If you consider that God is righteous,
you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness
is begotten by him.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness,
for sin is lawlessness.
You know that he was revealed to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin.
No one who remains in him sins;
no one who sins has seen him or known him. 1 JN 2:29-3:6
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said,
‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’
I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”
John testified further, saying,
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky
and remain upon him.
I did not know him,
but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” JN 1:29-34
It was interesting today as I was grading papers during our Theology of the Body unit and the question asked in the book is Love is…
One of the most insightful answers I found as I am expecting it to be love between humans is that a student answerd that love is God loving us even though we sin against Him. This is profound and is revealed to us as Truth by St. John in the first reading today.
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.”
He goes on to say something even more profound,
”Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.”
Again, we are taught in the Scriptures that through the most amazing gift of God’s love, His only Son dying on a Cross, we are baptized by the water and the Spirit. In this amazing, free, unearned gift from God we don’t just receive something like fame and fortune, tons of money, a new cell phone, great parents, an amazing community of stewards, or the lastest gift we received at Christmas, if we choose to live out our baptismal promises each day we can grow in holiness, fight Satan, continue to receive Jesus hidden behind bread and wine, and grow to be more like Him. Even more amazing is that no matter what we do we are given the gift of being a child of God and a brother and sister of Jesus Christ. The Divine became human so we could become Divine. There is no greater love or power in the world than this. It is not easy but becomes easier when we begin to adore God for this great gift and empty ourselves so we can be filled up by Him. It becomes easier when we gain this knowledge so that we can understand and make choices to love HIm back, to desire nothing more than to continue to be with Him, adore Him, pray, and live with purpose. Each day we learned or we are reminded during this Christmas season that Jesus came to dwell with us. God has not forgotten His promise of mercy. Jesus gives us His Spirit to remain with us until He returns. We can turn to Him at any time and He is there with us. He will never leave us. It is our choice to allow Him to transform us into who we were created to be and set the world on fire with His love. The Gospel reveals to us the Truth about who John the Baptist is, his mission, and that he must decrease while Jesus increases. John teaches us that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world came and instituted baptism to set us free from the slavery of sin. Love came to be for us so that we may be free. This is true freedom and we have the greatest opportunity for joy and peace if we want it in this life and the next. Love likes to suffer and joy is the reward of suffering. Are you willing to make that choice? Christ died so that you could, not for a reward, but for the sake of freedom to love and have a share in that love. He did it because it was the right thing to do. He obeyed His Father, our Fahter, because the Father is love and He loves us more than we love ourselves. We have an important decision to make.
Today’s challenge: Recognize the great gift we have received, give up all to attain it, and share it with others.
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
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