Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 3, 2008 - Christmas Weekday
[1 John 2:29-3:6 and John 1:29-34]If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what Love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the word does not know us is that it did not know him.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...." is an old expression to describe the behavior of a child that reminds someone of one of the parents of the child. It would seem that "acting in righteousness" is the way in which someone might recognize a Christian as a child of God. But, the author points out that sometimes this recognition is lacking because the observer doesn't know the parent! In reflecting on this I see some of the occasional tension that exists between the proclamation of the Gospel and the everyday living of that gospel. Kindness and courtesy are universal values but they do not necessarily identify a person as a "child of God." A person's lifestyle may the the occasion of an inquiry as to the motivation of that person - for good or for evil! That inquiry can lead to "evangelization" (a word that makes many Catholics very uncomfortable). When we are baptized as Christians (assuming the full liturgical ceremony can be celebrated), the priest or deacon anoints us with sacred chrism on the forehead using the words, "as Christ was anointed as priest, prophet and king, so may you live as a member of his body, bearing witness by what you say and do!" If we are to be recognized as God's children and as bearers of God's love, we must also be willing to speak about the God whose love impels us to act with righteousness. This is no abstraction, as the Gospel of Matthew reminds us in the scene of the final judgment! It can mean anything from the Widow's two small coins or the cup of water to the greatest acts of personal giving (from martyrdom to financial philanthropy). It is not OUR righteousness that we must proclaim, but God's! AMEN
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