Revealing God to the World

In today's first reading, 1 John 2: 29-3:6, St. John says to us: "If you consider that God is righteous--and He is--you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him." John, then, says: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God....Beloved, we are God's children; 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."

 Every time we act righteously, justly, and walk humbly with our God (compare Micah 6:8),  we give "birth" to God in our world.  God is reincarnated in our righteousness, our justice, our purity, our humility, our reverence of self and others. And like John the Baptist, in today's Gospel, John 1: 29-34,  we will recognize God in our midst. John says to us: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world....I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain with 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."

John recognized Jesus! John saw the Spirit come down upon Jesus at His baptism and remain with Him! That same Spirit came down upon us at our baptisms! Has that Spirit not remained with us? I believe He has and that the Spirit of God, the third person of the Blessed Trinity,  desires to open our eyes, as He did John the Baptist's, to God's presence among us. John,  recognizing Jesus, says to us: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! He is the one of whom I said, 'A man 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."

Why were you and I sent into this world, into our jobs/ministries, to build the relationships we have built? Why are you and I doing what we are doing? Is it not to make Jesus known in the world of our day by the way we live and what we say or withhold from saying? St. Francis of Assisi says to us: "Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words."

The Coming of the Lord

Today’s first reading, Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24, opens with the statement “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  We can apply that message to ourselves.  Today in each of its events and encounters, the Lord sends a messenger to prepare you and me for His coming. Every day, God does this.  Does God find me sleeping, inattentive, distracted?  We are told by the prophet Malachi that “[s]uddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  Suddenly the Lord, whom we seek and for whom we long, will come to the temples of our bodies in the host consecrated at every Catholic Liturgy and received in Holy Communion.  This Christmas we celebrate God coming on earth as a living, gentle, smiling, dependent infant.

God also comes to us in a whisper of hope,  a touch of caring love, as an inspiring thought,  a gentle reminder, as a spring rain or softly falling snow whitening the ground , flowers opening/revealing their beauty in the spring of the year,  as sunrises and sunsets bursting with bright light across the horizon. Am I awake to the Lord’s coming? Am I aware? Am I seeking the Lord in all of the events of the day, in the changing of the seasons, in the awakening of the dawn and the approach of darkness? Or am I too full of selfishness, too busy with projects, too angry and resentful or anxious over worldly cares to notice?  When that is so, Lord, I ask for forgiveness and healing, mercy and love so that I may see you each day, working quietly and lovingly in my midst.