The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas, Year C

Saint John left everything when he was called by Christ that fateful day he was on the boat mending the nets with his brother James and his father Zebedee. They held it to be an extreme honour and blessing that they should be called by the Son of God, so as to enter into his service, but more wonderfully, to enter into a living, life-long and transformative relationship with him.
John underwent with his brother, and with Philip and all the other apostles, what he knew so many others would be called to undergo. In the first reading, which is taken from his First Epistle, John begins speaking of numbers. He speaks of those who found it too difficult to commit to Christ, like a young man who is torn between keeping the love of his life, and making a lifelong commitment to her. He wonders if he has it in him. As Jesus gave John and the others the freedom to choose what they wanted to do with their lives, so too John knew he gives us all the same opportunity. Some of us are thrilled, and we jump right on board. Some of us are like the rich young man who once he heard the conditions, turned his back on Jesus and walked away. There are those, however, who made an initial pledge, and they too, for some reason known only to God himself, eventually left. John puts it in this way: “They went out from us, but they were not really of our number.”
This is interesting. “They were not really of our number.” Who is of the number of the true followers of Christ? John gives us an immediate answer: “If they had been (with us), they would have remained with us.” So, those who persevere in the teachings of our Lord, are considered in. It is to such as these that John grants his words of encouragement and benediction: “I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.”
How many lies surround us, my dear brothers and sisters. What a think smog of deceit the devil has planted like trees all around us. It definitely has to be the divine Gardener of our souls, to navigate us in his vineyard and garden, through the thick bushes and thorns that lay hidden beneath the vast array of traps Satan has managed to lay therein. He uses things like, the language of rights, as opposed to the language of virtue. Already we know that something is not true when a person keeps insisting on comfort and a support system to fall back on as they desire to live their evil ways. “If I have a baby because of sex, why should I keep it? I know, let me fight for my right to choose.” This is one of the more obvious ones. But it’s also seen in the language of, “Why did he get to have a car, and I didn’t?” The language of consistently comparing ourselves to others. This is another lie of the evil one. Hence, John knew, as perhaps all those who have been truly walking with Christ, that the answer is in an intimate, deep and profound relationship with our Lord. Jesus himself calls this, “the one thing necessary.” It is the one thing that will ground us and set us apart from the evils of this world.
In the gospel, the same John tells us how Jesus, the light of the world, came to us revealing truth. My brothers and sisters, let us embrace John’s gracious encouragement to continue to walk in the light, to walk in Christ, in his spirit, in his mind, so that this coming year will be one of the best of our lives. The grace will come from God, but it is up to us to receive that grace, like John and so many others. We can do this! Jesus is at our side. Glory be to God, and peace to all those of good will. Mary, Queen of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.