On the Human Condition (Popular Patristics Series)

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“Above light, above heaven, above luminaries, above all things is the creation of the human being. ‘The Lord God took’ Our body is quite worthy to be entirely molded by his own hands. He did not command an angel. The earth did not automatically cast us forth as it did the cicadas. He did not tell the ministering angelic powers to make this or that. But by his own hands, as an artist, he took earth. When you focus on what is taken, what is the human being? When you understand the One doing the molding, the human is great, indeed he is nothing because of the material and great through the honor.” (Page 50)

“Yet now he has made us with the power to become like God. And in giving us the power to become like God, he let us be artisans of the likeness to God, so that the reward for the work would be ours. Thus we would not be like images made by a painter, lying inertly, lest our likeness should bring praise to another. For when you see an image exactly shaped like the prototype, you do not praise the image, but you marvel at the painter. Accordingly, so that the marvel may become mine and not another’s, he has left it to me to become according to the likeness of God. For I have that which is according to the image in being a rational being, but I become according to the likeness in becoming Christian.” (Page 44)

“Its beauty and ingenious structure make it a masterpiece of divine craftsmanship. Third, he distinguishes between that which is according to the image, the rationality and free choice that humans always have, and that which is according to the likeness, the deiform virtues that we can acquire through participation in Christ by using our freedom to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Basil notes that God has honored humans by enabling them to become fashioners of the divine likeness within themselves.” (Page 19)