To Know Even As We Are Known

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent (C)

A guest post by Fr. Joel Fortier.

I learned as a child, (from the Baltimore Catechism), that God created us to know, love, and serve God in this life, and to be happy with God in the next…into eternity! It’s all about knowing and loving God; serving God, being about God’s purpose in this life and then being with God forever in the next. It’s about “knowing, even as we are known.”

To know you is to love you, we say. Well, to know God is to love God! To know a benevolent, compassionate God who

is for us, (“I am who am for you and with you”), who creates and loves us into existence; who sustains and love us by the breath of His-Her own Spirit. To be caught up in love is to know and experience Love; to know even as we are known, the total complete intimacy that only lovers can know and talk about; the breath of God! It takes our breath away and gives it back to us!

Total intimacy is about total self-revelation, complete transparency, it’s about being known. And that cannot happen without self-revelation. That is why God is continually revealing him-herself to us. It is in fact what creation is, the first revelation of God. God wants to be known even as God knows us. God created us, we are the work of God’s hands…God’s handiwork! God not only created us, God delights in us! We were created to know, love, and serve God. We are created for love! To love one another as I have loved you, Jesus says; to love others as you love yourself!

It is the mutuality of total self-disclosure, self-revelation; the total self-giving of one to another; of total complete intimacy. That is why St. Paul can say as the culmination of his great epistle on Love, that in the end, while now we see only dimly, as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face; we shall know even as we are known! It is the Beatific Vision! To see and know God even as God sees and knows us. God created us. God sees and knows us as his-her own image! A reflection, as Genesis says, “created in the image and likeness of God.” We are! That is who we are and why we were created, our purpose in life, to make God known.

It was the mission of Jesus, and is the mission Christ has given to us! To make God known…to know even as we are known!

Click here for the readings.

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Born in1942 to French Canadian parents, Fr. Joel Fortier, along with his three siblings grew up in an environment steeped in Catholic spirituality and practice. He entered the University of Illinois before seminary to study Psychology, Education, and Philosophy. In 1969, Joel was ordained with a Master of Divinity from St. Meinrad Seminary for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois with extensive work and training in inner city parishes, and peace and justice movements. Joel received his Doctor of Ministry from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He has worked with Marriage Encounter, Cursillo, and Charismatic movements integrating with parish pastoral ministry. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Family Ministry for the Diocese of Joliet. Fr. Joel was the Pastor and founder of The Lisieux Pastoral Center of St. Theresa Parish in Kankakee, IL,the Pastor of St Isidore Parish, Bloomingdale IL, and most recently the Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle in Naperville, IL. Now retired from full-time parish ministry since 2013, Fr. Joel continues to live out his core statement: “To help make love happen, anywhere and any way possible.”

Author: Susan Francesconi

Catholic blogger, liturgical art consultant, citizen of the world, and student of life striving to generate something good. View all posts by Susan Francesconi