Those are the times we forget who we REALLY are. But, if we gaze at God with the eyes of our hearts, God will remind us of who we really are: Created in His Image and Likeness; sons and daughters of a heavenly Father; Temples of His Holy Spirit; The Body of Christ; gifted in power, love, and self-discipline.
In Byzantine art and many later icons, Jesus is shown holding up his two fingers, indicating, "I am fully human, and I am fully divine at the same time." Since the human and the divine co-exist in him, Fr. Richard Rohr suggests that Jesus "is actually a 'third something.' This is hard for us to grasp or even imagine, because it seems a contradiction in terms, an irreconcilable paradox." A paradox is a seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that expresses a possible truth. This truth about Jesus pulls our minds and spirits into a new dimension, past all either-or beliefs about reality. In this new dimension, we discover who we are as well: we also are living paradoxes.
Fr. Richard Rohr continues, "You and I are also daughters of heaven and daughters of earth, sons of God and sons of this world. Both are true at the same time, which defies all reason and logic." God created us in God's own Image and Likeness. God created us, body and soul, and exclaimed about how good our bodies and souls are. God lives within us; our physical bodies and spiritual souls are meant to be one with the Divine. "Salvation is a gradual realization of who we are - and always have been - and will be eternally."
Yes, we will continue in eternity as an eternal glorified combination of body and soul, both human and divinized in a mysterious way. We will fully realize what it means to have God as our heavenly Father. We will be united with Christ; we will be fully Christ's Body together in Him. We will be pure Temples of the Holy Spirit. For we have been promised that we will become like God.
"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope based on Him makes himself pure as He is pure." (1 John 3: 2-3.)
But often we run away from this knowledge of who we are. One of the most famous "runners from God" was St. Augustine of Hippo (died in 430.) Augustine, born in North Africa, was a brilliant intellectual, a philosopher, a man of worldly ambitions, who loved partying, entertainment, and womanizing. Although he was attracted to Christianity - and his Christian mother St. Monica prayed for him and cried over him unceasingly - he resisted God because he did not want to have the self-discipline necessary to change his lifestyle. He cried out "God, make me pure! But - not yet." Yet God won out. Augustine was converted, became a priest and then a Bishop, a lover of the poor, and one of the greatest theologians and Defenders of the Faith in the Church. His "Confessions," the story of his conversion, is popular to this day. So often he said about God "Late have I loved Thee!"
Augustine had to finally admit that we are not simply "higher animals." Created in God's Image, we have reason and we have free will and we have the ability to freely love. We are not creatures of habit like animals. We can freely and creatively and lovingly choose our behavior. But true freedom is choosing what we ought to choose - to become more of who we are. St. Augustine tells us "True freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being what you are meant to be. Humans were created in the Image of God. True freedom, then, is not found in moving away from that Image, but only in living it out."
How do we live out being made in God's Image and Likeness? Augustine tells us "Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen." The more often we choose to gaze at God within us, the more clearly we see how profoundly God gifts us! "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7.)
God calls us to live out these three gifts in our own personal lifestyles, discerning what God wants us to do for and with the people whom He sends to enter our lives, to come under our "sphere of influence."
A spirit of power! Augustine says "Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are." Do we have the righteous anger and the ongoing courage to preach the Gospel, with our words and with our lives, when convenient and when inconvenient, to an unjust, corrupt, and unloving world?
A spirit of love! Augustine says "The measure of love is to love without measure." Each of us is called to love a different "part" of God's Kingdom - in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our churches. Some of us are called to love even a bigger part of the Kingdom, to become involved in a cause: to work for racial justice, or income equality, or against environmental pollution; to protect unwanted or injured animals; to enlighten women about the immorality of abortion and to help pregnant women; to help one group of the most vulnerable, such as: immigrants, refugees, youth, senior citizens, the poor, the homeless, the disabled, the addicted, the sick, the dying, prisoners; to work for peace and for harmony between religions and nations. No one can do it all. But as Dorothy Day said, "Do something!"
A spirit of self-discipline! One day Augustine, still partying, still full of ambitious maneuvering, observed others being converted to Christianity, and said to a friend "What are we doing? Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we with all our knowledge are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins." His conversion came as he realized that he needed the self-discipline to continually talk to God about his life choices, and to love everyone and everything as a gift of God and in God. He said:
"If you find physical pleasure in earthly experiences, use the occasion to praise God for these gifts. Turn your love not on the pleasures but toward their Maker. Otherwise, the things that please you will cause you to displease. Love those souls that please you, but love them in God."
St. Augustine had a great love for the Eucharist, the Bread of Heaven. He saw receiving the Eucharist as the pre-eminent way to become more of who we are. He said "I heard Your Voice from on high ' I am the food of the fully grown. Grow and you will feed on Me. And you will not change Me into you....but you will be changed into Me." We will become other Christs for the world. Living paradoxes.
How can this happen to us, in us? Through a single-minded, whole-hearted falling in love with God. In God's love for us we are purified, set on fire with passionate courage, love, and self-discipline. Augustine says
"You called and shouted and burst my deafness. You flashed, shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors, and I drew in breath and panted for You. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."