Second Sunday of Christmas
(Sunday 3rd January 2016)
He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light – (John 1:1-18)
As we begin a new year, we consider different ‘resolutions’ that we are going to undertake. Maybe it is a new fitness regime, maybe give up some bad habits we have picked up, or maybe make a better effort at keeping more regular contact with family and friends.
Have we considered any ‘spiritual resolutions’? Have we considered Jesus, ‘the Word made flesh‘, in our plans for the year ahead?
St. John the Baptist is placed before us today in the Gospel passage. “He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him.” (Jn 1:7)
He is a great witness for Christ, the Messiah. He is the ‘Voice’ preparing the way for ‘the Word made flesh‘. He is a model witness. He wants only to point people to Jesus. He wants to decrease so that Jesus may increase.
Today as we consider and reflect on the Word of God, how might we become witnesses for Christ in the year ahead?
How might we point others to Jesus? What resolutions could we make to be credible witnesses for Jesus in our world today!
Pope Francis in his letter to young people for 31st World Youth Day in the month of July wrote,“During the year ahead, let us allow ourselves to be inspired by the words: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).”
Pope Francis talks about his experience of God’s mercy. “When I was seventeen years old, it happened one day that, as I was about to go out with friends, I decided to stop into a church first. I met a priest there who inspired great confidence, and I felt the desire to open my heart in Confession. That meeting changed my life! I discovered that when we open our hearts with humility and transparency, we can contemplate God’s mercy in a very concrete way. I felt certain that, in the person of that priest, God was already waiting for me even before I took the step of entering that church. We keep looking for God, but God is there before us, always looking for us, and he finds us first. Maybe one of you feels something weighing on your heart. You are thinking: I did this, I did that…. Do not be afraid! God is waiting for you! God is a Father and he is always waiting for us! It is so wonderful to feel the merciful embrace of the Father in the sacrament of Reconciliation, to discover that the confessional is a place of mercy, and to allow ourselves to be touched by the merciful love of the Lord who always forgives us! There is an “amazing joy of being instruments of God’s mercy”.
Pope Francis links the Gospel Beatitudes with Matthew 25, where Jesus presents us with the works of mercy and tells us that we will be judged on them.
“I ask you, then, to rediscover the corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, assist the sick, visit the imprisoned and bury the dead. Nor should we overlook the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, teach the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the sorrowful, forgive offences, patiently bear with troublesome people and pray to God for the living and the dead. As you can see, mercy does not just imply being a “good person” nor is it mere sentimentality. It is the measure of our authenticity as disciples of Jesus, and of our credibility as Christians in today’s world.
“Let yourselves be touched by his boundless mercy, so that in turn you may become apostles of mercy by your actions, words and prayers in our world, wounded by selfishness, hatred and so much despair.”
So the question we must ask ourselves, “how will we point others to Jesus, in the time ahead?” How can we decrease so that Jesus may increase?
Fr. Rory Brady