My true character

Q&A 1.

Q.  What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong--body and soul, in life and in death--to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ....

The first part of Q&A 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism is so imbedded into my being that I have sometimes forgotten the last paragraph of the answer. Mention the catechism and my mind immediately flashes the phrases "My Only Comfort" and "I belong..." and "body and soul, in life and in death."

But lately I've been mediating more on the last paragraph of the first answer:

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

"Wholeheartedly willing and ready" is now another phrase fixed in my mind. This is who I really am! One who is "wholeheartedly willing and ready" to live for Christ. This--I have been amazed to rediscover--permeates the whole catechism. And yes--yes!--it is even imbedded in "Part I: Misery."  For example, in Lord's Day 3, the catechism explains that God did not create people "wicked and perverse" but in God’s own image:  "…That is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with God in eternal happiness, to praise and glorify him."

Thomas Merton says the same sort of thing in a different way:  "To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name."