There is a scene in Alice in Wonderland when Alice, who has been shrunk down to three inches tall, encounters a Caterpillar and has the following exchange. “Caterpillar: Who are you? Alice: Why, I-I-I hardly know, sir. I’ve changed so many times since this morning, you see and… Caterpillar: I do not see, explain yourself. Alice: I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know? Caterpillar: I do not know. Alice: Well, I can’t put it any more clearly, for it isn’t clear to me. Caterpillar: You? Who are you?” The absurdity of the conversation which is so typical of the book conveys an underlying truth. What makes us who we are when we keep changing all the time? To use an obvious example, those of us of a certain age will testify that our heads want to think that we’re one age but our bodies let us know we are definitely not. You know you’re not the same person you were back in the day when there is a long internal debate whether it is worth it to bend down and pick up that sock you dropped. Who are you?
St. John in the epistle wants to give us a base line definition of who we are that is constant no matter how circumstances change. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” Whether our hair is coming or going, whether our weight is up or down, whether our teeth are in or out, whether we’re in a stroller or using a walker we are the children of God. Going to Church doesn’t make us a child of God. Saying your prayers doesn’t make us a child of God. Keeping the commandments doesn’t make us a child of God. We are always a child of God in the very act of being human. We are made in God’s image and likeness and God has named us as part of the family. We are God’s children now, St. John says. Through all the changes, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health we are today, right now, the children of God.
It is certainly a good thing to be a child of God. However, there is a built-in hitch that comes with the territory. Since we are children of God we are made for God and can never be satisfied except with God. “You have made us for yourself, Oh Lord,” the great African bishop St. Augustine wrote, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” The problem comes, as the life of Augustine himself proves, in that it isn’t always clear what resting in God means. We know that God is love but what the love of God entails can be elusive, hard to get hold of. So we become restless, go looking for love in all the wrong places, as an old country song puts it. We know we don’t have it yet so we look for something else, something more. We can see that yearning for more playing out on the scale of history – why did Napoleon invade Russia? He wanted more conquests – and on the individual scale – why did the marriage fail? The couple wanted more than they were getting. The desire for more is a good thing since it keeps us on the journey to God but it can lead us to disaster when we seek the wrong things
Happily there is somewhere we can turn to find the proper object for our desire for more – or better not somewhere but someone. When we heed the voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, we are given “the more” that our restless hearts seek. For example, Jesus says in the gospel that since he is the Good Shepherd the divine plan is that “there will be one flock, one shepherd.” The children of God have the obligation, therefore, to reflect the togetherness, the unity, the oneness, that we possess as the one family of God. That means, primarily, that we must work to overcome any separations, any barriers, any divisions that have crept up over the years which prevent our living in unity. Exhibit A, there is a Christian obligation to heal the sin of racism which has infected our nation from its very beginning. We must forgive and be forgiven for the hurts and resentments that inhibit our living as one. And, as Catholic doctrine has always taught, we must make reparation for harms inflicted. We must reach out to those who feel estranged or alienated, who feel they don’t belong, and invite them into the family of God to which every single human being is called. We must do whatever is necessary to reflect that everyone is a child of God.
Also, seeking “the more” calls us to imitate Jesus, our Good shepherd, who “lays down his life for the sheep.” The willingness to lay down one’s life for others serves as the pattern we see in Jesus. If you saw a child who was hungry, you’d feed him. If you knew a child who was sick, you’d visit. If you found a child who was lost, you’d show her the way. The message Jesus lived and died for is that there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t a child of God! So we shall love as Jesus loved, laying down our individual lives, in the interest of the deeper and wider life we have in common. Jesus shows us that “the more” we yearn for is satisfied when we lay down our lives for others. We hear the voice of our Good Shepherd when we move from the love of power to the power of love. With the power of love, relationships are made whole. With the power of love our young people grow up to be the divine creations God intends them to be. With the power of love our church transfigures the neighborhood. With the power of love our hearts are filled with peace and joy. That’s when we truly become who we are, the children of God.