‘The kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17.21). From this we learn that by a heart made pure…we see in our own beauty the image of the Godhead… You have in you the ability to see God. He who formed you put in your being an immense power. When God created you he enclosed in you the image of his perfection, as the mark of a seal is impressed on wax. But your straying has obscured God's image… You are like a metal coin: on the whetstone the rust disappears. The coin was dirty, but now it reflects the brightness of the sun and shines in its turn. Like the coin, the inward part of the personality, called the heart by our Master, once rid of the rust that hid its beauty, will rediscover the first likeness and be real… So when people look at themselves they will see in themselves the One they are seeking. And this is the joy that will fill their purified hearts. They are looking at their own translucency and finding the model in the image. When the sun is looked at in a mirror, even without any raising of the eyes to heaven, the sun’s brightness is seen in the mirror exactly as if the sun’s disc itself were being looked at. You cannot contemplate the reality of the light; but if you discover the beauty of the image that was put in you at the beginning, you will obtain within yourself the goal of your desires… The divine image will shine brightly in us in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory throughout all ages.
GREGORY OF NYSSA Homilies on the Beatitudes, 6
