LIVING LIKE THE SON OF MAN

SATURDAY, 4^TH JANUARY

1 Jn 3:7-10; Ps 98:1,7-9; Jn 1:35-42

Learning to live like Him

God has raised the horn of salvation for us in the House of David, as Zechariah revealed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his praise of God. By the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, God has opened the door of holiness within our human nature for all to enter. The Incarnation of the Word is the revelation of the Father’s loving will for our salvation and an invitation to us to participate in the divine life. The cause of the Christmas joy is the commemoration of these events of God, which caused even the angels to join us in our jubilation. The celebration of Christmas joy should not end in eating and drinking alone; it should evolve into truly spiritual joy and holiness of life. The meaning is that our celebration of God’s munificence has borne fruit in our lives. We have celebrated in vain if these results are not visible in our lives. Thus, Saint John warns us not to be deceived. “My children, do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as he is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil since the devil was a sinner from the beginning.” If our celebration of Christmas does not give birth to the holiness of life, then his Incarnation was in vain for us, for we are still in the bondage of the devil. It would mean that we have allowed the devil to deceive us into celebrating the most joyful events physically and not spiritually.

Remaining in sin after these celebrations of the mysteries of our salvation implies that we did not walk through the door of salvation the Father opened for us in our nature. We failed to take in the salvific reality of his presence in our nature. The divine reality would not be in us, and its power would not set us free from darkness and evil when we fail to meditate and reflect on the Incarnation. He appeared to do exactly this for us. “It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared. No one who has been begotten by God sins; because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.” As he informed us in yesterday’s passage, we are begotten of God when we pattern our lives on his own. What shaped his life as Man were his love for his Father, his desire to fulfil the Father’s will, and his love for us and our salvation. The Saviour’s love is the most evident thing we learn as we contemplate him as a child in Mary’s arms. He presented himself so to win our admiration and love, for only then can we follow him easily. The love for the beloved exposes the lover; this vulnerability of the lover convinces the beloved. A wife once told me that her husband often asks for her forgiveness even when she is the one who offended him. That is close to divine romance with us; Jesus came as a child to ask for our love even when we have grievously offended him.

Spending time with the Lord is necessary to experience the love and the salvation he brings for us. Let us plan to allocate a suitable time to be with the Lord this year, and the result of this in our spiritual life will amaze us beyond measure. The Gospel illustrates the result of spending time with the Lord. “Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following, and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’—which means Teacher—‘where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of the that day. It was about the tenth hour.” The two disciples of John the Baptist, Andrew and Philip, stayed with Jesus for more than six hours and never remained the same. There is no company we will keep in this present life of mortality that would benefit us more than keeping the company of Jesus Christ, either in the Blessed Sacrament or consciously within and anywhere during our day. The best way to receive him, who took our flesh to be with us, is to pay attention to his word and presence. All who receive him like this, he gave power to become children of God. We must be on our guard against the plan of the devil to substitute this gate of heaven and the transformative power of his presence with that of creatures. Practice this prayerful and meditative encounter with the Lord, and leave the noisy encounters we call prayer that rarely bear fruits of holiness. It will be difficult at the beginning because most of us are used to noise, but it will become easier with time, and the gradual transformation will be manifest in our lives.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, who were pleased to shine forth with new light through the coming of your Only Begotten Son, grant, we pray, that, just as he was pleased to share our bodily form through the child-bearing of the Virgin Mary, so we, too, may one day merit to become companions in his kingdom of grace. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.