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<< Saturday, January 3, 2004 >>

1 John 2:29—3:6

Psalm 98

John 1:29-34

CHRISTMAS ENDS WITH PENTECOST

“When you see the Spirit descend and rest on Someone, it is He Who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit.” —John 1:33

The finale of the Christmas season is not Christmas day or even Epiphany but the Baptism of Jesus. This is more emphasized in the Eastern Church. Christmas is Trinitarian. It is to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. Christmas is focused on Christ and culminates in the Holy Spirit, the only true Christmas Spirit. Thus, we should be looking to conclude the Christmas season by having the Holy Spirit stirred into flame in our lives (see 2 Tm 1:6-7). In a way, the Christmas season ends as Easter does — with a new Pentecost.

In our Baptism, Jesus has immersed us in the Holy Spirit (see Jn 1:33). We should be preoccupied with the Holy Spirit. However, we can fall into the temptation of being preoccupied with ourselves. The Lord teaches through the Church: “The more we renounce ourselves, the more we ‘walk by the Spirit’ ” (Catechism, 736). The Spirit poured out within us fights against our selfishness (Gal 5:17). By the Spirit, we can “put to death the evil deeds of the body” (Rm 8:13).

In these last nine days of the Christmas season, let us not merely “have the Christmas spirit” but may the Holy Spirit of Christmas have us. Then we will truly have a great Christmas.

Prayer: Father, give me Christmas by Your standards.

Promise: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God. Yet that is what we are.” —1 Jn 3:1

Praise: Betty follows the lead of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:25) so she can minister to those who most need God’s love.

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	How Malleable Are You in God's Hands?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Saturday, January 3, 2004

1 Jn 2:29-3:6 / Jn 1:29-34

There's something in us that can't stop wondering what the next part of life will be like. How old will we be? Will we still like to bridge or basketball or whatever? What will our bodies be like? We have all sorts of questions and even more fantastic speculations about the answers. And none of it matters one whit.

In today's gospel, St John points us in a more useful direction. "What we shall be later has not yet come to light. But when it comes to light, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is." There's some gold hidden in that line, which we could easily miss. John is saying that the very experience of seeing God face-to-face will transform us into God's likeness. The change will not come by force from the outside, but freely from the inside, from the heart which at the sight of God will instinctively let go of anything less than God and give itself into God's hands to be reshaped.

That brings us squarely back to the present, for the ultimate transformation that John is talking about is simply the final stage of what our life and especially our prayer should have been about all along, namely, being reconfigured into God's image and likeness. The process of making ourselves malleable in the hands of our Father is the essential work of every day and of a lifetime. So don't let another day pass.

One Bread, One Body