Monday, 1/7/13
I would like to draw your attention to a meaningful word in the
first reading, and to another meaningful word in the Gospel.
The meaningful word in the first reading is remain. St. John wrote, “Those who keep
his commandments remain in him, and
he in them, and the way we know that he remains
in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us.” Together the word remain and the similar
word abide appear fifty times in John’s Gospel.
As kids in our catechisms we learned there were two kinds of
grace: Actual Grace and Sanctifying Grace. I once asked my father what God’s
grace meant to him, and he said, “It is like a spiritual vitamin pill to help
you do things right.” That is a rough explanation of Actual Grace, but
Sanctifying Grace is something entirely different. It is God living in us, and
our living in God. John’s Gospel and his Letters principally tell us about this Sanctifying
Grace.
The meaningful word in the Gospel is the word repent. Matthew summarized the
preaching of Jesus as, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” I want
to point out that this is a poor translation of what Matthew quoted Jesus as
saying. Now, to repent means to blame oneself for past misdeeds. The Greek word
Matthew quoted Jesus as saying was metanolia
which literally means “Turn one’s thinking around.” It looks not to the past,
but to the future. What Jesus asked people to do was to put the past behind
them, and to make a fresh start.
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