My words are not my own; they belong to the One Who sent Me...and I do always the things that please Him.
The Father and I are one...
Amen, Amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.
When we read the Gospel of John, especially, because it is so mystical, we are invited not to analyze or argue, but simply to enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ. It is clear that He is here to invite us into relationship with Himself, to become friends with us -- in the same way that He is one with the Father, and seeks always to please the Father. We use masculine terms for God because He is the Source and Ground of our being, the Originator of Life, the Bestower of the Seed, so to speak. But of course that does not mean that God is male. We must use human language, inadequate as it is. If we want to call God "Mother," it makes no difference -- all of our descriptions and terms are metaphors for spiritual realities. In our natural experience, the woman is the one who receives and protects and nurtures the seed, bringing it to birth and nourishing it. So the image of woman is better for us, in my opinion, but some may differ. The point is that to be in the image and likeness of God is to be in relationship both with God Himself, the Source of Life, and with one another.
The reality is relationship -- a dynamic, flowing stream of living water that gives life and being to all that is. To the extent that we cannot, for whatever reason, enter into relationship with God, we fail to find ZOE-- eternal life. The door to that life and loving relationship is Jesus Christ, whose mission was to unite God and man as One, just as He and the Father are One. In His own body, He united both humanity and divinity---which is our destiny and mission also. If we fail in that primary relationship, there can be no hope for the outflowing of that life to others around us, either.
I look with so much sadness on places where there is no chance of such relationship -- places like the prison camps in North Korea, for example. I can hardly stand to hear about the brutality and cruelty that inhabits such places. A grandfather who tries to escape from the country condemns the next three generations of his family to unspeakable horror in "re-education" camps. Those born into these camps have almost no chance to hear about or to experience relationship of any kind; all they know is that "some people carry guns, and some don't." That is reality for them.
It is hard for me to believe those who preach the inherent goodness of human nature. From the beginning, there have always been 'two races:' the race of Cain and the race of Abel/Seth -- the 'sons of God,' and the 'sons of Adam.' And Cain is still trying to eliminate Abel from the face of the earth, by any means he can.
To enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ simply means to allow God to enter one's soul, to transform human nature (Adam) into the image and likeness of God Himself. It is not so much a question of morality, because it does not matter where we start; in God's eyes, there is "not even one" who is without sin. God even spoke to Cain before and after he murdered his brother. It just matters that we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to God and to others. He will do everything that is needed to transform our mortal bodies into His resurrected Body. He is the Alpha and the Omega who begins the process and who brings it to completion, which is oneness with God and with one another.
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