5 January 2017 - known to him

[ Today's Readings ]

Jesus invites us to follow him.

Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. 
And Jesus said to him, "Follow me." 

Following him cannot be separated from loving one another. Even if we aren't sure if we are close to Jesus, even if he feels distant, we should still be able to see the fruit of his presence in our lives. We should be able to reassure ourselves that he is with us by our love for one another.

Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 

His power in us is greater than what we can think, feel, ask or imagine. It works in us even when we don't realize it is. We look back even on times when God feels distant and see an increase of love, patience, kindness, compassion, gentleness, joy, and peace manifesting in our lives that we couldn't see at the time because, perhaps, our feelings distracted us.

Jesus knows who we are when he invites us to follow him. He knows our strengths.

"Here is a true child of Israel. 
There is no duplicity in him." 
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" 
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." 
Nathanael answered him,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." 

But he also knows our weaknesses. He calls sinners to follow him. After all, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23). He knows our flaws. He calls us to love in deed and truth but he knows that we sometimes come up short. Even when our hearts can't reassure us, when God not only seems distant but his fruits are absent, we know that he invites us back, just as the father is waiting daily for the return of the prodigal son.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.

4 January 2017 - come and see

 [ Today's Readings ]

Looking at Jesus changes us. We expect that it is a largely passive process. We sit, look, and hear, 'Behold, the Lamb of God.' But just to look at Jesus means, eventually, to see him inviting us to follow him.

"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher),
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."

We look. We desire to see more. That desire is always met with the invitation of Jesus to come and see. As we respond to that invitation we come to understand more deeply who Jesus is. We grow in relationship with him.

"We have found the Messiah," which is translated Christ.

By it's nature, this growth in relationship helps us to bring others to Jesus. It makes us want to do so.

Then he brought him to Jesus.

We know that "[w]hoever sins belongs to the Devil". And we know that Jesus is the Messiah, the "Son of God" who "was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil." Wherever we see sin we recognize the slavery and fear that always underlies it. Since we know that Jesus is the one who can destroy the works of the Devil compassion demands that we introduce others to him.

No one who is begotten by God commits sin,
because God's seed remains in him;
he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.

None of us is completely without sin. That means there is still room to grow. There is still room to look at Jesus and more deeply respond to his invitation to follow after him. There is room to more deeply experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the Fatherhood of God. There is grace of which we have not yet availed ourselves waiting to be unleashed. Where? Come and see.
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy before the LORD.

 

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.

 

2 January 2017 - the anointing

Gregory and Basil with bonus John Chrsysostom.

[ Today's Readings ]

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. 

We have been given the great gift of truth. It is vital to hold on to this truth. Just knowing it is insufficient. But if we live the truth we have from the beginning we can be sure that we "remain in the Son and in the Father." To live the truth requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The truth we have is not simply ideas. We have the truth about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We have an anointing to share in the relationship of the Father and the Son by the Spirit's power. To simply know about this not the same. When we live it the Spirit within us convicts us of our sins, guides us, and makes us cry out 'Abba, Father!'

We have this truth from the beginning. That means we have enough truth and enough anointing for any circumstance we encounter today. When we begin to get anxious or worried isn't it because we don't think we're equipped to handle a given circumstance? Well, we are equipped. If we feel overwhelmed, let us turn back to the sources of truth.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (see Second Timothy 3:16-17).

if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth (see First Timothy 3:15).

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter (see Second Thessalonians 2:15).

These sources serve to remind us who God is and who we are in him. The Holy Spirit compels and empowers us to live in accordance with the truth. Our biggest problem is often that we make things too much about ourselves and our own ability. Rather, like John the Baptist, we need to decrease even within our own lives in order that God may increase.

"I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie." 

The truth sets us free. The anointing itself is the experience of this freedom. So let us cling to what we have heard from the beginning. Let us revisit it again and again as necessary so that the Spirit can work through it. He wants to bring the letters of the truth to life so as to deepen our union with God and to bring us to eternal life.

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.

1 January 2017 - true mother

[ Today's Readings ]

And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.

The shepherd's bring a message from angels to the parents of this newborn child. Mary is his mother. She is not an accident, nor merely a physical accessory to the birth of Jesus. She is true mother. He receives not only his human nature from her but he continues to receive her love and nurturing as he grows. The unique bond that they have from before Jesus is born continues as he lives his life. The nurturing motherhood of Mary is exemplified in how she treasures "these things, reflecting on them in her heart." It is an amazing love that Mary has for Jesus, open to all the possibilities of the future, yet willing to provide whatever she can to help him along the way. Today we are invited to share in this love and to love Mary in return.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, 
to ransom those under the law, 
so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The Holy Spirit perfectly overshadows and fills Mary to bring about the birth of Jesus into the world. So too does the Holy Spirit allow us to share in the family relationships of Jesus. His Father becomes our Father. His mother becomes our mother. His brothers, in turn, become our brothers. Mary and the Holy Spirit treasure us as well. Together they help us to learn our first word as spiritual newborns. They teach us to cry out to our Father even as their own love embraces us.

Mary is perfectly receptive to the word of God. In doing so she is the most perfectly able to offer that word to us as a word of blessing.

This is how you shall bless the Israelites.
Say to them:
The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!

She says this blessing perfectly by speaking her Son to us. She embraces us and nurtures us. She helps that word to be formed in our hearts just as it is first formed in hers. It begins by treasuring the words which God speaks to her. Let us treasure them in turn. Let us be thankful for the love of so great a mother who desires nothing more than to bring the LORD Jesus to birth in each of us. She desires this because she desires what Jesus desires and this is what he wants.

May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.

31 December 2016 - in your light

[ Today's Readings ]

There is darkness in the world. Many antichrists have appeared. But for us who are in Christ this need not cause fear. In Christ we find the light which the darkness cannot overcome. In him we find truth that the antichrists are powerless to take from our hearts.

What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

We are made God's children in baptism. He anoints us with his Spirit and makes us his own. If we realize who our Father is and how great and full of love he is fear becomes impossible.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God

We see that circumstances, even dark ones, are still allowed to run their course but that now all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose (see Romans 8:28). Yet we often forget how much we have been given in being made children of God. We acknowledge the truth with our lips but begin to live in fear as though we didn't have a Father in heaven looking after us.

But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,
and you all have knowledge. 
I write to you not because you do not know the truth 
but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

This anointing comes first in baptism. We do in fact have it. And we, yes, you and I, have all knowledge, or at least all knowledge that matters in the grand scheme of things. And the core of this knowledge is who God is and who we are to him. That is why it is this anointing, the Holy Spirit, who makes us cry out to God as Father. Sometimes we forget who we are and need reminders. But the truth is always there, at the core of our beings, waiting for us to return. The Father always welcomes us back into his embrace.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD.

30 December 2016 - familiar example

[ Today's Readings ]

Today is the feast of the Holy Family. God reminds us that family is not an accident of evolution, nor an idea created by man, but rather something which he himself designed. Family has a deep and essential purpose in God's plan.

Jesus calls God his Father and teaches us to do the same. The relationship of the first and second person in the Trinity is a family bond. That bond itself is the Holy Spirit that makes us cry out, 'Aba, Father.' The archetype of family exists in God before it ever manifests in creation. Our Father in heaven is not named because he happens to be like earthly fathers in some way. Rather fathers are earth are named because there is some similarity in what they are to what God the Father is.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (see Ephesians 3:14-15)

Because this is so God really cares about how well we live family life here on earth. He wants the harmony, peace, and love which will help us not only to live together with one another, but to know will also help us to know him more deeply.

God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.

Rules are important, but more than these we need to let Christ guide our homes and families by the Holy Spirit.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, 
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 
with gratitude in your hearts to God.

The Holy Spirit will tell us how to be compassionate, humble, gentle, patient, and forgiving, and to put on love as the bond of perfection. These are fruits which only he can manifest. Only when the peace of Christ controls our hearts is it possible to live the family life God envisions for us.

After saying all of this we should realize it is no accident when Jesus himself chooses to be born into a human family. He does so precisely to offer it as an example to all families. He even allows the family to have an imperfect head, Joseph, to lead two sinless individuals. He really wants to help those of us who are also sinful to understand the lessons of obedience. He wants those of us in leadership roles to understand how to perform them in humility. Above all, he wants to teach us to be led by the Spirit just as Joseph is.

the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, 
for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

Guidance from heaven is not just for Joseph but for all. Let us give thanks for the Holy Family and then put what in to practice what they have to teach us.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.