Contents
- God gives life to human beings through his own breath, which is the gift of his own life, making us sons in the image and likeness of God
- The difficulty humans have in believing in the immensity and gratuitousness of this gift
- God is suspected of having done this out of self-interest, but he has no need of servants
- Everyone wants to earn their share of happiness, leading to rivalry and divisions among people
- God never ceases to remind us of the gratuitousness of his love for his children. His gift is always offered, even if men do not welcome it. He offers it again and again, he for-gives, that is, he repeats his gift.
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This article provides access to the following insights:
- The Sabbath, God’s rest
- We are God’s children, not his servants
- The gratuitousness of love
- For-giveness
- The kingdom of heaven
- Matthew 6:9-13 Our Father
The filial relationship, the gratuitousness of God’s gift
A gift has been offered to us and we do not welcome it; we think we only possess what we have bought ourselves. Life is an infinite and eternal gift, of boundless abundance, but we do not know how to see it, we do not trust. If we were all at the service of one another, like members of the same body, there would be no limits to our happiness, we would lack nothing, and each one would help the other with his or her own talents. Each person’s life would be a treasure for the other, a source of joy, friendship, and mutual service, where the weakness of one is compensated by the gift of the other, in reciprocity and complementarity.
Thus, the Church Fathers, such as St. Ambrose, tell us that the source of life, that of the earthly paradise that waters the whole earth, is in the soul of each of us, that we can drink from it in each other, that we can welcome in each other a source of joy, friendship, and life without limits (see Genesis 2:4-25 Eden). Everything was offered to human nature, the abundance of immortal divine life, but human beings turned away from it. The story of Adam and Eve tells us the origin of what separates human beings from happiness. This happiness comes from the loving relationship that unites us to one another, and this relationship begins in the bond that unites us to God. This is where we must trust that the gift of life is a free gift. We must live this filial relationship in complete trust and surrender, allowing ourselves to be filled like a small child to whom parents want to give everything. It is suspicion about the gratuitousness of the gift, about divine benevolence, that cuts Adam and Eve, the human race, off from their blissful relationship with God, with life, with their neighbor, and separates them from one another. Jesus shows us God’s attitude toward humanity: “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my soul, in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is the command I received from my Father” (John 10:17-18). God has given us everything, his own life; we have received everything, but we would like to possess it ourselves, through our own merits, by ourselves, without depending on anyone. If this were the attitude of a child, he would deprive himself of the treasure of love that his parents offer him. Instead of receiving it freely and trustingly, instead of living fully the bond of filial love, he would seek to appropriate for himself what his parents offer him with joy. He would steal what is offered to him. The relationship of trust would be broken, and if the way we look at others and at our own parents is the way of someone who wants to take possession of their property, this gaze can only be hidden and shameful; it is the attitude of a thief. The story of Adam and Eve tells us that after doubting God’s gratuitous love and appropriating the fruit of the tree of life for themselves, instead of receiving it from God, they hid, they were ashamed and felt naked. They could no longer even look at each other. The tree of life had become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They experienced evil, and the way they looked at each other hid their desire for appropriation. It was no longer the free exchange that fills us with joy when we welcome with trust the life that is offered to us, in beauty and love. (See Genesis 3:1-24 The Fall). This is where human beings struggle to truly trust one another: “Does he really love me, or is he just interested in obtaining something from me? Is his love sincere, or is he expecting something in return?” This is what human beings say to themselves; if children were to do the same, if this suspicion were directed at their own parents, where would they find happiness? Adam and Eve try to hide their shame with fig leaves, but they do not succeed, and then the merciful God comes to their aid: he sews them clothes of skin and brings them back to each other. This is God’s work: to lead us to trust. “Do you want to enter eternal life?” Jesus asks us. Do you want to enter Paradise again? Nothing could be easier: “Be like a little child” (Matthew 18:3), rediscover filial trust. Rediscover this Paradise where one gives oneself entirely to the other and where we are no longer two but one, like the members of the same body, each at the service of the other, giving themselves entirely. (See The Kingdom of Heaven )
This, then, is the attitude of the human soul toward the free gift and what suspicion engenders. The consequences of these acts are represented in the image of the sons that Adam and Eve will give birth to: it is the story of Cain and Abel. The human condition is reflected in the story of these two brothers. We too are all brothers and sisters because we receive life from the same source, yet this fraternal bond, which should be a source of joy, which should be a support, insofar as we can count on one another, turns into rivalry and jealousy. Division reigns. In this story, St. Ambrose teaches us, we see the tendencies of the human soul that are in each one of us; each one of us is sometimes Cain, sometimes Abel (see Genesis 4:1-8 Cain and Abel).
The image of Cain is that of the man who appropriates God’s gift for himself, and Abel is the image of the one who welcomes everything that exists as coming from that infinite source of life which is in God. We perceive the image of the source of life, of that which gives us life, in the infinite mercy of Christ on the cross, He welcomes all people and, by welcoming them despite their faults against him, he reconciles them with one another, he leads them back to one another so that they can truly taste this source of life, which we find in the joy of friendship and mutual love. It is from this source that man has cut himself off, from the joyful experience of fraternal life, in which we complete each other, share with each other, and experience the happiness of God when he offers his life to mankind.
Thus Cain, after killing his brother, responds to God who asks him where his brother is: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
He lost the fraternal bond, the source of all joy. Life, the spirit, is in the bond that unites us to one another and allows us to feel joy for those who are joyful and sorrow for those who are afflicted. (See also the prodigal son).
The one who has tasted this source of joy, a source abundant in eternal life will spring in him and will be able to quench the thirst of his brothers and sisters (see John 4:1-42 The source of living water). Once we have experienced the joy of love, everything becomes an opportunity to multiply that experience by welcoming more and more of our neighbors. This is the experience of Mary Magdalene, sitting near Jesus and listening to him, she will put all her love into the gesture of pouring precious perfume on Jesus’ feet. She gives everything she has to honor the one who opens the way for us to the source of life, to reconciliation, by offering his life for the multitude. So that in his forgiveness we may find the strength and joy to forgive those who have offended us. (See Mark 14:1-11 The perfume poured on Jesus)
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s soul (ψυχή psukhē) for one’s friends” (John 15:13). This is the experience of those who have tasted the source of life and joy, when we give without counting the cost, in complete gratuitousness, because it is God who loved us first, with a love that wants to give everything: it is the love of the father who says to his son, “Everything that is mine is yours.” Entering into a filial relationship with God means receiving everything as a gift. The gift of the father who does not look at the merits of the son, but offers him everything. Thus, through parables, Jesus invites us to leave behind our mercantile logic, that of the servant who has earned his wages, and to enter into that of the son who has already received in advance everything that belongs to the father. (See Luke 15:11-32 The Prodigal Son and We are God’s children, not his servants).
The love that is offered to us cannot be bought, no matter what our merits may be, it will always be insignificant compared to the gift we receive from God: he has given us everything, the immensity of his spirit, his eternal bliss. If love could be bought, would it still be love? This consideration gives rise to several parables in the Gospel that refer to bad servants. Jesus tries to make us understand that if we think we can buy the love of the Father, the love of God, then we are attributing petty traits to God, we are making him out to be a miser, a calculating father, as if a mother waited for her child to pay her to breastfeed him or parents to be paid for the food they give him. Or parents who would wait to see if their child is worthy before recognizing him and calling him their son. Jesus tells us that God does not need servants; it is not for the benefit he can derive from us that he has called us to life, that he has called us to share his happiness with him. This happiness lies in giving, in the trusting and reciprocal gesture that unites a father and a son, in the profound and gratifying exchange between a mother and the child she carries within her. (See The Gratuitousness of Love)
Those who demand their rights before a God who profits from his servants will not receive their reward; they will be disappointed and unhappy, for they will judge their remuneration to be insufficient. Those who have no merits to claim will find themselves blessed beyond all expectation. (See Luke 19:11-27 The Ten Slaves and the Ten Minas). What we imagine we can demand from God will only be to our own human measure, that is, very little compared to the gift that God offers us by sharing his very life with us: this gift, coming from divine initiative, we could not have scrutinized or imagined in advance; it surpasses human understanding. It is the divine breath itself that gives us new life and recreates us in his image and likeness, giving us access to an intimate and profound relationship with God: the very relationship that unites the only son to his father. So he does not call us servants, but friends, beloved children of the Father. (See We are God’s children, not his servants)
It is then that we enter the kingdom of heaven, the blessed life in which the spirit of filial love unites us to God, making us a people of brothers and sisters, members of the same body. It is then that we enter into God’s rest (see The Sabbath, God’s Rest).
Thus Jesus sends the apostles to announce to the world that the kingdom of heaven has come near to us, it is within us (Matthew 10:7 and Luke 1:21). The life of the kingdom is that which is brought to us by Jesus; he opens the way for us to enter it (see The Kingdom of Heaven). To enter into eternal life right now, we just need to be like a child. Look at the trust that a little child has in his parents. This is a model of the trust we can place in God by living this relationship of love with the One who gave us life freely. Does a child have to pay his parents for the food and love he receives? Isn’t it the joy of his parents to provide for it and see him happy? And is the grateful love that the child has for his parents the result of an obligation imposed on him or the spontaneous fruit of one who has known this source of gratuitous love and is therefore grateful? The child, the little one, is also a model of the relationship with one’s neighbor. He waits for the Father’s exhortation to turn to others, and when he is introduced into this trusting relationship, he makes no distinction between the poor and the rich, the young and the old, the stranger and the one who speaks the same language.