“One drop of His blood recreates the whole creation”
Thus says St. Gregory the Theologian in his forty fifth oration. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ accomplishes not only the redemption of all mankind but transforms all of the cosmos as well. Through the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Christ mankind is brought into communion with God, healed from sin, and released from the grips of death. Since the Eternal, Pre-existent Word (Logos) of God assumed human nature into Himself mankind can now participate in the life of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, but how does the economy of Christ accomplish cosmic transformation?
Here we must turn to the theme of mankind being a “microcosm”, a theme which is occasionally reflected on by the Fathers (such as St. Maximus the Confessor). Mankind has a certain intimacy with the rest of creation since man himself is created from the material of the creation, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground” (Genesis 2:7). Man as a microcosm originated in Neo-Platonic philosophy and was adopted by the Fathers in their anthropological reflections. “The Church Fathers teach that the human body contains in it all levels of existence of the natural world which preceded it in order of the creation, and considered the physical elements which make up the human body as in no way different from those which constitute the physical world. This means that the natural world is fully integrated with the human being and the whole of the creation” (Report of the WCC Inter-Orthodox Consultation, Sofia, Bulgaria, October 1987) Mankind himself is the pinnacle and crown of creation who sums all of creation up within himself, but the Fathers note that the height of identity of mankind is not in being a microcosm, “It is in the likeness of God that our magnitude consists” (St. Gregory of Nyssa) Man is both at once a microcosm and a “microtheos” (to use the term coined by Nikolai Berdyaev) since he is not only made from the dust of the earth but God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7) after His own image and likeness. Man is both a material creature who contains the life of the cosmos within himself and at the same time is a spiritual creature in communion with God; he stands almost as a bridge, uniting the Kingdom and the Cosmos within himself. Orthodox theology understands that the nature of creation itself is dynamic and teleological, “It begins to be, and the very substance of the creation owes its beginning to change” (St. Gregory of Nyssa) Since creation owes its beginning to change it’s nature is dynamic and has the potentiality to change. Mankind thus possesses this dynamic nature and he is created to attain to the likeness of God (Orthodox theologian Andrew Louth notes that since the Greek word for “likeness” ‘homoiós’ possesses the suffix ‘oiós’ it denotes a progression, thus likeness is something to be grown into) which is known as “theosis” or “deification”, which is a transfiguration of human nature by the grace of God, and since man is also a microcosm this means that the transfiguration of man means a transfiguration of creation; the transformation of the cosmos begins within man. But due to the fact that man is also rational and possessing a free will by nature he has the potential to either grow in the likeness of God in the union of his will with God’s will or to become deformed through the misuse of his will by separating himself from God, the later of which is what we see in the Genesis account. Adam and Eve disobey the commandment of God and thereby break communion with Him who is Life Himself which subjects themselves to death, but we see that the “fall” of man affects not only man but is extended to the rest of creation as well, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you” (Genesis 3:17-18). Man who was to transform the cosmos in his continuous growth in union with God instead “subjected [creation] to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it” (Romans 8:20)
Since the microcosm has been separated from the Kingdom both man and the cosmos are subjected to death. The fall of man is the fall of creation, thus the restoration of man in Christ brings about a comic renewal as we can see in the Apocalypse of St. John, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new”…Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 21:1, 5, 22:2) Since Christ takes on the nature of the microcosm He reunites all of creation to God in Himself. Orthodox theology teaches that the human nature of Christ is completely deified at the moment of the Incarnation by means of it’s union with the divine nature in the Person of the Word of God and that the death and resurrection of Christ opens the door for all creation to share in the transfigured humanity of Christ; men become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Thus we return to the words of St. Gregory the Theologian, “One drop of His blood recreates the whole creation”. Through the cross the Place of the Skull becomes Paradise; Golgotha becomes the Garden.
Since man is a microcosm and a microtheos he must take up his cross, sharing in the transforming death of Christ, to transform the cosmos within into the Kingdom within, for, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Cosmic transfiguration begins within, turning the Cosmos into the Kingdom through the Cross.