You will be sons of the Most High (Lk. 6:35)
My beloved, man is one of the biggest dilemmas of this world, and the dilemma exists in the following questions: What is man? Where did he come from? What will become of him? What is his destiny? In vain, philosophy tried throughout the ages to answer these questions. The human spirit roamed in a labyrinth. But today, the Gospel provides the answer. The problem is solved in only a few words. The Lord says, you will be sons of the Most High (Lk. 6:35). These few words are weightier than all the books that the philosophers and sociologists have written about man.
I will attempt to express a few thoughts regarding this statement by our Lord.
I will attempt to express a few thoughts regarding this statement by our Lord.
***
If we throw a glimpse into the universe, into nature, we will ascertain a certain truth: that in all of creation, great and small, everything has a purpose. There is nothing without a purpose. The sun was created to bring forth light and heat. The moon, with its mild light, relieves the darkness of the night. The rivers irrigate the land. The ocean provides another beauty to the world. The flowers disperse their fragrances. The birds sing. The bees make honey. The animals serve our needs...
There is nothing without a purpose. And even those things that some atheists consider meaningless, experience, observation and science has proved that those things are the most meaningful. I will give you an example. In the previous century, the atheists laughed mockingly saying, “What are those ugly birds, the vultures, needed for? OK the nightingales sing, but what’s the point of the vultures?...” But it has been proven that the vultures are more beneficial than the nightingales. Why? Because they are armed with an amazing sense of smell - it’s like a radar! What do they smell? In the jungles, hundreds and millions of animals die. If they all remained unburied, they would infect the atmosphere and humanity would die from infectious diseases. And who buries the carcasses in the desert? Who are the gravediggers? The vultures! They approach, and within 24 hours everything is polished off and buried. Permit me to present a terrible scene which I hope God won’t allow to be repeated. When I was a military priest and climbed [the mountains] Grammos and Vitsi - when that fierce [civil] war ended, what did I see and hear? That the children of Greece, from both sides of the war, who fell dead in battle, remained unburied in inaccessible ravines. Who buried them? The vultures. From as far as Egypt, the vultures smelt them and came, executing vertical dives into the ravines which not even the best commando could access...
What am I trying to say by this? That since there is nothing meaningless, is it possible for the most perfect being, the pinnacle of creation —man— not to have a purpose? “Whatever derives from something solid —the materialists tell us— is a chance creation...” There is no greater stupidity than this. If you can convince me that the statue in the town square just appeared like that, without a sculptor, then I will be convinced that the statues-with-a-soul —people— were created on their own, by chance, from the combination of different molecules.
So, man, has a purpose. What purpose? Physically, he is weak. The animals are armed with greater powers than man, their senses are sharper. The eagle, for example, locates its victim from great heights, it has a sharp sense of vision. Dogs have a highly developed sense of smell and hearing. And the birds, without a compass, travel the open seas... Man, however, is physically weak.
Physically, humans resemble the animals, we don’t deny this. Animals have bones, humans have bones as well. Animals have flesh, humans have flesh too. Animals have a digestive system, humans do too. Animals have nerves, humans also do. A human corpse, analyzed in the laboratory, consists of coal, water, fat, phosphorus, iron and calcium. These are his components, they are very cheap. And there’s no need for the laboratory to tell us this, the Gospel tells us laconically, Earth you are and to earth you will return (Gen. 3:19).
So man is earthly, we accept this. But —there is a but— beyond the physical human vessel, (2Co. 4:7) an indescribable wonder is concealed which sets him apart. What? Our thoughts. Oh, our thoughts! Our judgment, our memory, our fantasy, our emotions, our will, our actions!... This is the true man. Tell me what you think of and I will tell you what you are. Plato said that a person isn’t chiefly what we see - it’s what we don’t see, the invisible element. Man is both visible and invisible. There isn’t much difference amongst external appearances, but concerning the spiritual and mental makeup of a person, the differences are huge. An unbridgeable chasm separates us from all the rest of creation. Subsequently, this is a person’s value.
So what is our destination? The ancient Greeks, in their wisdom, gave this being a suitable name: human! (Greek: anthropos). And simply the word “anthropos” is enough to indicate man’s value. I remember our wise highschool teacher on the island of Syros, who analyzed the word “anthropos.” Greek words express deep thinking. Unfortunately today the “intellectuals” try to destroy the wonderful Greek language. Back then you could ask high-school students, and they would tell you that the roots of the word “anthropos” mean: the being that looks towards the heights. And truly, man is the only being out of all the animals, who walks upright and can turn his eyes towards the heavens.
What am I trying to say by this? That since there is nothing meaningless, is it possible for the most perfect being, the pinnacle of creation —man— not to have a purpose? “Whatever derives from something solid —the materialists tell us— is a chance creation...” There is no greater stupidity than this. If you can convince me that the statue in the town square just appeared like that, without a sculptor, then I will be convinced that the statues-with-a-soul —people— were created on their own, by chance, from the combination of different molecules.
So, man, has a purpose. What purpose? Physically, he is weak. The animals are armed with greater powers than man, their senses are sharper. The eagle, for example, locates its victim from great heights, it has a sharp sense of vision. Dogs have a highly developed sense of smell and hearing. And the birds, without a compass, travel the open seas... Man, however, is physically weak.
Physically, humans resemble the animals, we don’t deny this. Animals have bones, humans have bones as well. Animals have flesh, humans have flesh too. Animals have a digestive system, humans do too. Animals have nerves, humans also do. A human corpse, analyzed in the laboratory, consists of coal, water, fat, phosphorus, iron and calcium. These are his components, they are very cheap. And there’s no need for the laboratory to tell us this, the Gospel tells us laconically, Earth you are and to earth you will return (Gen. 3:19).
So man is earthly, we accept this. But —there is a but— beyond the physical human vessel, (2Co. 4:7) an indescribable wonder is concealed which sets him apart. What? Our thoughts. Oh, our thoughts! Our judgment, our memory, our fantasy, our emotions, our will, our actions!... This is the true man. Tell me what you think of and I will tell you what you are. Plato said that a person isn’t chiefly what we see - it’s what we don’t see, the invisible element. Man is both visible and invisible. There isn’t much difference amongst external appearances, but concerning the spiritual and mental makeup of a person, the differences are huge. An unbridgeable chasm separates us from all the rest of creation. Subsequently, this is a person’s value.
So what is our destination? The ancient Greeks, in their wisdom, gave this being a suitable name: human! (Greek: anthropos). And simply the word “anthropos” is enough to indicate man’s value. I remember our wise highschool teacher on the island of Syros, who analyzed the word “anthropos.” Greek words express deep thinking. Unfortunately today the “intellectuals” try to destroy the wonderful Greek language. Back then you could ask high-school students, and they would tell you that the roots of the word “anthropos” mean: the being that looks towards the heights. And truly, man is the only being out of all the animals, who walks upright and can turn his eyes towards the heavens.
However, man fell. Unfortunately, he fell very low. Why? Because he made bad use of his logic, his freedom, his divine gifts. And his fall was tragic. He became, as Plato says, the wildest of all the beasts on earth. A lion seems innocent in comparison. A lion can tear one-to-two hundred people to pieces, no more than that. But man in this age, with his high-schools, his universities, and all the technological means, has now become a scientifical beast. He soars to the clouds, hurls atomic bombs and kills millions of his fellow man. He fell to great depths. Man being in honour did not understand; He was compared to the senseless cattle and became like them (Ps. 48:13&21). St. John Chrysostom says, “Are you a human? Honour your name, live like a human. How can I call you human when you kick like a donkey, when you are as gluttonous as a hog, as lewd as a billy-goat, as vindictive as a camel, as blood-thirsty as a wolf, as sly as a fox, as envious and nasty as a scorpion....? How can I call you human?”
Today Christ answers the question of what man’s destiny is, and says that man was created for a great purpose: he was created for the heavens - you will be sons of the Most High (Lk. 6:35). That’s why He came into the world and became Man that He might make Adam God (doxstasticon of the Annunciation). And to be able to reach this theosis, He showed us the path of virtue, that through virtue a man ascends to the heights and becomes an angel in the flesh, walking on this earth.
Today Christ answers the question of what man’s destiny is, and says that man was created for a great purpose: he was created for the heavens - you will be sons of the Most High (Lk. 6:35). That’s why He came into the world and became Man that He might make Adam God (doxstasticon of the Annunciation). And to be able to reach this theosis, He showed us the path of virtue, that through virtue a man ascends to the heights and becomes an angel in the flesh, walking on this earth.
***
My beloved! We choose one of the two: either we will follow the path which the Lord showed us and then we will become truly human, or we won’t follow it and then we’ll become “The Possessed,” as Dostoyevsky describes our society.
Christ says, you will be sons of the Most High. That is, you will become humans who are noble and sublime, Christians with the virtues that the Gospel teaches. The utmost, the pinnacle of virtues which the Lord demonstrates, is love; love for our parents, love for our relatives, love for our compatriots, and advancing further, even love for our enemies! This love equates a person to God, and then what the Lord said will be accomplished: you will be sons of the Most High. Amen.
(†) Bishop Augoustinos
Christ says, you will be sons of the Most High. That is, you will become humans who are noble and sublime, Christians with the virtues that the Gospel teaches. The utmost, the pinnacle of virtues which the Lord demonstrates, is love; love for our parents, love for our relatives, love for our compatriots, and advancing further, even love for our enemies! This love equates a person to God, and then what the Lord said will be accomplished: you will be sons of the Most High. Amen.
(†) Bishop Augoustinos
A transcribed sermon, which was given at the church of St. Panteleimon, Florina 3-10-1982
English Sermon - On the Destiny of Man, from the Holy Monastery of St. Augustine in Florina
ἐκ τῆς Ἱ. Μονῆς Ἁγ. Αὐγουστίνου Φλωρίνης
