Some texts from the Bible give us messages that are truly surprising.
The words we read, or hear during a celebration, can be really astonishing.
But it seems that somehow… we get use to the messages they give us.
Yet, it sometimes happens that we are jolted out of our routine.
We may be suddenly shaken, and deeply touched, by something that we thought we knew!
This could be the case with one verse of today’s first reading in the book of Wisdom (Wisdom 1:15-16; 2:23-24).
The text says:
“God made man (human beings) in the image of his own nature” (Wisdom 2:23).
The same thought appears in the very first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which tells us:
“God created man (human beings) in the image of himself,
in the image of God he created him (human beings),
male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
The text is well known to us but… do we realize what it truly means?
Each one of us, man and woman, is a reflection of God himself.
Something of God’s nature is part of our own human make-up.
Our humanity has been mysteriously fashioned by him to resemble who he is.
Perhaps, at this point, we need to accept this tremendous reality and to say: “I believe!”
“I believe!”
I believe that God has molded me into something similar to his own being.
I believe that God wanted to find something of himself in me,
I believe that he wanted me to resemble him –
resemble him in my being like him, inspired by his Spirit,
resemble him in being like his first Son, Christ –
the one who is the perfect image of himself (Colossians 1:15).
I believe that he knows I cannot be so on my own,
I believe he, himself, will enable me to become so… from day to day
until the day when seeing him face to face I realize… who I am… and who he is!
“I do believe!”
Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/13e-dimanche-de-lannee-b-2024/
Today’s celebration is familiar to us, Christians.
Perhaps, one definition that could be acceptable to all is this one: