Dear Parishioners,
It is critically important that we are able to answer the two most important questions known to humans: who is God and who are we. These questions are deeply existential and yet the most practical of any question. They are related to each other in that the answer to the first helps with answering the second. As a result, properly understanding who God is provides knowledge of who we are and direction of how to live.
An example to help us understand this is a baseball glove. By itself, there could be an almost endless number of possibilities for its purpose and meaning. However, when we realize the baseball glove was created for the game of baseball, its purpose and meaning starts to be understood. The more we understand the game of baseball, the more we understand the purpose and meaning of the glove. Players have to catch fastballs from the pitcher, line-drives from the batter, grounders, etc. The leather of the glove prevents injury to the hand and gives the player a bigger hand to catch the ball, which makes possible the amazing catches we enjoy seeing.
Similarly, the more we understand God, the more we are able to answer the question of who we are. When we realize that every human person has been created by God, in the Divine Image, then we realize every human life is sacred to God. (Gen. 1:27) The Old Testament reminds us: You formed my inmost being, You knit me in my mother's womb. I praise You, so wonderfully You made me. Wonderful are Your works! My very self you knew. (Psalm 139:13-14) Then in the New Testament: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor. 3:16).
God tells us to grow in every way into Christ (Eph. 4:15). We might be wondering how to do so. Thankfully God tells us: Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24).
What God is saying here is that we have to be transformed, which starts with renewal of our minds. First we come to know and understand God’s ways, then comes the hard work of change. This type of transformation requires both God’s help and personal effort. Why is it important to be made new? Jesus tells us: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).
God further instructs us in the objective of being transformed and why it must be done: Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us... Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you… no obscenity or foolish or suggestive talk… Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person… has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:1-5).
In the heart of Christ,
Fr. Miller