Wednesday - January 03, 2018
So blessed are you if you persevere in doing good, neither seeking nor desiring any consolation, for as St. Bernard says: To serve God is nothing else than to do good and suffer evil, and the rule of the true servant of Christ is never to receive consolation except in time of great necessity. This is the secure way; for whoever wants to go to God through sweetness and consolation is deceived.
- St. Catherine of Bologna
TODAY'S READINGS
January 3, 2018
January 3, 2018
Christmas Weekday
Lectionary: 206
Reading 11 JN 2:29–3:6
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.
Responsorial Psalm PS 98:1, 3CD-4, 5-6
R. (3cd) All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
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.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
AlleluiaJN 1:14A, 12A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelJN 1:29-34
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."
"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."
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Behold! The Eucharist is the Lamb of God!
In every Mass, we hear the presiding priest say the words of John the Baptist that are quoted in today's Gospel passage: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Behold what? A wafer of bread? The priest isn't showing us something that's visible to our eyes. "Behold" means, "Look with the vision of faith and see Jesus! He is here! Accept him! Worship him! Receive him!"
To which we reply with the humility of the centurion in Luke 7:6: "Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the Word and my soul shall be healed."
With this healing, we are set free from our sins, thanks to the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass if we were truly repentant. With this healing, we receive Jesus in all of his humanity and his divinity. With this healing, we can leave church reformed and renewed into the likeness of Jesus. We become tabernacles of his True Presence.
Is Mass that kind of experience for you? It requires full attention for what's going on in the Mass -- in all parts of the Mass.
Jesus is present in the community song that initiates the Mass.
Jesus is present in the Penitential Rite, listening for sincerity and genuine awareness of our need to repent from sin.
Jesus is present in the Liturgy of the Word: the Word read and the Word preached, the Word broken open like bread to nourish our spiritual growth (and when the homily is poor or absent, the Holy Spirit preaches to us privately; straying thoughts are often an action of God). Jesus is also present in all the prayers of Mass.
Like John the Baptist, we can say: "I did not know him" (v. 31). In other words: "I saw only bread and wine, but the Holy Spirit revealed to me the presence of my beloved Savior" or "I was sinful and didn't realize the damage I had done, but the Holy Spirit gently exposed my sins and gave me help in overcoming them" or "I was wounded and did not know how to be healed, but the Holy Spirit led me to the right resources, the right counselor, the right doctor."
Today's first reading says that we are God's children now; however, what we shall be after we die in Christ has not yet been revealed. We won't know it or understand it or experience it until we die, and then "we shall be like him." We're only partially like him now, because we only partially understand him. After death, "we shall see him as he is" fully, and then we will want to be like him fully; in whatever ways we are not like him we will gladly purge from us (which is the process called purgatory).
During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the bread stops being bread and becomes the Body of Jesus, and the wine becomes his Blood, time disappears and we're united to our Lord who lives in eternity. Through the Eucharist, we experience a taste of heaven. We become like Jesus, and we remain like him after Mass in the ways that we imitate him.
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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