How desirable for man is the fulfilment of the Divine aim! How desirable for man is the attainment of the dignity granted him by God! This dignity was a gift from God at the creation of man; lost by the fall, it became a gift from God again after redemption. For this cause I bow my knees, writes St. Paul to Ephesians, unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Eph. 3, 14, 16–17). Dignity is granted and legislated by God: the rejection of dignity entails eternal perdition. Abide in Me, and I in you, said the Lord to His disciples, Christians. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Jn. 15, 4–6). If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (Jn. 14, 23). All the chosen ones of God became temples of the Deity, as the Holy Apostle Paul says about himself: Christ liveth in me (Gal. 2, 20). He calls those who do not satisfy the Divine purpose not who they should be. Know ye not, he says, your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (that is, not those who you should be)? (2 Cor. 13, 5). For a person's dissatisfaction with his purpose, the Apostle proclaims disaster to him: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy for his apostasy from Him, indulging his own state of fall, communication with fallen spirits, and as their consequence there will come burying forever in the fiery abyss of hell. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1 Cor. 3, 16–17). Not only your souls, but also your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price of Blood of the God-man. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's (see 1 Cor. 6, 19–20). Founding on these witnesses of the Holy Spirit, we determine a human so: "A human is a God-made temple of Deity both by soul and body."
   We invite our beloved brethren, monks, and all Christian ascetics in general, who wish to feat correctly, lawfully, in accordance with the will of God, to pay due attention to the definition of a human that we have made!

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov).
A word about human