Recognizing the Presence, Awakening the Human
By Michiel Peeters - Discovering Our Divine Identity: How Genuine Encounters with Christ Transform Us into Conscious Children of God
Habitually, Jesus uses images from everyday existence, especially rural life, to explain the newness he has come to bring and to be. Sheep need a shepherd, just as people need a teacher, a father, an encounter, not to overrule their reason and freedom, not to think and decide for them, but to awaken and encourage their humanity, to ignite their humanity with his own ignited humanity.
How can we recognize and distinguish a “good teacher,” a “father,” a “good shepherd” from a mercenary, someone who “works for pay,” for some interest, for the crumbles of power, “and has no concern for the sheep”? Simple. “I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” Jesus knows man, knows better than anyone else what man is. But man also knows Jesus! Our humanity is perfectly able to recognize a real “author” and guide of life (dux vitae) when we meet him. To the extent that we are human, in the measure that we feel our profound questions and needs, we can recognize what responds to them, what is at their level, when it emerges in our experience. As Theophilus of Antioch (2nd century) said: “If you say, ‘Show me your God,’ I would reply, ‘Show me the human being that is in you, and I will show you my God.’” Man is made, is apt to recognize an encounter at the level of his humanity. “I know mine and mine know me.” You don’t need a Ph.D. from Harvard: your humanity is sufficient. Among all self-proclaimed shepherds, we can recognize easily those that give their lives for us, without interest, that speak to our hearts— because they know their own hearts—that ground everything on our deepest desires. Therefore, let’s encourage each other to use this capacity, this humanity of ours. When we do not use it, we will not distinguish a good shepherd—a real teacher, a dux vitae, a father—from a hired man.
What is it that the good shepherd conveys to us, when we recognize him and decide to follow him, leaving the mercenaries? “That we should call ourselves children of God, for we truly are.” Following Christ—whose humanity at every moment expresses the consciousness of coming forth from the father—we may obtain, as if by osmosis, an analogous consciousness: I am, therefore I am made, therefore I am wanted, loved, and by the One who makes the stars. We are children of God, and following Christ allows this awareness, in time, to prevail: I am you who make me, O Mystery. I am you who make me, O God who in Christ wanted to come to make me realize this...! Staying with Christ, following Him— letting what He says, does, is, proposes, enter into each aspect of our lives—we may become “sons and daughters in the Son.” Ever more certain that the best is yet to come: “We are God’s children now; [and] what we shall be has not yet been revealed.”
Someone who has this consciousness, of being “child of God,” “son in the Son,” acts differently; his presence in the world changes, becomes more attentive, more loving, more inclusive, more fruitful. This new way of being may arouse a question in those around us. When this happens, we can answer like Peter: “If we are being examined today about a good deed done…, then all of you … should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean.”
This then is our mission: becoming so conscious, in each moment, that we are “children of God”—an awareness that is educated by running into, recognizing, and following a truly good shepherd—so conscious that we are children of God, that this awareness changes us. Then, when someone asks how this change was brought about, we may tell our experience, including the names that go with it.
Unrevised translation by the author - 04.21.2024 The Netherlands
