The followers of Christ carry God’s heart. They have God’s Holy Spirit within them (Romans 5.5). They possess the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2.16). As Saint Gregory of Narek states, this means carrying “the memory of God in the movements of the soul, with every step taken, with the stretch of the right hand and the lifting of the arm, with thanks for good things, with petitions for mercy, in friendly conversations, in public addresses, in natural utterances, in meritorious works, in the fervor of virtue (…) when sleeping and when awake, in battles against nations, in combats with demons, in confrontations with heretics, with suckling infants, with grown-ups (…) believed by all.” (Prayer 31.3)
How can one understand such a universal presence of God, this memory, in everything? In human thought, it seems logical that the idea of remembering God exists in beings with rational minds. But how can such a presence be in those who reject God, or in beings without reason, and even more so in creatures without life?
If we think as God thinks (Matthew 16:23) and understand the power of God (Mark 12:24), God is present. His memory is primarily imprinted as the Creator and Provider of all creatures, and secondly as the savior and friend of all those material and spiritual beings who bear His image.
The image of God is imprinted in humans not only through reason, as commentators of the Holy Scriptures usually interpret the relevant passages, but primarily through the capacity for love, which is the seal of God’s image and His communion with human nature. This is the deeper meaning of being created in the image of God, in the imitation of His Only Begotten Son, carrying in our nostrils the breath of His Holy Spirit (Genesis 2.7). We are living memories of our Creator and Father.
We carry God’s living memory because we cannot do what is good on our own. When we separate ourselves from the life of God, breathed into our nostrils, we become capable only of creating false hopes. Our Lord Jesus states that he cannot do anything without the Father (John 5.30 and 40-44); a fortiori, we must be grafted onto the vine (John 15.1-8).
Above all, we carry God’s living memory within us, especially through the sacrament of Baptism. Paul the Apostle marvels, “Don’t you know you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Through the power of this Spirit, we are able to know and love God. Through this Spirit, God recognizes His own image in us and rejoices, and His delight affirms our highest value, purchased with the blood of His Only Begotten Son (1 Corinthians 6:20).
