1 John 2:18-21,
Psalm 96: 1-2.11-12.13,
John 1:1-18 Full Readings
All is Well, The Word is With Us
Brethren today is the last day of the Year 2022 and on this day let us look back and see how the year has been. How has God been with us in different situations? How has God been a light and a lamp to my steps? Where have I left God aside in my business? What are the many blessing that God has showered upon me this year? Try to see God and his hand in everything and in every situation, you have been through in this year and thank Him. As John says in the first reading, you may also have seen that many antichrists have appeared (1 John 2:18); those who tried to take you away from the light that newborn king brings to the world to the darkness, which Satan and his Angels always seduce all to follow. You may also see that many of us suffered directly or indirectly with many life problems, challenges, misfortunes, losses and every kind of difficulties; indeed, it may have been a very difficult year for many of us.
However, whichever way the year has been, tough or not, doesn't mean that we stop thanking God for enabling us to reach this day. In fact, if it was not God, we would not have reached this far. This gives us more reasons to thank God and also thank the newborn king who came to be with us on Christmas day and has come to dispel all the darkness from our lives, from our community, from our churches, and from the world at large. Let welcome him in our lives and hearts so that we may become truly children of God for to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God (John 1:12). We don't need to be bad and think negative about the coming year 2023. Even the most “impossible” year can be made incredible with God, the light of the world. Even the most sinful year can be turned to the good by repentance, forgiveness, and total commitment to Jesus. Even if you have endured such a year as Job had, you have so much for which to be thankful. No suffering or tragedy should overshadow the “love upon love, grace upon grace” (John 1:16) that God pours out over you. “Of His fullness we have all had a share” (John 1:16).
The Lord has indeed again “crowned the year” with His bounty (Ps 65:12). “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just.” “Give thanks to God the Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). “Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness” (Col 3:15). “Let the last word be, He is all in all! Let us praise Him the more, since we cannot fathom Him, for greater is He than all His works” (Sir 43:28-29). Let us be positive again for in the Lord we will be conquerors and we know that “All is well ends well.” End this year by accepting God’s grace through his newborn son Jeus Christ. Thank You, Jesus, for 2022. I love You with all my heart.
As we end the year, we are presented with the highest theological Gospel, as we reflect on John's prologue, and we see that God is never changing but changes all situations of life. In the beginning–before any of our days were numbered, before human beings existed before God separated light from darkness (Genesis 1: 3-4)–Our Lord is. In our world, time passes, we grow old, and everything is in flux, so we draw consolation from the truth that God never changes. He loved us just as much before the world was created as he does today and will for all eternity. How blessed we are, mere creatures, to be so beloved by the Creator of all! God will turn the new year into blessings and joy.
Perhaps what is more consoling is that God looked for us first. Our God came looking for us by sending his Word to become flesh and live among us. “It is not that we have loved God, but that he has first loved us” (Cf. 1 John 4:10). What is it that so attracts God to us? The Bible uses images of the love of a spouse or a parent to help us understand how deeply God desires to make us his own. He knows that this is where our true happiness lies. Often, he looks for man in mysterious ways, but in Jesus Christ, his eternal Word, he plainly shows himself and his desire to be with us. And the reason he came to earth and took on human nature was to dispel darkness from our world and lives. And so, because of his love for the world and for the salvation of us, "while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command" (Wisdom 18:14-16).
And so, the Word of God became truly human and truly God, Jesus our Lord. John describes Jesus as God's creative, life-giving and light-giving Word that has come to earth in human form. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Jesus is the wisdom and power of God which created the world and sustains it who assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. Jesus became truly man while remaining truly God. "What he was, he remained, and what he was not he assumed" (from an early church antiphon for morning prayer). Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother. From the time of the Apostles the Christian faith has insisted on the incarnation of God's Son "who has come in the flesh" (1 John 4:2).
By his coming to the world, we not only received grace upon grace, we not only became saved, we not only beheld the glory of God and saw who really God is through Jesus, but we also, for us who accepted Jesus, became partakers of Christ's divine nature, as children of God, the divine adoption. And so, if we are going to always behold the glory of God, we will do it through Jesus Christ. Jesus became the partaker of our humanity so we could be partakers of his divinity (2 Peter 1:4). God's purpose for us, even from the beginning of his creation, is that we would be fully united with him. When Jesus comes, God is made known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By our being united in Jesus, God becomes our Father and we become his sons and daughters. We therefore do not need to be afraid of how this year has ended and what next might bring for us because we have the most loving Father, and he will surely take care of us and every situation according to his divine plan.
Reflect today on the experiences of this year. Where has been God and what is God teaching and calling you to through these experiences? You will find many reasons to thank God; and ask courage and grace to enter into 2023 gracefully. Remember that welcoming Jesus the newborn king, will enable us to move on to the next year with joy and happiness as children of God and knowing that God's love never leaves us alone.
Let us Pray
Almighty God and Father of light, your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night. Open our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace especially in the new coming year. Amen
Be blessed on this last day of the year 2022 and May God grant you a prosperous NEW YEAR 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment