The representative of the God of heaven and earth
“The glory of God is man fully alive,” wrote St. Irenaeus. In the book of Genesis, man is described as being made in God’s image. What is this image?
One scripture study program suggests that the “why” of an image is more important than the “what.” And why are we made in the image of God? In order to relate with God and represent him, it said.
As we strive to live this two-fold “why”, whatever messed-up image we have of ourselves begins to be healed, and we gradually come to see more clearly the image of God that, in actual fact, we are.
I remember one glorious fall day full of radiant sunshine, a golden landscape, and the joys of companionship. But not for me. I was blind to it all, my attention riveted by the litter of broken glass scattered here and there on the ground and haunting images of self-slashed wrists.
What to do with such thoughts that tear us down and strive to convince us we’re worthless, no good? We need to fight that self-destructive pull within us, whatever form it takes.
The Church offers us many prayers of protection as an aid. For me, the simplest and most effective was the discovery of Jesus’s own prayer for us, asking the Father to protect us from evil. What can be more effective than letting the power of Jesus’s own prayer protect us and envelop us and heal us?
I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will believe in me. Father, protect them from the evil one (Jn 17). And St. Paul writes of Jesus standing at the right hand of God, pleading for us.
Soul Food
We can also feed on the many word sin Scripture telling us who we are and of God’s love for us, and let their truth gradually light our beings. As Paul says to the Philippians, we should endeavor to fill our minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything we love and honor, everything that can be thought virtuous and worthy of praise.
When negative thoughts do come, we can counter them with positive ones. Listen to God speaking to us in Scripture: I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3).You are precious in my eyes (Is 43.4). Strong is his love for us, he is faithful forever (Ps 136). God loved us so much that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ (Eph 2:4-5).
Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children, and that is what we are (1 Jn 3:1). Nothing can come between us and the love of God (Rm 8:38). In Christ there is no condemnation (Rm 8:1). We are God’s work of art (Eph 2:10). If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).
These are just a few of the many magnificent verses from Scripture that we need to chew on, digest, and make part of ourselves in order to overcome the deceit of the evil one.
Another thing we can do is to take the parts of ourselves that we hate to Jesus and discover how he sees them. At one point, I personified quite a few aspects of myself and would bring them to Jesus in a prayer of active imagination, remembering that he came for sinners, ate with them, and enjoyed their company.
So there we all gathered with Jesus: Fearful Flora, Angry Annie, Killer Ken, Witchy Wilma, Selfish Sam, Irritable Irma, and so on. And seeing how Jesus related to each of these characters was a revelation. There was none of the harshness I had toward them but, instead, a loving attention, a healing gentleness, and humor.
Discovery
Through time spent in relating with God, speaking to him, listening to him, simply being with him, however we may go about it individually, we gradually discover his image in ourselves. And in answering the call to be his representatives, we uncover still more of that image.
If we go somewhere as a representative of a group, we act somewhat differently than if we were simply representing ourselves. As spokesman for a club, company, or organization, were present them and all they stand for.
If I am God’s representative, I have to bear myself in a way that is more than I think I am, and as I do so, I discover I am much more than I thought I was! Imagine, me, the representative of the God of heaven and earth, of the loving Father, wow!
Realizing the tremendous dignity and responsibility of this call and striving to live it, we reveal more and more of God’s image —to ourselves first of all — and we wonder that we could have been so blind for so long.
In the book of Daniel we see the image of man as the symbol chosen to represent the kingdom of God. Wild and fearful beasts represent the corrupt, ambitious, arrogant, subhuman kingdoms of man, but a simple human form symbolizes the kingdom of God.
We sometimes say “I’m only human” to excuse our weaknesses and failings, but in reality, it’s the other way around. When man is most fully human, the kingdom of God is present. The more we reflect the glory of God, the new self reborn in Christ, the more truly human we are.
Fully Human
In the New Testament amazingly, incredibly, God takes on our humanity, appearing in the image of man, and becomes for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life, showing us what it is to be fully human. So let us draw near to him and fix our eyes on Jesus, who shows us the fullness of St. Irenaeus’s statement, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
Let me close with St. Paul’s words: We, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and bright eras we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit (2 Cor:3).
And with St. Paul, I pray for each of you: Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth, until knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine, glory be to him (Eph 3:14-21).
[Jude, who died in June 2025, wrote this for Restoration in 1982.]
Calligraphy by ©Pat Probst, Madonna House
