Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.” God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him;male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27)
God created us in His Image.
What is this Image and what relation does it give us to God?
The notion that man is conformed to the Image of God has been a disputed
topic of theological debate throughout the history of the Church.
There is no consensus as to what this means.
However, it is generally understood that God bestowed upon mankind a very special honor in distinguishing us from all the other animals He created.
This honor is the gift of immortality. Man is given an immortal spirit at his conception,
which is a gift from God and not something that is given through procreation by one’s birth parents.
(CCC 366)From the Wisdom of Solomon 2:23 we read: “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.”Man’s spirit, the higher part of his soul, makes man’s soul “the image of God’s own eternity.”
What is God’s “eternity” that we can even be an image of it? The Catholic Catechism (356) explains it this way,
Of all visible creatures only man is “able to know and love his creator”. He is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake”, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity: “What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good.”
Man is the one creature capable of “tasting” God’s “eternal Good.”
We recall from Scripture that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). It’s His very nature!
God’s love is His eternal goodness.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that “Love never ends…” (1Cor 13:8).
God’s Love is forever for it is eternal, God Himself.
So the Image of God in man makes him capable of participating in God’s Divine Love, the Holy Spirit.
A second point.
It is very interesting how Genesis quotes God in His act of creation. God says, “Let us make man in OUR image”. The “OUR” in this passage suggests that we are created in the image of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Fathers of the Church tell us that the Persons of the Trinity are and remain one while yet being mysteriously distinguished from each other. St. Thomas, following St. Augustine, tells us that the Persons of the Trinity are distinguished from eachother by their “relations.”
St. Thomas further understood the image of God in man to be his capacity to be in relation to God through this “relational power” of love. As the Son loves the Father and the Father the Son, in Christ man can be one with God through love while yet remaining distinguised from Him as His creature.
Through divine love, we share in divine nature while still remaining creatures.
But Original sin damaged this capacity inborn in us to love divinely, but it did not completely destroy it.
Through Grace, God’s image can unite us to Christ to be one with the Father through the Love of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit not only unites us to the Persons of the Trinity but to one another as well.
In this sense, the Christian is an ‘Alter Christus,’ another image of the Son.
It is Christ who unites us to the Holy Trinity and to one another in His love.
The image of God in man is like the flame of a candle. Two candle flames can be brought together until the form one flame while yet remaining separate candles.
This unity of love in the Holy Trinity begins now in this life and is brought to fulfillment in heaven.
This is at the very heart and nature of our being human and being created in God’s image,
We were intended by God to be in an eternal loving relationship with Him, who is the Three in One,
and we, the many, are one with Him and one another through Divine Love.
In conclusion, we were created for love and we will not find fulfillment and meaning in this life without being in relationships of love. Love begins now and lasts for all eternity.
Love is eternal. We were created to share in that love. It is the fulfillment of the image of God in us.
When we share in God’s love, we share in His own eternity… for God is love and His love for us is eternal