NOTES for Gen 1:24-31
Today we read words very dear to us about our likeness to our Creator. We are created in His likeness; His image is imprinted in us. At this thought the heart rejoices and strength for life increases. This is surely the highest of all truths. But let us think about why the Church offers us these words to remember precisely now, now when we stand at the doors of Great Lent, a time of repentant prayer in which, on the contrary, we must recognize our complete insignificance, sinfulness, and fallenness.
Remember how the Lord exclaims indignantly in the Psalter: "You thought wickedly that I would be like you." We were created in His likeness, but now He does not want to be like us. Have we squandered this likeness? Yes. And we understand this. "Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens; You have done great things; O God, who is like You?" (Ps 70:19) Neither among the gods nor among the sons of God is there now anyone like God (Ps 88:7).
And still, no one has canceled the words about likeness. On the contrary, the Church reminds us of them now. There is enormous tension, stretched almost to the breaking point like a string between heaven and earth, between these two poles: likeness and unlikeness. But this is exactly what distinguishes our faith from Greek or Roman mythology, where the gods are created in the image of man. And in this very tension lies the essence of the fast.