In Genesim sermo 2

A demonstration that the first man cast away the image made according to the likeness of God through disobedience, but through the new Adam he received it back again. That man was made according to the image of God and likeness, both divine scripture has handed down and the word of teaching has gently indicated to those fond of learning. And you certainly remember, those of the hearers who are industrious, how our discourse concerning these matters was completed, that the phrase "according to the image" is primarily understood with reference to man's dominion and his rule over all things; but the likeness of this image is understood as the perfection of the virtues. But it is necessary, brothers, to show and clearly demonstrate how man, honored more than all the creations of God, was brought down from the precious and original beauty of the divine character to the nature and likeness of irrational beings. For being an image of the philanthropic God, he darkened himself with vices and blunted himself with lawless acts, and truly he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them. How man was likened to senseless beasts it is necessary to see from the deeds themselves, not so that we may blame what has gone before, but so that we may correct the present. For the events concerning Adam are read, and the whole history of those who came before, not so that we may praise or blame those who came before, but so that we may imitate virtue and avoid vice. And these things, says the marvelous Paul, were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, the first man cast away the image made according to the likeness of God through disobedience, and made it a trampling ground for demons and insulted it with the likenesses of irrational animals. And he made one man a lion rather than a human on account of the rawness and tyrannical nature of his ways, and another he rendered a wolf on account of his rapaciousness. And Scripture bears witness, speaking thus: "Your rulers are like roaring lions, and your judges like wolves of Arabia," calling the raw and tyrannical lions, and the rapacious and those looking to greed wolves. Do you see how the man made according to the image of God was brought down to the rank of irrational animals? Therefore, when a man acts tyrannically, he is called a lion; when he seizes, he receives the appellation of wolf; when he is defiled by licentious desires and is carried away to lawless deeds like irrational animals, the man is again found to be a horse: "For they became," it says, "mares mad for the male; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife." Again, vice made others from men into dogs. Dogs, why? On account of their barking, on account of their always delighting in tumults and disturbances. Concerning these, the blessed David also cries out on behalf of the Savior through prophecy: "Dogs have surrounded me." And who are the dogs? "A gathering of evildoers has encompassed me." Again, Scripture calls others swine, those who are defiled in the pit of improper deeds. Concerning these, the Lord says through the Evangelist: "Do not cast the holy things to the dogs nor the pearls before the swine.

You see how varied the human being is, and how that image made according to the likeness of God was brought down to the likeness of irrational animals, not because of any external compulsion, but because the human being threw himself down? For Scripture does not attribute the transgression to necessity, but to the choice of the one who was honored and who failed to recognize the honor. For it says, "A human being being in honor did not understand." Come again, if you please, let us consider how Scripture, on account of the varied, crafty, and hypocritical character of their disposition, elsewhere names some people foxes. For this reason, then, the Savior addresses Herod, who was varied in his dispositions, crafty in his thoughts, and living with impiety while pretending piety, as a fox. For when some came and reported to him, "Herod wishes to see you," the holy and great voice replied, "Tell this fox: Today and tomorrow I perform signs, and on the third day I am perfected." "Tell this fox," that is, to the soul full of craft, full of deceit and every wickedness and villainy. Do you understand, brother, how Scripture calls the crafty foxes? Therefore, when you say with the Psalmist, "They will enter into the lowest parts of the earth; they will be portions of foxes," understand the riddle and do not suppose that the riddle is not to be taken up into contemplation. And again elsewhere it said, "They will be portions of hypocrites." For those who are ignorant of the truth receive their portion not with the faithful, but with the hypocrites. Hence the Savior also, sealing this meaning, says concerning the one who managed badly:

The master of that servant will enter and cut him in two, and will place his portion against the hypocrites. So scripture has called the hypocrites foxes. Thus, brothers, the image of God has been brought down into so many unseemly forms and likenesses that scripture calls the whole inhabited world nothing other than irrational animals, cattle, reptiles, and wild beasts, before the knowledge of piety dawns upon it. Indeed, when the benevolent God wished to persuade even the foremost of the apostles, Peter, to receive all those coming from the gentiles, he showed that marvelous and strange cloth descending from heaven at its four corners, on which were all the four-footed animals of the earth, the birds of the air, the wild beasts, and the reptiles; and he says to him: "Arise, Peter, sacrifice and eat." But the apostle said: "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common and unclean." For Peter, not understanding the riddle of the image and thinking that what was seen was perceptible, forbids the eating, keeping the Jewish custom, and says: "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean." And the Lord said to him: "What God has cleansed, do not you defile." Now the Savior was discussing these things with the apostle concerning the four-footed animals that appeared, the wild beasts, and the birds; but the apostle of Christ, Peter, understood afterwards that the Savior did not hint at the birds and wild beasts through the cloth, but at all the nations, and he says to Cornelius, while conversing with him: "You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with any gentile.

But God showed me that no one is to be called common or unclean. Have you learned, brother, how we have been insulted in various ways by the names of irrational animals? When you read again in the prophet Isaiah: "Then the wolf will graze together with the lamb, and the leopard will rest with the goat, and the lion and the ox will graze and eat straw together," understand the riddle and clearly grasp the insight, that it does not indicate a gathering of irrational beasts, but the fellowship of humans, and it clearly interprets the communion of piety and the salvation that shone forth through grace for all people. For when you see in church a poor man standing together with a rich man, a commoner with a ruler, a lowly person with one of high rank, one who trembles at authority outside, understand what it means that "the wolf will graze together with the lamb." So it calls the rich man a wolf, and the poor man a lamb. And why is this? Because the wolf will share with the lamb, in the same way that the rich man shares with the poor man. And pay close attention: often a rich man and a poor man stand in church; the hour of the mysteries has overtaken you; the rich man is expelled as uninitiated, while the poor man stands within the heavenly precincts; and the rich man does not resent it, for he knows himself to be alien to the divine mysteries. But O the divine grace! Not only is there equality of honor in the church through the grace of God, but also when they stand, often the poor man takes precedence over the rich man in piety; and wealth has not benefited its possessor in piety, nor has poverty harmed the faithful one, presenting him with confidence at the holy altar.

I say these things, beloved, about the catechumens and not simply about the rich. Consider, brother, how often a master withdraws from the church while a faithful servant attends to the mysteries; the mistress departs and the maidservant remains. For God does not regard a person's status. Therefore in the church there is no slave and free, but Scripture knows as slave the one enslaved to sin. For the one who commits sin, it says, is a slave of sin. And it knows as free the one freed by divine grace. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, it says, freed me from the law of sin. Since, then, the image had been corruptly, as we said earlier, corrupted and dissolved, the Savior came and restored his own image again, and what the devil had cast down, the Creator clothed himself with, becoming man, the Lover of mankind, not insulting his dignity but defining his philanthropy. Hence this divine and strange garment the blessed David, proclaiming beforehand, said: "The Lord has reigned, he has put on comeliness." Not to the beginningless and bodiless divinity is a garment given—for nothing is more comely than God, that God should put on comeliness—but to the human nature. For we humans cover the unseemly parts of our limbs with the comeliness of garments; but God, being simple and unformed and alone possessing immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, what comeliness does he need or what garment does he put on? It is clear that the prophet called the assumption of a body "comeliness.

He also calls his own flesh "comeliness," not because of the nature of the body, but because of the achievement of the virtues. For this reason the body of the Lord is comely, not merely because it was a body, but because it committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. The Lord reigned; he put on comeliness. So also Isaiah says that he will clothe all men and adorn them like the ornaments of a bride. The Lord put on power and girded himself; and: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one," and so forth. And these things show the King Christ as some armed warrior, putting on the weapons of the earthly body. And fittingly of an earthly body. For he does not arm himself in the same way as men. And hear how. We men, when we often arm ourselves, protect the weak by means of the strong. God, being strong and mighty and powerful, puts on the earthly and weak body, not insulting his dignity, but through the weak displaying the excess of his power, as he said when Paul was beseeching him: "My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is perfected in weakness." Whence also this noble apostle, having well understood what was said to him, says somewhere in his letter to the Corinthians that the weakness of God is stronger than men. "The Lord put on power," that is, the economy that shone forth through the flesh. For what is more powerful than that precious and holy flesh? What is stronger? For through a body he overcame the bodiless and evil demons, and through the cross he triumphed over the opposing powers. Pay close attention.

To gird oneself" signifies "to be circumscribed." Since the holy and uncircumscribed nature seemed to be circumscribed in the body—not being circumscribed according to its own nature, but being thought to be circumscribed according to the visible appearance—he fittingly said: "The Lord put on power and girded himself." And what follows? "For he also made firm the inhabited world, which will not be shaken." Since the first sin shook the inhabited world, the Savior came, fixed the cross, and made the inhabited world firm. "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." And Paul says: "The firm foundation stands, bearing this seal." So the Lord uttered two sayings: "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." He did not use a long period of words. He did not say: "I make the church firm, and neither kings, nor rulers, nor tyrants, nor executioners, nor wise men, nor rustics, nor orators will overcome the church." For the kingdom of Christ is invincible and unconquerable. But by the word he indicated the power, and by a bare phrase he fortified the promise. "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Two sayings, not bare sayings, but sayings of God. For he who made the heaven firm with a word, and founded the earth with a word, also built, walled, and made firm the church—the inhabited world which will not be shaken.

Let us fall down, then, beloved, before the one who has made the inhabited world firm, and let us weep and entreat, so that through his philanthropy and ineffable power, remaining steadfast and immovable upon the unshaken and unbreakable foundation, we may send up glory and thanksgiving to him always, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.