How to become worthy again

How to Become Worthy Again

God created the human being according to the image and likeness of God, and made him worthy of knowledge of himself, and equipped him with reason in contrast to the animals, and granted that he take delight in the inconceivable beauties of paradise, and appointed him ruler of all things on earth. Then he was outwitted by the serpent and fell into sin, and through sin into death, and the evils attendant on this, yet God did not overlook him. First he gave the Law as a help, appointed angels to guard and care for him, sent prophets to reprove evil and teach virtue, thwarted the impulse toward evil by threats, awakened eagerness for good things by promises, often revealed the outcome of good and evil in different persons, judging them in advance as a warning for others. God continued in all these and similar benefactions and did not turn away in response to our disobedience. For we were not sent away, dismissed from the goodness of the Master…. Rather, we were recalled from death and given life again by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. In this also the way the gift was bestowed involves a greater wonder: Being in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave (Phil 2:6-7).

He bore our weaknesses and carried our diseases and was wounded for us, that by his bruises we might be healed (Is 53:4-5); he redeemed us from the curse, ­becoming a curse for us (Gal 3:13), and submitted to the most dishonorable death, that he might bring us back to the glorious life. And he was not satisfied merely to give life to the dead, but he also gave them the honor of divinity, and prepared eternal rest, which surpasses every human thought in the greatness of its joy. What, then, shall we give to the Lord in return for all the good things that have been given to us? He is so good that he does not demand anything in exchange, but it ­suffices him merely to be loved by those to whom he has given gifts.

Saint Basil the Great

Saint Basil the Great († 379)