1 November 2016 - children of God

[ Today's Readings ]

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.

The people who truly understand this and live it are the saints we celebrate today. They show us what it truly means to be children of God. They show us how to live in a way appropriate to his children. They reveal the ultimate destiny that we can't yet comprehend, the destiny that no eye has seen and no ear has heard (see First Corinthians 2:9).

what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

We are meant to become more and more like the family of which we are a part. We're going to be more and more like God our Father and Jesus our brother. This is what it means to be a part of this family. We express the unique heredity that is given us as a gift.

Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.

We want to be pure so that we can see God clearly. This is crucial. When we let impurity crowd our heart we aren't just focusing at other lesser things. We are looking away from God. This means that we are not seeing him like he is nor becoming like him. We must keep God first in our heart just as the saints do. Purity means that there is nothing more important to us than him.

We can allow ourselves to be poor, to mourn, to be meek, to be thirsty for righteousness. We can be merciful peacemakers for the kingdom. We can do these things if we place God before their opposites. He must come before riches for us to truly be poor in spirit. Just being poor is insufficient.

When we are striving like the saints to see God with pure hearts we can even bear insults and persecution for the sake of the beloved. How many of the saints prove this to be so!

Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.

We even get a glimpse of what this reward means from the saints in heaven now. We see the reward of the pure of heart, the reward that only those who desire God above all else find rewarding, but for whom there could be nothing greater.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”