DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

Genesis 1:14-23     (3/11)     First Reading at Vespers on Tues. of the 1st Week of Great Lent

 

God Said-II ~ Let There Be Lights: Genesis 1:14-23, especially vs. 14: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.”  Vladimir Lossky observes that the created order is “...a mystery as unfathomable as that of the divine being, the mystery of the created being, the reality of a being external to any presence of God....in brief, the reality of the ‘other-than-God.’”[1]   And this  invites us to consider three aspects of this mystery: the role of God the Word in bringing the creation into being, the place of light in the creation, and the interplay of light and water.

In the Nicene Creed we confess belief in God the Father “Creator of heaven and earth,” as well as belief in God the Son by Whom “all things were made.”  Thus we affirm the revelation in Genesis quoted above.  God the Father wills there to be stars, moon, sun, and planets; and God the Word brings them into being.  The Son of God reveals the nature of God the Father as the primordial Cause of all that is created, being the Divine operative Agent.

God the Word brings into existence the desire of God the Father.  Listen to Vladimir Lossky:  “God, in order to create, thinks creation, and this thought gives its reality to the being of things....By the divine Word the world is suspended over its own nothingness, and there is one word for each thing, one word in each thing, which represents its norm of existence and its way to transfiguration.”[2]  Marvel at the creative power of God, creating from thought into existence!

In all creation, light was the first thing spoken into existence.  God says, “Let there be light, and there was light” (vs. 3).  Our finite minds are tempted to ask, “How can there be light without sources generating it?  How day and night without a sun?”  Light, however, is the first order of the Word of God.  As the Prophet Daniel discloses: God “...knowing what is in  darkness, and the light is with Him” (Dan. 2:22).  We are challenged, as was Job: “And in what kind of a land does the light dwell?  and of what kind is the place of darkness?  If you couldest bring me to their utmost boundaries, and if also thou knowest their paths...” (Job 38:19,20).

Light without source emanates from the Jerusalem above as revealed to St. John: “...The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light” (Rev. 21:23).  Such light informs our iconographers who depict no external source of light and therefore no shadows.  God the Word, Who is Light, is not Himself created.  Rather, light is among His energies.  As the sun “creates” the light of the moon by reflection to our physical eyes, so the Son creates light without a source.  Where He is, light is.

Also, the Word of God creates the sources of light in the material universe (Gen. 1:14-19).  On day five, the Lord, having already gathered the waters under the heavens together in one place (vs. 9), now “lets” the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures (vs. 20).

Turn the mind to this mystery that we celebrate at the Feast of Theophany.  At the Jordan, the Light enters the waters and fills them with His blessing.  Likewise, when we enter the Baptismal waters, Christ the Word fill us with His Light.  We beseech Him that “we may be illumined by the light of understanding and piety, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,”[3] that same Divine Spirit Who was hovering over the waters at the beginning of the creation (Gen. 1:2).

It is right that we pray for the baptismal waters, that they “...may prove effectual unto the averting of every snare of enemies, both visible and invisible.”  To perceive that light and water are closely associated in the successive days of creation prepares our hearts and minds to receive Light Himself into our spirits and souls and bodies through these created entities.

O Lord, may we prove ourselves to be children of the Light, heirs of eternal good things, that the waters of regeneration may be ever unto the remission of our sins and our salvation.[4]

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