The Deacon is “Speakin” – By Deacon Tom Leonard
We are all familiar with the phrase “We are created in the image of God.” But what does it mean? Here is my two cents worth:
Before God created the earth, nothing existed except God, i.e., His own knowledge of Himself. Thus, God’s idea for how to create man and woman came from His own knowledge of Himself.
Thus, we were created with an intellect, which knows, understands, analyzes, remembers & reflects, while God knows everything through and through, holding everything in existence by a sheer act of his loving will.
We were created with a free will (we can choose to love God and others, or not). Knowing from the very beginning how we would abuse our free will, He willed to re-create us at the cost of the Cross.
We were created with the ability to love, i.e., to consciously lay down our life for one another with God’s help. “God is love and apart from God there is no love” (see 1 Jn 4:16). When we truly love — doing what is in the best interest of another, without demanding or expecting anything in return — it must be God loving in and through us.
Lastly, our soul (intellect, free-will, ability to love) was created to live eternally. —When we die, our soul continues to live in Christ until it is reunited with our resurrected, glorified bodies at the end of time.
Thus, the Psalmist will cry out: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor” (see Psm. 8).
Herein lies our dignity, (our rank above every other animal) and our sanctity, (our being set apart for God). I hope you see yourself as God does.
We continue to pray for Fr. Terry’s recovery.
