Man as a "Little Universe"

               The ancient Church used to view man as a little universe, or a microcosm.  From what little of him I have read thus far, this seems to have been a very central theme for the great theologian St. Maximus the Confessor.  I read this theme in him about a year ago now while I was sitting on a beach in Sarasota, Fl.  Initially, I was quite intrigued by the thought.  However, I must confess that I didn’t necessarily understand what he meant by it; not that this is a theme that anyone could ever fully wrap their head around this side of transfiguration/new creation…and possibly even beyond that. 

                Each person is a little universe.  I have gained great clarity in this notion after reading Kallistos Ware’s phenomenal book, “The Orthodox Way.”  In it he says this:

                “According to the Orthodox worldview, God has formed two levels of created things: first, the ‘noetic’, ‘spiritual’ or ‘intellectual’ level, and secondly, the material or bodily.  On the first level God formed the angels, who have no material bodies.  On the second level he formed the physical universe—galaxies, stars and planets, with the various types of mineral, vegetable, and animal life.  Man, and man alone, exists on both levels at once.  Through his spirit or spiritual intellect he participates in the noetic realm and is a companion of the angels; through his body and his soul, he moves and feels and thinks, he eats and drinks, transmuting food into energy and participating organically in the material realm, which passes within him through his sense-perceptions….Man stands at the heart of God’s creation.  Participating as he does in both the noetic and the material realms, he is an image or mirror of the whole creation, imago mundi, a ‘little universe’ or ‘microcosm’.  All created things have their meeting place in him.”

                To gain the significance of this, we must ask the question: “What is existence? Or “What exists?”  We can answer with: “the heavens and the earth and all therein.”  The created realm contains both the “physical” and “spiritual” realities.  What Ware is saying is that man, in his person, contains both realities.  “Man, and man alone, exists on both levels at once.”  He is both a spiritual and physical being.  Perhaps it is more accurate to say that he is a physical being who is meant to gain the spiritual reality in its fullest sense.  Contrary to modern thought, the Church teaches that humanity is more than just a physicality, an evolved species.  As the author of Hebrews states, he is created in a state that is “lower” than the angels yet, though Christ, he is meant to be king over everything.  And, one day, when all is said and done, there will be those who have acquired freedom through Christ and will reign with Christ. 

                “It is not to the angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.  But there is a place where someone has testified:

                ‘What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?  You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.’

                In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.  Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.  But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:5-9)

                It is man’s calling not to escape the world but to transfigure it by and through the grace of God.  Jesus’ reality is to become our own as well.  He has welcomed us as brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11-12) and we will share in His victory. 

                This is also the place, and the only place, where thoughts on miracles make sense and are even remotely appropriate.  Since the reality is that God is going to bring about His new creation in the future where He is going to transfigure the cosmos, through Christ’s Incarnation we begin to participate in this future reality here and now.  This is our “heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3:1).  Since this is the case, we shouldn’t do anything less than expect that miracles would happen amidst communions who are seeking to bring this glorious future into current reality.