IF there’s anything that should
elicit the strongest
passion in us, it should be the desire to be like God. This simply
corresponds to God’s greatest commandment as articulated by Christ
himself: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and
with your whole soul, and with all your strength, and with all your
mind.” (Lk 10,27)
Let’s see to it that these words do not remain words
alone, nor mere intention or theory that would hardly have any effect
on our feelings nor on the many aspects of our life. Let’s see to it
that these words would set us aflame with love, with a certain madness
which is how love usually expresses itself.
This love for God—which is like saying, to be like God,
since loving resembles the lover with the beloved—should be the be-all
and end-all of our life. It’s not fame, nor wealth, nor some power.
Much less should it be some person with great looks or
tremendous talents, or some vain thoughts about ourselves. It should
be God who draws our strongest desire, the only one to die for. Thus,
it is important to ask ourselves from time, what truly is my greatest
passion now? Is it simply food, fame, money, work, power?
Or it is possible that our immediate passion is some
worldly thing, but do we know how to relate it to the ultimate passion
that is proper to us? Do we know how to relate these earthly passions
to God?
Everyday, we need to find reason to make this need to love
God and to be like him very much alive in us. That’s simply because we
have been made in God image and likeness. And we have been given the
freedom together with his grace so that we can choose to be like God.
We have to understand that freedom is best exercised when
used to choose to love God and therefore to be like God. We should not
misuse our freedom by using in any which way, or by simply using it to
pursue our whims and caprices. Only tragedy awaits us in these latter
cases.
Let’s remember that our freedom is the best endowment God
has given our nature. It is through it that together with God’s grace
we can truly become like God as God wants it, nay, as God commands it.
As St. Peter would put, let’s not make freedom “a cloak
for malice.” (1 Pt 2,16) Freedom’s ultimate purpose is for us to
become like God, since we have been created in his image and likeness,
something that we have to correspond ourselves to, using our freedom
precisely.
We need to be more familiar with this need, and little by
little try to feel it and act on it. It does not come automatically.
It has to be educed, obviously slowly but also steadily. And for this,
it requires a lot of formation, of continuing motivations, and the
appropriate attitude, skills and virtues. Let’s hope that everyone
lends a hand in this task.
We also need to disabuse ourselves from the
thinking—erroneous and baseless, for sure—that adopting this kind of
attitude would make us strange and weird. Hardly anything could be
farther than the truth.
Passionately desiring to be like God completes and
perfects our humanity, or rather leads us to the fullness of our
humanity. It certainly is not an easy thing to do. There will be a lot
of awkwardness in the beginning, some bumbling and inconsistent
efforts in the process, but then if we persist, for sure, we can hack
it. It’s hard but not impossible.
Besides, we are assured of God’s grace. This is also
something that we have to be more familiar with. This task and
challenge certainly does not depend solely on our human efforts. It
requires God’s grace which is actually given to us in abundance, but
which we have to ask, even beg.
We have to remember always that while things completely
depend on us, they also completely depend on God—in fact, they depend
on God primarily. Our role, while done with total commitment, is more
of seconding God’s will and ways, which we have to do precisely with
our God-given gift of freedom.
It’s time that we instill in everyone this awareness of
our need to cultivate this passion to be like God, who has revealed
himself completely to us in Christ, and who in turn continues to be
with us through the Holy Spirit acting on the many instrumentalities
Christ himself established.
passion in us, it should be the desire to be like God. This simply
corresponds to God’s greatest commandment as articulated by Christ
himself: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and
with your whole soul, and with all your strength, and with all your
mind.” (Lk 10,27)
Let’s see to it that these words do not remain words
alone, nor mere intention or theory that would hardly have any effect
on our feelings nor on the many aspects of our life. Let’s see to it
that these words would set us aflame with love, with a certain madness
which is how love usually expresses itself.
This love for God—which is like saying, to be like God,
since loving resembles the lover with the beloved—should be the be-all
and end-all of our life. It’s not fame, nor wealth, nor some power.
Much less should it be some person with great looks or
tremendous talents, or some vain thoughts about ourselves. It should
be God who draws our strongest desire, the only one to die for. Thus,
it is important to ask ourselves from time, what truly is my greatest
passion now? Is it simply food, fame, money, work, power?
Or it is possible that our immediate passion is some
worldly thing, but do we know how to relate it to the ultimate passion
that is proper to us? Do we know how to relate these earthly passions
to God?
Everyday, we need to find reason to make this need to love
God and to be like him very much alive in us. That’s simply because we
have been made in God image and likeness. And we have been given the
freedom together with his grace so that we can choose to be like God.
We have to understand that freedom is best exercised when
used to choose to love God and therefore to be like God. We should not
misuse our freedom by using in any which way, or by simply using it to
pursue our whims and caprices. Only tragedy awaits us in these latter
cases.
Let’s remember that our freedom is the best endowment God
has given our nature. It is through it that together with God’s grace
we can truly become like God as God wants it, nay, as God commands it.
As St. Peter would put, let’s not make freedom “a cloak
for malice.” (1 Pt 2,16) Freedom’s ultimate purpose is for us to
become like God, since we have been created in his image and likeness,
something that we have to correspond ourselves to, using our freedom
precisely.
We need to be more familiar with this need, and little by
little try to feel it and act on it. It does not come automatically.
It has to be educed, obviously slowly but also steadily. And for this,
it requires a lot of formation, of continuing motivations, and the
appropriate attitude, skills and virtues. Let’s hope that everyone
lends a hand in this task.
We also need to disabuse ourselves from the
thinking—erroneous and baseless, for sure—that adopting this kind of
attitude would make us strange and weird. Hardly anything could be
farther than the truth.
Passionately desiring to be like God completes and
perfects our humanity, or rather leads us to the fullness of our
humanity. It certainly is not an easy thing to do. There will be a lot
of awkwardness in the beginning, some bumbling and inconsistent
efforts in the process, but then if we persist, for sure, we can hack
it. It’s hard but not impossible.
Besides, we are assured of God’s grace. This is also
something that we have to be more familiar with. This task and
challenge certainly does not depend solely on our human efforts. It
requires God’s grace which is actually given to us in abundance, but
which we have to ask, even beg.
We have to remember always that while things completely
depend on us, they also completely depend on God—in fact, they depend
on God primarily. Our role, while done with total commitment, is more
of seconding God’s will and ways, which we have to do precisely with
our God-given gift of freedom.
It’s time that we instill in everyone this awareness of
our need to cultivate this passion to be like God, who has revealed
himself completely to us in Christ, and who in turn continues to be
with us through the Holy Spirit acting on the many instrumentalities
Christ himself established.
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