People We Meet

Learning to see the image of God in people

02/07/2023

Gn 1:20—2:4a God said, "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky." God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying, "Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth." Evening came, and morning followed–the fifth day. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds." and so it happened: God saw how good it was. Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day.

There are many powerful and pregnant verses in the Bible that you could spend an entire lifetime meditating on. But in the top ten of the most pregnant verses of the Bible, one has to include Gn 1:27. There it says, “God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.” So much of what happens in the Bible – and even what happens in the book of Genesis – depends on that verse. In other words, Gn 1:27 is the linchpin, or the hinge, on which so much of creation and salvation turns.

The fact that we are created in God’s image and likeness is the very reason why God takes so much time and spends so much energy, and ultimately sends his own Son to save us. Why? Because we are created in his image and likeness. And that is why at the end of the sixth day, after created man and woman, God finds his creation “very good.” All the other days, God had looked at his handiwork and admired it thinking, “This is good.” But when God comes to the crown of creation, humanity, God realizes this is “very good”. This is the best of the best of what I have created.

I say all that because sometimes, even though it is very obvious in the Scripture that we are created in God’s image and likeness, it can be very hard to see that image in others. God clearly sees his image in us (and admires it!), but we struggle to see God’s image in one another. I will use myself as an example. Yesterday I was walking back from the church office to the rectory, and I was waiting to cross Rogers Avenue at this busy intersection.

And these two African-American men were walking up Garrison Avenue and talking very loudly, and laughing. And I immediately began thinking about them, since they were dressed rather less fashionably than you and I would like, rather slovenly. And they were carrying on and laughing, and I thought, “Oh gosh, maybe they are drunk or high on something.” Such were my worrisome thoughts as I was waiting for the light to change quickly, so I could cross before they reached me. But the darned light didn’t change.

And they came all the way up to me, and I was rather nervous. Why? Well, thoughts of what happened recently at Subiaco, people breaking into the church, and the FBI investigation of a house off Free Ferry Road full of drugs and implements for bombs, was raided. And I was having a hard time seeing the image of God in these two men. And they walked in front of them, I smiled and they smiled, and said “Hello.” And they kept going, and the darn light still hadn’t changed.

I stared at them as they were leaving, one of the men was wearing a black jacket with some bold white words on it. It read: “Be an organ donor. Give your heart to Jesus.” Now how do you think that made me feel? About two inches tall. "Be an organ donor: give your heart to Jesus." Those two men carried the image and likeness of God, but we miss it. And that is why it is so hard for us, or at least it is for me (hopefully not for you), to see the image of God in others.

Saint Mother Teresa, who worked with the poorest of the poor, would spend three hours every day in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She was peering intently at that Holy Bread and trying to see Jesus in that white Wafer. She was training her eyesight because it is not easy to see Jesus in a small piece of white Bread. And she said to her nuns (and maybe also to herself) something very profound: “If you cannot see Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist, you will not see Jesus in the poorest of the poor.”

That is why she was able to pick up poor, dying people in the gutters of Calcutta. She had trained her eyes to see God in the poorest of the poor, as she sat in front of the Blessed Sacrament for hours and hours on end. As we come to Mass and we receive our Lord in the Most Blessed Host, let us ask him to give us the eyes of faith to see him there. That is why we say “Amen” when the priest or minister holds up the Host and says, “The Body of Christ.” But let us also be able to say “Amen” when we see one another, because the image of God and the likeness of God is hidden in every person. Because after all, you never know who might be an organ donor.

Praised be Jesus Christ!