In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
My beloved, welcome to what is now the second part of the second lecture in our deep dive of St. Cyril of Alexandria's understanding of the Holy Eucharist. Now if you've watched the first part of this second lecture, you're aware of what it is that we mean when we say that death has entered into the world. Now that we understand that death has entered into the world, it's important for us to be able to deep dive and to understand what were the actual effects of the fall on the human being. So let's go ahead and take a look at that together.
So, some of the effects of the fall, and we're going to be discussing many of these effects... The first effect that we're going to be discussing is death and the loss of the Holy Spirit. St. Cyril of Alexandria, he comments on the Gospel of St. John and he talks about how it is that in separating ourselves from God and by inheriting this death, we lose Him who is the Life- Giver; we lose the Holy Spirit. He says the following:
''But when he [Adam] was punished because of his transgression, he justly heard, ''Earth you are, and to earth you will depart,'' [you came from earth, you were taken from dust and to dust you will go back, you will go back to the earth] and in so hearing he was stripped of grace [the grace that was given to him is now lost]. The breath of life, that is, the Spirit of him who says, ''I am the life,'' departed from the earthly flesh and the living being fell into death...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
Suddenly in this separation, we lose the Holy Spirit. We lose the Holy Spirit and this is, by the way, made very clear in Genesis, chapter 6, where, as we read chapter 6, it very clearly says in that passage: and the Lord said: My Spirit cannot dwell with man forever for he is flesh. Because he will go back to a state of corruption, he will go back to dying, he will go back to the earth. There is an end to him and I cannot participate with that which dies. I cannot participate and live in that which is in a state of corruption. I cannot participate with one who has turned his back on Me, who has separated himself from Me, who is alienated from Me. And so the Holy Spirit leaves the human being. And when we lose the Holy Spirit, we lose our potential to be all that we are called to be. Now, we are in state of corruption, we have lost life and now we're embracing death, we are alienated from God. We have lost the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and this is one of the major effects of the fall.
Another effect of the fall that St. Cyril speaks about is this separation from God, that we were meant to know Him, to live intimately with Him. But now, the separation is real and the separation is something that is very heavy to carry for the human being. He says again in his commentary in St. John, says:
''But when he was led astray by the deception of the devil, he despised the creator...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
The human being who was created to love God and to know God and to taste love's God for him, suddenly, he despises the Creator. And then we see very quickly in Genesis, chapter 6, how humanity became very evil. It says that every thought of the imagination of the human being was evil continually. The human being had reached a very ugly point. We were completely separated from God. We embraced evil and so we despised the Creator, St. Cyril says.
''He trampled on the law that was marked out for him and grieved his benefactor...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
We didn't care about the rules that God has given us so we can live. We didn't care about the commandments of us having dominion and subduing the earth and fulfilling God's righteous will for us. Rather, we turned towards evil. We began to worship ourselves and to make for ourselves false gods and we grieved our benefactor. We grieved Him, he says.
''[And] when the human race reached a great multitude and sin ruled over all of them,... '' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
Now it was sin that was ruling over us. We were created to subdue the earth and to have dominion, but now it is the world that subdues us; it is the world that has dominion over us. All of everything is reversed. The human being was created to be the pinnacle, the most rational and beautiful and creative and compassionate and loving... everything that it means to carry God's image, we were created to be all of that, but now, because of sin, everything is flipped upside down. We are the ones who are dominated, we are the ones that are subdued and it is sin that rules over us, it is not us that rules over creation.
''...it thoroughly plundered the soul of each one, and nature was stripped of the original grace [we've lost that original grace]. [And] the Spirit also departed completely, and the rational creature fell into utter irrationality, not even recognizing the creator himself.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Volume 1)
We have reached a point where we are so separated from God, where sin has blinded us, where this wall has been built, and we say this in the liturgy of St. Gregory, that the middle wall was torn down through God, through the Lord's incarnation. But there was a wall and that wall separated us from God to the point where we could not even recognize the Creator Himself. All of this was the effects of the fall; all of this was the cause of losing the Holy Spirit; all of this was because we were no longer united to the Lord, that we have embraced death instead of life and that we are now in a state of corruption rather than the incorruption that God had created us to dwell in.
St. Athanasius, he comments on this in his book Against the Heathen[s] and he speaks about how it is that, through this alienation and separation, that we actually forget what we are created to be. We have lost our identity. St. Athanasius says:
''...so turning away and forgetting that she... [and here, he is speaking about the human soul] forgetting that she was in the image of the good God, she no longer, by the power which is in her, sees God the Word after whose likeness she is made [we have been blinded; we can't see God anymore]; but having departed from herself, imagines and feigns what is not.'' (St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Heathen)
What does that mean? It means that the soul now, because it cannot see God who is the only being, who is the only author of life, because we have lost this, because the soul is now confused and is blinded and separated from God, because of this alienation, that it starts to imagine things that are not. And so the soul starts to create for itself new gods. And this is how the creation of all of these false and pagan gods began where the soul knew that it was meant to worship, the soul knows that it was created to try to think of something that is immortal, something that is eternal, but it doesn't understand or comprehend God anymore, because we are alienated, so he creates its own gods.
And this is where Baal comes in, this is where Molech of the Old Testament comes in, this is where they worship, you know, created things and animals and demons and all of these things, because it has been... it has forgotten God. It doesn't know where to look for Him anymore. All of these are the effects of the fall and this is where corruption creeps in; this is where corruption takes over.
St. Cyril, in one of his Select Letters as he is answering questions to people who are sending him letters ─ and the Select Letters of St. Cyril are printed by Oxford Press; if ever you have a chance... if ever you have a chance to read them, they're absolutely beautiful ─ in one of them, he says:
''We must inquire how Adam, the first forefather, transmitted to us the penalty imposed [on] him for his transgression...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Select Letters)
He says let's try to figure out how is it that Adam passes down to us this penalty that was given to him. And so he says:
''He had heard 'Earth thou art and to the earth [thou shall] return' [this is Adam], and from being incorruptible he became corruptible and was made subject to the bonds of death...'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Select Letters)
So, Adam was created and, from being incorruptible, he now finds himself in a state of corruptibility, because he was made subject to death. And St. Cyril says:
''But since he produced children [and] after falling into this state we, his descendants, are corruptible, coming from a corruptible source. Thus it [was] that [that] we are heirs.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Select Letters)
So what do we take from Adam? We take corruptibility. We take this state of corruption that we find ourselves in. These are the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria, very, very clear, that because the human being fell away from God, that now, he is in a state, his being now is corruptible, and corruptible beings can only produce other corruptible beings. What is bad cannot produce what is good. But so now, because the human being has embraced evil and has become corruptible, what he passes down to the rest of us, what we inherit from Adam is corruptibility. And so now, the effects of the fall are not just separation and alienation and no longer being united to God: we are now in a state of corruption, because that is the state that Adam, our forefather, has left us in.
So what have seen? We've seen that the effects of the fallen humanity are corruption, are death, and alienation from God. And this alienation is synonymous to the idea of we have lost the Holy Spirit. All of these things happen to us because of the fall.
So now, we have two things. We have seen how the human being was created perfect by God, his perfect masterpiece, as St. Basil says. We have seen how that perfect masterpiece was created to have life, to live in a state of incorruption and to live in union with God, in knowledge of God. But now, because of the fall, instead of life we have death, instead of incorruption our being is now completely corrupted and instead of being in union with Him we are separated from Him. While we had the union and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has now left us. All of these are the effects of the fall.
Thank you for watching this video. Don't forget to watch our previous ones by visiting and subscribing to our channel. If you find this content beneficial, share it with your friends.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.