WE ARE LIVING ICONS

Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As the only-begotten Son, "He is the image [eikon] of the invisible God." (Colossians 1:15). As man, He is "the first-born of all creation", that is, having "pre-eminence" over all creation (cf. Col. 1:15,18). Christ is one divine Person, the Son of God, truly God and truly man. Through His human nature Christ revealed to us the hidden and mysterious life of the invisible God. He is the visible "ikon of the invisible God." When the Apostle Philip asked to be able to see the Father, Christ replied: "Have I been so long a time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? he that has seen Me has seen the Father." John 14:9. The Father and the Son are distinct Divine Persons but, together with the Holy Spirit they are one God, the all-holy Trinity. The old saying goes: "Like father, like son." A son often resembles his father in his physical and personal qualities. In Baptism we become sons in the Son. As His children we are made in His image [eikon] and likeness (cf. Genesis 1:26). We humans have sinned and often do not resemble God in our lives. God restores that image in us by the the Holy Spirit, through whom we are "conformed to the image [eikonos] of his Son." (cf. Romans 8:29). We are called to be living ikons of God, made possible by the life-creating Spirit who lives within us. Partaking of the divine nature and life of God (cf. 2 Peter 1:4), the Holy Spirit bears "fruit" in us. (cf. Galatians 5:22,23) By this "fruit" we begin to exhibit in our lives the qualities of God: goodness, truth, beauty, love, wisdom, generosity, purity, mercy, patience, etc. In this way the qualities of the invisible God are shown visibly in our daily lives in Christ. Thus, in our own way, we become the "image (eikon) of the invisible God." What a blessing it would be if people could see in us God's qualities and say: This one is "like his/her Father" or "I can see the resemblance!"