3 January 2017 - see what love

 

 [ Today's Readings ]

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

Who is this one who just to see him transforms us?

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

He is our savior. He saves us by becoming a sacrificial lamb for all of us to bear our guilt and sin away and nail it to the cross. One aspect of seeing him is seeing the lengths he is willing to go for us. It means seeing how much he loves us.

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.

He is the one who fills us with the Holy Spirit. In being filled by the Spirit we become like him on whom the Spirit first descends.

On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

We are made like Jesus in baptism. We first begin to share in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We first become sons and daughters of God in him. But baptism opens the eyes of our hearts. It enables us to see more clearly who Jesus is. As we do we realize more deeply the truth of who we are in him, and in so realizing we are transformed. This is why we must never tire of hearing, 'Behold the lamb of God' when we go to mass. This is why we must never tired of daring to say 'Our Father' each day.

Jesus is so wonderful that to truly allow ourselves to see him cannot happen without being transformed in the process. Let us take every opportunity to look and to gaze open our savior. In the sick, in the sorrowful, in the poor, in Scripture, and in the Sacraments we find him. Let us open ourselves to the vision. Let us be strengthened by the hope that however much we see now there is still more to come.

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.
This vision gives us the power to proclaim Jesus to others just as it does for John.

Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.

We do this until all the ends of the earth see what we see and hope as we hope.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.