Born of God

 I can think of nothing more beautiful and more powerful to read than the Prologue to the Gospel of John:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....

It seems to me that anyone who takes the time to read these words slowly and reflectively would have to be moved by them. And those who are moved by them, again it seems to me, must respond to them:  

his own people did not accept him, but to those who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.

....born of God,
born of truth, born of goodness, born of light, rejecting the darkness,
born of justice, of loving-kindness, born of mercy and gentleness to all......

I have a remarkable book on my shelf called Why Can't We Be Good? by Jacob Needleman, a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University.  Needleman explores the question of why mankind (we) repeatedly violate our most cherished values and beliefs.  According to him, we know what is good, but we mysteriously fail to live by the ethical, moral,  and religious ideas that will guide us to authentic life. According to him, we are unable to be good!

Two thousand years after giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, God sent His Son into the world for that very reason ---- we were (and are) unable to live by the Law!  The Son pitched His tent among us -- the literal meaning of the phrase He dwelt among us --- in order to give us the "power," the ability, to enter into divine life -- to be born of God and no longer of men.

ANd how will we know that we have been born of God?  St. John tells us in his first letter:  If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.....Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

In The City of God, St. Augustine writes about the universal sin -- the lust to dominate.  This scourge seems to lie at the very heart of all mankind.  We can see it in two-year olds in nursery school and in every year thereafter:  I must have the toy you are playing with; I must be better than, smarter than, prettier than, funnier than..... I must be right; you must be wrong.  We never outgrow the lust to dominate.  

But when we are born of God, the Spirit of God in us begins to gently but surely move in us to change the lust to dominate into a passion to serve:  I am among you as one who serves.  I have said before that when we open the door to Jesus (Rev. 3:10) , He comes in and begins to re-arrange the furniture in our house.  He gives us the power to become like God!  Yes, it takes a lifetime, but He continues until the end to overcome in us the lust to dominate others.  He has pitched his tent among us! The question is whether we will allow Him to contine dwelling in us and among us.