Imago Dei: Creation Receiving and Sharing God’s Love

 

            “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.  Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.  God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

 

            Among the first words in the Holy Bible, we find the story of creation in the book of Genesis.  We learn that human beings are made imago Dei, in the image and likeness of God.  The concept is a fundamental belief of Catholicism, and one that should help us to reflect on the inherent beauty and dignity of every human being.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the differences between man and God’s other creations, most importantly that “the human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual, it contains a soul, and it shares in the dignity of  'the image of God' … it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit." (CCC 362-364)  In this essay, I will explore God’s love for his creation, our response of faith in God, and the call that each of us has to reflect God’s image by virtuously loving God and all of his creation, as he has loved us.  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “God’s very being is love.  By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” (CCC, 221)  This revelation shows us a perfect communion of love, and provides us with the example of how we are to exist with “other human beings in love and in relationship of shared truth and responsibility.” (White, 86)  We are reminded that God’s love is both the source of, and the perfect model for, our love; not only our love for God but also our love for others.  1 John 4:7 instructs us “let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.”

While many Christians often quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life,” our human intellect can fail to fully grasp the reality of that perfect love. The Father’s gift of love is so profound that it encompasses both the incarnation of his son, and the giving of his son to death in the crucifixion out of love for his creation. Our journey toward understanding is ongoing.  Although we reflect on the Father’s love for his creation, since we cannot fully comprehend that depth of love, we require the gift of faith.  

            Most human beings spend their lives in search of God. “The desire to know God truly, that is, to see God’s face, is innate in every human being, even in atheists. And perhaps we unconsciously have this wish simply to see who he is, what he is, who he is for us.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience 01/16/13) According to Pope Benedict, “faith is not tranquil ownership of the Truth­.  It is a journey and an ongoing search.  God loves us.  He comes to meet the unrest of our hearts, the unrest of our questioning and seeking, with the unrest of his own heart, which leads him to accomplish the ultimate for us.  That restlessness for God, that journeying towards him, so as to know and love him better, must not be extinguished in us.”  (Ryłko, 3) 

While most human beings journey in search of love, not all people will journey in the direction of the one who loved them first.  Speaking of faith alone will not always work in our ministries to move the hearts of those we are walking the journey with, particularly with those who profess to have no faith.  Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in presenting the love of God to others who may not believe, has nothing to do with the words we use, but rather the lives we live.  The current field in which we sow the seeds of faith requires that we demonstrate the love of God with the lives that we are living, and in the example of how we love others. All too often, those who do not believe are looking for examples of hypocrisy in the lives of those who profess faith.  In words often attributed to Saint Francis, it has never been more important than in this current environment to “preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” 

Perhaps the greatest way to preach the Gospel is through the love that we share with others.  Pope Benedict, acknowledged that sometimes those who profess to love God may actually negatively impact those who do not believe through the contradiction between their spoken message of God and the lives that they live.  “The negative witness of Christians who spoke of God but lived in opposition to God, have darkened the image of God and have opened the way to unbelief.” (Ryłko, 6). Our love of neighbor is a concrete expression of our love for God.  Both are dependent on an encounter with God, through which our desire to seek him, know him, and love him grows. 

Pope Francis credits the birth of faith in having “an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives.”  (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, 4) Faith alone is not transformative. “Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love … Faith’s understanding is born when we receive the immense love of God which transforms us inwardly and enables us to see reality with new eyes.” (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, 26) Perhaps the way to transform the hearts of others is through love.  God provides us with the perfect model of love through the incarnation of his Son.  “The Word became flesh for us to be our model of holiness … ‘Love one another as I have loved you’” …and “to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature.’” (CCC, 459 & 460)

White affirms, that “the acts that make us resemble God most, acts of knowledge and love, are perfected in this life in particular through the infused graces of faith, hope, and charity.” (White, 107)  “The human person is made first and foremost to be in relational communion with God, and to be in relational communion with other persons and with nonrational creatures in light of his relationship with God. (White, 108) 

As we embrace the love of God because we are his creation, so too are we called to love others because they too are made imago Dei.  "Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that ‘everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity.’” (CCC, 1931). Using the intellect that is part of our spiritual soul helps us to live the words, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:14) However, to speak those words of praise, we must understand that the psalmist speaks of all of God’s human creation.  Every person that God has created is a unique and precious creation of God, bearing His image and possessing intrinsic dignity and worth.  

            Pope Benedict challenges us that Jesus has made us aware that “in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend… Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 18)

            Focusing on the dignity and worth of every human person helps us to understand that all individuals are equal in the eyes of the Creator.  Pope John Paul II framed this teaching by calling for a culture of life that protects every human being, from conception to natural death.  We are all called to care for one another.  The teaching helps us to see the person of God in the poor, the needy, the sick, the elderly, the suffering, the disabled, and the most vulnerable.  Seeing others as imago Dei should challenge us to love God’s creation as he loves his creation.  Loving and serving others fulfils our purpose, to love our God, and to love all of his human creation, made toward the image and likeness of him.  

 

“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22:34-40)