Children of God

Lucy Agnes, b. 1/21/12

My wife gave birth to our daughter, Lucy Agnes, exactly one week ago.  It's really wonderful being so close to new life!  Reflecting on her makes me think of what it means to be a child of God.  It means completely trusting in God, depending on him for everything, and recognizing that compared to God, we are like infants: small, helpless, weak, but full of potential.  We are to become children of God by believing in Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel of John relates, "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13, RSV).

I think that it is sometimes difficult for theologians to capture the essence of being a child of God in their lives.  Psalm 131 brings out the challenges involved in simultaneously striving to be a child of God while being a theologian:

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a child quieted at its mother's breast;

like a child that is quieted is my soul.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and for evermore.

                        - Psalm 131, RSV

The Psalmist emphasizes peace and calmness of soul as opposed to seeking "great" things.  It is never specified what type of things the Psalmist is referring to.  Are these things material possessions?  A kingdom and everything that comes with it?  Ideas that cannot be grasped by the intellect?

There are many things a theologian cannot grasp completely, things which are too high for the theologian since theology is the study of God and things related to God.  Theology deals with supra-rational realities. The mind is not able to grasp these realities except through a humble act of faith in what is passed on by tradition.  But the theologian is also called to press beyond the present theological understanding of a doctrine since this is the way theology works.  Truth itself, though passed on in its fullness to the Church, is still in the process of being fully understood.  Although the Church possesses the fullness of the truth, it does not yet know the fullness of the truth since it is continually being better understood.  According to Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, "as the centuries go by, the church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in it" (Dei Verbum, ¶8).

Theologians have a dual vocation of being theologians as well as being children of God.  They are stretched in two different but compatible directions.  While endeavoring to acquire a profounder understanding of mysteries too great for human beings, they are also to approach their work with a profound humility, recognizing that they are nothing whereas God is everything.  Looking at Lucy reminds me of my call to be a child of God even as I strive to comprehend the profound truths revealed in and through Jesus Christ.