God Shows No Partiality

Gospel: John 3: 31-36

"He does not ration his gift of the Spirit." Jesus makes this statement to Nicodemus in today's reading.  It is a remarkable statement for its setting: every culture believed their deities showed preference to them over and against others; many still have this belief today.  But Jesus makes a bold statement that God is not at all like that.  

God is singularly one; God cannot be divided into parts or rationed.  So every person experiences God fully, for God is present in the heart of every person and at work in the life of every person.  God's spirit pervades over the entire world.  We think God shows partiality because we do.  We think God rations out grace and love because that is what we do.  We place limits on God because we ourselves are limited.  Jesus reminds us that no such limits exist in God.

Because we are limited we seek to limit God and to make God in our own image.  In reality the opposite is true: God made us in God's image and calls us to be divine in our actions and all aspects of our life.  God is love; God extends mercy to every human being.  We are then called to be love and to extend mercy to all people without exception.  This is the way to be God's image and likeness fully actualized in the world.