WEEKDAY OF CHRISTMAS – JANUARY 4th
Living in the Kingdom through Faith and Love:
(1 Jn 3:22-4:6; Ps 2; Mt 4:12-25)
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According to The Word Among Us, researchers interviewed American Christian youth, both Catholic and non-Catholic, for a recent study. The data indicated although they called themselves Christians, many of the young people didn’t really grasp the essential truths of Christianity. They believed God exists, mainly to help them become “better people,” but that God is distant and removed from their daily lives. In short, their answers revealed great confusion about their faith – almost like a cloud over their minds, leaving them more like deists than Christians.
Nativity by Andrew Bennett, Edmonton
Today’s readings as we wrap up the Christmas season and enter into the New Year, provide us with a concise, clear catechesis addressing that confusion. As Christians, we are to believe in Jesus Christ, love one another, and live in the freedom of God’s kingdom.
Regarding faith in Jesus Christ, the gospel completes the historical time-line of Jesus’ early life: he was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, and after his cousin John the Baptist was arrested, moved to Capernaum where he began his public ministry.
The gospel accounts invite us to believe in him as the long-awaited Messiah, the Word made flesh conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, the fully divine Son of God who is also the totally human Son of Man, Emmanuel who is God among us, the Savior of the World and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
As the Messiah, Jesus came with a two-fold mission – to redeem and to sanctify, to forgive our sins, and to heal us of our sinfulness (that which makes us sin). His preaching about repentance is a call to do metanoia, to be the very best person we can be, to put on our highest mind, to open ourselves to change and transformation by receiving his forgiveness and experiencing his healing of our painful emotions and negative attitudes, leading us to an inner freedom only he can give.
According to St. John, our response is to be like him, to love one another as he has loved us. We love others by trusting them, blessing them, affirming them, believing in their goodness, listening to them, caring for them, doing good to them, sharing life with them. We are especially called to be like Christ by loving our enemies, those who do us harm. We do that especially by forgiving them from the heart, as Jesus himself taught us to do in Matthew 18:15. Instead of fighting back, fleeing into addictions or freezing our emotions, we are go to them alone, share our feelings with them about their actions without any expectation, attempt at revenge or trying to get even, let them know we are trying to forgive them, and let it go.
What happens when we do that is, we are just like Jesus on the cross – “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” – and when we act like God, we get to feel like God. Our dignity, innocence, self-esteem and self-confidence come back to us, because we are just like Jesus, and it doesn’t get any better than that. In the words of St. Julian of Norwich, “All will be well, and all will be well, and in the end, all manner of being will be well.”
More, we are actually already living within the kingdom of God. It is no coincidence that Jesus, in his first message of his public ministry in Galilee, linked the kingdom of God with his call to believe and repent. In fact, in Luke 17:21, he goes even further to say the kingdom of God is not just near or at hand – it is among us. Origen described Jesus as autobasileia, the kingdom in person. So, we don’t have to worry about getting to heaven – we are invited to live within the reign of God here on earth Jesus came to inaugurate. In the words of St. Catherine of Sienna “All the way to heaven, is heaven.” We are truly living in the freedom of God’s kingdom as children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus.
For St. Paul, the kingdom of heaven is all about the peace, joy and justice of the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Peace is not just a passing feeling – it is a lasting gift of the Holy Spirit we can claim as followers of Jesus Christ. Joy is also not just a passing feeling – it too is a gift of the Holy Spirit we can claim as followers of Jesus, regardless of any chaos that might be in our lives at the moment.
According to Megan McKenna, in her book on Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, “Joy is one of the surest signs of this presence of God among us. It is not an emotion or feeling, but an abiding belief, a practice that endures, a reliance on the Word of God that is true and reliable. It is, in a word, belief in the person of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and present among us in the scriptures, the Eucharist and bread shared, in community, in the Body of Christ that is the church and the poor” (p. 172).
Justice, for me, is a right relationship with God (I have received God’s forgiveness and healing through Jesus), a right relationship with all others in my life (I have forgiven from the heart all who have hurt me, and been forgiven by all those whom I have hurt), a right relationship with myself (I have forgiven myself my mistakes, have accepted myself as I am, can accept compliments and am filled with gratitude) and a right relationship with all of God’s creation (I am doing what I can to care for our mother earth and all its creatures).
Ed Mihalicz, a former parishioner from Beauval, Saskatchewan, has written a memoir entitled “This is My Story and I’m Sticking to it” in which he describes our team ministry for three and a half years as the Keewatin Renewal Team. That ministry, consisting mostly of Parish Renewal sessions, Christopher Leadership courses and Search weekends for youth, was focused on precisely the message of today – strengthening participants’ knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ, leading them into a greater love for others and themselves, and empowering them to live within the kingdom of God with profound peace, greater joy and deeper freedom of spirit.
Part of believing in Jesus is to respond by loving him back, by praising and glorifying him as did the angels and shepherds, and especially worshipping him with other believers especially through the celebration of the Eucharist, our greatest prayer which offers back to God the greatest gift he gave us, his only Son.
May our celebration this day after the Feast of the Epiphany empowers us to believe more deeply who Jesus is for us, love one another as he has loved us, and live in the kingdom of God with great peace, joy and freedom.
