As a seminarian, I sometimes take days off to enter the silence and try to use the time to ‘recharge my spiritual battery’, so to speak. Last weekend, I went to a retreat with the brothers of St. John where Fr. Johan spoke about what it means to be a child of God. I can’t, of course, give a rundown of everything he told us, but I thought it would be nice to share at least some of it, using a small passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans (8:12-17).

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Making a distinction
Being a child of God means that we can live in and through the spirit. This, then, is the first distinction we should make. Do we live through the flesh (which makes us a slave to the world?) or do we live through the power of the Spirit (which makes us children of God)? The flesh is on the outside and enables us to be in touch with the world. The spirit is on the inside and enables us to be in touch with God. Thus, our spirit has been created not for ourselves, but for another.

Presence of God
A source is located in the earth. It is always there. Rain, however, is not always there. We wait for rain to come, or, if it comes, notice that it is raining. Too often we treat God like He is rain, and not a source. In God there only the present. When we bear witness, we bear witness of an experience, not an opinion. And precisely this experience is in a here and now, like God. We bear witness of a conversion of the world within us, where God, like the source, is always present. Sometimes we pray to ‘get in touch with God’. Cool… but remember that prayer is not a goal. The goal is the presence of God. The prayer is a means to reach this goal. In many churches here there has been an overwhelming emphasize on prayer, but less on the presence of God. How do we know we are in God’s presence? Well, whenever God gets in our way!!! He doesn’t think like we do.

The spirit of God’s children
When Jesus talks to God, He becomes like a small child. As many of you will probably know, the word Abbathat is used here, was once used by Jesus in the ‘Our Father’. It kinda means something like, ‘our lil daddy’. Did you ever try to start the ‘Our Father’ with ‘Our lil daddy’? Betcha you will have to think a few moments to remember the prayer! But anyways, the point is that Jesus becomes like a child when He prays. And this is how God is looking at you and me. He never looks at us like we are adults, but always as children. And like prayer, being a child of God is not the goal. It’s not where we end, but it is where we depart. Our goal is the inheritence, which is the intimacy with God, his Love, his Spirit…

Our calling in life
What isn’t said explicitly in the passage, but is certainly intended, is a clearer focus on our calling in life. I already mentioned ‘living in God’s presence’ and ‘bearing witness’.  This is exactly what we should do: reveal God tot he world. But, as long as we do not live this calling, we become an obstacle for God, like the Pharisees. The biggest lie is that we have to work to become children of God, or to get into heaven because of our good deeds. No! We have to live now today with the gift that God has already given us. He has saved us 2,000 years ago! Stop waiting for it to happen, but make the choice today to BE the child of God that you are! When we look at the parable of the prodigal son, remember how the older son gets jealous. He rejects his own brother — he goes outside (and sadly, we never learn whether he got back inside later on to make up…). When he talks to his father, he says: ‘I have always been faithful and you have never even given me a young goat to go out and celebrate with my friends!’ And you know what the father says? ‘Everything I have is yours’. Everything. And not ‘will be yours’, but ‘is yours’. Now. Everything is ours, and we should not become like the older son, hoping one day that our father gives us a mere young goat. Anyway, to come to the point about our calling in life: it is bearing witness of our intimacy with God. And we do this by knowing everything is already ours and being happyabout it. Joy is contagious. Whoever looks at God will radiate, but whoever looks at themselves or the world will get depressed!

Love and suffering
Paul ends this passage by ‘if we are to share in his glory, we must also share in his suffering’. Alright. But what is this suffering of Christ? The suffering of Christ is that he cannot force the Father’s love on another human being. Love is incomplete when it remains unanswered, and unanswered love is suffering. Only if we love, can we suffer. And in love, there is no neutral ground. Love does not suffer an audience… only participants! And we can grow in participating in Christ’s love forever. Sadly, however, think about how much time we spend during our day in participating in this love. While, you know what? The only item in God’s ‘to-do list’ is sharing his Love with us!

Anyway, with that note I’d like to end my, rather long, post. Maybe you have some questions, thoughts or insights to share with the (fortunately inreasing number of) visitors to this website. If you do, post some comments!