Divine filiation

We are servants of God and children of God. As his servants, we can rejoice when we hear these words from the Acts of the Apostles: Even on my male servants and my female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy (Acts 2:18). As God’s children, we can contemplate with joy what St Paul writes to the Galatians: I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

Heirs of God

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:1-7).