Since the time we were shamed into leaving Eden for taking from the tree of the knowledge to be “like” God, we have always wanted to reach for the tree of life.
Thankfully, Michael, the Prince of the heavenly hosts, in concert with Jesus, the Lord of hosts, has saved those of us who want to be “like” God or gods from reaching for the eternal tree in the garden.
Thankfully God became one with us so we could put on Christ, the new Adam, and live with Christ as God. Now we can reach for the cross of Christ, the tree of our eternal salvation.
To live in Him as He lives in us is eternal life. It is heaven!
Heaven is relational, communal, and familial. We belong to God’s royal family. To think otherwise is to deny our identity, our purpose, and our destiny.
True Christians long to be;
to be at the Father’s right hand;
to be One in the Spirit and One in the Lord;
to be Christ!
We should be grateful to God for Saint Michael who was sent not only to spare us from the evil one, but save us from our false selves. We are Christian and our heavenly home is living in God as God lives in us.
As we long for our heavenly home, we are not out of the woods. St. John Paul II, in an address to pilgrims at a shrine of St. Michael, stated frankly:
“This battle against the devil which characterizes the Archangel Michael is still going on, because the devil is still alive and at work in the world. In fact, the evil that is in it, the disorder we see in society, the infidelity of man, the interior fragmentation of which he is a victim, are not merely the consequences of original sin, but also the effect of the dark and infesting activity of Satan, of this saboteur of man’s moral equilibrium.” (May 24, 1987)
Satan is still at work, trying desperately to set us off course and so lose our identity, our equilibrium. Thankfully, Michael the Archangel is also at work, reminding us to stay on course as he whispers into our ears his very name ... “Who is like God?” The answer is, “no one.” But, then again, no one is like you.
God is God,
Michael is Michael, and
you are you!
Be yourself!
No comments:
Post a Comment