WE need to
realize that the entire span of time we have on
earth as in the whole material universe is part of the
eternity of
God. Time is a property of material beings, including
ourselves, that
God created in his eternity. That is why in the second
letter of St.
Peter, it is said that:
“With the Lord
a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day.” (3,8) That is a rough
description of
the relation between our time and God’s eternity. Our
time is like a
blink of the eye in the eternity of God. I doubt if we
can make a
better description on this mysterious reality.
And he
continued by saying that “the Lord is not slow in
keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is
patient with
you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come
to
repentance.” (3,9)
These words
simply show that our time here on earth is the
time in God’s eternity for our creation and redemption by
him. In
other words, our creation includes our redemption, and
our creation
and redemption are still a work in progress. The
completion of God’s
creation and redemption of us is when we truly become
what he wants us
to be: image and likeness of his, children of his.
We need to
understand that our creation and redemption by
God needs our correspondence or cooperation, because
being designed by
God to be his image and likeness, we are supposed to be
at least aware
of this truth about ourselves and try our best to conform
ourselves to
such divine design for us. God does not impose his will
and design for
us. We are expected to knowingly and willingly correspond
to his will
and design.
That is why we
are endowed with intelligence and will, and
are freely given his grace, so that we can identify
ourselves with
him, until we can really say that we are “another
Christ,” echoing
those words of St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but
Christ who
lives in me.” (Gal 2,20)
That God became
man to save us is not an afterthought in
the divine mind. That truth of our faith is part of the
eternal plan
God has for us. God knew from the start how we would fare
with the
tremendous gifts he has given us—that we would be spoiled
by them. And
he readied the plan of redemption from all eternity.
This God-man,
Jesus Christ, is the pattern of our humanity
and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. That is why he
declared
himself to be “the way, the truth and the life” for us.
We can only be
image and likeness of God through him.
Here we can
readily see why Christ should be the constant
focus of our attention, and why we need to know him and
love him, by
following his commandments. “If you love me,” he
said, “you will keep
my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)
Thus, we need
to study his life, his words, his example.
We need to learn how to talk to him and to see him
everywhere. We need
to know how to deal with him as he continues to deal with
us. For
this, God has sent the Holy Spirit so that the living God
can continue
to be with us, guiding us and sanctifying us.
We really have
to develop a life of filial piety with God
to correspond well to his continuing creative and
redemptive work on
us in this life. This is something that we have to
realize more
deeply. It is the most important truth we have to know
and live.
Everything else in our life is secondary to it and serves
only as
material, means, occasion to achieve that goal.
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