We are in the first week of our new year, which is still a part of the Christmas season. We hear excerpts from the letters of John in our first readings this week. These letters were probably written by the same community that wrote the Gospel of John. That community wrote these letters probably more than 100 years after Jesus’ birth; at that time, the Early Church was still trying to understand who Jesus really was. We can hear this community being called to have confidence in its faith in the Lord, in the identity it has as children of God. However, we hear that this community is dealing very openly about sin, about the need to find ways to confront our sins and to resist temptation if we are to truly become followers of Christ.
When I was a seminarian, I spent a summer working as a chaplain at Baptist Hospital in Jackson. That was a very wonderful experience, but very challenging and very intense as well. Every week, we would write down a pastoral ministry conversation that we had with a patient whom we had visited; our professor and our fellow classmates would then give us a critique of that conversation, high-lighting our pastoral strengths and weaknesses. Even though we all have our gifts as well as our struggles, it is difficult to look at them and to name them and to try to grow through them. I really grew a lot that summer in my ministry. From that lesson, it showed me how important it is to look at our failing and weaknesses, to try to achieve a conversion of heart and to grow on our journey of faith.
May we all acknowledge ourselves as true children of God, but may we also accept that responsibilities and challenges that this identity entails.
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