Sunday Reflections

V. J. E



Beloved, we are God's children now; 

what we shall be has not yet been revealed. 

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,

for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

Beloved, we are God's children now; 

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that since we are God's children now, we were not always His children. We were in need of adoption like animals at a pet store, waiting for someone to adopt us. And so, like a potential pet owner, walking around in a store, looking for an animal to rescue from its prison, God initiated the search for us. He bought us to set us free, and to bestow on us a dignity above all other things. And He's not limited to a certain number of pets that he can adopt. He is capable of claiming and wants to claim all of us as His own. He wants to love on us and give us a home with Him, even though we are but dust.... In His glorious display of God-power, he has animated our dust, has given us flesh and bones, has breathed into us His very self, and has transformed us into men, in His own image. This dust, He has graciously called His children. How crazy is that?!

what we shall be has not yet been revealed. 

Within the inscrutable mysteries of His love, He gave us His Son, Jesus, in marriage. Jesus not only marries us in the sense that Jesus is the Bridegroom and we collectively, as the Church, are His mystical bride. Jesus also marries us in His very self as fully man and fully divine! This is the ultimate fulfillment of "man shall leave his father and be joined to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh." We have been married/joined/grafted to Christ in the most intense of ways. We have literally become one with Him! And yet we shall not know the fullness of this reality until we are in heaven.

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

How can John say that we will be like the Father, simply because we will see Him? How can a pet ever be like its master simply because it sees him? How does that make any sense? I have yet to hear any breaking news about a dog that turned into a man because it was looking at its owner. And as stated before, John says that we are God's children.  The pet is the owner's child? I know that there are lots of people who consider their pets their children, but, still; No matter how much we want to believe that our pets are "people too", they are not. So what's going on here?

He isn't saying that by looking at the Father we become like Him- We mustn't assume that we have taken initiative to look and thus by our own power have become. No, the true order of events is that God takes the initiative to transform us, then we become and then we are able to see. So John is saying when that moment finally comes when we are fully united to our Bridegroom, as a spotless Bride, with Him in heaven, then we will finally be like God, and thus we will able to see Him as He is.

And yet I do believe that there is something to looking at God and becoming like Him. It's no different from the experience of living with others. You start to imitate each other, you copy each others idiosyncrasies and manners. How much more is this reality made manifest in a relationship with the Almighty God?

So in light of the Gospel today, I am drowned in the mercy of God. That He would love me so much to the point of laying down His life for me. What a Good Shepherd I have?! He outdoes Himself in goodness.