"A New Season"
"Identity" (Relational Truth: part 9)
Being 'joint heirs' (see Rom. 8:17)
with Jesus, children of God share a special bond of communion with him and in
him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We are to be close associates of
Jesus. Like him we are invited to know God as our Father and to place full
confidence in Him; for, "The LORD set his heart on you and chose you"
(Duet. 7:7). As St. Peter reminds us, We are chosen, royal and
holy (see 1Pet. 2:9). As joint heirs with Jesus we share both in "the secret
of His mission and the mystery of His person" (An Undivided Heart;
Sr. Evelyn Ann Schumacher, O.S.F., p. 3).
St. John says, "See what love the
Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God" (1John 3:1).
This love of the Father has been revealed to us through the suffering love
of Jesus in the world. Having entered into our human condition, Jesus
suffered the deprivations of hunger and thirst, and the reality of temptation,
etc. in his human nature. Suffering was part of his training in obedience:
"Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered"
(Heb.5:8). We are reminded that Jesus was "obedient to death" (Phil. 2:8). 1
Sam. 15:22 says, "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission
than the fat of rams". Jesus united in himself obedience, suffering and
sacrifice. It was Jesus'
obedience to the Father to his last breath on the cross that gave his sacrifice its ultimate efficacy, and was
the ultimate revelation of his "love beyond all telling".
St. Paul reminds us in Rom.8:17 that
as children of God we are "joint heirs with Christ if only we suffer with
him so that we may also be glorified with him." Living in our true identity
as children of God requires of us a daily dying to self--hence, a daily determination,
courage and prayer. Because we desire the love of the Father to be in us, we
seek to do everything to please the Father. Hence, we must strive to overcome
everything that is not from the Father (see 1 John 2: 15-16). Our being joint
heirs is also an invitation by God to become a "grain of wheat that dies"
because we share in the self-emptying of Jesus in the world for the salvation
of the world. With Jesus we are called to be his "collaborators" in the
redemption of the world. We share both in his dying and in his rising: "If,
then, we have died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him"
(Rom. 6:8). If we don't have a union with Jesus in his personal death and
resurrection, we can't share in his redemptive power. It is his redemptive
power at work within us that allows us to 'conquer the world' through obedient
faith.
Questions:
1) How
do I exercise a daily dying to self in my day-to-day living?
2) When
I am suffering do I remain faithful to God in daily prayer, loving sacrifice
and obedience?
Scriptures:
Any scripture from the text; 2 Cr.1:5-7; Phil.3:10; 1Pet.4:13
