God, our father

We are in him and he is in us

May 21st 2024

When Jesus came, he taught humans that God was their father, no longer putting the emphasis exclusively on the notion of justice and severity, as Moses had done, but on that of love, kindness and forgiveness. God was no longer portrayed as the unyielding master before whom human beings had to prostrate themselves like slaves. He was a father, and human beings were his children.
This new view of the relationship between human beings and the Lord gave rise to another, even deeper change, which was also mentioned in the Gospels, but which is still not properly understood. This new perspective throws light on the nature of human beings themselves. If God is our father, it means that we are of the same nature as He* – for father and child must necessarily be of the same nature. And if we are of the same nature as God, we can identify with Him; we are in Him and He is in us.
* Related reading:

Two thousand years ago, Jesus affirmed that, whatever their race, their culture, their social affiliation, all human beings are essentially equal before God because in them flows divine life which also makes them brothers and sisters of all creation. He set an example, among other things, by...