The Office of Readings today includes a writing of St. Gregory. He has wonderful thoughts for us and our meditation.
My translation from the Italian text:
“It is necessary that I be buried with Christ, that I rise with Christ, that I be a co-heir with Christ, that I become a son of God, yes even that I become as God himself…. [God] has communicated himself completely to us. All that he is, all that he has become has become ours. In every way we are his. Through him we bear in ourselves the image of God from which and for which we were created…. God wishes that in the future we will be able to become that which we hope to be and for which the love of God has prepared us!” — St. Gregory Nazareneus, “Discourses” (Disc. 7 for the brother Cesare, 23-24; PG 35, 786-787
St. Gregory gets at what has been the core of my spiritual focus in the past couple of years, i.e., how incredibly blessed we are in being called sons and daughters of God; in our adopted sonship we become as God himself.
God’s love and grace are incalculable, infinite. Our original dignity included being friends with God, in unity with the presence and love of God. We were God’s intimate friends. Our lives now are awash in the love of God for us in Christ Jesus and the power of the Spirit who leads us in becoming once again who we are created to be: sons and daughters of God himself, sharing in his own dignity.
