POPE FRANCIS: WHAT IS OUR SPIRITUAL IDENTITY?
WE ARE ALL GOD’S BELOVED CHILDREN!
Dear brethren in Christ, we read in yesterday’s Gospel how God the Father revealed that Jesus is His Beloved Son and we must listen to Him. In today’s Sunday Mass, we pray to “Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, the inheritance which you have promised. Through Christ Our Lord.”
Through the sacrament of Baptism, the Most Holy Trinity made our soul as his indwelling, we have been incorporated in Our Lord Jesus Christ and given the grace of divine filiation: God is our Father and we are His beloved children!
We must consider this real condition of ours many times during the day, for if God is Our Father, and He immensely loves each one of us; if He has given His Son to us, his Most Beloved and Treasured Son in order to save us; if He, our Father is All-Powerful, Creator of the Universe, then what would He not do in order to make sure that we would arrive at eternal happiness?
The only thing He asks from each one of us is our loving correspondence, for a love which is not corresponded results to a very painful experience as we all know.
Let us remind ourselves of Pope Francis’ words during his Final Mass Homily at the recently concluded WYD in Poland when he recounts the first obstacle Zaccheus, the Publican had to overcome, climbing on a sycamore tree, in order to see Jesus who was passing by:
“The first obstacle is smallness of stature. Zacchaeus couldn’t see the Master because he was little. Even today we can risk not getting close to Jesus because we don’t feel big enough, because we don’t think ourselves worthy. This is a great temptation; it has to do not only with self-esteem, but with FAITH itself. For faith tells us that we are “children of god… that is what we are” (1 Jn 3:1). We have been created in God’s own image; Jesus has taken upon himself our humanity and his heart will never be separated from us; the Holy Spirit wants to dwell within us. We have been called to be happy for ever with God!
That is our real “stature”, our spiritual identity: we are God’s beloved children, always. So you can see that not to accept ourselves, to live glumly, to be negative, means not to recognize our deepest identity. It is like walking away when God wants to look at me, trying to spoil his dream for me.
God loves us the way we are, and no sin, fault or mistake of ours makes him change his mind. As far as Jesus is concerned – as the Gospel shows – no one is unworthy of, or far from, his thoughts. No one is insignificant. He loves all of us with a special love; for him all of us are important: you are important! God counts on you for what you are, not for what you possess. In his eyes the clothes you wear or the kind of cell phone you use are of absolutely no concern. He doesn’t care whether you are stylish or not; he cares about you! In his eyes, you are precious, and your value is inestimable.”
Hence, confronted with life’s difficulties, we must make it a point to consider and remember: God is our Father and we are His beloved children. Away with sadness, pessimism, despair!
Omnia possum in eo qui me comfortat (I can do all things in Him who strengthens me)…and peace, serenity, optimism and thanksgiving to Almighty God will invade our soul…
A Blessed Sunday and week ahead to you and your family! God bless!
Fr. Rolly Arjonillo, priest of Opus Dei.
SEE AS WELL:
POPE FRANCIS’ HOMILY, CONCLUDING MASS WYD 2016 in https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/pope-francis-wyd2016-final-mass-homily-god-loves-us-the-way-we-are-and-no-sin-fault-or-mistake-of-ours-makes-him-change-his-mind/
POPE FRANCIS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, OUR BAPTISM AND DIVINE FILIATION in https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/pope-francis-on-the-holy-spirit-our-baptism-and-divine-filiation/
ORIGINAL PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.howardlyon.com/religious-store/i-am-a-child-of-god