“Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” – 1 John 3:1
Happy Easter! Yes, it’s still Easter and will be until Pentecost, totaling 50 days! On the fourth weekend of this joyous season we are reminded that, through Christ, we have become children of God – an incredible thing to be sure.
From the very beginning, God made us in His image, imbued us with His divine life, and destined us to be His children. Unfortunately, sin wounded this filial relationship. As a result of pride, our first parents revoked their divine inheritance and sold themselves into the slavery of sin. We have been burdened by this bondage ever since.
But, God did not want us to be slaves; He wanted us to be His sons and daughters. He wanted to set us free and make us His own, just as He once did for the Israelite people. So, He chose to redeem us. It’s important to note that “redeem” comes from the Latin redimere, literally meaning “to buy back or ransom.”
Exactly how much was God willing to pay so that we could be His children once again? We find the answer in the Exsultet, the ancient song of praise sung by the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass: “O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!”
The price of our freedom was the life of God’s own Son. Indeed, you are worth so much to our Heavenly Father that He willingly traded in His Son for you. But, who is the Son of God? As the Nicene Creed (325A.D.) declares, Jesus Christ is “the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages… begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father….”
Basically, there is one God who expresses Himself in three distinct ways as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Like the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son has no beginning or end. He was not created, but instead is eternally begotten or brought forth from the very same divine substance of God the Father. When the time came, the Son assumed the human nature of the Blessed Virgin Mary and “became flesh.” She named Him Jesus.
Through this mystery known as the Incarnation, the Son “took on the form of a slave… becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7). He then broke the bondage of sin by rising from the dead. Thus, in a great paradox, the Son had become a slave to make it possible for slaves to become sons.
We receive this divine inheritance through the sacrament of baptism. For, as Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “We were indeed buried with [Jesus] through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (6:4).
Having been given such a marvelous gift, what else can we do but love others in return?
Thank you Lord for allowing us to partake in your heavenly inheritance. Teach us to share the riches of your love with those most in need. Amen. Alleluia!
