“My only ambition is to serve God in the most obscure tasks.”

 

St. Andre Bessette, religious

 1st Reading: 1 John 3:22-4:6

Whatever we ask, we shall receive,

Since we keep his commands and do what pleases him. His command is,

that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, as he has commanded us.

 

Whoever keeps his commands remains in God and God in him. It is by the Spirit God has given us,

that we know he lives in us. Do not trust every inspiration My beloved, do not trust every inspiration.

Test the spirits, to see whether they come from God, because many false prophets are now in the world.

 

How will you recognize the Spirit of God? Any spirit recognizing Jesus as the Christ,

who has taken our flesh, is of God. But any spirit that does not recognize Jesus, is not from God,

it is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard of his coming, and even, now, he is in the world.

 

You, my dear children, are of God, and you have already overcome these people,

because the one who is in you, is more powerful than he who is in the world.

They are of the world and the world inspires them, and those of the world listen to them.

 

We are of God, and those who know God, listen to us, but those who are not of God,

ignore us. This is how we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of falsehood as well.

 

Ps 2:7bc-8, 10-12a I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.

 

Gospel: Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.

He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum, a town by the lake of Galilee,

at the border of Zebulun and Naphtali.

 

In this way, the word of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled:

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, crossed by the Road of the Sea;

and you, who live beyond the Jordan, Galilee, land of pagans:

The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light;

on those who live in the land of the shadow of death, a light has shone.

 

From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim his message,

"Change your ways: the kingdom of heaven is near."

 

Jesus went around all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing all kinds of sickness and disease among the people.

 

The news about him spread through the whole of Syria;

and the people brought all their sick to him, and all those who suffered: the possessed,

the deranged, the paralyzed; and he healed them all. Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Ten Cities,

from Jerusalem, Judea, and from across the Jordan.

 

Reflection:

"The kingdom of heaven is near."

In today's Gospel, the child worshipped by the Magi has now grown up.

Jesus has begun his ministry, and the prophecy is fulfilled:

Christ is the light of all the nations, and his message rings out to all peoples in every generation:

"Change your ways: the kingdom of heaven is near." This is the call to conversion,

to change our way of life to follow God's ways faithfully.

 

But we can only repent and change if we come to realize that we have sinned,

that our way of life is selfish or unjust. To do this we need to spend time reflecting on our actions.

We need to examine our conscience and develop a practice of discerning the right course of action,

to see if our ideas and inspirations are following God's will or veering away from it.

 

Let's pray that the light of Christ will shine in our minds and hearts,

so that we can choose to follow his ways of truth, of justice and love.