31/12/2023

I am aware that I can speak only for myself. I am, as are we all, a unique being, and I have, as do we all, a unique mission to conform my will to the teaching that is finalised in the life, death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth. 

There are millions of us who start this day aware and share this Mission to know, love and serve for we also know that our lives can be brought to perfection, we can avoid sin because "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life." We are saved ultimately by the Sacrifice of Calvary.

Today's readings are chosen to illustrate the Holiness of the Holy Family. Before Calvary, only the Chosen People had clear instructions on how to live a life of holiness. First of all they had to fear God not because he is all powerful but  in thanks and in awe for the deeds with which he revealed himself. Mary and Joseph lived in accordance with the Law. 

From the Presentation in the Temple to the finding of the lost child Jesus, again in the Temple,  we have no record or remembrance of Jesus as child, teenager or young adult. We can be sure, however, that during those hidden years the completely human Son of Father Son and Holy Spirit lived, as do all Jews, within the rules revealed to the Patriarchs. 

The Providence of God has placed us in the world 2,000 years after Jesus. We know that God has completed his teaching and that there is nothing about our Mission today that has changed from that faced by all the first Christians, nameless to us as most of them are.

They had to be clothed in "sincere compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience". They who had been forgiven had to forgive others for they had been called to become one body. The Mystical Body of Christ is clothed in Love. It is the undamageable source of all holiness and independent from the shameful tangle that we have made of Peter's Mission.

Much has changed in the Kingdom of this World many times since those days but the Mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven are still open to those who align themselves with the Father by following the Holy Spirit and let the Peace of Christ fill their beings.

Dear Lord, you know what there is in the depths of my being. You know that my own sincerity is a very fragile thing and that  I am more likely to be filled with jealousy and ire rather than kindness and humility. Knowing this about myself is, I hope, a step forward for me but true holiness is your gift and it is I who have to accept with thanks what you have done for all humanity. May Mary who since the Incarnation has never been separated from Jesus lead us all into an awareness of the loveliness of Father Son and Holy Spirit knowing that if we hand over our lives to Him, we can become the Image and Likeness that he created . All things are possible to God.Amen!