Since I am new at this, blogging that is, I have not yet figured out how to insert more than one video at a time. This is the reason there are three separate entries for videos below - all pertaining to All Saints' Day!
Readings for today: Rev. 7:2-4,9-14; Ps. 23(24); 1Jn 3:1-3; Mt. 5:1-12
I don't know where to start. The readings are all so wonderful today. If I commented on each one, you would stop reading this before getting to the end (you might do that anyway!), so I just content myself to comment on the first letter of John, one of my favourites.
John addresses a number of issues in this letter, but one thing he wants us to understand is the importance of our baptism and how this should essentially change our lives. "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and we are!" The Greek used here gives us a few insights. First, the word "see", like in yesterday's post, connotes a certain knowledge. Therefore, "understand" may even be better in this case. The word John uses for "has given" is in the perfect tense in Greek. This may seem completely unimportant to us, but to anyone with Greek ears, it has a particular meaning. The perfect tense in Greek connotes the past (as it does in all modern languages), but, unlike in English, it has repercussions until the present. In other words, to a Greek, it might sound like this: understand what love the Father has given and still continues to give us. Isn't it a wonderful thought that we have a God who continuously pours out his love upon us? So much so that we can be called "Children of God", and, lest we think it is only an appellation, John adds, "And we are!" John continues, "When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Remember that for the Israelites, no one could see God and live. Yet, through sanctifying grace received in baptism, God has given us the gift, that's what grace is, of being his children. Now, may we only live as his children, as children of the light! How do we do this? John will tell us later in the letter (this is not in today's reading), "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (4:12) So, my friends, go out loving one another today, thereby showing that are truly a child of God and belong to his family in heaven with all the saints and angels! As the opening prayer of Mass says today, "Today we rejoice in the holy men and women of every time and place. May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love." Have a wonderful All Saints' Day!
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