Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 8, 2022 - Saturday after Epiphany, or Jan. 12
[1 John 5:14-21 and John 3:22-30]All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly. We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One. We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. [1 John]
The liturgical season of Christmas/Epiphany comes to an end this Sunday with the feast of the Baptist of the Lord, which is celebrated as a kind of second "epiphany." During the time after the celebration of Christmas, the first scriptures have been taken mostly from the First Letter of John, which focus on faith in Jesus as the One Whom God Has Sent. There is an adversarial tone which focuses on the contrast between believer and non-believer (the world). The "deadly sin" is non-belief or idolatry or apostasy or preaching wrongly about Jesus (anti-Christ). This seems particularly painful to the believers being expelled from synagogues that were their spiritual home because of their belief and preaching about Jesus as the fulfillment of all that the synagogue stood for.
Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus warns that faith in him would divide families and friends. What is tragic is the adversarial situation brought about in various ways between those who do believe! The rifts between Catholic and Orthodox (1054 AD) and Catholic and Protestant (1517 AD) are a scandal and efforts to heal these wounds in the community of Christian faith continue to have mixed results. Mutual "excommunications" may have been formally rescinded but reconciliation seems still far away.
In our own small ways where we live, the "discernment to know the one who is true" can be a source of unity in faith, even if not in liturgical practice. The effort to preach the gospel to the "world" is being hampered by division among the preachers. The task of mending the divisions remains on all levels. What can each of us do where we are? AMEN