St. Genevieve as patroness of Paris
Musée Carnavalet
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: 1 John 2:29-3:6
Not Listening to Heretics (Continuation)
----------------------------------------
[29] If you know that he is righteous, thou may be sure that every one who does right is born of him.
We are Children of God
----------------------
[1] See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
A Child of God Does Not Sin
---------------------------
[3] And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. [4] Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. [5] You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. [6] No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
***********************************************************************
Commentary:
1-24. This entire chapter shows how moved the Apostle is when he contemplates the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all Sacred Scripture, has desired John to pass on to us this unique revelation: we are children of God (v. 1).
It is not easy to divide the chapter into sections, because the style is very cyclic and colloquial and includes many repetitions and further thoughts which make for great vividness and freshness. However, we can distinguish an opening proclamation of the central message (vv. 1-2) and emphasis on two requirements of divine filiation--rejection of sin in any shape or form (vv. 3-10), and brotherly love lived to the full (vv. 11-24).
1. "We should be called children of God": the original Hebrew expression, which reads "we are called...", is also used by our Lord in the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:9): "to be called" means the same as "to be called by God"; and in the language of the Bible, when God gives someone a name he is not simply conferring a title but is causing the thing that the name indicates (cf., e.g., Gen 17:5), for the word of God is efficacious, it does what it says it will do. Hence St John's adding: "and so we are".
Therefore, it is not just a matter of a metaphorical title, or a legal fiction, or adoption human-style: divine filiation is an essential feature of a Christian's life, a marvelous fact whereby God gratuitously gives men a strictly supernatural dignity, an intimacy with God whereby they are "domestici Dei", "members of the household of God" (Eph 219). This explains the tone of amazement and joy with which St John passes on this revelation.
This sense of divine filiation is one of the central points in the spirituality of Opus Dei. Its founder wrote: "We do not exist in order to pursue just any happiness. We have been called to penetrate the intimacy of God's own life, to know and love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also--in that same love of the one God in three divine Persons--the angels and all men.
"This is the great boldness of the Christian faith--to proclaim the value and dignity of human nature and to affirm that we have been created to obtain the dignity of children of God, through the grace that raises us up to a supernatural level. An incredible boldness it would be, were it not founded on the promise of salvation given us by God the Father, confirmed by the blood of Christ, and reaffirmed and made possible by the constant action of the Holy Spirit" ("Christ Is Passing By", 133).
"The world does not know us, (because) it did not know him": these words are reminiscent of our Lord's at the Last Supper: "the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me" (Jn 16:2-3). Divine filiation brings with it communion and a mysterious identification between Christ and the Christian.
2. The indescribable gift of divine filiation, which the world does not know (v. 1), is not fully experienced by Christians, because the seeds of divine life which it contains will only reach their full growth in eternal life, when we see him "as he is", "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12); "this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17:3). In that direct sight of God as he is, and of all things in God, the life of grace and divine filiation achieve their full growth. Man is not naturally able to see God face to face; he needs to be enlightened by a special light, which is given the technical theological name of "lumen gloriae", light of glory. This does not allow him to "take in" all God (no created thing could do that), but it does allow him to look at God directly.
Commenting on this verse, the "St Pius V Catechism" explains that "beatitude consists of two things--that we shall behold God such as he is in his own nature and substance; and that we ourselves shall become, as it were, gods. For those who enjoy God while they retain their own nature, assume a certain admirable and almost divine form, so as to seem gods rather than men" (I, 13, 7).
"When he appears": two interpretations are possible, given that in Greek the verb has no subject: "when (what we shall be) is revealed we shall be as he is"; or, as the New Vulgate translates it, "when he (Christ) is revealed we will be like him (Christ)". The second interpretation is the more likely.
3. "Purifies himself": Christian hope, which is grounded on Christ, is something active and it moves the Christian to "purify himself". This verb is evocative of the ritual purifications required of priests in the Old Testament prior to engaging in divine service (cf. Ex 19:10; Num 8:21; Acts 21:24); here and in other places in the New Testament, it means interior purification from sins, that is, righteousness, holiness (1 Pet 1:22; Jas 4:8). Our model is Jesus Christ, "as he is pure"; he is the One who has never had sin, the Righteous One (1 Jn 2:29; 3:7); a Christian has no other model of holiness, as Jesus himself said: "Learn from me" (Mt 11:29; cf. Jn 14:6). "We have to learn from him, from Jesus, who is our only model. If you want to go forward without stumbling or wandering off the path, then all you have to do is walk the road he walked placing your feet in his footprints and entering into his humble and patient Heart, there to drink from the wellsprings of his commandments and of his love. In a word, you must identify yourself with Jesus Christ and try to become really and truly another Christ among your fellow men" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 128).
4-5. "Sin is lawlessness": although this is not strictly speaking a definition, it does convey a basic idea: every sin is more than a transgression of a precept of the moral law; it is above all, an offense against God, the author of that law, a despising and a rejection of his will.
To understand the scope of this assertion, one needs to start from the fact that man has been created by God and is ever-dependent on him. So, every sin involves a pretentious desire to be like God (cf. Gen 3:5), to build one's life without reference to, or even in opposition to, God. Everyone who sins severs his allegiance to God and takes the devil's side. In this the mystery and "lawlessness" of sin consists. "This expression," Pope John Paul II explains, "which echoes what St Paul writes concerning the mystery of evil (cf. 2 Thess 2:7), helps us to grasp the obscure and intangible element hidden in sin. Clearly, sin is a product of man's freedom. But deep within its human reality there are factors at work which place it beyond the merely human, in the border-area where man's conscience, will and sensitivity are in contact with the dark forces which, according to St Paul, are active in the world almost to the point of ruling it (cf. Rom 7:7-24; Eph 2:2; 6:12)" ("Reconciliatio et Paenitentiae", 14).
Moreover, now that Christ has brought about our Redemption, every sin implies an offense to our Redeemer; it means crucifying again the Son of God (cf. Heb 6:6). So, St John reminds us about the main purpose of the Incarnation: "he appeared to take away sins" (v. 5). There is an echo here of the words the Apostle heard the Baptist say: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" (Jn 1:29).
Thus, as we profess in the Creed at Mass, "for us men and for our salvation he (the Word) came down from heaven". Being true God and therefore completely exempt from sin (v. 5), he took on our human nature, to burden himself with our sins and nail them to the Cross. Therefore, the Christian, ransomed from the power of the devil by the precious blood of Christ, and intimately united to him by the life of grace, has broken with sin once for all.