Christmas Season, Thursday, 1-4-24, Year B
Readings: 1st Reading 1 Jn 3:7-10; Ps 98:1,7-8,9; Gospel; Jn 1:35-42
Memorial: Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious
Theme: A New Life in Jesus
Today we celebrate St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious. She was born in the 13 states of colonial America and was raised in the Episcopalian faith. She married and had five children. After the death of her husband and through her great faith and love of God, she was inspired to seek out the Catholic Church and eventually converted to Catholicism. In 1809 she founded a community of teaching sisters known as the Sisters of Charity. She devoted her life to teaching of the poor and to teaching in parochial schools. She died in 1821 at the age of 47. In 1975 she became the first native born American citizen canonized as a saint by Pope Paul VI.
Her name is synonymous with catholic education institutions because of her great love for God and her neighbor. In return, God’s love remained in her and He rewarded her with sainthood through that love.
If you remember only one thing about God, remember that He is love. From love comes the virtues of Holiness, righteousness, forgiveness, and mercy. No matter what sins you have committed in the past, if you ask, God will forgive you and never, ever bring them up to you again. You can start over with a chance to do something righteous, like Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Saint John talks about the difference between those who sin and belong to the Devil and those who act righteously and belong to God in Jesus. Saint John is clear, “no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.”
God is perfect love, and He expects us to emulate His kind of love. We cannot be perfect in love if we are sinning and therefore cannot experience the beatific vision of God Himself in heaven. That is why we need purification before we enter heaven and experience God face-to-face. We are all sinners.
So, if we all are sinners, then we must not be with God but, instead, with the Devil, right? Isn’t that what Saint John is saying? If this is true, “Then who can be saved?” (Lk 18:26-27). Jesus gives the answer in today’s Gospel.
John the Baptist and two of his disciples were standing along a path. As Jesus walked by, John was inspired to say, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” At that moment the Holy Spirit inspired Andrew and the other disciple (either Saint John or Phillip presumably) to follow Jesus.
These two disciples were sinners. If we literally interpret Saint John’s reading, then these men belong to the Devil because of their sin. But Jesus, being God, is love, and what is impossible for human beings, is possible for God (Lk 18:26-27). Jesus invites them to come and see where He is staying, and He spends the day with the two disciples. Andrew is so converted that he left to go find his brother, Simon Peter, so he could meet Jesus and believe as Andrew did, that Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus then does something amazing. When He meets Simon Peter, He says, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas (Peter).” This act of renaming Simon Peter to Cephas is not trivial. In those days your name was very important. Your name usually came from your ancestral line and with it came the prestige and honor within the community. Jesus, by changing Simon Peter’s name, changed him and created a new identity, a new life as a child of God with all the ancestral heritage and prestige that it brings. Peter was forgiven of his sins in believing that Jesus was the Messiah. He begins a new life in Jesus and therefore now belongs to God Himself.
So, the lesson for today is one of forgiveness and hope for a new future so that our sinful selves can be converted and changed into one of righteousness. With God being love, anything is possible, even forgiveness, mercy, and the opportunity for a life of holy righteousness. And, as God does for us, we also should do for our neighbor, just as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton did for hers.
No sinner is ever lost, as long as they follow after Jesus, spend time with Him, and are granted a new name, i.e. forgiveness, found in the sacraments of Baptism, Confession, and Anointing of the Sick.
Without Jesus (God), the answer to the question, “Then who can be saved?” is, “no one.”
Saint James Catholic Church 