300th Meditation
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children — which is what we are!” (1 Jn 3:1)
As children of our Father we pass through this life. But “what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed” – the Apostle John tells us further on. It will only be fully revealed to us when we come face to face with our Father in eternity.
But for our pilgrimage through this life it is an immeasurable gift to know that we are children of the Father. The words of St. John’s letter insist that this certainty must permeate us completely. It is not simply a dogma that we accept in faith, but a joyful reality, which is to determine and shape our whole life according to God’s Will.
To be a child of God means to live in the security of His love and to cultivate an intimate and personal dialogue with the Father. Therefore, we no longer need to worry about being loved, much less beg for love from other people, but only internalise what we really are: beloved children of God.
This enables us, in turn, to truly love others. Thus, the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi could become a reality in our lives: “O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love”.
Indeed, if we make this prayer our own, we will resemble our Heavenly Father, who with unselfish love seeks human beings, wishing to fill them with His presence. In this way we act as children of God and love grows in us every day. It is this love that shapes us in the image of God and makes the Father present through our life also to others. Surely this is what He wants. How much He will delight in His children bearing witness to Him with their whole lives!