Can you really know yourself?

As evident in his poem, "Know Thyself", the great 18^th cent. poet, Alexander Pope, wondered what the results would be from taking a good look at ourselves.

KNOW THYSELF

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

St. Paul would likely agree with Mr. Pope when he admits in 1 Cor. 13:9, 12a, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part . . . For now we see a riddle (Grk. enigma) in a mirror . . . ”

But were we humans always made of such contradictory character? No. Of mystery, perhaps, but not of variance. The Scripture’s portrayal of the creation of the first man and woman is this: God said, “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26).”

Commenting on the verse, St. Basil the Great said,

From this, begin to know yourself.
These words had not yet been applied to any of the creations.
God said, ‘Let there be light.’ . . . One word, and they had come to be.
At this point, man does not yet exist,
and there is deliberation regarding man . . .
Note the dignity befitting you.
He has not initiated your origin by a command,
but there has been counsel in God
to determine how to introduce into life
this living being worthy of honor.[1]

[1] Johanna Manley, ed., trans., Wisdom. Let Us Attend, (Menlo Park, Calif.: Monastery Books, 1997), 709.