The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today declare our dignity as children of God who are challenged by the Spirit to be people of reconciliation, peace and Love.
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| Path of reconciliation |
The reading from the First Letter of John declares that we are children of God who are called to avoid sin.
* [3:4] Lawlessness: a reference to the activity of the antichrist, so it is expressed as hostility toward God and a rejection of Christ. The author goes on to contrast the states of sin and righteousness. Christians do not escape sin but realize that when they sin they cease to have fellowship with God. Virtue and sin distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil.1
Psalm 98 praises the Judge of the World.
* [Psalm 98] A hymn, similar to Ps 96, extolling God for Israel’s victory (Ps 98:1–3). All nations (Ps 98:4–6) and even inanimate nature (Ps 98:7–8) are summoned to welcome God’s coming to rule over the world (Ps 98:9).2
In the Gospel of John, the Lamb of God is known to John the Baptist.
* [1:29] The Lamb of God: the background for this title may be the victorious apocalyptic lamb who would destroy evil in the world (Rev 5–7; 17:14); the paschal lamb, whose blood saved Israel (Ex 12); and/or the suffering servant led like a lamb to the slaughter as a sin-offering (Is 53:7, 10).3
Andy Alexander, S.J. declares the experience of knowing Jesus - experiencing his love and mercy, personally - is quite powerful. It is freeing, emboldening, and it sets us apart from the world around us and its ways.
Take the word "success." Our world has a variety of ways of describing success and what a successful person looks like, or signs of achieving success. Our world's language has ways of describing a successful family, a successful career, or even what we mean when we say our children have become successful. We know what those signs are. In some ways, they will have to do with honor, money, status. Once we know Jesus, personally - once that encounter with his unconditional love and mercy has overwhelmed us - everything changes. Success is then defined in terms of whatever helps me become closer to him and his ways. It involves humility, dying to myself, and service of others and the common good. Ultimately, it means taking on his mission to include others, forgive them, heal them, and share with them the joy of the Good News of his love. And, the sign of that highest degree of success is that we will embrace the gift of eternal life with him forever in heaven. That's why St. Ignatius speaks of the spiritual journey as the "reformation of our desires”.4
Bill McCormick, SJ, regent at Saint Louis University, teaches political science and philosophy. This story was first published in the Fall 2017 issue of the USA Central and Southern Jesuits Magazine. It still resonates with our need for examples of peace and unity today more than ever. How will Christians - whether Catholics, Protestant, Orthodox - come together to be the sign of that peace?
It seems that our age has an exceptional thirst for reconciliation. President Donald Trump’s cancellation of DACA, Senator Dianne Feinstein’s comments about Catholicism during the confirmation hearings of a judicial appointment, Brexit, the reaction to Jesuit Father James Martin’s book on welcoming LGBT Catholics within the Church, North Korea, the continuing controversies surrounding Amoris Laetitia, the Charlottesville tragedy, protests for racial justice in St. Louis, even some of the responses to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: all are painful reminders that not only are we in desperate need of reconciliation, but that there seem to be precious little hope for it.5
Don Schwager quotes “John points to Jesus' saving mission,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"No longer does John need to 'prepare the way,' since the one for whom the preparation was being made is right there before his eyes... But now he who of old was dimly pictured, the very Lamb, the spotless Sacrifice, is led to the slaughter for all, that he might drive away the sin of the world, that he might overturn the destroyer of the earth, that dying for all he might annihilate death, that he might undo the curse that is upon us... For one Lamb died for all (2 Corinthians 5:14), saving the whole flock on earth to God the Father, one for all, that he might subject all to God." (excerpt from the COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.1)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:29-34 notes God told John the Baptist what to look for: “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (1:33). John faced the same perplexity any of us might: did that thought really come from God?
This new year, decide to spend time every day listening to what God wants to say to you. Become familiar with how he speaks to you: in thoughts or pictures that come to your mind; in a Scripture passage or a homily; in a stirring, pounding, or yearning of your heart; in tears or a sense of joy. Write it down in a journal. At the end of each week, review what you have written. Revisit the senses and impressions you felt in prayer. Over time, you may find yourself learning more about God’s goodness, his mercy, or his plans for you. Make this a year of listening and testing out what you hear.7
Friar Jude Winkler highlights ideas that we have a special relationship as children who, in sin, belong to the evil one of God in the Letter of John. The Aramaic language translates the proclamation of Jesus nature to “lamb” or “servant”. Friar Jude reminds us that Christian Baptism is our entry into the Life of the Trinity.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares the vision of Brian McLaren who describes the need to be (2) “radically collaborative” and to (3) “love as Jesus taught and embodied.” Rather than a top-heavy institution concerned about in-house salvation, the Christianity of the future will place love of God, neighbor, self, and all creation at the center. Brian writes:
When I think of this [new] kind of Christianity of the future, then, I think of a movement of revolutionary love. I see it as distinctively Christian, but not in any exclusive way, because if we truly see love as Jesus’ point and passion, then the depth of our devotion to Christ will always lead us to love our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Indigenous, nonreligious, agnostic, atheist, and other neighbors as ourselves. . . .
In this desirable future, every willing Christian congregation makes every competing interest subsidiary to love, which is the fruit of all contemplation and the goal of all action. If we embody this [emergent] form of Christianity, . . . if we become the seeds of a movement of contemplative activism in the Spirit of Christ, I can imagine hundreds of thousands of congregations, . . . each a locally and globally engaged school of love, teaching future generations to discover, practice, and live in love: love for our neighbor, love for ourselves, love for all creatures and all creation—all comprising love for God, who is all in all.8
The children of God are called to reconcile with all and be the sign of the Love of the Spirit in the world.
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