WORD 2day : 29th December, 2015

Secrets laid bare

5th day in the Christmas Octave
1 Jn 2: 3-11; Lk 2: 22-35

One of the key elements of an authentic spirituality should be to lay bare all secrets.  Jesus was meant to be doing that and that is one reason the pharisees and the Scribes could not put up with him. 

The way Jesus did it, was by making the criteria cut and dry. He stood far from multiplying requirements and rituals. He simplified the commandments and kept to the basics. He brought everything down to one commandment and this laid everything bare. No amount of beating around the bush would matter anymore... do you love or not? That was the only question which had to be answered and St John so plainly brings it out in today's first reading.

Let your love be genuine(Rom 12): St. Paul too understood this key to being Christlike.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

28th December, 2015

1 Jn 1:5 - 2:2; Mt 2: 13-18

Today as I reflect on this event, I feel I have to gainsay my post the day before! Is Stephen truly the first martyr? What about the innocents who gave their life up for the sake of Christ!

The Innocence of the children and the innocence demanded of us: the difference is what is underlined in the first reading today. The innocence of the children was forced on them, they were helpless and vulnerable, but they were all for the Lord and the Lord's Reign. 

The innocence expected of us has to be of choice, a choice that is well informed of one's own goodness and limitations. I am expected to make a choice for the Lord in spite of the weaknesses, overcoming them with a sense of total surrender to the Lord and the Lord's Reign.