ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

St. Paul gives us his doctrine of the “two laws” at work in the life of man.

For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members…. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death…. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 7:14-8:17).

Every human being is confronted with these two possibilities of human existence. Either a person chooses life by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit – the “abundant” and “eternal life” given by God in creation and salvation through Jesus Christ – or the person chooses death. The whole pathos of human existence consists in this choice, whether a person is aware of it or not. Christian spiritual life depends on the conscious choice of the “way of life.” To “choose life” and to walk in the “way of life” is the way that man shows himself to be in the image and unto the likeness of God.

For by the hands of the Father, that is by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not merely a part of man, was made in the likeness of God… for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul, receiving the Spirit of the Father and the fleshly nature which was also molded after the image of God…the man becomes spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and unto the likeness of God.

Ask yourself, do I realize that I have been made in the image and unto the likeness of God?
If you don’t, why don’t you?
Think about it!