"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)The 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
Feast of the Day:
Saint of the Day:
SAINT SYLVESTER
Pope
(? - 335)
Sylvester was born in Rome toward the close of the third century.He was a young priest when the persecution of the Christians broke out under the tyrant Diocletian. Idols were erected at the corners of the streets, in the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that it was scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without being put to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alternative of apostasy or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester strengthened the confessors and martyrs, God preserving his life from many dangers.
In 312 a new era set in. Constantine, having triumphed under the " standard of the Cross," declared himself the protector of the Christians, and built them splendid churches. At this juncture Sylvester was elected to the chair of Peter, and was thus the first of the Roman Pontiffs to rule the flock of Christ in security and peace. He profited by these blessings to renew the discipline of the Church, and in two great Councils confirmed her sacred truths. In the Council of Arles he condemned the schism of the Donatists; and in that of Nicæa, the first general Council of the Church, he dealt Arianism its death-blow by declaring that Jesus Christ is the true and very God.
Sylvester died A. D. 335.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
The 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
First Letter of John 2: Antichrists Everywhere You Look
18 Children, time is just about up. You heard that Antichrist is coming. Well, they’re all over the place, antichrists everywhere you look. That’s how we know that we’re close to the end.
19 They left us, but they were never really with us. If they had been, they would have stuck it out with us, loyal to the end. In leaving, they showed their true colors, showed they never did belong.
20-21 But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. I haven’t been writing this to tell you something you don’t know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn’t breed lies.
Psalms 96:1-2 Sing God a brand-new song!
Earth and everyone in it, sing!
Sing to God—worship God!
2-3 Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea,
Take the news of his glory to the lost,
News of his wonders to one and all!
11 Let’s hear it from Sky,
With Earth joining in,
And a huge round of applause from Sea.
12 Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,
Animals, come dance,
Put every tree of the forest in the choir—
13 An extravaganza before God as he comes,
As he comes to set everything right on earth,
Set everything right, treat everyone fair.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1: The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
14 The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
15 John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
16-18 We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
The 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
Commentary of the Day:
Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890), priest, founder of a religious community, theologian
PPS, vol.2, no.3
"And the Word became flesh"
The Word was from the beginning, the Only Son of God. Before the creation of the universe, even before time was, in the bosom of the eternal Father, he already existed: God from God, Light from Light, supremely blessed in his knowledge of the Father and in the knowledge the Father had of him; receiving every divine perfection from Him yet always one with He who had begotten him. As it is written at the beginning of the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”…
After man had fallen he could, in fact, have remained in the glory which he had with the Father. But that unfathomable love, which made itself known at the origin of our creation, not willing to see its work in ruins, caused him to come down from the bosom of his Father to carry out His will and to restore the evil caused by sin. With wonderful indulgence he came, not clothed with power but in weakness, beneath the form of a servant, in the likeness of that same fallen man it was his purpose to raise up. So he humbled himself, undergoing all the handicaps of our nature, in a sinful flesh like ours, like a sinner except without sin, innocent of all fault yet subject to every temptation and, at the end, “obedient to death, even death on a cross,” (Phil 2,8)…
Thus the Son of God became the Son of Man – mortal, yet without sin; the inheritor of our infirmities but not of our guilt; rejected by the ancient race but the source of the new creation of God (cf. Rev 3,14). Mary, his mother,… bestowed a created nature on him who was her Creator. And so he came into this world, not on the clouds of heaven, but born here below, born of a woman. He was the son of Mary, and she, the Mother of God… He was truly God and man, but one only person…, one only Christ.
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment