"You are my son…"
The Lord spoke constantly of this reality to his disciples. Sometimes directly, teaching them to address God as Father, pointing them to holiness as filial imitation of the Father...; and also through numerous parables, in which God is represented by the figure of the father.
Divine filiation does not consist merely in God having wished to treat us like a father treats his children and in us approaching Him with the trust of children. It is not simply a greater degree along the lines of those filiations that all creatures, in a broad sense, have with respect to God, according to their greater or lesser likeness to the Creator. This would already be an immense gift, but God's love has gone much further, making us truly His children. While those filiations are actually modes of expression, our divine filiation is so in the strict sense, although it will never be like the filiation of Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God. For man there can be nothing greater, more unthinkable, or more unattainable than this filial relationship.
Ours is a participation in the full, exclusive, and constitutive filiation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. From this "natural filiation—explains Saint Thomas—filiation is derived to many by a certain likeness and participation." It is from this filiation that we enter into intimacy with the Holy Trinity; it is a true participation in the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Regarding our relationship with the divine Persons, it can be said that we are children of the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit. "Through the grace received in Baptism, man participates in the eternal birth of the Son from the Father, because he is constituted an adopted child of God: a son in the Son." "Upon emerging from the waters of the sacred font, every Christian hears once again the voice that was once heard on the banks of the Jordan River: You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased (Lk 3:22); and he understands that he has been associated with his favored Son, becoming an adopted child (Gal 4:4-7) and a brother of Christ."
Divine filiation must be present at all moments of the day, but it must be made especially evident if we ever feel the hardness of life more intensely. "It seems that the world is collapsing upon you. Around you, no way out is in sight. Impossible, this time, to overcome the difficulties.
"But have you forgotten once again that God is your Father?: omnipotent, infinitely wise, merciful. He cannot send you anything bad. That which worries you is good for you, even though your eyes of flesh are blind right now.
"Omnia in bonum! Lord, may your most wise Will be fulfilled once again and always!"
HCD