My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
“And God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL”
[Genesis 2:7).
Saint John Damascene notes: “The body and the soul were formed at the same time–not one before the other afterwards. According to the description of the Book of Genesis, God created the body of man from already existing earthly elements and He created it in very special fashion: not by His command or word alone, as was done in the creation of the other creatures, but by His own direct action. This shows that man, even in his bodily beginning organization, is a being surpassing all other creatures from the very beginning of his existence. Further, it is said that God BREATHED INTO HIS FACE THE BREATH OF LIFE and the man BECAME A LIVING SOUL. As one who has received the breath of life, in this figurative expression, from the mouth of God Himself, man is thus a living organic union OF THE EARTHLY and THE HEAVENLY , the MATERIAL and the SPIRITUAL.
An even more exalted view is instilled in us by the word of God regarding the nature of THE SOUL. At the creation of the soul, God took nothing of it from the earth, but IMPARTED IT TO MAN SOLELY BY HIS CREATIVE INBREATHING. This clearly shows that, in the conception of the word of God, THE HUMAN SOUL IS AN ESSENCE COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM THE BODY AND FROM EVERYTHING MATERIAL AND COMPOSED OF ELEMENTS, HAVING A NATURE NOT EARTHLY, BUT ABOVE THE WORLD, HEAVENLY. The HIGH PREEMINENCE OF MAN’S SOUL compared to everything earthly was expressed by the Lord Jesus Christ in the words: “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? O what shall a man GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?” (Matthew 16:26). The Lord instructed His disciples: “Fear not them which kill the body, BUT ARE NOT ABLE TO KILL THE SOUL” (Matthewd 10:28).
Concerning the exalted dignity of the soul, Saint Gregory the Theologian expresses himself thus: “The SOUL IS THE BREATH OF GOD, AND WHILE BEING HEAVENLY, IT ENDURES BEING MIXED WITH WHAT IS OF THE DUST. It IS LIGHT ENCLOSED IN A CAVE, BUT STILL IT IS DIVINE AND INEXTINGUISHABLE… The Word/Logos spoke, and having taken a part of the newly created earth, with His immortal hands formed MY IMAGE AND IMPARTED TO IT HIS LIFE; BECAUSE HE SENT INTO IT THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS A RAY OF THE INVISIBLE DIVINITY” (Homily 7, “On the Soul”).
The Lord Jesus Christ often pointed to the immortality of the soul as the foundation of pious life., and He accused the Sadducees, who denied immortality. In His farewell conversation with His disciples the Lord told them that He was going to prepare a place for them so that they might be where He Himself would be {John 14:2-30. And to the thief He said: “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
In the New Testament, generally speaking, the truth of the immortality of the soul is the object of a more complete revelation, making up one of the fundamental parts of Christian faith itself. This truth inspires a Christian, filling his soul with the joyful hope of Eternal Life in the Kingdom of the Son of God. Saint Paul writes: “For to me… to die is gain… having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ” (Philippians 1:21, 23). “For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the beavens. For in this we groan, earnestly to be clothed upon with our house which from heaven” [2 Corinthians 5:1-2).
It goes without saying that the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church have unanimously preached the immortality of the soul, with this distinction only, that some acknowledge the soul as being immortal by nature–while others–the majority–say that it is immortal by the Grace of God. “God wishes that the soul might live” (Saint Justin Martyr); “the soul is immortal by the Grace of God Who makes it immortal” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem and others. The Holy Fathers by this emphasize the difference between the immortality of man and the immortality of God. Who is immortal by the very Essence of His nature and therefore WHO ONLY HATH IMMORTALITY, according to the Holy Scripture (1 Timothy 6:16).
One may rightly say that in the Orthodox Eastern Church the acknowledgment of the immortality of the soul occupies a fitting central place in the system of teaching and in the life of the Church. The spirit of the Church typicon, the content of the Divine services and separate prayers, all support and animate in the faithful this awareness, this belief in a life beyond the grave for the souls of our loved ones who have died, as well as belief in our own personal immortality. The belief sheds a bright ray on the whole life’s work of an Orthodox Christian.
The spirit is to be understood not as a substance that is separate and independent from the soul, but only AS THE INWARD AND MOST HIDDEN SIDE OF THE SOUL. Here the relation of soul and spirit is made parallel to the relationship between the members of the body and the brain; and just as the brain is the inward part of the same bodily nature–or is a content as compared to its container–so also THE SPIRIT IS EVIDENTLY CONSIDERED BY THE APOSTLE AS THE HIDDEN PART OF THE SOUL OF A MAN.
In this sense, “SPIRIT” corresponds to the Greek word NOUS, which is THE HIGHEST PART OF THE HUMAN SOUL, and THE FACULTY BY WHICH MAN KNOWS GOD AND ENTER INTO COMMUNION WITH Him. In the words of Saint John Damascene, “THE SOUL DOES NOT HAVE THE NOUS AS SOMETHING DISTINCT FROM ITSELF, BUT AS ITS PUREST PART, FOR AS THE EYE IS TO THE BODY, SO IS THE NOUS TO THE SOUL”
The Patristic consensus on this subject is that man IS COMPOSED OF BODY AND SOUL, and the spirit (nous) is the highest part of the soul. The spirit (nous) of man is created, and must never be confused with the Holy Spirit, Who is Uncreated. At Baptism, however, the Uncreated Grace of God, which man lost at the Fall, is once again united with the NOUS. Thus, Saint Diodochus of Photike writes: “The Grace of God dwells in the very depth of the soul–THAT IS TO SAY, IN THE NOUS” (Philolia, vol. 1, p. 280). (Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)
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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God