Beings alive in the Spirit – Who are we really?
Christa Murphy SSpS explores the mystery of the human person as beloved by God.
This paper presupposes the reader is either a ‘believer’ in some kind of supreme higher being as the origin of creation as we know it or has an inner thirst or quest for the deeper answers to existence. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
Who are we really? What is the origin and the purpose of our existence? After lots of sharing, study and prayerful reflection on the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions in particular, I offer the following considerations.
Everyone of us comes into existence because our loving Creator Spirit God breathes the breath of life into us. That ‘breath of life’ is God’s own creative energy, who is the Spirit. The Hebrew word ruah translates as spirit, breath or wind, words used interchangeably in different biblical interpretations.
Made in God’s image
Genesis 1:26-27, God says: Let us make humankind in our image and likeness… God (the Great pre-existent Spirit), created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. And Genesis 2:7 tells us: Yahweh formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.
Each of us is born with our own unique share in God’s Spirit / breath. Each of us is a beloved son or daughter from the very first moment of our existence in our mother’s womb. We are not just body and soul, but are body (soma), soul (psyche) and spirit (pneuma), with the Spirit of our loving Father/Mother God pulsating through us with every breath (1Thessalonians 5:23).
For you love everything that exists… You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. For your immortal spirit is in all things. (Wisdom 11:24-12:1).
The only true ground of our being is our basic human dignity, equality and destiny
I sense in this truth the deepest reason for God becoming one of us in Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary. Our God longs for us to know who we really are, in the deepest level of our being, recognising and claiming the Divine Spirit within us. Even Jesus himself, as truly man, had to come to full consciousness of this. A devout worshiper in the synagogue at Nazareth, there was nothing too remarkable about him before he ‘went public’ at 30. Jesus grew both in body and wisdom, gaining favour with God and people (Luke 2:52/GNB).
At age 30, Jesus has his great awakening. He realises that his God is calling him. But for what, where, and how? He follows his inner prompts and comes to see John, the accepted prophet of the time, who is preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus listens. He touches his own vulnerable humanity and desires for forgiveness, affirmation, guidance and strength. He surrenders himself and his future to Yahweh, the God of his life and of his people.
Jesus steps into the Jordan and is baptised by John
Coming up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven ‘You are my beloved Son. I am pleased with you’. (Mark 1:10-12).
In these moments, the Spirit within Jesus, there from the very beginning of his life, takes total possession of him. He hears the voice of a loving Abba (Daddy) God claiming him as Beloved Son. He is overwhelmed by this loving power and discovers his life’s mission…to set people free of all the wrong, binding images of God in the Old Testament, so they could discover and claim the Inner Freedom of knowing I am a beloved child of Abba.
He is to be, in his humanity, the embodiment of Abba God’s boundless love and respect for every person and their uniqueness; to reveal in his every action and utterance the overflowing compassion, mercy, forgiveness, patience, generosity of this awesome, tender God of Life and Destiny. Jesus’ Abba God wanted mercy, not sacrifice, and showed it ceaselessly. (Matt.12:7; Hosea 6:6)
Impelled by the Spirit, Jesus goes about doing good. Even more than preaching the Good News of love and kin-ship, Jesus lived it. This so-called prophet from Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, went around totally up-ending the official image of the Lord God, and who and what is holy.
He challenged the religious leaders every time they criticised him, and usually won. And he didn’t have to be God to know what kind of death he would face if he kept shaming them. A nobody from Nazareth could expect a cross.
Yes, Jesus did die because he loved us. As our brother and our Lord, he longed for us all to know, claim, and live out of who we really are – beloved sons and daughters – beings alive in the Spirit from the very beginning of our existence. This was his life’s mission, and he died on a cross because he accepted it.
And then, the seemingly impossible happens! Jesus is experienced as alive again / truly risen / no longer bound by earthly barriers. And his resurrection sheds new and deeper light on the human story, and God’s dealings with us. Discipleship of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, begins historically attested to in the pages of the Christian New Testament.
Our story and Jesus’ story
It is in coming to know Jesus’ story that we come to know our own in all its rich possibilities.
Grace and truth have come to us through Jesus, our brother and Lord. He reveals to us the Truth about ourselves, breathed into existence as a beloved son or daughter by the Spirit of our loving Creator. Carried through life by that God, who has given us free will, respects our choices, but never disowns us, no matter what. We are not born under the curse of original sin, doomed to struggle ceaselessly. We are originally blessed. Our DNA is divine! (Richard Rohr).
His Good News tells us that we are all grace-filled persons. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). Sanctifying grace is the abiding presence of the Spirit within us. Actual grace is the workings of the Spirit within us day by day. The Spirit is with you. The Spirit is in you (John 14:17). And in the Spirit (as Jesus himself discovered), we can be amazed at what can happen. We are not created to face life’s challenges alone. Someone greater is within us.
Many of us may never become conscious of this – but our God doesn’t hold that against us. And there will be times when we will sin (fall short of the mark – or worse). But God never cancels our deepest identity. Jesus’ life assures that his Abba God judges us on the fruits of our lives. Anyone who keeps trying to lead a life of goodness is moved by the Spirit, and God’s arms are open to all people of good will. (The Church in the Modern World, par. 22 / Vatican II Documents).
Thank you, God, for becoming one of us in Jesus, our brother and Lord. Thank you for revealing our amazing dignity, equality, destiny as your beloved daughters, sons, brothers and sisters in the human family and the kinship of all creation. Thank you for Your Spirit, breath of life and love, source of all good within us. [/s2If]
