In our Second Reading this weekend, St. John reminds us: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.” This is our true identity ~ we are children of God. In the spiritual life, we call this divine filiation. The source of our identity is rooted in this reality that we are children of God. As such we need to make a response. That response comes from the heart. It is a response of gratitude and love. St. Augustine in commenting on the Letter of St. John had said:
“The question is, what to love. The Psalms do not tell us not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But how can we choose unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless Someone has loved us first. Listen to the Apostle John: ‘We love Him, because He first loved us’. The source of man’s love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved him first. He has given us Himself as the object of our love, and He has also given us its source. What this source is you may learn more clearly from the Apostle Paul who tells us: ‘The love of God has been poured into our hearts’. This love is not something we generate ourselves; it comes to us through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Pray that the Holy Spirit instills within your hearts a deep desire to express this love to God. Be grateful that you are loved. Always have that joy of one that knows he or she is a child of God.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Wayne