Third Sunday of Advent
Father Richard Rohr describes how we can discover our true identity in God:
There is only one question we must definitely answer: “Who am I?” Or, restated, “Where do I abide?” If we can get that right, the rest largely takes care of itself. Paul answers the questions directly: “You are hidden with Christ in God, and Christ is your life” (Colossians 3:3–4). Every time we start judging ourselves, we can ask, “Who am I?” The answer will come: “I am hidden with Christ in God in every part of my life. I am bearing both the mystery of suffering humanity and the mystery of God’s glory, which is precisely the mystery of Christ.” (Relish the universality of Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, 15:22–28, or Colossians 1:15–20.)
God looks at us and always sees Christ, and God thus finds us always and entirely lovable. God fixes God’s gaze intently where we refuse to look, on our shared, divine nature as God’s children (1 John 3:2). Hopefully, one day our gaze will match God’s gaze. We will find God entirely lovable and ourselves fully lovable in the same moment. Why? Because it’s the same set of eyes that is doing the looking: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
All we have to do is receive God’s gaze and then return what we have received. We simply complete the divine circuit, “love returning love” as my father St. Francis of Assisi showed so well. This is our spiritual agenda for our whole life.
We are saved by standing consciously and confidently inside the force field that is Christ, not by getting it right in our private selves. This is too big a truth for the small self to even imagine. We’re too tiny, too insecure, too ready to beat ourselves up. We don’t need to be correct, but we can always try to remain connected to our Source. The great and, for some, disappointing surprise is that many people who are not at all correct are the most connected by reason of their intense need and desire.
All we can do is fall into the Eternal Mercy—into Love—which we can never really fall out of because “we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God,” as Paul so beautifully stated (1 Corinthians 3:23). Eventually, we know that we are all saved by mercy in spite of ourselves. That must be the final humiliation to the ego.
Our holiness is really only God’s holiness, and that’s why it’s certain and secure. It is a participation in love, a mutual indwelling, not an achievement or performance on our part. “If anyone wants to boast, let them boast in the Lord,” Paul shouts (1 Corinthians 1:31).
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Essential Teachings on Love, selected by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 186–187.
Image credit and inspiration: Susan Wilkinson, Untitled (detail), 2021, acrylic paint, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Just like the colors swirl together in this painting, we and God swirl in our dwelling/indwelling.
Story from Our Community:
When my daughter was six months pregnant during Advent, I understood a new version of Mary. She was a young mother, dealing with enormous responsibility. The angel Gabriel encouraged her to get closer to Elizabeth, an older woman who was carrying her own baby, John the Baptist. Mary must have felt such relief to be accepted and nurtured by another woman during that time of uncertainty. I will be reflecting on all the young people who are looking for comfort and guidance, regardless of whether they act within or outside traditional and cultural norms.
—Ayleen R.
