Catholic & Single In Heaven, WHO are you? Part 3: Influence of God

Apr 7, 2010

Last time, we talked about how other people influence who we become as a person. And because we have an influence on who other people become, we need to be a positive influence by being a good person. This kind of person (the good person) is what God calls us to be, and it is a call to love. We then touched on how God influences who comes into our lives. In this final part, I want to talk more about God influencing persons coming together, and the relationship with God Himself affecting who we are in Heaven.

God is love. We have all heard that. But we need to keep meditating on this. God IS love. There is no authentic love in this world that does not have God as the initiator and the recipient. We persons are privileged to participate in love, which is God. When we cooperate, powerful and beautiful things happen. The greatest human experience is sharing love. Each person is unique when they are conceived. No one is like them, nor has ever been, nor ever will be. So each person has value because they are the only person like them. Therefore, we can benefit from every person in some way. Our actions with others not only affect who we are, they affect our relationship with God, who created us for the purpose of love. We are to love Him, and love others for His sake.

It is God who brings people into our lives. It is no random thing or coincidence who comes along. So we had best pay attention to the people who come along in our lives. They are meant to enhance us as a person. How that is to happen is unique to each person and based on their circumstances and situations. But every person we come into contact with daily was planned by God for us. So we have to realize that God is involved with our process of becoming the person He calls us to be. Because no two people have the exact same life experiences, just one person we interact with can make a difference in the person we become. That’s how subtle our path to personhood is. The one thing we know for sure is that no matter who it is, we are called to love that person.

Remember this: We are ever expanding as a person, because love grows immeasurably. There is nothing finite about love, and nothing finite about our hearts. The heart expands as love is allowed to permeate and act.

So the greater we love, the more fully we live as a person. The less we love, the less of a person we are. This might seem a bit depressing because we all assume our attempts to show this kind of love fail more often than they succeed, which means we are not as good as we either think we are, or could be. I would hope that none of us would “settle” on who we are right now, but always strive to become better. We should be choosing friends and activities with others wisely, and not allowing our social lives to be incidental things. Make the connection between interacting with people and your development as a person.

Above all, realize there is one person in this life that you will have the most important relationship with, and who will influence you the most to be the person you are called to be: the person of Jesus Christ. Becoming like Him will make the impossible possible. And our friendship with Jesus is the only reason we can successfully love everyone, and have intimate friendship that lasts. Very few people can find a friendship that is deep, mutual, and lasts a lifetime. Even sacred Scripture advises that it is a very rare thing indeed. But one friendship accessible to everyone of us that will certainly last, and can be as deep as we are willing, is with the person of Jesus. And it is His personhood that is always available to us to share and become like. This is the path to holiness, and ultimately how we become the best person possible to affect the people God brings into our lives. We can fail Him, but He never fails us. Our life with Him is always enhancing and perfecting us because He is always giving us more and more of Himself, and changing and transforming us into the person we are called to be, which is primarily another Jesus. We learn how to be everything that is good, because only God is good, and anything we do that is good is because of God.

It is something to notice that when two people are very close, they are very similar in their ways. Two people who get close to each other tend to become like each other. They start to talk the same, express themselves in the same ways, and even think alike. They “know” each other so well, they can predict what the other will do, and know what they are thinking. Their love goes deep, and it has an inseparable quality to it. They have truly made each other who they are because of their relationship. The person we are should reflect Jesus in our life to others, and we should never compromise that relationship for any other person. We are to bring the person of Christ to others through our personhood.

So who are you in Heaven? Well, you are YOU. And you are like Jesus. You are NOT Jesus, but you resemble Him because you lived as a person who loved as He loves. The decision to live His life was an act of your will, and your decision to make. And the expression of Jesus’ life through you is unique to you alone. In Heaven, you will be uniquely you, recognizable as you. We will also resemble the people whom we shared mutual love with. And the greatest resemblance we will have is to Jesus Christ, whom we loved the most and could not help but become like. It stands to reason that we will walk in Heaven with the people who enhanced our lives for the better. And those we were closest to in mutual love and affection will be our close friends in Heaven. It really is a beautiful thing and something we should think about often. I, for one, look forward to walking through Heaven with those who have made me a better person. But above all, I look forward to walking through Heaven with Jesus, whom, God willing, I have lived my life in this world striving to be like through His grace and love for me.

Some persons are, sadly, not very good persons due to life experiences beyond their control. Those of us given the opportunities by God to be better people through our life experiences, and certainly by grace, have a responsibility to reach out to those who are less of a person, and have a positive influence on them. It takes only one good person to change the course of another person’s life. And one day, in Heaven, the two of you will interact as persons, and as children of God.

May all the relationships we have lead us to a closer friendship with Jesus, the most important Person who should influence who we are in this life and in Heaven. May we all become a person who reflects the Divine love that is the person of Jesus Christ, and lead others to Him through our interactions with them.