Homily from 10/1/23
Some years ago, I decided to watch drawing lessons to get better at drawing. I had always wanted to be able to draw people. What i found as I went is that there are basically two stages of the drawing process when you draw a person.
The first stage you are really trying to make sure you get the eyes in the right place, with just the right distance from the nose. The nose with the exact distance from the eyes and mouth. You draw and erase as you go trying to get everything in its place. When you finish the first stage, my drawing looked like a person, but not the specific person. It looked like a girl, but not my daughter.
Well that comes in the second stage. Once everything is in the right place, once you have the image, you begin to try to find the likeness. Through shading and small adjustments the human being I drew is slowly transformed into a portrait of my daughter.
In theology we have a similar concept. We are all made in the image of God. We are born with certain capabilities: free choice, our reason and thinking powers, we are creative, and we are instinctively gifted in being able to transform things in our lives. In this way, we are like the first stage of a drawing. We look like a person. But, we may not look like Christ.
We have free choice, but will we use it to help our neighbor, or destroy our neighbor. Will we use our freedom to build up those around us, or will we tear people down? Will we be forgiving, or vengeful. Will we bear a spiritual family resemblance to Jesus, or will we bear the spiritual family resemblance to the Devil?
Today’s Gospel tells us that since all humans are made in the image of God, we all know what good we ought to do. We are made by God, so it is natural that we would bear a family resemblance to Him. For instance, we know we don’t want people to steal our stuff, so the Gospel says, therefore you know not to steal other people’s stuff. Simple right!
Born in the image of God we have a start down the road of having a family resemblance to our heavenly Father. St. Gregory Palamas says, that our life is “God re-making us [since we sinned]. He’s making us suitable for the purpose he originally made us for.”
That’s what St. Paul tells us in today’s Gospel. He says we were made to be a temple for God to live in.He will dwell in us and live with us. As we live the Christian life, God is remodeling His home, our heart. But, as CS Lewis once said, many of us imagine that God sees us liek a little cottage, and comes into our lives to make us a nice cozy country home. But, actually he’s transforming us into a palace fit for a King. He’s not repainting a flaking wall, He’s tearing out old walls, repouring a larger foundation, and expanding and adorning us as a palace fit for a king.
This is that process of image moving to likeness. We are in His image, but we have to be remolded into His likeness. We have to look like Him, we have to have the family resemblance.
Combining the epistle and the Gospel today we understand that as we live the christian life we have to work to erase everything in us that doesn’t have the family resemblance. St. Paul says cleanse yourself of defilement of body and soul and perfect holiness. We erase the things in our lives that hurt us, that chain us, that sadden us, those things that keep us from looking like our Father in Heaven.
So we have to erase things in our lives, but we also have to add things, we have to add things that make us look like His family. Specifically, the Gospel tells us we have to be merciful as our HEavenly Father is merciful. We have to love people who mistreat us. Why? Because Jesus does, our Heavenly Father does. Do we bear the family resemblance? If we lend money, do we give like our Father does, like Jesus does? Do they bless only people who give them stuff? We are supposed to love our enemies, do good, and lend without seeking repayment. But why? Because that is the family resemblance. That’s how our Father acts, that’s how His Son Jesus acts.
The command to be merciful as our Father is merciful is a command to take on the family resemblance. Since our Father is invisible, the things that make us like him are invisible: love, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, mercy.
So the Lord is telling us all today, he has made us His sons and daughters through baptism, now we must grow into it. He feeds us here in the Eucharist, and with that energy we go through our lives growing to look more and more like our Father in heaven. So be Merciful, children of God, that we all may hear on that day, “You know, you are just like your Father!”