From the image to the likeness of God...

 FROM THE IMAGE TO THE LIKENESS OF GOD ..."Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...." this is the creative word from the Father's Word about the creation and destination of mankind. He gave us the.....potentiality....the image, and all we have to do is to act so that we will activate our inner divine grace and proceed towards likeness of God.

The spiritual work which every person, as a member of our Orthodox church, acts and ought to act, does not bear any further divine grace, blessing, canonisation within us through the introductory mystery into life in Christ, that is, the baptism. The baptised or else neophyte receives the entire Holy Spirit potentially, the entire holiness potentially and we are requested to proceed from "potentially " to "actively ". Through the active participation in life in Christ, through the ecclesiastical mysteries, the activation of the divine reason and Word, that of the image of God, commences and we proceed to likeness of God in collaboration with the divine grace. We could figuratively give the example of a mobile phone which has the......menu.....a lot of applications and is switched off.... (that is,for example, the image );as mentioned above, it has a lot of applications but it does not work by itself. Its owner needs to set the pin number and select one option from the menu depending on what he wants to do, for instance, give a call and right then it is activated. So, in spiritual life we could liken the pin number to the.....orthopraxis....., the menu to the....Holy Ghost..., and each specific option ie. calls, message, calendar,settings, contacts ...etc....to each one's talent, as we can read in the Parable of Talents ,and in this way the divine grace is gradually activated and the alteration,the transition, the progress towards the purpose of the upward call of God is accomplished within us. So, we thoroughly receive the entire Holy Ghost; if man maintained the robe unpolluted and clean, no other labour, no guide or exercises would be needed. But since we are humans wearing flesh and living on earth ,we sin again after baptism and due to the sin the.....line is somehow......cut off and....we lose contact with heaven , with God , and the Holy Spirit's treasure, the Precious Pearl, is covered with our passions , with the sin, with the......debris of our aimless actions. When man, with God's grace, comes back to himself -because when we are far from God and far from spiritual life, we are....beside ourselves - and starts spiritual labour :repentance, confession, fasting, prayers, beneficence etc, then with this good act, it is like we charge the batteries of the uncharged mobile phone. It is not that in this way further grace is inserted into our soul but the animate temple, our soul, starts to remove the debris and be cleaned whereas before that, it had ended up being a "looters' cavern" due to our passions and the lost and buried Precious Pearl gradually starts being revealed. The rekindling, the spiritual rebirth, the reformation commences without shattering through the observance of God’s commandments. The Lord says..... ......"Whoever has my commands and keeps them, is the one who loves Me..." we can see that our observance of His commands and the love among us is a sign of proof of our love towards Christ. ......"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.....", by what? Not by saying....Lord, Lord.....and by not doing His will; not by proclaiming that we are Christians but rather by leading a life of Christians;not by showing the cross on our chest but rather bearing it patiently on our shoulders; not by preaching, but? By what? ......."If you have love among one another......" so, love is the trait and when we come to know true love, the Love, which is God,this love will release us from the shackles of our passions and we will see the light of Christ. We can only see the light of Christ , the light of the Kingdom, the light of the Resurrection not through the eyes but rather through the purgation of our senses. What does a troparion on the Canon of Resurrection at Easter say?..... ......"Let us purify our senses and we shall behold Christ radiant with the inaccessible light of the Resurrection...." it says to purify our senses and then it is as if.......spiritual collyrium is inserted in the eyes of the soul and we will be able to see the inaccessible light of the Resurrection; and when it starts rising within us, then we can understand what another troparion of the ode says...... ......"Now all things are filled with light :heaven and earth and the nether regions......" it says ,now in this situation of light and in its domination there is no darkness of passions, sins, lies, wickedness, deceit,unlawfulness, defection, but the soul loving the Lord is attracted towards Him and wishes to be over Jesus' feet like Maria,who has chosen the good portion, over Lazarus' ,like the purified from the evil spirits , who stayed over the Lord's feet being reformed and clothed. It is then that we feel we need another kind of life , "the commencement of eternal life "....and we rejoice over this revelation and..... ........"We hymn the Cause, the only blessed and most glorious of our fathers...." For this donation, the soul offers hymns, psalms, prayers as thanksgiving....... ......"We offer You ,Christ ,hymn of praise with incense and spiritual odes......" and at once tears well up in the soul like the grass growing on earth. ........"Tearful myrrh -bearing women offered myrrh oils to You ,Christ,....."and as they beheld the Resurrection of Christ , that is what the soul will mentally experience when we gratefully pray to Christ...... ......."Let us arise in the deep dawn and instead of myrrh, offer a hymn to the Lord and we shall behold Christ, the Sun of Righteousness Who causes life to dawn on all........" desperation, suffering, dismay cease to exist and..... ......."Whom they sought with tears as mortal, they joyfully adored as the living God....." then, darkness turns into light, curse turns into blessing, the earth turns into heaven, bitter turns into sweet, perishable turns into imperishable and heavenly life is conducted on earth. By living and proceeding in life in this way, with this disposition, with this course of life, with this purpose ,then , regeneration, reformation, transformation happens within the soul and we experience God’s Kingdom......potentially, then the soul proceeds from image to likeness of God and we become children of God’s Kingdom and eternal life, the purpose of the upward call of God , the final destination of man, which is divinisation(theosis),is achieved. For this purpose there was the divine dispensation, the birth according to the flesh, the Incarnation, the circumcision, the baptism, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Passion, the mockery, the lance, the nails, the vinegar, the spitting, death, burial, Resurrection, Ascension, the Pentecost. For this, the prophets, the patriarchs for this the HOLY VIRGIN THEOTOKOS, MOTHER OF GOD, with Whose Holy Supplications may it be so that we can gain eternal and everlasting life AMEN. May it be like that.