Today's Readings:
1 John 2:29--3:6
Ps 98:1, 3-6
John 1:29-34
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010308.shtml
Behold! The Eucharist is the Lamb of God!
In every Mass, we hear the presiding priest say the words of John the Baptist that are quoted in today's Gospel passage: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Behold what? A wafer of bread? The priest isn't showing us something that's visible to our eyes. "Behold" means "Look with the vision of faith and see Jesus! He is here! Accept him! Worship him! Receive him!"
To which we reply: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed."
With this healing, we're freed from our sins thanks to the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass if we're truly repentant. With this healing, we receive Jesus in all of his humanity and his divinity. With this healing, we can leave church reformed and renewed into the likeness of Jesus. We become tabernacles of his True Presence.
Is Mass that kind of experience for you? It requires full attention for what's going on in Mass — in all parts of the Mass. Jesus is present in the community song that initiates the Mass. Jesus is present in the Penitential Rite, listening for sincerity and genuine awareness of our sinfulness. Jesus is present in the Liturgy of the Word; the Word read and the Word preached, the Word broken open like bread to nourish our spiritual growth (and when the homily is poor or absent, the Holy Spirit preaches to us privately; straying thoughts are often an action of God). Jesus is also present in all the prayers of Mass.
Like John the Baptist, we can say: "I did not know him." In other words: "I saw only bread and wine, but the Holy Spirit revealed to me the presence of my beloved Savior" or "I was sinful and didn't realize the damage I had done, but the Holy Spirit gently exposed my sins and gave me help in overcoming them" or "I was wounded and did not know how to be healed, but the Holy Spirit led me to the right resources, the right counselor, the right doctor."
Today's first reading says that we are God's children now; however, what we shall be after we die in Christ has not yet been revealed. We won't know it or understand it or experience it until we die, and then "we shall be like him." We're only partially like him now, because we only partially understand him. After death, "we shall see him as he is" fully, and then we will want to be like him fully; in whatever ways we are not like him we will gladly purge from us (which is the process called purgatory).
During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the bread stops being bread and becomes the Body of Jesus, and the wine becomes his Blood, time disappears and we're united to our Lord who lives in eternity. Through the Eucharist, we experience a taste of heaven. We become like Jesus, and we stay like him after Mass in the ways that we imitate him.
Although St. Paul might claim credit for promoting devotion to the Holy Name because Paul wrote in Philippians that God the Father gave Christ Jesus “that name that is above every name” (see 2:9), this devotion became popular because of 12th-century Cistercian monks and nuns but especially through the preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan.
Bernardine used devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus as a way of overcoming bitter and often bloody class struggles and family rivalries or vendettas in Italian city-states. The devotion grew, partly because of Franciscan and Dominican preachers. It spread even more widely after the Jesuits began promoting it in the 16th century.
In 1530, Pope Clement V approved an Office of the Holy Name for the Franciscans. In 1721, Pope Innocent XIII extended this feast to the entire Church.
Comment:
Quote:Jesus died and rose for the sake of all people. No one can trademark or copyright Jesus' name. Jesus is the Son of God and son of Mary. Everything that exists was created in and through the Son of God (see Colossians 1:15-20). The name of Jesus is debased if any Christian uses it as justification for berating non-Christians. Jesus reminds us that because we are all related to him we are, therefore, all related to one another.
“Glorious name, gracious name, name of love and of power! Through you sins are forgiven, through you enemies are vanquished, through you the sick are freed from their illness, through you those suffering in trials are made strong and cheerful. You bring honor to those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the toiler, you sustain the weary” (St. Bernardine of Siena).
Published by Jacob Soo
Credits to American Catholic.org and Good News Ministries
No comments:
Post a Comment