Reading Scripture in Lent with the Church Fathers: Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Today’s Scripture Readings in the Orthodox Church
Isaiah 2:11-22; Genesis 2:4-19; Proverbs 3:1-18

The Creator ought to be known even by the light of nature, for he may be understood from his works and may thereby become the object of a more widely spread knowledge. To him, therefore, does it appertain to punish such as do not know God, for none ought to be ignorant of him. In the apostle’s phrase, “From the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,” he uses the words of Isaiah, who for that same reason attests the very same Lord as arising “to shake terribly the earth.”
Tertullian

 The soul is the breath of God, a substance of heaven mixed with the lowest earth, a light entombed in a cave, yet wholly divine and unquenchable.… He spoke, and taking some of the newly minted earth his immortal hands made an image into which he imparted some of his own life. He sent his spirit, a beam from the invisible divinity.
St Gregory the Theologian

 “And he breathed into his nostrils,” that is to say, he placed in man some share of his own grace, in order that he might recognize likeness through likeness. Nevertheless, being in such great honor because he was created in the image of the Creator, he is honored above the heavens, above the sun, above the choirs of stars. For which of the heavenly bodies was said to be an image of the most high God?
St Basil the Great

Christ is brought up to the tree and nailed to it—yet by the tree of life he restores us. Yes, he saves even a thief crucified with him; he wraps all the visible world in darkness.
St Gregory the Theologian

 Although to Adam it was said “For the day you eat of it, you must die,” today you have been faithful. Today will bring you salvation. The tree brought ruin to Adam; the tree [of life] shall bring you into paradise. Fear not the serpent; he shall not cast you out, for he has fallen from heaven. I say not to you, “This day you shall depart,” but “This day you shall be with me.”
St Cyril of Jerusalem

 Some have imagined paradise to have been material, while others have imagined it to have been spiritual. However, it seems to me that just as man was created both sensitive and intellectual, so did this most sacred domain of his have the twofold aspect of being perceptible both to the senses and to the mind. For while in his body he dwelt in this most sacred and superbly beautiful place, as we have related, spiritually he resided in a loftier and far more beautiful place. There he had the indwelling God as a dwelling place and wore him as a glorious garment. He was wrapped about with his grace, and like some one of the angels he rejoiced in the enjoyment of that one most sweet fruit which is the contemplation of God, and by this he was nourished. Now this is indeed what is fittingly called the tree of life, for the sweetness of divine contemplation communicates a life uninterrupted by death to them that partake of it.
St John of Damascus

 This tree of life was planted in the Garden of Eden, and in Eden there rose a river that separated into four branches. … Likewise, we read in Solomon, … “She is a tree of life to those who grasp her,” [and here] he is speaking of wisdom. Now, if wisdom is the tree of life, wisdom itself, indeed, is Christ. You understand now that the man who is blessed and holy is compared to this tree—that is, he is compared to Wisdom. Consequently, you see too that the just man, that blessed man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked—who has not done that but has done this—is like the tree that is planted near running water. He is, in other words, like Christ, inasmuch as he “raised us up together and seated us together in heaven.” You see then that we shall reign together with Christ in heaven. You see too that because this tree has been planted in the garden of Eden, we have all been planted there together with him.
St Jerome