In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
My beloved, again it is a wonderful blessing for me to be with you all as we continue into our deep dive in studying the Holy Eucharist, specifically through the mind of St. Cyril of Alexandria. Now if you have been following along with us, we've already had the first lecture and in that first lecture we discussed quite a few things, some very important things in regards to what the human being looked like before he fell away and fell into the state of sin.
So let's take a look at some of the things that we've discussed in the previous lecture. We've spoken about the fallen human condition and the necessities for reconciliation. Here the whole purpose in our first lecture was the primordial human being, what the human being looked like before the fall, before death entered into the world. We spoke about being created in God's image and likeness. We took a look at Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26, 27, 28, where we spoke about being created in his image and likeness and how we were created to have dominion and how it is that the breath of life that was breathed into the human being truly is the Holy Spirit. We spoke about how God created us so that we can live in a state of incorruption and how it is that we were created for life and immortality. And obviously, we also spoke about how it is that He created us to be in union with him. All of this was spoken about before and then we also spoke finally about how it is that death entered into the world and in the fall, things began to go the wrong way and we fell away from what it meant to be created in God's image and likeness.
Now hopefully today, in the discussion that we're going to have, we will speak about the effects of the fall. We will speak about how it is that we fell into corruption. We will speak about how it is that death has entered into the world. We will speak about how we are now alienated from God. And then finally we'll have the discussion as to what does God do facing all of this: the divine dilemma that God is facing. What does He do now with this humanity that He created to be in union with Him, this humanity that He created to have life, this humanity that He created so it could be in a state of incorruption, what does He do with it now that it's in its fallen state? So let's go ahead and begin with the second lecture.
For us to begin this lecture, let's go back to Scripture. Now Scripture speaks to us about how it is that the human being found himself in a state of alienation and separation from God. After the human being falls, it says that Eve spoke to the serpent and the serpent convinced Eve that: God is lying to you. He doesn't want you to eat of this because if you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God and He doesn't want you to be like Him.
And that's actually very interesting because the devil tries to tempt Eve by telling her the very opposite of what God's intentions were. It says that God creates us in His image and His likeness, so He actually wants us to be like His Son, from the very beginning, in His image and His likeness. But what does the serpent tell her? No, God doesn't want you to eat from this or else you'll become like Him. But the whole purpose was for us to be like Him so that we can actually grow into the likeness of Him who created us and freely gave us the gift of bearing His image and even gave us His Holy Spirit as the grace of this indwelling spirit that gives us life, that gives us this gift of immortality and eternity and incorruption.
But because we fell away and because we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because we were disobedient and we fell away from God, we chose rather our own source of knowledge; we chose not to learn and to grow through God; we chose to learn directly through our own experience of sin and fallenness and death. All of this led to the human being being expulsed, or being separated, from God. And so, in Genesis, chapter 3, verses 23 and 24, after the Lord speaks to Adam and then speaks to Eve and then He curses the serpent, we read the following:
'' 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth [him being Adam] from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.'' (Genesis 3:23) - [New Revised Standard Version]
This same land that was given to him, this earth that was told to him, you know, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion; be the king and the queen of all creation; be the pinnacle and the most beautiful masterpiece of all of created order.... He was now cast out of the garden and through his sweat and through his toil and teal and tears and blood, he is now told that he has to work in separation and alienation from God. He will now experience pain and suffering. He will now live in a state of death. And so it says:
24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.'' (Genesis 3:24) - [New Revised Standard Version]
Now some people ask the question: Why would God separate us from the tree of life? If the tree of life was meant to be something good, why would He separate us from the tree of life? And in the commentary of the early Church Fathers, it teaches us and tells us that the reason why God has not allowed us to eat from the tree of life is actually mercy; it's God compassion. Because now that we have separated ourselves from God, now that we are in a state of alienation and separation from Him because we have chosen to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because we have turned our back on God, then now we are found in a state of death. And if you eat of the tree of life now that you're in a state of death, you will find yourself eternally in this state of death, because you have eaten from the tree of life. So God separates from us the tree of life and only reintroduces it when He has found the solution and has introduced the antidote to this death that has entered into the world.
So, think with me. What is this tree of life? What is this tree of life that He finally gives us access to again after he has taken it away from us? Here it says it very clearly:
'' 24 ... and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. » (Genesis 3:24) - [New Revised Standard Version]
He places ─ and you can even see it here in the icon where ─ He places the cherub to protect the tree of life so that we don't eat from it. What is this tree of life that He reintroduces? The early Church teaches us that that very tree of life is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're on this piece of wood that is planted in Golgothá and it stands up high like a tree that... He hangs on it; He becomes the fruit of that tree, of which we are now all called to eat. Because for those who eat of this tree of life will have life granted to them. But we'll get into that in just a moment...
For now, it's important for us to know, what? That in this fallen state, there is an expulsion from God's presence; we are alienated and separated from God; we have lost our union with Him. And so Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden; we are driven out, out of God's presence.
So, there is a passage that is really beautiful that is written in the book of Wisdom and this is part of the deuterocanonical books that we adopt in the Orthodox Church. It's not in any of the Protestant bibles and that's because a lot of the bibles that we have today in the Protestant bibles, the deuterocanonical books that were recognized by the early Church, many of them were filtered out when we began to print all of the new versions of the bible that are today printed, such as King James and New King James and New International version and so on and so forth. A lot of the deuterocanonical books are taken out of them. But the book of Wisdom happens to be part of the deuterocanonical canon of Scripture.
And so in Wisdom, chapter 2, there's this very beautiful passage that is extremely important. It says the following... says:
'' 23 for God created us for incorruption, and [He] made us in the image of his own eternity, 24 but through the devil's envy death entered [into] the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.'' (Wisdom 2:23-24) - [New Revised Standard Version Catholic Interconfessional]
So now death enters into the world, how? By the envy of the devil. Does that sentence sound familiar to you? If you've ever attended a Coptic Orthodox liturgy, specifically the liturgy that we pray very often, which is the liturgy according to St. Basil the Great, in the prayer of reconciliation, the presider over the liturgy will always say the following:
''Oh God, the great, the eternal who formed man in incorruption... and death which entered into the world by the envy of the devil.'' (Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, Prayer of Reconciliation)
And he continues then to explain how it is that God, you know, He healed this problem of this corruption and this death which entered into the world through the life-giving manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But that passage which says oh God who created us in incorruption, and here it says it very clearly in the book of Wisdom, for God created us incorruption, but then there is this death that enters into the world through the envy of the devil and it says it here: but through the devil's envy death entered into the world. St. Basil, when he wrote those passages, he took it directly from Scripture.
Now here's what's interesting and I want you to consider the following. Some people hear those words that death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, well, really, was it death? I thought it was sin that entered into the world. I thought that what the devil tried to introduce to Eve was for her to sin, was for her to disobey God. But the Church is actually teaching you and me through Scripture and through the liturgy that death and sin are synonymous... synonymous! Because whenever you speak of sin, you speak of death and whenever you speak that death, what leads to it is sin, and sin is a state of being.
The Greek word for sin is αμαρτία (amartía); amartía literally means to miss the mark. And so if I have missed the mark, if God has told you this is where I want you to be, hit this place right here for Me, be on the bull's eye, but if I miss this and I don't land on it, then there's no life there. This is where life is, this is where He wants me to be. By missing the mark, I have immediately, by sinning, chosen death. That's what happened to our forefathers; that's what happened to Adam and Eve, that then by disobeying God, and He tells them... the day that you will eat of it, you will surely die...they have chosen death rather than choosing life.
So now death enters into the world, how? By the envy of the devil. But why do we call it envy? Because what the devil wants most for us is what's coming to him. And because he was kicked out of God's presence, he wants us kicked out of God's presence. Because he has lost his illumination as a glorious being, as a beautiful angel, he wants us to also lose that state of incorruption and he wants us to be just as corrupt as he is. And the same way that the only thing awaiting him is death, he wants us to lose life and to inherit that death also. Just as he used to stand in the presence of God and he used to know God, he no longer wants us to know God. And so through his envy, through his jealousy, he hates us; he hates everything that makes God happy; he hates us because we bear the image and the likeness of God and he can't stand to see us like this. And through by his envy, death has entered into the world because of the choices that humanity made.
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