The final chapter of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved is where we discover the challenge of both living in the world and claiming the gift of God naming us “beloved.”
God sends each of us, wholly
beloved by God, into the world and our lives becomes witnesses to God’s mighty
works in and through us.
Not because of what we do,
but because of God who loves
us and claims us as God’s own.
Because of God who equips us and sends us out.
God doesn’t only call us
Beloved, God also asks, “Do You love me?”
And, like Peter in John’s gospel,
we get to say,
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Nouwen writes, “…life is a God-given opportunity to become who we are…to say “Yes” to the One who calls us the Beloved.” (133)
That is the
spiritual life that we are called to,
a life to which, as we hear in Luther’s explanation of the third article of the
creed, “the Holy Spirit has called [us] by the Gospel, enlightened [us] with
His gifts, sanctified and kept [us] in the true faith.”
Nouwen reminds us that “The
Spirit of God, the Spirit that calls us the Beloved, is the Spirit that unites
and makes whole.” And that we can recognize God’s Spirit in “moments of
unification, healing, restoration, and reconciliation.” (135)
Living as the Beloved then is
choosing the life of God’s Spirit each day and listening to that voice that
calls me the Beloved. (139)
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