Jesus: Father’s Gift to Humankind

As if enamored of the human person … God promises him a Savior… [and] offers his own divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ … Oh ineffable gift of infinite love and mercy! … Yes, Jesus is mine! … God … cannot take him away from me unless I give him up by committing a mortal sin (OOCC, XIII, pp. 121 - 124; GIL, XXII, pp. 83, 84)

In his spiritual life, St. Vincent Pallotti experienced Jesus as a gift from the heavenly Father given to every human person. The motive behind such a gift was God’s love for humankind. St. Vincent, using the image of falling in love, said that God appeared enamored of the human person and he promised him a Savior to be sent in the fullness of time. He found no other reason than that of God’s love for God giving humankind such a wonderful gift. Neither was there anything in a human person that could merit the Father’s gift of his Son, nor was there any external obligation on the part of God that would cause him to go out of his way to bless humankind with this act of kindness. For St. Vincent, the Father’s gift of Jesus was the gift of God’s infinite love and mercy. Since the Father has given his Son, St. Vincent felt that Jesus was his own. God would never take Jesus away from him because he had given Jesus as a free and eternal gift to him. Hence, Jesus was his own forever. He did not want to lose Jesus from his life, but he could lose Jesus by his act of sinfulness. Only a life contrary to the teachings of Jesus had the power to separate St. Vincent from Jesus. His desire not to lose Jesus from his life and to possess him forever caused St. Vincent to live his life according to the Father’s plan for him.

Do I acknowledge Jesus as the Father’s gift given to me out of his infinite love for me? Am I grateful to God for the gift of his Son? Do I believe that by a life of sin I can lose Jesus from my life? Do I live a life according to God’s plan in order to have the continued presence of Jesus in my life?

Can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? (Jn. 10:36)