and vice versa, and the wisdom to know is composed of two components, designed not in their materiality but in their trends. This vision expresses a sober Blaise Pascal's aphorism that is descriptive and admonish the same time, he says: "Man is not neither angel nor beast, but the paradox is that when it claims to do the angel becomes a beast. " Hence the title of this lesson: the rod of God. In fact, the same man as Pascal calls "thinking reed", is barrel to symbolize its fragile nature, but Pascal is thinking, and this awareness of their fragility is a strong man. The man known to be fragile, knows he is mortal, and this knowledge is a treasure that lifts him above other creatures. Similarly, in the Bible, man is realistically painted creature in its fragility, and its creative capacity. In this biblical vision is very different from the teachings of Eastern religions, and especially the teachings of the New Age. The man is a divine spark and that's it: the Bible, man has a divine breath (ruah) but also has a component that pulls it already, it weighs in realizing the aspirations of his spirit. This fight is nicely expressed in the Saint Paul: "I can not even understand what I do: it does not do what I want, but what I hate [...] there is in me the desire for good, but not the ability to implement it, because I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want "(Rom 7,15.18-19). This is not the expression a Christian pessimism ignores the potential of humanity, but the realism is that looking at the picture of man as an individual, as humanity, and sees how well we can do, and how much desire to do good and at the same time, how evil we are capable of doing. American comedian says in his show: "If you see that all is well in the world, maybe we should call that the technician to adjust your TV."
I got to meet a man very famous in France, his name is Joseph Marie Verlinde. A very charming and intelligent character. At the age of 24 years holds a Ph.D. in nuclear sciences. It lives in first person '68 with all its upheavals. During this period not only abandoned the study, but also Christianity and became a disciple of a famous Indian guru, touring the world with him, settling in India, such as Monaco. After years of Hindu life, he meets one day a Christian who visited him in India. Will know after the reaction of this Christian who is distressed during his visit to see this young man who was baptized in the name of Jesus, and has failed to exploit the knowledge of God who. Will also know that Christians have felt the need to kneel with his head down to the ground to pray for him, and not to hurt the sensibilities of the Hindus, did not find another place to do it in the bathroom ... it is a fact that after this meeting Verlinde begins to question all the teaching he received from his Guru. In fact, his life, despite so much research and asceticism, does not reflect the glory and the promise that the Hindus. With time - and it is always difficult to tell the story intimate and secret soul - he comes to understand his need to be saved from their poverty, while his inability to be the savior of himself. It's where you open the breach to faith in Christ ... Now is Verlinde Monaco and has a strong Catholic teaching on Christian prayer and the dangers of Eastern religions.
Man: an animal called to be God
We now turn to a verse that we have neglected in the first chapter: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen 1:26). The interpretation of this verse has a long history. I start with an objection that I read many years ago a Muslim commentator on a Christian forum online. The author of the comment, taking the letter and the word indiscriminately said, "here's fallacciano of the Christian Bible, speak of man as image of God, as if God could have an image. " If our friend had the patience and above all the lack of prejudice to know a little about 'the Bible, he would see that the Bible is a staunch defender of the transcendence of God, and that in many passages of Bible are harsh criticism and decisive rejection of idolatry, and the temptation to identify God with any image or form created. But we go beyond ...
What is in the image and likeness of God? The beauty of the allusive language of Genesis is that it opens a wide range of interpretations, some good some not, depending on the "consequential" in the spirit of Scripture and what is called regula fidei, the body of Christian teaching handed down through the centuries. Some Fathers of the Church see in the image of God in creation spirituality of man, the other its rationality, the other his freedom, other interpretations are linked straight to the continuation of the verse: the man in the image of God, is lord of creation , dominates the establishment, not a despotism by domain, but with the authoritative kindness with which God is related to the world.
One of the most interesting interpretation we see in reading the summary of the Fathers made by an Orthodox theologian named Vladimir Loosky which states: "The human person can not truly be" image "or" image ", could not manifest God , transcendent nature that it "enipostatizza [impersonalizza], if he had the option of assimilation to God."
What Loosky says is that man is the image of God only if he can become like God and assimilated to God, mystically joined to God, if you divine. A strong word, almost shocking St. Basil, saying: man is an animal that received the call to become God may hurt our feelings feel called animals, but two things mitigate the shock: first, most would agree that the definition of Aristotle, who defines man as "zoon politikon " political animal. And second, to think that 'animal', after all, is what the "soul". Biblical anthropology is in fact uniform (there is the Platonic dualism between soul and body = bad = good). The man is the biblical one, consisting of a trinity of sources confluent (technically called anthropological trichotomy): Beser meat (in Hebrew there is no concept of the body), soul nefesh, and spirit ruah . It is the latter that distinguishes man from other creatures, this breath that God gives to the biblical text
"Let us make" man, we Who?
The word "face" in the plural, has given rise to many interpretations in history, some have interpreted as the plural maestatis, others said that God was speaking simplistically with the angels, others that it was pagan polytheism compound (a hypothesis which seems implausible), but there are two interesting interpretations, and tonight I will talk about one of them, specifically omitting the second interpretation to the next week: to say we do - according to this interpretation - God speaks to man himself! God can not make man a real human being without the man, because man is not a fabric is a homo viator, man is in the process of humanization, is a man in the making, is a man on the move ... the man is a process beginning with the creation of man, just as it is a process that begins with the birth but continues throughout life. God can do the man only if man contributes to this by creating a free and liberating. And this is another aspect of existentialism is very biblical and current reality.
"from image to likeness
Back to our verse: For some fathers the image and similarity are not two synonyms that the biblical author has a preference, but there are two distinct realities, the first is the starting point, the gift ( tselem literally means "copy", "reproduction") and second is the arrival point, the conquest and task. Man is created in God's image, able to be deified, to become God, to become - with the grace of God - God, become God .. but must "take" to complete the "face" of God says elsewhere Loosky the aforementioned "Man created in the image is person, capable of manifesting God to the extent that its nature is penetrated through the deifying. The transition from image to likeness is a step in the Grace of God to what God is by nature. The greatest work of creation is itself a wonder we become divine. Man is a creature creator, and the greatest creation, that man can achieve is co-created according to the likeness of God
And what is the deepest nature of God? St. John tells us in a verse that Father Emiliano Tardiff said that if you were to burn all the Bible and if he were to lose all tracks enough to summarize all that verse: "God is love" (1 Jn 4:16).
And here we arrive at an interpretation given by Irenaeus, and that is not arbitrary but deeply rooted in the theology of Saint Paul. Irenaeus says that the Trinity in an intimate dialogue creates man in the image of Christ which is according to Pauline theology the perfect image of God
He says in the hymn of Christ's original Letter to the Ephesians:
" He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature;
because through him
were created all things,
those in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible
Thrones, Dominions,
principalities or powers.
All things are created
through him and for him.
He is before all things
and all in Him "(Colossians 1.15 to 17).
God created man in the image of Christ to be more specific, model man looking to Christ's humanity, so that the second Adam is older and the principle of "First Adam 'all the way to reach women is the similarity and assimilation to Christ, to have 'The same sentiments of Christ Jesus. "
image and likeness are the two coordinates in which we live the fate of a man's personal fate punctuated by what Jesus called the greatest commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all heart and with all your soul and with all thy mind, "And the second commandment is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Mt 22:37-40).
NB: We're not done with the interpretation of the verse (there is a particular interpretation that expressly left to the next lesson inherent in the relationship between man and woman). So even we do not have interpreted the verse of Genesis 1:27 which is connected to the same theme just mentioned. The same thing applies to the creation of the woman in chapter II. All this material will be the next lesson
another consideration remains to be done on the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil ... which will be discussed at the next class ( after the next)!
0 comments:
Post a Comment