Thursday - January 05, 2023
“God loves each of us
as if there were only one of us.”
- St. Augustine
TODAY'S READINGS
Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop
Lectionary: 208
Reading I
1 Jn 3:11-21
Beloved:
This is the message you have heard from the beginning:
we should love one another,
unlike Cain who belonged to the Evil One
and slaughtered his brother.
Why did he slaughter him?
Because his own works were evil,
and those of his brother righteous.
Do not be amazed, then, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love our brothers.
Whoever does not love remains in death.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
The way we came to know love
was that he laid down his life for us;
so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
If someone who has worldly means
sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion,
how can the love of God remain in him?
Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
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.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God.
Responsorial Psalm PS 100:1b-2, 3, 4, 5
R. (2a) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
The LORD is good:
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A holy day has dawned upon us.
Come, you nations, and adore the Lord.
Today a great light has come upon the earth.
R. Alleluia
Gospel Jn 1:43-51
Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip.
And Jesus said to him, "Follow me."
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael and told him,
"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth."
But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
"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."
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this."
And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see the sky opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
**********************************
How to Discover Your Greatness
Like Jesus did with the disciples in today’s Gospel reading, he has called you and he says to you: “Be my disciple and you will see great things!”
Sometimes, great things come in surprising forms that do not seem to be great at all. The Eucharist, for example, is given to us in the form of a little wafer or piece of bread; it does not look like it contains the full presence of Jesus with all of his humanity and all of his divinity.
Compared to Jesus, you and I do not seem great at all, but we contain Jesus. We contain greatness beyond imagining! God’s majesty dwells in us, and we have proof of this whenever it comes out of us in the form of love. This is why today’s first reading tells us to “love one another.”
This scripture points out that we know we have Jesus living within us because of the love that we give to others.
Similarly, we know for sure that we are victorious over sin (“that we have passed from death to life”) because we experience Christ’s love flowing from within us outward to others even when they are difficult to love.
Think of someone you’ve not forgiven. Or think of people you’ve refused a kindness to because they don’t deserve it. This is not love; this is a form of hatred. Today’s Gospel tells us that we are murderers when we hate those who have hurt us, and eternal life does not abide in our hearts. Wow. Gulp. Ouch. Time to run back to the confessional! And perhaps afterward we should go to a spiritual director or a counselor to receive healing for our wounds so that we will become free to love everyone like God does.
“Let us love in deed and in truth instead of merely talking about it.” As disciples of Jesus, we’re learning how to imitate him. What has he been teaching us from the examples he set?
Well, he came to us, not to be served, but to serve our needs. He even laid down his life for us! We, too, are not here to be served by those who have treated us poorly. We are here to serve them.
Laying down our lives for others means laying down our wishes, our woundedness, and our self-centered focus to do good deeds for them. Sometimes this might be from afar, for safety reasons, but always the love of Jesus flows outward to them from us.
It’s right to separate ourselves from those who repeatedly hurt us. An abused wife cannot be Jesus for her husband until she first gets herself and her children to safety, works on her own healing with a counselor, and learns to love herself with God’s own love for her. Only then will she become strong enough to love her husband with the true presence of Christ who’s living within her.
True faith involves doing deeds of love for others, whether they deserve it or not, because we are giving them Jesus. We are like Mary, giving birth to Love himself. By loving others unconditionally, we make every day a Christmas day.
Today's Prayer
I thank You, Lord, for trusting me. Save me from my prejudices and my human criteria so I may discover You where You want to take me. Amen.
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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