We shall be like Him

As we cooperate with his grace, the Image of God is restored and His Likeness begins to be formed within us, for the sake of others.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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 Jn 3:1-2)

I write this reflection on the Fourth Sunday of Easter in the Roman calendar. The readings for the Liturgy are, as they always are, Bread on the Trail for our daily pilgrimage of faith. The Gospel reading is from St. John, the familiar discourse of the Lord "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10). We are reminded of the heart of the Christian claim that the God who is love poured Himself out for each one of us us and invites us now to do the same.

This beautiful Gospel of John was the last gospel to be written. It is also the most theological of the four gospel accounts. It contains the developed reflections on the meaning of the "Paschal Mystery" - the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. From the consistent ancient tradition we know that this Gospel was authored by the one called "Beloved Disciple", the one "whom Jesus Loved", the Apostle named John.

He was there at the last meal that Jesus would have with those whom He loved and whom He had especially called to carry forward His redemptive mission. Great artists have recorded the intimate and beautiful image of this beloved disciple, resting His head on the breast of God Incarnate. A 1st century Monk named Evagrius of Pontus derived what has become my favorite definition of a theologian from that encounter between the Master and the beloved disciple, "One who rests his head on the chest of Christ."

John was there on that Mount where Jesus invited three of His disciples to witness the transfiguration of love right before Jesus endured the voluntary suffering of redemption. They would later be invited to participate in the love story themselves by continuing His redemptive mission. John was there at the foot of the Cross; a witness to the great outpouring of Divine love where God Incarnate stretched out His arms embracing the whole world and bridging the gulf between heaven and earth.

He was there at that second tree on Golgotha where the world was cleansed by blood and creation was begun anew. He stood in the solidarity of love with the mother of Jesus, entrusted to his care by the Savior who, breathing his last breath, uttered the poem of love," It is finished".

He was informed first of the empty tomb by a witness to the Resurrection. He knew that Love had triumphed over death. In the ancient Christian tradition we discover that as John aged he was carried from assembly to assembly where he would encourage the early disciples by saying "beloved, love one another." The letters which bear his name at the end of the New Testament Canon are filled with profound insights concerning this invitation of love like the verse with which I began this reflection.

When we begin to comprehend real love in this way, the God who is love comes and lives His life of love within us - and then through us for others. We too can become "Beloved Disciples", given for the world that still longs to be loved by the God who is love. Let us learn the lessons of the beloved Disciple in the school of faith. Let us learn to live lives of surrendered love.

Each new morning, we awaken to a choice. A Dear Bishop once told me "there are two kinds of people in this world, those who awaken and say "Good Morning Lord" and those who awaken and say, "Good Lord, It's morning." The Image of God within us is rooted in our capacity for free choice. Those who belong to Jesus Christ are invited to freely to choose to love, over and over again. As we choose Him, we also choose His plan for our lives and for the world that was created through Him. Both choices bring us into a life of participation in His loving plan of redemption. When we choose this way of love, we change - and we change the world.

"...(A)s he is, so are we in this world", wrote the beloved disciple in this same letter (1 John 4:17). Those who have been baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ are now members of His Body and carry forward in time His Redemptive work of love. We live our lives now, in Him. As we cooperate with his grace, the Image of God is restored and His Likeness begins to be formed within us, for the sake of others. That dynamic process is what the Christian vocation and call to holiness is all about. When it is completed in each of our lives "...we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

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