Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 67 No. 1, 1997.
Kratko priopćenje
An Assault on God's Image
Ivan Golub
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In the Orient, especially in the Semitic Orient, the expression »Image of God« (Gen: 1,26-27) originally means the presence of the deity. Thus the expression that man was created in the image of God means primarily that God resides in man, is present in him, dose to him, and that this presence is benevolent. To choose to be present in and close to one - and the creation of man was certainly an act of choice - means to designate him as a friend. Thus man received the gift of freeedom in order to choose (or not) God as his friend. The Scripture says that man broke his pact of friendship with God, so God sent him away. In spite of this, God's presence in man has not been completely obliterated. Cain killed his brother Abel. God strictly forbade the killing of a man with the argument that man was made in God's image (Gen 9:5-6). If man is God's image, a being graced with God's presence, then homicide is in fact theocide. Jesus Christ said that God is the Father. Therefore to kill God in man is an act of patricide. The killing of man is also an act of fratricide. Christ is an image of God, he is the Son of God the Father, but he is also a brother to all men whom he taught and exhorted to call God »0ur Father«. The killing of a man is therefore the killing of Christ, Son of God, man's brother. Thus homicide is fratricide. Killing a man, the brother of the Son of God, one kills, attempts to kill one's brother. Because every man is Christ's brother. Who kills a man kills his brother. The killing of a man is also the killing of a friend, amicocide. By creating man in his own image, a being graced by his presence and closeness, God chose him as a friend. Conseguently, if I am God's friend, and if my neighbour is also God's friend, and if God is friend to both of us, the other and I are neighbours in Biblical terms, namely friends. Thus to kill a man means to kill a friend, a friend of God and our own friend. The killing of a man is suicide. The Word »thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself« ( Lev 19; 18) is usually understood as a comparison of manner: love your neighbour in the same way you love yourself. Without denying the validity of this interpretation, I also see the possibility of the following meaning: love your neighbour as you love the one who is »you«, the extension, the continuation of your own self, the expansion of your own self, and therefore as your own self. Thus killing one's neighbour means to kill oneself. Homicide is in fact suicide. Suicid is the murder of neighbours, proximicide. Just as my neighbour is an extension of myself, so I am an extension of my neighbour's self. To raise one's hand against oneself means to raise it against one's neighbour, the one who is an extension of myself by beeing God's image. Man is God's image through the presence of God in himself. However, man also resembles God. I will single out one essential similarity: his state of Being. God says »I am that I am« (Exodus 3,13-15) as his name, thus as his essence. By Saying »I am« man is like God. Murder is an attempt to destroy the basic likeness of man with God, who is Existence itself, whose name is »I am«. This is why homicide is sacrilege. Murder is an iconoclasm. An assault on God's image. Where does killing originate in human history? From Satan. Satan means adversary. We know whose adversary: God's. If the Being and Existence of God is to give something as a gift, then his Adversary is caracterized by opposite: to deny existence, to destroy and encite destruction, and above all the destruction of God's dearest gift, the existence of man. »He was murder from the beginning« (John 8:44). Similar to God who is, man is forever: Who says »I am« once can never again revert to »I am not«. This similarity with God is the basis of man's eternity. There is no such thing as a perfect crime. Murder is the greatest crime. There is no perfect murder. More than that, murder is never perfected. What remains ist just attempted murder. By killing a man the murder has not destroyed him. The first punishment for the murder is the fact that he believers he has killed a man, but this is not so. The further punishement is the fact that by killing another he has killed himself. Murder is a attempt at killing God - theocide, falling the Father -patricide, killing a brother - fratricide, killing a friend - amicocide, killing oneself - suicide, and killing one's neighbour - proximicide. It is attempt only because man, ever if killed, is God's image and God's likeness, God is in him and in his enternal existence he is like the Existing, the Eternal. The killing is the killer's greatest betrayal. If the killing had been successful, if the victim had been done away with, destroyed, eliminated from existence, that would be the victory of the Fiend, Satan, the Devil, the adversary of existence. But, as the Scripure says, he can never win. He can win battles, but never final war.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
32181
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.10.1997.
Posjeta: 1.385 *