WORD OF LIFE
December ’98
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
(John 1:12)
This is the great new fact, which Jesus both announced and gave to humanity: to be
children of God, to become God's children through grace.
But how does this happen and to whom is this grace given? It is given 'to those who did
accept him' and to those who would accept him in the centuries that followed. We must
accept Jesus in faith and in love, believing in him as our Saviour.
But let's try to understand better what it means to be children of God.
It is enough to look at Jesus, the Son of God, and at his relationship with the Father.
Jesus prayed to his father as he did in the ‘Our Father’. For him the Father was
'Abba', which means Dad, Daddy, to whom he spoke with words of infinite trust and
boundless love.
However, since he had come on earth for us, he was not content to be the only one in this
privileged position. By dying for us, and redeeming us, he made us all children of God,
his own brothers and sisters. And through the Holy Spirit he also made it possible for us
to enter into the bosom of the Trinity. This means that we too can use his divine words:
'Abba, Father' (Mark 14: 36; Rom. 8: 15): 'Dad, my Daddy,' our Dad, with all this implies:
the certainty of his protection, security, surrender of ourselves to his love, divine
consolation, strength and ardour - the kind of ardour that burns in the hearts of those
who are certain they are loved.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
Baptism and the life of grace that comes from it are what make us one with Christ and to
share, as God's children, in his relationship with his Father.
In these words from the Gospel there is, moreover, a word that reveals the profound
dynamic within this 'being children' and which must be realised day by day. It is
necessary, in fact, 'to become children of God'.
We become, we grow as children of God, by co-operating with the gift he has given us, by
living his will which is wholly concentrated in the commandment of love: love for God and
love for our neighbours.
To accept Jesus therefore means to recognise him in all our neighbours. And they too will
be helped to recognise Jesus and believe in him if they can discern, in the love we have
for them, a spark of the boundless love of the Father.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
This month, in which we remember in particular Jesus' birth in our world, let’s try
to accept one another, to welcome one another, seeing and serving Christ himself in each
other.
The result will be that a mutual flow of love, of knowledge and life, like that which
links the Father and the Son in the Spirit, is established between the Father and us, and
we will notice, constantly returning to our lips, Jesus' own words: "Abba,
Father."
Chiara Lubich
The commentary to the Word of Life is translated in 90 different languages and dialects, and reaches more than 14 million people worldwide, through the press, and radio and TV programs
© 1996 - Living City of Focolare Movement - P.O. Box 837, Bronx, New York 10465
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