To become perfect

Greatness and suffering

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)
The tiny breath that God invested in man makes the soul (our real “I”) into an ideal vector for the manifestation of the divine perfection. The human tragedies show how much challenges require creativity and enthusiasm to be overcome. God answers this necessity of perfecting this world by means of the victories and failures of man in whom he invested his breath of life. That breath - this divine particle - is what makes the greatness and perfection of man, however small and imperfect he is. “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).
The apostle Paul makes this magnificent testimony about the churches of Macedonia: “In a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (II Corinthians 8:2). This testimony perfectly illustrates that nobody can really appreciate happiness and joy without having known poverty, afflictions, and sufferings. It is the tests, which forge the character. It often happens that those who became rich and prevail in world affairs proudly tell their success is the result of tireless efforts made to overcome poverty and contempt endured in their childhood. Other people, often of the most humble, tell with emotion how much the terrible cataclysms of which they were victims aroused from part and the others such treasures of generosity, compassion and kindness that they were able to rebuild their life. The stories of distresses, misfortunes, despairs, and tribulations endured are often epic dramas where the hearts and souls transcend their suffering by faith, hope and charity. Of course, the reactions in front of distresses are not always so noble, and sometimes go wrong. However, this is the price to pay for who tends to perfection.
Many do not understand that pleasure and happiness are the fruits of sufferings, neither that goodness is conditioned by evil, love by hate, and happiness by sadness, and victory by possible failures. “Although [Christ] was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:8). The tests allow us to learn to obey Christ’s command: “As I have loved you, you also love one another” (John 13:34). Learning to overcome suffering by goodness and love is what we can do best to serve God.
“Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” (II Corinthians 8:1-3). We all have knowledge, but what do we know? People imagine many things and have certainties; but God laughs at them: “The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed… He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.” (Psalm 2:2-4). How is it that the man saddens, rises up, rebels, and becomes stubborn? Because he only sees the incoherent, confused, and sad backside of the tapestry of life. But God sees with amusement how knots and threads that interlace seemingly at random at the back of the tapestry are transformed on the front side into a very beautiful picture which reveals little by little his divine design.
God is not only “outside” the world, but also “in” the world where he is intimately involved in the sufferings, afflictions, and joys of our lives. By sharing our tests, God makes our daily life more significant, difficulties more easily digestible and pleasures even greater. According to the saying, “A shared sadness is half sadness; a shared joy is doubled joy”. Then “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able” (I Corinthians 10:13). However, it is not for it that we have to sadden God for reasons so trivial as of loss of money or honor because we have not yet learned to digest them. Actually, the tests we go through, however difficult they may be, always give possibilities of growth and perfection.

About our errors

Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:14)

Participating in this spiritual race requires a conversion to God, which enables us to serve him. By creating the world with its chaos, God knows that human activity would contribute to perfecting his work. To take into account the inevitable errors of man, God created the power of conversion. To take into account the unavoidable errors of men, God created the power of conversion. Thus, errors cannot only be forgiven but act as stimulants to do better. “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16). God uses errors to allow us to grow spiritually. That is why the possibility of making errors, stumbling and falling is part of the greatness of man.
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win” (1 Corinthians 9:24). The world is like a stadium and life an obstacle race. God places the obstacles on the runway to learn us to cross them in beauty. Of course, he knows that the higher the obstacles are the greater is the risk of falling. The unavoidable falls are the price to be paid to reach the goal of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ. Falls should never discourage us; to moan is a loss of time. Indeed, we have to recognize our mistakes, regret them before rising to continue the race. What God allows in our life is merely an expression of his infinite goodness. Thus, realizing the generosity with which God forgives our errors, we even manage to forgive them ourselves.
We have numerous opportunities to practice goodness. However, if what we do does not result from a choice between good and evil it is not perfect goodness. Because good and evil are not always white and black, it is easy to make mistakes. Evil sometimes resemble goodness as a counterfeit to the original. Choices are then delicate. After having observed the scribes and the Pharisees, Jesus Christ exhorts his disciples: “Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them” (Matthew 23:3). In other words, the original recognizes itself in the subtle difference that separates “to do” and “to say” or “to be” and “to seem”.
Life is not a game. Every day brings new tests with their probability to make errors. To allow us to go out of it victorious, God created the repentance with its amazing effects. “But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4). We can turn to God and repent either by fear or by love. The one who repents by fear tries to protect himself from the bitter consequences of his iniquities. To put his life in order is a noble and sensible step. God takes pleasure in mercy: “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
However, he who converts by love does it because he has saddened God and for having failed in his mission to overcome evil with good. Such a conversion gets, beyond forgiveness, a spiritual profit: darkness gives way to light and the offenses are transformed into virtues. Among those who have spent their lives to choose evil many have seen their offenses changed into merits. Thus that criminal who, after spending his life doing evil, turns a few moments before dying towards Jesus and repents by love for God. Moreover, all his criminal offenses are transformed into virtuous merit: “Today you shall be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). That is possible because any conversion brings closer to God "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4).
To be able to choose ultimate goodness, we must be confronted with evil. If we understand that relation, we would better measure the role evil plays in this world intended to be the show place of God's goodness. Our mission is to reduce the perversity by choosing to always overcome evil with good, and to recycle waste and garbage “in us” and “around us” into useful products. As long as we choose good, evil can only regress… Moreover, if evil does not make more devastation today, it is only because the commandments of God produce slowly its effects.
God is never “elsewhere”! He is present and supports us in all our afflictions. He never leaves us! No matter what we have done: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). By opening our heart, we taste the joy of his presence that makes us say with the apostle Paul, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Christ is part of our lives and we are part of God's life as earthen vessels whose ultimate significance is holiness.

God's word, a treasure

Moses was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us. (Acts 7:38)
Why did the angel entrust the commandments of God to Moses? And why did Moses accept them? Because he understood, it is an honor to receive the word of God. What about us? Do we also understand that God honors us by entrusting us his word and the mission to teach it? Yes, if we can say,

I rejoice at thy word, as one who finds great spoil. (Psalm 119:162)

The commandments of God are, in fact, a statement of the mission for which man was created, to serve the Lord on earth as the angels serve him in heaven. The commandments have the particularity to incite us to believe in God and in ourselves. Because we have to believe that, we are able to receive them and to put them into practice. This requires humility and confidence in God. Indeed, what are we?

What is man, that thou remember him? Or the son of man, that thou art concerned about him? (Hebrews 2:6)? 

It is in the little things that God shows his greatness. For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15) God loves what is little and modest to the point he even cares about the sparrows and numbers our hair (Matthew 10:29-30). Our “nothingness” is so important and significant to God that he is ready to give us the Holy Spirit so we may attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, able to overcome evil and to perfect the world.
This first commandment, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, addresses clearly those who are dominated and enslaved by men and sin. The second commandment, Thou shall not have other gods, addresses those whose gods are immorality, sex, passion and love of money, but also the idolaters of nature who advocate that the humans should draw inspiration from the behavior of animals.
The other commandments show that God knows perfectly that anyone who works needs rest, that the one who dreams of happy days must first honor his parents, and that happiness is incompatible with negative, destructive, jealous and envious inclinations.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:5).

God entrusts us his word precisely because we are such imperfects who can fall, of course, but also can overcome by choosing to do what is good and perfect.

Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God... And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (Colossians 3:16-17)

That the angels and all his hosts praise the Lord in heaven (Psalm 148) is certainly beautiful. However, our songs can be more beautiful when we praise God in the middle of our sufferings and adversities, things that angels ignore in heavens. Singing becomes all the easier when we realize that it is God who orchestrates all our situations to lead us, even through failures, towards the perfection of love. (I John 4:18).

About our mission

No matter our task

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who built it. (Psalms 127)
The Lord will never build our house, if we do not labor at all. Moreover, if we do not invite him in our work, our efforts will be vain; the house will lack solidity and will collapse when the rain, the torrents and the winds of life burst against it. Our first concern must be to invite the Lord to join us and help us in whatever we do.
Those who fail to do so - and unfortunately, they are numerous - are also the first ones to wonder: “How it is that God does not intervene to prevent difficulties and the terrible disasters and catastrophes in this world?” The question, formulated in this way, has no meaning and will never find an answer, because God is never “elsewhere”! Since God invested in man a “breath of divinity” we are never separated from him, and he is not separated from us. It would be better to ask: “Why does God cause these things to a part of himself?” Although this question remains unanswered, it gives us at least the comfort of knowing that we are never alone in our afflictions and tribulations.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Corinthians 2:14)
Any divine mission has the same value.
Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his labor. (1 Corinthians 3:8)
As we work together to serve God, it would be ridiculous to envy our co-workers. We are not experts in what others are doing, and others are not more experts in what we do. Only important is the intention and quality of our deeds, and the faithfulness with which we are conducting it. God himself acts in us, to produce both to the will and to work for his good pleasure. No matter the task! Small or large, we just have to work it out with fear and trembling to complete our salvation and that of the world. (Philippians 2:13)
Certain men became famous in History by contributing, directly or indirectly, to make the world more human. However, their actions do not have more values, in the eyes of God, than those of these millions of simple and unknown people whose works have never drawn the attention of anybody, and which History ignores. God calls the one that suits him. And the tasks he entrusts to each other they also remain his. A particular mission is never less rewarding than another is. Only matters the purity of our intentions and the capacity received from God to fulfill the mission. He who understands this will heal quickly from jealousy and this stupid habit of comparing with others.
To open our eyes on this habit of confusing “to appear” with “to be” Jesus quotes an example of one of these rich men always dressed in expensive and refined clothes whose life was every day feasts and pleasures. Respected on earth as member of the high society, he finds himself in the afterlife in a place of torment where he represents nothing more. From there he perceives, among the most distinguished members of Paradise, Lazarus the poor wretch who lay on earth at his gate, and he simply ignored. What a shock! (cf. Luke 16:19-31)
What is the point to be known, famous and admired on earth just to be in the world to come an unknown useless? Many will see perhaps their parents they ignored and despised on earth because of their piety as celebrities surrounded by a crowd of angels. And why? Because on earth, they simply invited God to help them to fulfill their mission. They believed: These things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:12).

God's choice

God is the same yesterday, today and eternally. Without him, our existence would have no meaning. When God decided to manifest his perfection, he chose to create man in the shape of an earthen vessel to give the light of the knowledge of his glory (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6). God had no need to express his existence by creating an imperfect world and a man who languishes to be perfect. God acts by free choice, without particular reason. That is why the Scriptures never recall for what “reason” God created the world, but for what “purpose”. Because we could not have been born, we feel both necessary and useless, constantly questioning about the meaning of our existence where we believe: “Without me, nothing goes”.
However, we depend entirely upon God, and our existence is merely a possibility. Independence and self-conceit are illusions. We do not exist without God (even if it was only to cause the pulsations of the heart) but God also exists without us. No one else but God absolutely exists. Hence this dilemma: We doubt about the necessity of our existence; whereas deep in our heart we feel, because our soul is a “breath of God”, that we are disposable and necessary as a temporary manifestation of the Lord - the Eternal.
Any death recalls that life could go on without us, and that our existence is not necessary. Although it occurs only once for each of us and for many it will not even be painful, the fear it inspires underlines that we are a mere possibility. Death is a dramatic reminder that our life is not a necessity. We do not know what our life will be tomorrow, because we are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (cf. Jacques 4, 14). Even wealthy, important and indispensable people may die suddenly without warning... When we are no longer useful to God, we cease to exist.
The earthly life is transient and unreasonable. Things seem important, but they have no real substance, we can do without. “Futility of futilities, all is futility” underlines the Ecclesiastes. People try to overcome their existential insecurity by accumulating material wealth. However, “the more you have the more you worry.” Because wealth can disappear more easily as you won them. Getting worried to lose what you possess this is the insecurity.
As expression of God's free will, our essence is freedom. A freedom we have a “love-hate-relationship” with because it gives us both, pleasures and pains. We love liberty as long as we can do whatever we want but we hate liberty when it reminds us of our insecurity and, what is even more frightening, that we are not necessary. Because nothing makes us do something or not. However, a freedom that consists “to do what we want” clearly shows that our actions are arbitrary and not necessary. If they were necessary, we would no longer have the freedom not to do it. This is what reflects the common excuse: “I had no choice: it had to happen.”
To overcome the existential insecurity and sufferings arising out of free choice, some try to know the future in horoscopes and at the fortune-tellers. Others prefer using denial by disclaiming that God created the world and that man is pure possibility. For these revisionists nature expresses the absolute reality. This is a return to the past where the instinct guides the pagans just like animals that have no problem with choice. Moreover, because they considered that some animals were superior to them, they made them into idols.
Those who teach that man should follow his instincts are the idolaters of modern times who believe that nature has always been, and that it is a God. This idolatrous vision is at the root of many crimes for which criminals exonerate themselves: “I had no choice, it took me”. Idolatry is not only worship of natural objects or such made by man; it is much more the understanding than it is impudent to stifle the natural inclinations, because to despise natural laws causes the disappearing of man. To idolize the strongest is the logic of nature, which has no mercy for the weak creatures. Is it not natural that the lion eats the gazelle?
The Scriptures fiercely denounce idolatry and show how to overcome the natural inclinations rather than succumbing to it. Its moral laws outperform the animal and carnal instincts and desires. The circumcision in the old covenant is, among others, a statement that nature overcomes by spiritual aspirations that respect moral laws. The new covenant it provides the means to overcome existential insecurity by “the baptism of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5); the invitation to strive to become “nothings” (what we are essentially), and to give up everything (cf. Luc 14, 33). It is the narrow way of God’s commandments, which leads to life; it lies between the faith that we are absolute, and the faith that we are nothing.

Security and insecurity

Vanity of vanities! All is vanity! What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3)
Having described his life, his successes, his mistakes and his disappointments, King Solomon concludes the whole matter: “Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Who wants to express himself to be sovereign and necessary chooses freely to do what God recommends.
To do what God re-commends is not a problem but a solution. His commandments do not take away our freedom:
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants. (Deuteronomy 30:19) God's proposals allow overcoming feelings of worthlessness and finding the desired freedom by collaborating with God. Thus, we will experience that we are one of these “sparks of God” that never dies. Certainly, we shall leave our body and this world, but we will remain forever united with God.
Through the commandments, we do bond with God if we accept the mission to be his co-workers as was Jesus Christ who, by endorsing the will of God, has shown how to bridge the gap that separates man from God. We cannot overcome the anxiety that produces the feeling to be “mere nothing” and the desire of a sovereign existence otherwise then by making God's will ours. Because we are concerned, as long as we do not cooperate with God. The only way of finding real peace is to make God's will ours. The better we serve him the larger is our inner peace.
Today, people seek to approach God by practicing various types of meditation. Thus, they live in total subjectivity. Those who believe themselves to be closest to God are often the most remote. They may spend hours in meditation and claim to be close to God, but if they commit adultery, everyone realizes they are just a clanging cymbal. Theirs spiritual experiences are illusions. To differentiate true meditation from illusion it is enough to observe if the concerned persons love God's commandments.
The commands make us touch the divine, share the Absolute and make us feel that the soul is an expression of God. They provide us a profound sense of security and peace. On the way of the commandments, we can either work in union with God or do what we want, and feel useless and rejected. When God offers “life (eternal) or death”, are we going to answer: “In the name of freedom, I choose eternal death, suffering, insecurity and anxiety”? It would be a highly ridiculous choice.
Many attractive things end up being only a torture. For example, to wake up every morning by having nothing to do is rather paralyzing. Although free, the feeling to be useless will soon give place to anxiety. Inactivity and activities that are not made for God increase our suffering and existential insecurity. Making ours, God's will is, paradoxically, the only means to satisfy our desires. As freedom is the essence of our being, we need to feel sovereign and necessary. We will get it by following the way of the commandments of him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The Lord said to Abraham, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to a land which I will show you” (Genesis 12:1-4). The Lord gave Abraham an advice, not an order. Therefore, Abraham left his country as co-worker of God entrusted with a divine mission. God offers the same opportunity to everyone to perform a mission on his behalf. His commandments offer us this opportunity. What is our choice? Do we live without even knowing what we do? What must be, will be in any way! However, any real choice leads us to know and to celebrate what we do.
We love liberty when we are free to do what we want, but we hate liberty when it reminds us that our existence is mere possibility, and that we will never ennoble if we do only what pleases us. By loving as Christ loved us, we merge with the absolute reality. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17).

Time for everything

The commandments of God are not a diktat but great and precious promises, words of life which enable us to become partakers of the divine nature (cf. 2. Peter 1:4). If God had not wanted man to be free to choose, we would not be more responsible for our actions than animals. If all the events of our life were predetermined, we would only be puppets; joys and sufferings, which result from our actions, would be arbitrary, and life would be meaningless. Now we have the right to choose what we want to do, either just or evil. We can choose to imitate either Jeroboam, who sacrificed the calf of gold and divided Israel, or Jesus Christ who chose to do the will of his Father. We can choose to live like a mosquito driven by instinct, or do the will of God as “first fruits of his creatures” (cf. Jacques 1:18).
“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). There was a time for Adam to live in the Garden of Eden and a moment for him to leave it. Even if he had not eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, the Scriptures clearly show that the man had to leave it. (Genesis 1:28) Was his leaving predetermined?
It was the same for Noah. There was the time when he entered the ark with his family and the moment when he went out of it. Was this family saved for choosing to please God or was it their destiny to enter the Ark notwithstanding their actions? As the deluge: was it predetermined by God or caused by evil men who chose to kill one another instead of living in peace?
Many events of our life seem predetermined. Thus death. By announcing that death appears through the mission of the serpent, the Lord God shows that death had its reason to be, notwithstanding the choice of Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Indeed, the Lord God says to the man, “from any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). God does not say “If ever” you eat, but specifically: “the day” when you eat. This clearly means that God knew, despite his counsel not to do so, that man shall eat and die.
Although all the humanity is serving God, his divine presence can manifest itself only through people who live his commandments. Each human expresses through his character an aspect of what is good or bad. The good one serve the intentions of God directly as the light of the world , the wicked one contribute to it indirectly. Although God does not himself identify with the wicked, their role is essential. They provide for those who love God the opportunity to live by faith, hope and, if necessary, to resist “unto blood in the striving against sin” (Hebrew 12:4).
“The evil ones are like the driven sea that cannot rest, and its waters throw up mire and mud. There is no peace, says God to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20-21). Without realizing it, the evil are “leaven that makes the dough rise” which favors spiritual growth at the children of God. The successes the evil ones win over the saints and faithful are just lures announcing their disappearance. The wicked ones suffer from existential insecurity and their inner life is a hell.
To serve the Lord is the greatest honor and happiness that exists! In the service of God, his Spirit penetrates our being, and makes us understand that even though we are only a “spark of God”, we contribute to improving this world. Of course, defeats are possible, but life will always overcome so that we will be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2. Corinthians 3:18).
All men are interfaced with each other but each has his unique way to serve God. Our life is about choices, attitudes to be adopted and of sense to be given to the various situations. We can escape our mission or complete it by expressing fear of God in every moment of life, as well in sorrow and joy as in sadness and happiness.

About presence and future

Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man  boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declarses the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
It is intelligent and glorious to choose Jesus Christ “the Way, the Truth and the Life” that leads to God, the Eternal, and to follow the footsteps of the one whom in his humiliation and as our forerunner and model lived among humanity full of grace and truth, kindness and forgiveness, compassion and mercy, honesty and justice. We cannot boast in these virtues.
For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Who can boast of his successes, his wealth and his courage? Such is rich only because God gave him the capacity. His success is not the inevitable result of his efforts. Many things could have happened and ruin his business. The real capital that is given us is the capacity “to choose” the good that shapes our inner man. What matters is not what we possess but who we are; what is really ours; what we shall take in Eternity.
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:7-9)
We are only responsible for our choices. The result is in the hands of God. When we seek to do good and our efforts do not produce the desired result, we have not to feel guilty. It is God who writes the script of the scenes that take place in the theater of the outside world; our exclusive right is to write the script of our inner life by choosing to enrich it by kindness, patience, noble thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, interpretations, feelings, answers, etc. In choosing to do good we will become good, even if for reasons beyond our control we are not always able to accomplish the deeds. Only the efforts made to do the will of God are our responsibility, the success is in his hands.
The secrets things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us und to our ones forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Because we do not know the future, we must learn to live the daily life as best we can. It is up to us to make choices that honor God, and are able to transform our inner man into his image from glory to glory. Solomon who understood that his kingdom and the Temple would be destroyed wondered:
What advantage does man have in all his work, which he does under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3)
Today, we know that the real task of a life is not the building of temples and churches but building of the kingdom of heaven in the hearts. Now we can better understand better Solomon's disappointment and his ultimate exhortation:
Fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
Some do not want children because they fear that they may turn wrong. Nevertheless, the future of the children is not the parent’s business; their role is simply to educate them according to God's will. The future of the children is God's business. When the king Hezekiah fell seriously ill, the prophet Isaiah came and told him,
Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. (2 Kings 20:1).
Not being married, Hezekiah seems to conclude that his disease resulted from his carelessness toward the commandment
Be fruitful and multiply. (Genesis 1:27)
Hezekiah cried bitterly, and God added fifteen years to his life. Later, he married the daughter of the prophet Isaiah and she gave him a son: Manasseh. This one, despite his royal education, showed a twisted and evil character such as he eventually kills, his grandfather Isaiah; adored idols and caused the destruction of the people. No one would have wanted such a rogue for a son, least of all the good Hezekiah who throughout his life was fighting idol worship. However, Hezekiah had - as we all do - no other mission then to follow God's commandments, and entrust him the future. This is the mission of us all!
The earthly life gives us the opportunity to know God, and the earthly things the means to build the inner man so that he may reflect the image of God. Even when the world collapses around us, our mission is to grow inside through much suffering. In tests, there is always a winner and a loser. Nevertheless, often “who wins loses; who loses win”. Because if the one who surmounts a test does not become better he is actually the loser. Whereas the one who accepts his defeat humbly and with contentment transforms the defeat into a beautiful victory. Anyway, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, and always for the best. Even losing a job may be for the best because the next job (less paid indeed, and among people that are more difficult) will allow making new choices that will transform and enrich life. For God who is faithful will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, but with the temptation, he gives us the means to go out of it and forces to bear it. (cf. I Corinthians 10:3)

Created in the image of God

And God created man in His own image, in the image of Gpd He created Him; male and female He created Him. (Genesis 1:27)
The Scripture shows many male and female manifestations of God. Sometimes they describe God as father and king, sometimes as mother and queen. Those expressions must not been taken literally; it belongs to the holy poetry. From God's perspective, there is only oneness. This is the hidden message behind the story of creation.
God is not subject to any limitation of space nor time. He is at the same time beyond space and within space; beyond this world and inherent in every iota of the earth. He is eternal and not confined to limitations of time; he is beyond time and within every moment filling them with his presence. God is beyond us and yet also within us. Being beyond time, space and beings, God manifests himself to us as well from the outside and from the inside.
God’s manifestations outside of time, space, beings belong to his masculine aspect, the ability to observe events objectively from the outside. God’s manifestations within time, space, and beings are his feminine aspect: the ability to participate from the inside of events. As Creator God is not subject to the human species, he is beyond gender male and female while being in every individual. Therefore, by creating man in his image, God made him a bisexual being. He created him male and female. (Genesis 1:27).
Afterward, when he considered that this human creature could not develop harmoniously to fill the earth and subject it, the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. (Genesis 2:17)
However, the man did not find this suitable help among the animals that God formed and presented him. Therefore, the Lord God put him to sleep, and separated the male part from the female part, into two different persons, a man and a woman - Adam and Eve. Although man was originally one “male-female” being, he was not aware of the true meaning of this mysterious oneness. Once separated into two, both could choose to join together to merge into a true union and experience the ecstasy of love.
Such a figurative way to describe the spiritual life by comparing it with sexuality suggests that the history of the man is in fact an awareness of its reunification with God, and that his spiritual life finds its fulfillment only in the supreme experience of divine love.
For this cause, a man shall leave his father und mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians5:31-32).
Since God separated the man and the woman, nobody can reflect alone the image of God. Hence, this innate desire for unity that leads them to attach to one another. When sex is an expression of true love, its fulfillment connects to the ultimate realization of the endless love.
What applies to the natural union between “husband and wife” is a metaphor for the true spiritual union between Christ and the Church. This holy spiritual sexuality is the hidden message behind the story of creation. It suggests life as a gradual process culminating in eternal love.
In the world to come, there will not be any more marriages since, without the body, we will be like angels,
Ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. (e.g. Luke 20:34-35; Hebrews 1:14)
While waiting for the future world where love reigns endlessly, men and women have a mission to live by choosing to love others as they love God and realize that they are united with others and “one” with God. Experiencing this is the real, one and only, true divine love.
The Lord has made every thing for his own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4)
However, not to be mistaken about the role that plays the wicked in this world, the Psalmist specifies,
Loving-kindness will be built up forever; in the heavens Thou wilt establish Thy faithfulness. (Psalm 89:3).
By allowing the Holy Spirit to write God's Word in our heart and pour his love in it, we will discover that God's laws are really that grace our soul was waiting for in its weakness and needs.
The Spirit helps our weakness... and intercedes for us with groaning to deep for words. (Romans 8:26).
Amazing life energy fills then our being. And soon we will accomplish the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, naturally with eagerness and joy.
God communicates to us from the outside, by his word, what we “can do”, but what we are “going to do” depends only on our own internal choice. When we choose “to do what we have to” we unite what is “divine in us” with the “divine beyond us”; that union manifests itself as light in this world.
God is “one”, but people knew nothing about it because this truth, which exceeds human understanding, is hidden between the lines of the story of creation. Revealed partly with the coming of Christ, it will be entirely only on the day of redemption.
In that day the Lord will be the only 'one’ and his name the only ‘one’. (Zechariah 14:9).
For God, everything is “unicity” and the creation is nothing else than an expression of his love. Despite the illusion of our separateness from God, we are in reality within God's “unicity” and permeated by it.
When Jesus recommended his disciples to his Father, he specified,
And the glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that thou didst send me, and dist love them, even as thou dist love me. (John 17:22-23).

Life, a mirror

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. (I Corinthians 13:12)
The fact that God created man in his own image teaches us that our true mission is to reflect the image of God as a mirror. To be such a mirror of God is truly serving God. For this reason, a faithful servant of God walks in the ways (good works) which God prepared beforehand, and apply all of one's heart to add to his faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. (2 Peter 1:5-7) To enable us to reflect God's image, the word challenges us to become “partakers of the divine nature. This is possible with the support of the Spirit of truth to guide and lead us into all truth. (John 16:13)
Even the most exalted human wisdom is unable to reveal us the thoughts of God and his true love. Nobody knows what concerns God, but the Spirit of God who searches all things, even the depths of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) Thus, the urge within us not to be loosed does not come from us; it is a gift from God. Indeed, for by grace we are saved through faith.(Ephesians 2:8) When Philip asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father”, he received this answer,
"He who has seen me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘show us the Father?’ The words that I say to you I do not speak on my on initiatives, but the Father abiding in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves." (John 14:8-11)
By expressing these virtues of Christ in works and concrete actions in the everyday life, we become ambassadors, being such mirrors in which God can reflect his image.
In a certain way, we participate all in a process of divine love and self-knowledge.
"For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness’ is the one who has shone in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)
God expresses his being, as he did for Christ, by a direct light - his word; whereas the truth that the mirror of our lives sends back to him is a reflected light - the Word becoming flesh, that is God’s Word that has been practiced. To us, to do what it takes to return only the light of our true communion with God.
"If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another." (I John 1:7)
To reflect the light of God is what it really means to serve God. The significance of our choices is measured not by what we are doing around us, but what happens within us. Our choices should not be motivated by the desire how to change the outside world, but how to be transformed ourselves. To be transformed into the image of Christ is our true accomplishment in life.
"Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things." (Jeremiah 9:22-23)
"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:6)
The divine process of transformation and evolution does not start with humans and does not end with us. The world history is actually God’s story:
"I am the first one and I am the last, and beside me, there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)
God is and remains the Subject, and everything is only about Him.
We humans are only means that God uses in a process of self-expression and reflections he chooses. Our life has ultimately only meaning when this divine process of transformation can take place in us. This also becomes our greatest and the most magnificent of rewards.
This divine process of transformation is reflected in the magnificent Song of Songs of Solomon. This one shows that true love is a unity that contains several while remaining one. Never let us forget that true love always rewards itself by love.
"We love, because He first loved us." (John 4:19)
History does not start with us and it does not end with us. It is all about God.
"Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other." (Deuteronomy 4:39)
We all know intuitively that our life would be meaningless if it had not a means to a greater end beyond our poor egocentricity. Fortunately, the Scriptures lead us away from ourselves and head us towards the service for God.
"In that day the Lord will be the only one and His name the only one." (Zechariah 14:9)
Yes, on that day, we shall realize that life was not our story but the history written by God, about God, for the sake of God.

About human’s story

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nations. Neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
This verse, written on a wall of the United Nations’ headquarters in New York bears witness of the dream of humanity to make of the world a place of love and peace. What long a way humanity will then have gone through since Adam and Eve left their carefree life in the garden in Eden!
In Paradise Adam and Eve knew only one restriction: not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil... However, since the seductive serpent encouraged them to eat the forbidden, tasty fruit it was difficult for them not to give in to temptation. If the serpent had promised wealth, celebrity and a dreamy sex life, he would not have been able to seduce them, because people are not really motivated by these things. Money, celebrity and sex are only a counterfeit of man's desires: to be like God. Knowing this profoundly human desire the serpent incites Adam and Eve to make the wrong choice by saying:
God knows that in the day you eat from it ... you shall be like God. (Genesis 3:5)
Since, the serpent seduces people always by the same counterfeiting of reality: lying. Nevertheless, although money, celebrity and the sex never fill their deepest desires, the dream to be “like God” is at the origin of all human initiatives and ambitions.
The human story shows that the desire to manifest the divine immanence lies at the bottom of hearts. Humans claim the right, even for evil, to be their own master, to be gods. That is what is wrong about it. For though man is created in the image of God, he only is a “breath of God.” It is this divine immanence, which urges him to manifest the desire to be “himself”, to demonstrate his freedom. Facing this underlying dilemma Adam and Eve may have wondered: Is it necessary to give up ourselves and obey God or strengthen our freedom and do what we want? They did not realize that the good answer was “Yes and yes” and not “No and yes”.
Our mission is to unite the divine immanence in us with the divine transcendence beyond us: to unite soul and spirit bound to the word of God. In doing so we demonstrate not only the desire that the Spirit of God expresses in us, but we suddenly discover the fulfillment of these words:
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
God strengthens our “I” and reveals his divine aspect. Man wanted to assert himself his “I” by challenging God's word thereby Adam and Eve lost the enjoyment of God's presence. Brutally weakened and going frightened they thought only of hiding.
The separation between the soul and God's word (the divine immanence from the divine transcendence) is at the root of all wrongdoing. Trying to become stronger in defiance of God's will condemns our ego to mediocrity and discredits our personality. Self-esteem lowers and withers like an uprooted plant. When the mind is disconnected from the word of God, we can no longer reflect the image of God nor face Him any more.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon. (I Corinthians 15:41)
The light of the sun symbolizes the divine transcendence - God's love, and the light that reflects the moon symbolizes the divine immanence in man. Every time the moon is in front of the sun, the moon reflects its light bright and full; otherwise, it only gives a pale reflection or even becomes invisible... This is what happened to Adam and Eve. By eating, the forbidden fruit to be “like God”; they separated the divine immanence of the soul with the divine transcendence, and actually achieved the opposite: being no longer able to stand in front of God's “oneness”, their light reduced to such a pale reflection of the Lord Eternal they went into hiding. Their disconnection with the “oneness” of God had as another tragic consequence, the degradation of women status and the curse of the male domination:
He shall rule over you. (Genesis 3:16).
Because of this male dominance (which was highly appreciated through centuries), God took a male aspect in the eyes of the world. God was no longer “all in all” - oneness - but preferably a male god. This contempt makes that the evolution of the humanity consists, paradoxically, in the struggle to reconnect with the one who is the only true God. Precisely this God of love that Christ has shown saying:
He who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)
Our soul’s desire is toward its ultimate face-to-face with God. This redemption of the soul and spirit will put an end to this unfortunate male dominance, which remains nowadays. Then humanity will understand that God is “beyond” transcendence and immanence, that He is “unicity”, and that the miracle of true love is its union with God without being itself a god.
By receiving the word of God, Abraham and Sarah put in movement the process of Redemption, which develops, thanks the receptivity of Isaac, Rebecca and twelve son of Jacob. At first individual, the Redemption becomes tribal through the liberation of their descendants from slavery in Egypt then it extends to the whole people with the collective revelation of the Law on Mount Sinai, when in the midst of a fire, God spoke to them face to face. (Deuteronomy 5:4) The culmination of the Redemption turns national with the return of the Jewish people from exile to the Promised Land and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. However, the ultimate Redemption will be universal. The whole world gets ready with the aim of the fulfillment of the prediction of Esaïe (proclaimed by the United Nations), and that of the celestial army:
Glory to God in heaven and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:1)
Initiated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ - the Messiah - the Redemption will extend to the whole world by invading it with the love and knowledge of God's mysterious oneness.
Then the knowledge of God will fill the earth as the waters fill the seas. (Isaiah 11:9).
The end of wars, the reign of the love and peace are however not the ultimate end. Peace, faith, hope and love are not a destiny but a journey without end...

Concerning miracles

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a miracle; and a miracle will not be given it, except the miracle of Jonah. (Mathew 16:4)
Miracles and signs impress people but generate little or no changes. Of course, at first people are strongly moved, but the emotions miracles cause dissipates so quickly that the witnesses return to their old ways without changing. Miracles incite men to comply with the supernatural and to imagine how God acts instead to be transformed through his word and to participate in the development of the world through their own choices and efforts.
To avoid terrible tragedies that would destroy humanity and darken his plans (but also to show his control of the laws of nature) the Eternal God sometimes manifests himself by miracles. However, such types of interventions have only a limited influence on man and hardly encourage him to change his life. God uses miracles merely when other means turn out inappropriate to man’s salvation.
God knows that miracles do not change people, only people can change themselves; but to do that, they have to make choices and get proactive. Miracles can often prevent the heart of man to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. 
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;[…] always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6-10)
The behavior of the Israelites clearly shows that witnessing a miracle did not really transfigure them. They witnessed the miraculous splitting of the red sea that saved them from annihilation by the Egyptian armies. However, the survivors immediately began complaining about life's conditions as soon as they found refuge in the desert. During forty years, the people of Israel sojourned and thrived in a wilderness where the laws of nature were miraculously upside down. Indeed, it was not the earth, which provided the bread, but the sky that lavished a daily portion of Manna. It was not the sky that brought water, but the earth from which water miraculously and abundantly flowed from a rock.
The people lived in the desert like a fetus within his mother’s womb providing all the necessities for life. Despite this protection, Israel was complaining and rebelling again and again. But why? The miracles made them take for granted their daily provisions and protection. The miraculous desert was not the destination but a part of their journey, a passage to the “Promised Land”, their original destination. However, when they were about to get there the people were unwilling to enter and sent in twelve spies to check it out. When the spies returned and told the people the “Promised Land” devours its inhabitants, they had even less desire to leave the miraculous wilderness that allowed them to enjoy life without getting tired. They must have wondered, “What can the Promised Land bring?” Why should we leave this wonderful desert were God encompasses us with daily miracles? Why should we enter a land where hard work, sweat and tears are necessary to get daily food?
Only Joshua and Caleb were in a hurry to leave that life of assistance in the desert in order to go to work. Contrary to the multitude, another spirit worked in them: cease living on miracles and assistance, and conquer the “Promised Land” to cultivate it until there flows “milk and honey”. The Holy Spirit was encouraging them in the same way as the New Testament is encouraging us today through the mouth of the apostle Paul:
My beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)
The behavior of the Israelites perfectly illustrates the real identity crisis of all of humanity, which also constantly asks: “Where can we find God?” “Is he in us or is he beyond us?” “Are we on earth to talk about the miracles of God or are we on earth to participate in our choices and our efforts in the transformations of our being and that of the world?”
During the forty years in the wilderness the Israelites he learned that God’s power is beyond the laws of nature, and that miracles do in no way transform beings and that they never will be gods. Since then believers know implicitly that there is only one God - the Lord God, who is Spirit. In the desert, God manifested the divine transcendence to the people by miracles, but these miracles had a tendency to overshadow in their hearts the divine immanence. In the “Promised Land”, the opposite was true: there the divine immanence overshadowed in the hearts the divine transcendence and this to the point that the people no longer recognized the everlasting power of God. However:
That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romains 1:19-20)
Divine transcendence and immanence are two demonstrations where the LORD God shows that our successes and our efforts always depend on Him. “The divine spark” within us - the original breath of God - restlessly demands to evolve and emerge to manifest itself outside. Today science and technology are making amazing progress. Creatures become creators who are ready to ascend to the stature of gods who do what they please. Will this power to be “like God” destroy humanity or serve to transform it so that the divine light in us shines out from the heart into this world?
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrew 4:2)
Let us humbly choose what we have to do by obeying the commandments of God by bringing together the Holy Spirit working within us with the Spirit of God that is beyond us. Our life is our business. Our history is a part of the history of humanity, and the history of humanity is ultimately the history of this “One God” we have the privilege to serve. We are all, consciously or not, a part of this divine adventure, the History of God. That is why there is no greater joy or bigger happiness than to serve the LORD God consciously by humbly obeying His Word.
This miracle occurs when the Holy Spirit can spread the love of God in our heart. Our spirit can then confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh - our flesh - because the divine spirit in us (the divine immanence) is in communion with the divine transcendence (the divine spirit beyond us) to think, say and do everything with love. We experience the mystery of the oneness of God. In addition, our reward is to let God's love shine around us through our choices and work that participate thus in development of the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:2-3).

Seek and you shall find!

Forgiveness is divin