Rather than scaring us, He came to love us. I think Jesus came for a much nobler purpose. I was more conscious of the power of failure than of the power of faith. And one mortal sin could wipe out a lifetime of goodness! This model created a lot of fear and anxiety in me, and in many like me, but offered no window at seeing ourselves as God-like. We had to earn our way there with faith and lots and lots of good works. If we’re bad, we go “down there” – where the 100-degree weather never ends! Obviously, this model put us at a far distance from God. We still think of God “up there” and us “down here.” If we’re good, we get to go “up there” forever after death. What keeps us from believing we are the presence of God?įor most of us, myself included, our earliest religious training holds us captive. But even allowing for some theological fine-tuning, the question remains the same. And perhaps it is more theologically correct to speak of ourselves as being “divinized” – becoming God-like, rather than being God. They speak of Christ as being divine by nature. True, the theologians do make a distinction. What keeps us from believing this? What keeps us from living God-like lives?
But the new awareness was that we have everything Christ has. He has given himself to us – body, blood, soul and divinity – in the Eucharist. On this feast of the “Birthday of the Church,” the feast in which we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming on those first believers, a new awareness came to me. It all came together this past Pentecost. So when did we forget that we were God? Or, better, when did we become God? Or, perhaps even better, what am I talking about?
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