Christmas Weekday
Today John tells us in the first reading that the people at the time did not recognize Christians because “they never recognized the Son.” That was the first century! Has much changed since? And who are we Christians? “We are God’s children now; what we shall later be has not yet come to light.”
Jesus is the Father’s natural son; we are his adopted children. In law does the adopted child have any less rights than the legitimate child? The concept is mindboggling! But that is who we are now, God’s children with all the rights to inheritance. And at the end of time we shall claim that inheritance: “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
How can we fathom this? We can’t. “For now we see,” St. Paul tells us, “in a mirror darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part; but then I shall know fully even as I was fully known.” Meanwhile, we live purely with Jesus in our minds, in our hearts and in our hands. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us contemplate this mystery of divine filiation during the rest of the Christmas season.