Friday, June 26, 2009

1Jn 3, 1 We may be called the children of God, so we are

1John 3
(1Jn 3, 1) We may be called the children of God, so we are
[1] See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
(CCC 1692) The Symbol of the faith confesses the greatness of God's gifts to man in his work of creation, and even more in redemption and sanctification. What faith confesses, the sacraments communicate: by the sacraments of rebirth, Christians have become "children of God" (Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1). "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). Coming to see in the faith their new dignity, Christians are called to lead henceforth a life "worthy of the gospel of Christ" (Phil 1:27). They are made capable of doing so by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer. (CCC 1691) "Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God" (St. Leo the Great, Sermo 21 in nat. Dom., 3: PL 54, 192C).

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