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Additional Reflection Material
Human Dignity – the “Image of God” (continuation of commentary on Rule #3)
What Happened?
If this divine glory, divine presence, is the heart of all creation, then what happened, what went wrong? It doesn’t take more than a glance at this morning’s news to see that much of created reality is certainly in trouble! Racism, violence, greed, political oppression, famine, ecological abuse all are rampant. Of course, as Christians, we explain this phenomenon of destruction with a simple but death-dealing word, sin. Sin – in all its many manifestations and faces – is what causes all this pain, suffering, and hopelessness for so many, many people. Even our beautiful Mother-Earth suffers the sorrow of this disaster.
Once again, the book of Genesis tells the story. Man and woman both fail through pride and disobedience. And immediately the consequences are apparent: shame, enmity, blaming, troubles in carrying out their lives’ missions, alienation (Gen. 3:1-24). The results of sin multiply rapidly. Cain murders his brother Abel (Gen. 4:1-16), and the spans of the patriarchs’ lives become progressively shorter. Life diminishes as sin grows. It reaches a monumental state of corruption by chapter 6 of Genesis, and God decides to wipe the slate clean with the Flood and start over again (Gen. 6:5-8:14)!
However, no matter how immense the sin, God never gives up on us. God reaffirms the covenant with Noah, promising never to destroy humankind again. What is more, this presence of sin does not annihilate the Divine Spirit within the heart of created reality and each human person. Sin obscures and damages but does not destroy that Divine Image which remains fundamentally, untouchably inviolate. Despite our sinfulness, our anger, hatred, lust, and greed, the essential core of creation and every human person is spirit – holy, the sacred dwelling place of God.
This was clearly the basis for Father Judge’s missionary perspective. The foundation of human dignity is that of being “the children of the same heavenly Father and created to the image and likeness of God . . . What a wonderful dignity it is to be a human being.” 11 His prayer was that “in all things His Image and Likeness and the Holy Name of the Trinity become more and more apparent – above all, in us who are created to His Image and Likeness.” 12 However, sin and the effects of sin have damaged and blemished that Image. The Cenacle missionaries, therefore, are “in training . . . to help our Blessed Mother of Sorrows to clean the image and
likeness of God in men’s souls.” 13 Their life’s work is to seek out those the world considers to be “useless, unlovely, worthless.” Why?
‘The love of Christ urges us,’ in other words, we are doing it for Him. We see Him in them, in their soul created to His Image and Likeness. We minister to Him. Surely that was a soiled Face that Veronica ministered. It was blood stained and the dust of the road was upon it, perhaps even the spittle of blasphemous men, but it was the Face of Christ. 14
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, much of the popular catechesis portrayed God as “coming and going” in our souls according to our “moral” or “ethical rightness or wrongness.” We sin mortally: God goes away. We go to Confession: God comes back. Although this is somewhat of a caricature, many people imagined our soul’s situation this way. However, the authentic doctrine of the Church clearly affirmed always that God is the very substance, the undergirding principle which makes all created reality be. If God “went away” as we popularly imagined, everything suddenly and totally would have “gone away,” come to an end.
Then Why Do We Need a Savior?
If God is always present to all created reality and every human person – no matter what we do! – then why do we need a Savior to redeem us? First, left alone to their own devices, human beings would be irrevocably stuck in wrong-headed thinking, sin, and hopelessness. Jesus came to open up for us the Light of God’s Truth. Once sin started multiplying through the centuries of human experience, it began to overwhelm human history. Violence, cheating, lying, infidelity, hatred, division became the “norm” for humankind – “that’s just the way things are!” Jesus comes in the power of the Spirit to reveal to us the Truth of our own reality, our own blessedness as beloved sons and daughters of the Father. He opens up to us the Way that leads to genuine and fulfilling Life (John 14:6). He is the “Light of the world” that illuminates the darkness and despair of our upsets, our pains, our sorrow, our confusion.
Second, Jesus opens the Way for all people to find and live in the heart of God. The Old Testament tells us of a faithful God who calls forth and creates a “chosen people” who dwell in the Holy Land promised them. Jesus does not reject this sacred Covenant but broadens, expands, enhances, fulfills it: all peoples are “chosen,” all Lands are “holy.” Jesus assures the woman at the well in Samaria that neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem will true worship occur. Rather “the hour will come – in fact it is here already – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshiper the Father wants” (John 4:23). Jesus shows all humanity and all creation how wide open the door of God’s heart is to all! By showing how everyone, everything, is embraced by God’s love, He uncovers for us the sacred nature of all created reality.
Third, Jesus reveals the heart of God as Healer, Reconciler, Hope, Humility, Teacher, Mercy, and Truth. Jesus is preeminently and uniquely the bearer of the Spirit, “conceived by the Holy Spirit.” He is the One in Whom the Spirit is most clearly and fully made manifest, opening up to struggling humankind the precious heart of God. Jesus unfolds for humanity in its darkness what is genuinely at the heart of all creation: one Person, one Image, one Heart whose name is Compassion. All creation breathes the Name of Jesus. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). “Through Him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him. All that came to be had life in him” (John 1:3-4). “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible . . . all things were created through him and for him . . . He holds all things in unity” (Col. 1:16-17).
11 MF:12172-76.
12 MF:577.
13 MF:8332-36.
14 MF:9980f.
Suggested Process for Reflection
First, read one or more of the recommended Scriptures. Select one or two of the related Scriptures cited for your reading and reflection: John 1:1-14, 4:1-24, 14:1-7; or Col. 1:16-17 may be especially helpful.
Second, think about what you have read.
Is there anything particularly that strikes you?
Is there anything you don’t understand?
Anything that you disagree with or are troubled by?
What difference has Jesus made in your life?
How has Jesus transformed or enlightened or changed your life, the life of your community, the life of the world?
Be as concrete and specific as possible as you reflect on this.
Third, talk to God about what you have read, thought, questioned, felt. Tell God what is most on your mind and in your heart as you read or listen to these passages. Any one of a range of emotions and feelings is possible to express to God: hope, joy, consolation, gratitude, anger, sorrow, adoration. The important thing is to be as honest as possible in opening your heart up to God.
Fourth, sit quietly and do nothing. Many times we are so preoccupied with talking to God that we don’t give God a chance to speak with us. God speaks best in silence and in quiet so don’t be afraid to do nothing for a few moments and then, if there is still time, begin the process over again: read, think, talk, sit quietly.