God's Beloved Children

In today's first reading, 1 John 2: 3-11, St. John addresses us as the "Beloved".

What a powerful message. John names us for who we really are:  God's "Beloved",   that is "dearly loved," or "a much loved person,"  "one who is loved affectionally and unconditionally". By whom? God, our creator.  Proof? God sent His only begotten Son to earth to become one of us to teach us how to love and how much the Father loves us. He sent His only begotten Son who held nothing back to show us the depth, the breadth, the length and the height of God's love for each one of us--being obedient to the Father to the point of enduring a torturous death at the hands of evil men for our salvation!

In today's Gospel, Luke 2: 22-35, the prophet Simeon gives testimony to who Jesus is and why He was sent to us by saying:  "...my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."   Prophetess Anna, also there at the moment that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the Temple to meet the requirements of the Law, "began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38), and, not only the deliverance of Jerusalem, but also the deliverance of all humankind from Satan's determination to keep us out of heaven by luring us into sin and disobedience, into lying, cheating, and other sins that harden our hearts and block us from seeking forgiveness of our sinful behaviors and attitudes..

How does John the Baptist prepare the way of the Lord? By "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3: 4).

May you and I, in humility, admit our sinfulness before the Lord, repent and be saved.  May we recognize our need for our Savior Jesus Christ.

Seeing Others as Beloved, as Brother or Sister in the Lord

In today’s first reading, Paul writes to Philemon, asking that, in his name, he receive a runaway slave, Onesimus, as a brother, not as a slave. “Perhaps,” Paul says, “he ran away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved, especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.”  Paul’s perception of Onesimus has been transformed from  looking down upon him as a slave, as less than non-slaves,  to a brother,  to a man and to one committed to Christ Jesus. 

Think of the "Onesimus’es" in our world--those lured into the sex trade by human traffickers, those lured into the labor force as slaves, those who are slaves in any way and being violated  and treated unjustly by others.  Think of how pimps treat their victims, human traffickers their “slaves”, laborers those forced into service with them.  Think of those who, like Onesimus, have managed to run away from those who were enslaving them.

Who are the "Onesimus’es" in our lives, the “runaways,” those we disdain, think little of, perhaps? Who do you and I treat as slaves, as less than human, as beneath us?  Who does the world treat as less than a man/a woman  who have been created in the image and likeness of God, one with Christ Jesus--redeemed, sanctified , made righteous by the Lord and equal in dignity to ourselves, worthy of all of the blessings we have been given, worthy of being treated with respect, as one who is our brother and sister in Christ Jesus, loved and cherished by the Lord, chosen as His own to achieve God's purposes in their lives just as we have been chosen? 

In what way does our perception of another need to be changed by grace, as was Paul’s?