“This lie that we are only human has great implications for our spiritual life and eternal destiny. The devil has been using this lie to enslave many of the faithful today who tend to forget or ignore the reality of our new nature in Christ and the power that we have for Christlike action that brings life to others.”
At the end of one of my talks to a lay group on heroic charity and sanctity, one of the attendees said to me, “You know, Father, I just cannot practice such selfless charity. Jesus can do so because He is God, but I am only human.” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that last line.
Yes, we will always be human. We can never be divine like Jesus nor like the angels. But how true is it that we are only human? Are we left at the mercy of our natural powers alone? We will surely feel that heroic charity and sanctity are impossible for us when we come to see ourselves as only human, equipped only with our natural, sin-inclined, and wounded faculties of intellect, will, and emotions.
St. Paul tells us why we are not only human, “The first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit…The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven…Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.” (1Cor 15:45-49) The Apostle to the Gentiles is reminding us that though we are human as Adam was, in Jesus Christ, the last Adam, we have been so refashioned and remade to bear in us the very image of Christ, the One who loved us till the point of death to share His life with us.
This image of Christ in us transforms and moves us to also bring life to others through Christlike loving and to share in His glory by doing so, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”(2Cor 3:18) Though we will always be human, by bearing Christ’s image, we can love others in a way that communicates spiritual life to them just as He did. We share in His nature, and we too can be channels of life to others by our loving deeds to all for His sake. In Jesus Christ, we are definitely not only human.
Unless we see ourselves as humans bearing the very image of Jesus within us, we cannot “love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us. and pray for those who mistreat us.” How in the world can we hope to “love our enemies and do good to them” when we see ourselves as only human? Jesus invites us to share in His radical love for others only because we have His image in us from the moment of baptism and this image allows us to share in the love of the Spirit.
This lie that we are only human has great implications for our spiritual life and eternal destiny. The devil has been using this lie to enslave many of the faithful today who tend to forget or ignore the reality of our new nature in Christ and the power that we have for Christlike action that brings life to others.
We cannot overcome our selfishness when we believe that we are only human. We cannot overcome our natural drives for pleasure, power, and material gains. We cannot practice heroic charity because we will do things only when we are guaranteed to get something favorable in return. We cannot practice any form of delayed gratification because satisfying our natural desires becomes the ultimate goal of our lives. We cannot turn the other cheek when hurt by others or go the extra mile in service to others because we feel that this is too demanding of our poor humanity. We will be overcome by malice, discrimination, and revenge because we see ourselves as only human.
We also cannot resist temptations when we believe that we are only human. The devil will lie to us that our sinful choices are inevitable and even beneficial for us in meeting our human needs. He will lie to us that it is futile to resist his temptations. Because we are negligent of the powerful life-giving image of Jesus that we bear within us, we easily lose hope in the battle against sin. We easily justify our sins because we say to ourselves, “What can I do? I am only human.” There is no act of sin and selfishness that is beyond us when we believe the lie that we are only human. Sadly, the more that we give in to sin, the more that we lose the sense of Christ’s image within us and the more that we buy into the lie that we are only human.
In addition, we cannot endure suffering when we see ourselves as only human. The image of Jesus in us is both a pledge of future glory and a guarantee of God’s undying love for us in the present moment. But when we are oblivious about this image within us, we begin to doubt or question the love of God for us and the very purpose of our lives. Our pains and suffering will make us feel hopelessly estranged from God because we are not in spiritual contact with the image of the suffering, loving, and risen Savior within us. How can we hope to love others selflessly in our pains when we doubt God’s unconditional love for us all?
Ultimately, the lie that we are only human destroys that inner joy and hope that Jesus promised us when we love like Him, “Your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” (Lk 6:27-38) We lose all joy when we give in to selfishness because we believe we are only human.
There are three action steps that we can take to abandon the lie that we are only human and begin to live as bearers of the Christ-image today.
Firstly, repent daily of our selfishness by gazing at a crucifix with love. Let us remind ourselves of who hangs on the cross and for whom He hangs on that cross. Imagine Him inviting us to bring our selfishness to Him on the cross and receive from Him His own selfless love for others for His sake. The more that we hold on to our selfishness, the more we convince ourselves that we are only human, and that selfless love is truly beyond our ability.
Secondly, make regular acts of faith that we bear the image of Jesus within us today. We cannot feel the reality of this image, but we believe because of the word of God. We must firmly believe that God has not called us to be only human but He has “predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.”(Rom 8:29)
Lastly, let us beg our Eucharistic Lord to deepen the reality of His image within us. Jesus never ceases to refashion us in His image. This is what He does in the Eucharist – he shares His life with us and He molds us into better images of Himself, enabling us to share in His own loving and life-giving deeds.
Let us relentlessly renounce the lie that we are only human so that the image of Christ in us becomes the living principle of all our actions. This is the only way that we can love others through selfless deeds that nurture the life of Christ in souls.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
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About the author:
Fr. Nnamdi Moneme, OMV, is a Roman Catholic priest and religious of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary currently serving in the Philippines. He teaches theology and is a seminary formator for candidates to the priesthood and religious life. Father also gives Ignatian retreats and serves as spiritual director to many of the lay, religious, and clergy in the area.
He earned his first degree in Physics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Ordained in 2009, he studied at St. John’s seminary, in Brighton, Massachusetts. Father has an STL/MA in Moral Theology from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.
Father Moneme blogs at https://toquenchhisthirst.wordpress.com/.
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