We will become like what we see

"God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them." - 1 John 3:16

November starts off so solidly with the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls that it is difficult to avoid thinking seriously of the future. We have the promise of eternal life. But it is more that just a "pie in the sky" promise for the future. As John says in his first letter, those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them. Clearly, those who live lives based on love are already living in God, have already begun eternal life.

The beatitudes in Matthew 5:8 tell us "Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God." Paul reminds us that even though "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face." —I Corinthians 13:12

"... what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." —1 John 3:2

We will become like what we see. Over the past year I have been reading Dante's The Divine Comedy. At long last I have reached the third volume, Paradiso. Here the pilgrim finds a vast change. Beatrice, who has been leading him along the way, was no longer looking at him. Her gaze is directed entirely towards God. And the light he sees in her eyes does not have its source within her, but is the light that comes from God and is reflected back to him. Here are Dante's final lines:

"I felt my will and my desire impelled
by the love that moves the sun and other stars" — Dante, Paradiso XXXIII 144,145

And so, the more we live impelled by love, abiding in God, the more we have begun to live eternal life. We've only just begun, but we have indeed begun. Let's get on with it!

Written by Mary Buckley CSJ
Photo by Doreen Smith CSJ

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