James Tissot. The lost drachma.
Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!
“With the passions I have buried the first image of goodness, O Savior, which, Thou didst seek and find, like the lost drachma” we heard today in the 
Great Canon
“>canon of Andrew of Crete. Each of us bears the image of God within us. In it, we find our kinship with God. Through this image, our soul is nourished by the Holy Spirit. Thanks to the image of God, unlike the animals we live not only by instinct but also by reason, because humans have been granted free will, which animals do not possess. But freedom, not limited by abstinence and obedience to commandments, leads to madness and leads us straight to hell. Sin has darkened the image of God within man, and because of this, our mind has become clouded, and our heart defiled. And this, in turn, leads to both spiritual and physical death.
The Savior is compared to the woman in the Gospel parable who diligently seeks the lost drachma. This drachma is each person’s soul. In the past, coins bore the image of the ruler who governed the empire. Similarly, the seal of God is upon our souls, which is the image and likeness given to us by the Creator. God does not forsake any of us. He diligently seeks our salvation and more than we ourselves, desires that we do not sink into hell but inherit the Kingdom of God, prepared for mankind from the foundation of the world.
But we must also diligently strive for salvation and carefully cleanse the image bestowed upon us by the Creator. In addition to reason and freedom, there is another quality in this image to which we must pay particular attention. Only a human being is capable of sacrificial, selfless love, which can reach not only to friends but also to enemies. This is the true distinction between spiritual man and the rest of the animal world.
Continuing our discussion about the image of God in man, I want to say that this image is an inseparable part of human dignity. People do not lose the image of God even in hell. Even there, something remains in man that distinguishes him from the rest of the created world.
Having created us in His own image, the Lord gave us the possibility to become His likeness. But for this, efforts are required from the person himself. People have been granted reason and freedom so that they may use them correctly; so that they strive to develop love in their soul, wisdom in their mind, and mercy in their heart; so that they may reach for the honor of our high calling in Christ Jesus.
But not all people seek this. Many are content with an animal-like way of life, based on instincts. This is clearly seen in how a person uses such a divine gift as speech. Some use it to address God, while others speak foully; some improve themselves, while others degrade even further and become not only like animal-like but also like a demon.
The biblical account of the creation of man gives us an understanding of the basic laws of existence. Foreseeing that man would not stand firm in his dignity and would fall into sin, the Lord endowed him with a mode of reproduction shared by most animals. There is no sin in this, as man received the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.” God also gave Eve to Adam to bear children, so that the human race would not cease. This is the essence and meaning of sexual life. When modern destroyers of souls teach that Adam can love not only Eve but also Steve, this is a profound distortion of the image of God in man. Unfortunately, this distortion is supported by the mass media and all those forces that want humanity, as a whole, to strive not toward the likeness of God but toward demon-likeness, and in fact, toward self-destruction. But I am confident that if a person has chosen the path of salvation, there is no force in the world that can prevent him from following it.
Source: Orthodox Christianity
