And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female, he created them. (Genesis 1: 26-27)

As we see, the Holy Scripture speaks of one man—he speaks of the singular, even though, at first glance, he has to speak of two men: man and woman.

What do we know about God? That there is only one God in three persons: the Holy Trinity. So, the only God made a single man in many persons of two kinds: male and female. Unfortunately, however, this original unity does not exist today because this unique Adam was cut in pieces by sin. This unique mirror, this unique image of the one God, has fallen and broken in many pieces. This is the fall of Adam.

Because of this, God the Word has incarnated—Jesus Christ—saying, “Let’s rebuild Adam because, otherwise, you are in the hell which you alone have generated. Whoever wishes to be united with Me and, through Me, among you?”

What did God create? A created god, a gigantic mind. All the persons were meant to cooperate in real time, mentally, without any disagreement, for the fulfillment of the same purpose, yet retaining their specificity. So, the gift of knowing thoughts is a natural gift and speaking is actually a lower level of communication. For the people who are approaching God (the saints), this gift of knowing thoughts reappears.

How, however, could this union be realized concretely for the same purpose, while preserving our specificity? It is as in the case of a body that, for example, climbs a ladder: the feet do something, the hands do something else, the eyes do something else—each member does something else, but all the members work together in real time to achieve the same goal: the person climbing.

When the Apostle Paul says that the Church is the body of Christ and we are members in part, the Saint does not speak poetically but in a very concrete way, as we have shown above. In this body, Christ is the head and the Holy Spirit is the spiritual blood that gives life to the members.

We cannot find our happiness and resurrection in any other way than only in this spiritual nation. The true nation is the communion between the living, the communion between the dead, the communion between the living and the dead in the midst of the Holy Liturgy.

Based on Saint Sophronios Sacharov of Essex, Genesis 1: 26-27, 1 Corinthians 12: 3-30

In the photo, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol surrounded by monks. Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos.

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