Christian Formation Series

How do the Psalms teach us to pray? Father Matt Rossi and Wendell Kimbrough share insights and encourage us in praying God's words back to him.

Week 4: Who are “We”? Pt. 1: A Christian Theory of the Human

SCRIPTURE 

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” - Genesis 1:26-28

[Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.  - Colossians 1:15-18

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” - Genesis 2:18

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:1-2

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits  is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

- 1 Corinthians 6:15-20

Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the physical and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As one of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as one of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven. - 1 Corinthians 15:45-49

 QUOTES

No one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he “lives and moves” (Acts 17:28). For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves; indeed, our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God…Man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.  - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.1.1-2

Those who have come to believe and are convinced that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:17) and that Christ is the truth, according to his own statement “I am the truth” (Jn. 14:6), derive the knowledge that God calls human beings to live a good and blessed life from no other source than the very words and teaching of Christ. - Origen of Alexandria, On First Principles, Pr. 1

Human beings, after all, are not the sort of things that, once made and left to themselves by the one who made them, could do anything well all by themselves. No, the sum total of their good activity is to turn to him by whom they were made, and by him always to be made just, godfearing, wise, and blessed; not to be made so and leave, like being cured of some bodily ailment by a physician and going away…but in such a way that they may always be made so by him. In they very fact of their not taking their leave of him they are being justified and enlightened and blessed by his presence with them, by God ‘working and guarding’ them as the lord and master of obedient subordinates.

- Augustine of Hippo, Literal Commentary on Genesis, VIII.25

The human being is a kind of second world, great in smallness, placed on the earth, another angel, a composite worshiper, a beholder of the visible creation, and initiate into the intelligible, king of things on earth, subject to what is above, earthly and heavenly, transitory and immortal, visible and intelligible, a mean between greatness and lowliness. He is at once spirit and flesh, spirit on account of grace, flesh on account of pride, the one that he might remain and glorify his Benefactor, the other that he might suffer and in suffering remember and be corrected if he has ambition for greatness. He is a living creature trained here and transferred elsewhere, and, to complete the mystery, deified through inclination toward God. For the light and the truth present in measure here bear me toward this end, to see and experience the radiance of God, which is worthy of the one who has bound me [to flesh] and will release me and hereafter bind me in a higher manner.  

- Gregory of Nazianus, Oration 38.11

Virtue is a good quality of the mind by which we live rightly and which no one uses badly, which God works in us apart from us.

- Augustine of Hippo, On Free Will, 2.19

Anyone who through fixed habit participates in virtue, unquestionably participates in God, who is the substance of the virtues…for to the beautiful nature inherent in the fact that he is God's image, he freely chooses to add the likeness to God by means of the virtues, in a natural movement of ascent through which he grows in conformity to his own beginning. - Maximus Confessor, Ambiguum 7

SCRIPTURE

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and

straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is

Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 12:3

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new

heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of

flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in

the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. - Ezekiel 36:25-28

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you

forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he

abides with you, and he will be in you…26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you

everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. - John 14:15-17, 26

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of

a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue

rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

- Acts 2:1-4

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit

desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18 But if you are led by the

Spirit, you are not subject to the law…22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23

gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one

another, envying one another. - Galatians 5:16-18, 22-26

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you

have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and

is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the person of God may be proficient,

equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Additional Scriptures:

On the Spirit, see also:
Gen. 1:1-2; 2:7; Joel 2:28-32; John 3:3-8,; John 14-16; Acts 2; Romans 5:5, 8:1-27; 1 Cor. 12:-31; 2 Cor. 3:1-18

On Scripture, see also:
2 Kings 22-23; Luke 24:13-35; 2 Peter 1:16-21

QUOTES

If [the Holy Spirit] did not exist from the beginning, he has the same rank as I have, though with a slight priority—we are both separated from

God by time. If he has the same rank as I have, how can he make me God, how can he link me with deity? - Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 31.4

Until our minds become intent upon the Spirit, Christ, so to speak, lies idle because we coldly contemplate him as outside ourselves—indeed,

far from us…But he unites himself to us by the Spirit alone. By the grace and power of the same Spirit we are made his members, to keep us

under himself and in turn to possess him. - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.1.3

Therefore the love which is of God and which is God is specifically the Holy Spirit; by him God’s love is diffused in our hearts, and by this love

the whole Trinity indwells us. - Augustine, De Trin 15.32

And in reading of God’s word he most profiteth not always that is most ready in turning of the book, or in saying of it without the book; but

he that is most turned into it, that is most inspired by the Holy Ghost, most in his heart and life altered and changed into that thing which he

readeth; he that is daily less and less proud, less wrathful, less covetous, and less desirous of worldly and vain pleasures; he that daily, forsaking his old vicious life, increaseth in virtue more and more. And, to be short, there is nothing that more maintaineth godliness of the mind, and driveth away ungodliness, than doth the continual reading or hearing of God’s word, if it be joined with a godly mind and a good affection to know and follow God’s will. - Thomas Cranmer, “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture”

Oh Book! infinite sweetness! let my heart

Suck ev'ry letter, and a honey gain,

Precious for any grief in any part;

To clear the breast, to mollify all pain.

Thou art all health, health thriving, till it make

A full eternity: thou art a mass

Of strange delights, where we may wish and take.

Ladies, look here; this is the thankfull glass,

That mends the looker's eyes: this is the well

That washes what it shows. Who can endear

Thy praise too much? thou art heav'n's Lidger here,

Working against the states of death and hell.

Thou art joy's handsel: heav'n lies flat in thee,

Subject to ev'ry mounter's bended knee.

     - George Herbert, “The Holy Scriptures I”