Discovering yourself in God through Christ

Our origin is in Christ, since as persons we are created in the image of God, through Christ and in Christ.

The International theological commission explains, “While it is true that man is created ex nihilo, it can also be said that he is created from the fullness (ex plenitudine) of Christ himself who is at once the creator, the mediator and the end of man […]. What it means to be created in the imago Dei is only fully revealed to us in the imago Christi” (Communion and stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, n. 53).

Consequently, the Christian life is an opportunity to express the image of God already impressed within by creation, by following and imitating Christ: the fully revealed image of God in human history.

Just as man’s beginnings are to be found in Christ, so is his finality. Human beings are oriented to the kingdom of Christ as to an absolute future, the consummation of human existence” (Communion and stewardship, n. 54). Thus as well as finding our origin in God through Christ, we also have Christ as our direction and final destination. Now, since until the eschaton the Christian lives in the tension that exists between the future promised in the new man and the sin inherited from the first (Romans 8:18–30; 2 Corinthians 12:5–10).  While moving toward the future (Philippians 3:12–14), the believer is always drawn backwards by the past. 

Consequently, even though the eternal union with God in Christ being the outcomes orientation of one’s life is an obvious and fundamental data,  since reaching this aim is not automatic, we have to strive consciously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to reach this revealed aim. Here it is important to note that this union with God in Christ is not only limited to the future, but it is something that could be lived now.

Finally, as persons created by God in Christ, and who are destined for the union with this same God in Christ, we can find the meaning of our earthly life only in Christ.

“Between the origins of man and his absolute future lies the present existential situation of the human race whose full meaning is likewise to be found only in Christ. We have seen that it is Christ – in his incarnation, death and resurrection – who restores the image of God in man to its proper form. ‘Through him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross’ (Colossians 1:20). At the core of his sinful existence, man is pardoned and, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, he knows that he is saved and justified through Christ. Human beings grow in their resemblance to Christ and collaborate with the Holy Spirit who, especially through the sacraments, fashions them in the image of Christ. In this way, man’s everyday existence is defined as an endeavour to be conformed ever more fully to the image of Christ and to dedicate his life to the struggle to bring about the final victory of Christ in the world.”

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION, Communion and stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, n. 55.

Even though the life of the Christian is already inserted in Christ, one needs to make an effort, so that the Christ impressed (ontological holiness), will be expressed by one’s behaviour (moral holiness). 

The need for this ‘turning back’ (‘conversion’) to God in Christ, comes from the ‘sin’ of the first parents and its effect on us. This sin does not separate us from God since in Him we live and move (cf. Acts 17:28); however, it lessens the perfect intimacy.

In this context, God chooses to repair this damage caused by sin through the intervention of a mediator:  the incarnation of his only-begotten Son and declares him to be the only perfect Mediator of the new covenant. 

This implies that, through one’s effort , one will be expressing (bringing out) the image of Christ already impressed within by creation and baptism.

This is well explained by Joseph Ratzinger (then Pope Benedict XVI), where he states,

“Allow me to explain to you with an image what I intend, an image that I found in Michelangelo, which resumes ancient concepts of Christian philosophy and mysticism. With an artist’s gaze, Michelangelo already saw in the stone in front of him a guiding image—a hidden image which was waiting to be freed and brought to light.  The artist’s task—according to him—was only to remove the stone that covered the image.  Michelangelo conceived the genuine artistic action as an act of bringing to light, a freeing procedure, and not as something to do. 

This same idea, applied to human anthropology, is already found in Saint Bonaventure.  He explains the journey through which a human person authentically becomes oneself, taking his key from the comparison with the image cutter, that is, the sculptor.  The sculptor does not do something, says the great Franciscan theologian. 

His work is instead an ablatio: it consists of eliminating, removing what is inauthentic.  In this way, through the ablatio, the nobilis form comes out, that is, the precious figure. The same with the human person, in as much as to shine forth in him or her the image of God, one must first and foremost, welcome that purification, by means of which the sculptor, namely God, frees him or her from all these cinders that darken the authenticity of the human being, rendering one to appear only as a massive block of stone, while instead, in him or her abides the divine form.”

Joseph Ratzinger, “Una compagnia sempre riformanda.” Conferenza a conclusione dell’XI edizione del Meeting per l’amiciza fra i popoli 25 agosto – 1 settembre 1990, in La bellezza la Chiesa, ITACA, Forli 2006, pp. 39-40 (translated by the author).

“What joy for the soul to learn that God never abandons it, even in mortal sin”

John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1, n. 8