As scripture scholar Gerhard Lohfink concluded, God “needs” the Church – needs it to manifest to the world what unity really means – to draw all people to its shining example. How can the world see or know God if it can’t find God in us?

Feast of of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

1 John 2:22-28

Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

J ohn 1:19-28 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" (20) He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." (21) And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." (22) They said to him then, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" (23) He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, `Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." (24) Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. (25) They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" (26) John answered them, "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, (27) even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." (28) This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan , where John was baptizing.

Meditation by Robert P Heaney

At first blush the reading from the first letter of John is perplexing – with charges of “liar” and “anti-Christ”. Why does the Church give us this reading – especially today while we are still in the glow of Christmas?

It is helpful to know that, when the letter was written, the Johannine community was splitting apart, probably over differences in belief about the divinity of Christ. The author says directly that he is writing this letter to protect his community from break-away members who seem to have denied that God was fully present in Jesus, the Christ. Many who call them Christian today probably share in that same mistake, but an even more fundamental problem is the tendency of human communities to split into factions – to follow their own understandings and declare all others wrong, to label them “so-called Christians”, to report one another to the bishop (or even to Rome). This is a great sadness.

Jesus prayed at the Last Supper to his Father that “they all might be one, as you Father in Me and I in You” (John 17:21). Except to ask for his Father’s guidance, that’s about the only thing we know that Jesus did pray for. It is as clear a command to us as anything I can think of. Still, it is a prayer to God, emphasizing the fact that true unity is God’s work, not a human accomplishment. But we can certainly impede that work, as we so often do. As scripture scholar Gerhard Lohfink concluded, God “needs” the Church – needs it to manifest to the world what unity really means – to draw all people to its shining example. How can the world see or know God if it can’t find God in us?

It may be oddly comforting to know that this tendency to divisiveness goes back to the earliest days of the Church, as the first reading (and many other passages in the New Testament) show. It is certainly not a modern development. But its stubborn persistence in human enterprise can’t be taken as something we should accept, just because it is ancient. Not all of the readings the Church puts before us are uniformly edifying. Some serve to keep us in touch with reality. This sad chapter in the life of the community of the beloved disciple is a poignant example.

The divinity of Christ is a central creedal issue – non-negotiable. But so is unity . . . Today we’re divided less over theological concepts as over rules and regulations, each elevated in our polemic to non-negotiable status. But so is unity . . .

I pray to God, as Jesus did, that we all may be one. And I will start by shedding my self-righteousness, my adamant insistence that I am right and you are wrong, and my pride – the features that more often than not divide us. I ask you to do the same. What a New Year’s resolution that could be!

Supplementary Reading

WAIT oN THE loRD

So then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon , and fourteen from then to the birth of the Messiah. – Matthew 1:17

I had been unhappy with the way things were going in my workplace. I concluded that I had to leave. So during the evening Mass, I fervently prayed for God’s guidance. That same evening, I had dinner with my high school friends. When I announced that I was on the lookout for a job, I was offered a position that would enable me to use my new talents and skills and provide an opportunity for me to revert to my original career as an IT professional.

The speed of God’s perfect answer to my prayer was overwhelming. But that’s not the way it always happens.

Sometimes, when we ask something from God, He agrees with what we ask for so He says, “Yes.” Other times, He wants something better for us so He says, “No.” And a lot of times, when He wants the best for us, He says, “Wait.” It took 42 generations before God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled. The culmination was Jesus, our Emmanuel, and final reconciliation with God. I’m sure that was way beyond what Abraham would have prayed for or even imagined. But in the end, we all got the best. --- Cecil Lim

REFLECTION:

Are you still waiting? Then God must be busy preparing what’s best for you.

Thank You for Your faithfulness, Lord.

For meditation/readings of the previous days/months , please click any of the following links:
http://his-ways-better-than-our-ways.blogspot.com/
http://www.mabuhayradio.com/sections/the-daily-bread.html
http://butuanglobalforum.org/cgi-bin/dboard/YaBB.pl?num=1229339492/220