Reflection on Today's Readings, 7th Day of Octave the Nativity of the Lord, Friday 31st December, 2021
Texts: 1 John 2:18-21; Psalm 96: 1-2.11-12.13; John 1:1-18
Today's gospel reading takes our minds back to the beginning while the first reading talks of the last hour. In this way we are called to retrospection; we are to review our lives. We are to review our relationship with God. We are reminded in the gospel reading that we owe our lives to God. We are also told that our life is hidden in Christ, the Word of God. It is said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life". Whoever wants to know the mystery of life should come to Jesus, should seek to know Him. The more we know Jesus Christ the more we know ourselves. The closer we are to Jesus the more authentic our lives become. It is added thus: "and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Calling the life light gives the idea that the life refers to a way of living rather than a vital force, principle of living rather than the living force in man.
When we talk of a life hidden in Jesus Christ, we should look beyond vital force to manner of living, the mode of existence. Hence, when it is said that life is hidden in Christ, it means that He has shown us the way to live in Himself. St. John, in his first letter, says, "By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, 'I abide in him,' ought to walk just as he walked" (1John 2: 5b-6). We are to live our lives the way He has lived His life. God has shown us how to live in His Son. This calls to mind the prophetic words of Micah: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). The kind of life God requires of us is found in Jesus Christ: life of love, life of holiness, life of humility, life of righteousness, life of sacrifice, life of forgiveness, etc. As we review our lives, today, let us ask ourselves: Have I loved enough? Do I love only those who love me? Am I righteous? am I holy? Am I humble? Am I forgiving? Am I sacrificing? Am I just to my neighbours and God?
St. John, in today's first reading, tells us that this is the last hour, we are not to pay heed to deceptive spirit. Any spirit that is offering us another life different from the one found in Jesus Christ is a deceptive spirit. Such spirit is the spirit of antichrist. St. John says, "Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us."
What St. John reminds us, today, is that there will be deception everywhere when it is the last hour. This is true about the last hour. Today Church will be parked full; people just want new year to meet them in the Lord's presence. Their coming to Church is not out of genuine repentance nor out of love. They have no plan to serve God. Once the year begins they continue with their normal ways of life. Let us stop deceiving ourselves, let us make year 2022 a different one.
It is also true that some of us are here out of genuine love for God. Let us continue on the sure foundation we are standing on. St. John says to us thus: "But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth."
Almighty ever-living God, who in the Nativity of your Son established the beginning and fulfilment of all religion, grant, we pray, that we may be numbered among those who belong to him, in whom is the fullness of human salvation. Amen. (Collect)
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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