Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 29 December 2014

Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 29 December 2014
Meditation - 1 John 2: The Only Way to Know We’re in Him
2-3 Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.
4-6 If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
7-8 My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!
9-11 Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.
5th Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord
I do write a new commandment to you … for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2:8)
Are you still basking in the glow of Christmas? Perhaps midnight Mass was especially uplifting this year. Or a holiday concert still has you singing under your breath. Maybe you got to spend quality time with some family members you seldom see, or someone really appreciated the gift you chose for him or her.
These are all instances of “darkness passing away” so that the “true light,” the light of Christ, can shine in your life (1 John 2:8).
Sooner or later, we will take the lights off our trees. The nativity set will go back into its box for another year. We will carefully wrap the ornaments and put away the memories they represent. It’s fine to hold on to those memories, by the way, as well as the happy memories we just made this Christmas. But don’t forget what John tells us here. Lasting light is already shining. With the birth of Christ, something radically new has entered our world. Something—Someone—has filled us with hope and pointed us in a new direction. So besides looking back with gratitude, we can look forward joyfully to the day when we will be in heaven, filled with God’s grace and healed of every wound sin has ever inflicted on us.
Don’t make the mistake of boxing up the gift of Jesus’ presence and putting it away until next year—or even next Sunday. Your life may seem to go on as usual after the end of the Christmas season, but because Jesus has been born into our world and into your heart, everything is new. Nothing can ever be the same.
It may sound like the same old commandment, “Love one another.” But because God has come to live among us, loving one another is no longer just a shining aspiration. It’s a very real possibility. Christ is in you, and he really can reach out to everyone around you. Give him the chance. It doesn’t take much to start, just a kind gesture or a word of encouragement.
“Jesus, your presence is the greatest gift of all. Help me to live in the light of your love today.” Amen!
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!
4-5 For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs.
His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap;
Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags.
5-6 God made the heavens—
Royal splendor radiates from him,
A powerful beauty sets him apart.
Luke 2:22-24 Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.
25-32 In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:
God, you can now release your servant;
    release me in peace as you promised.
With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
    it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
    and of glory for your people Israel.
33-35 Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,
This child marks both the failure and
    the recovery of many in Israel,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
    the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will force honesty,
    as God reveals who they really are.
____________________________