God Created Us to Become ALL that We Are!
Have you ever wondered why the Ten Commandments are divided the way they are? Only three concern our relationship with God while seven deal with our relationship with our neighbors.
God loves to write what he asks of us with crooked lines more to engage our thoughts than to confuse us. No one presumes to know God’s will, but as a long-time recipient of his love, I would say that God can easily do much for us with a little return on our part. This, I believe, is why he gave the bulk of the commandments to our building relationships with one another.
We see this showing itself more as our elections move into high gear. How we love or not love becomes an important issue in the whole interaction between God, us, and others. Therefore, the Lord reminds us that he will use our measure for loving others to be his measurement.
As Jesus preached, “What we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for him?” Or perhaps, the best way to adore God is to look right and left and see how we can serve our neighbors. If looking at God, we see people and looking at others we see God, then we are serving him.
St. Francis of Assisi’s popularity has spanned centuries because he did just that. He not only served a leper, but fearfully, yet trustingly, kissed the leper’s sores, the whole-time seeing God’s reflection. From that moment on, St. Francis never stopped loving others in the same way.
Now we are not asked to kiss leper’s sores, but we get the idea of what Christ is asking of us. He wants us to “go deeper” and see if we can see God’s reflection within each neighbor we encounter.
Recently, a father shared with me that one of his three sons is gay. He started to cry as he told me. I saw his mixed feelings in those tears. I gently asked, “Did you love your son on the day before he told you he is gay?” He replied through his sobs, “Of course!” I then added, “That’s the same son who on this day told you he is gay. Nothing has changed.” In fact, I continued, “Love him more. And remember God does not make mistakes. We are all made in his image and likeness.”
And the way we all respond to God’s love is to become ALL that we can be. Namely, the human person with all our gifts formed in the womb in the image and likeness of our Creator God. We then spend our lifetime finishing creation by becoming the best version of ourselves.
As a play on the words of St. Francis de Sales: Be all that we are and become that as best we can as a testament to the master craftsman who created us.
Remember, help is always nearby, as we have God’s constant love, plus the reward given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the never-ending embrace of the Holy Spirit. This is our consolation, knowing that God will always do his best to help the one sheep who strays from the flock even if it means leaving the flock. Jesus promised this and he keeps promises. We simply need to trust the promise.
This is true of God, “God really knows me, and God really loves me.” Realizing this is the beginning of our healthy self-image that will move us into the fullness of life-the life that Jesus came to give us.
