The Kingdom is at hand

Jesus begins His own ministry; instead of establishing a center from where He would preach, He goes around and calls people to Himself. He has not stopped doing this since that day. I am called; personally called to follow Jesus wherever He goes.

I hear the proclamation: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The journey of a Christian begins with this act of repentance; I am challenged since the beginning to change my mind, my opinion about what God is doing. How many times I think I have figured God out, I can read His mind, I pretend to know what He is going to do next. Fool! I have to change my mind, being constantly opened to what He is going to say, to do, to reveal. Repentance: a humbling act that gives me freedom.

The Kingdom of God is at hand. He will repeat this message to the disciples when He will send them out. He spent an incredible amount of time teaching about this topic. I think it deserves to be understood better. Not a geographical place, of course, but still concretely real - the established presence of God living in our midst.
The Kingdom belongs to God; only He can establish it. Yet, I can create the condition for this establishment. Never thought of it, I am involved in this. When I pray “Thy Kingdom come,” I can hear Him say to me: “what are you going to do so that My kingdom may come.” Yes! What can I do?
Jesus talked about the kingdom being present in our midst and also within us. What a great gift: the Kingdom is within me. It begins with me. It begins when I say Yes to Him and live out His words, one after another. That’s how He wants me to love Him.
But the Kingdom is also in our midst. The second reading of this week, from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, speaks of the necessary condition for the Kingdom to be established among us - the unity that comes from loving one another.
Unity and the Kingdom. One and the same? I can see how important it is to remain focused on reciprocal love. When we love one another, God lives in our midst. This is what really matters then, this is what makes us true Church.
I know what I must do, now: live out the kingdom that is in me so that it can be established in our midst. Another call to love, but this time I know that I am an active participant in the Kingdom that is at hand but that has already started being established here.

Follow the Lamb

John helps us to focus on Jesus. I believe there is a point in our lives when we have to make a personal choice to follow Jesus. Nothing can substitute for Him. The reason we pray, the reason we go to Church or read the Bible, etc, must be to be close with Him. Have I made the fundamental choice to follow Jesus and let nothing take HIs place? not even what I do for Him?

John points to Jesus and identifies Him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” I wonder, if He has taken away the sin of the world why do we experience sin all the time? True, we are sinners... all the time. But why is it that some sins seem to be more “present” than others?

Jesus does take away our sins but sometimes we have a hard time to give them up to Him. We want to do everything by ourselves... even get rid of our sins. How can that be possible? We cannot erase sins from our souls! This only complicates our lives...

Then, we have to come up with a plan. A plan that can help us correspond to the Grace that He have given us. How can I experience victory if I fight with no shield or sword? 

A Plan, then; first step is to identify the biggest sin, then come up with a solution so that I can avoid triggering the sin.

I pray that I may discover more and more what the role of sin is and most especially the great gift that is to have Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

In the waters of new life

By saying Yes to God's will I can be reborn

The Christmas cycle ends. With the feast of the Baptism of the Lord we are closing the Christmas season.

Reading the story closely, I understand the difficulties that both John the Baptist and the early communities had about Jesus’ baptism. Why would he go to be baptized? Why forgiveness of sin? Wasn’t Jesus the one without sin?

Jesus brings with Him the sin of the nations, of all ages. Jesus is bringing with Him my sins as well. I know that whatever happens to him happens to all of us. With the forgiveness of sin, the Trinity allows me to be born and re-born everyday. What a great gift I have found!!!!!

The baptism of Jesus challenged the early christian communities! My own baptism challenges me. How do I live my own life as a child of God? Do I keep that “dignity” given to me unstained?

As a community, how can we grow in our understanding as members of God’s household?

I know we have to grow; the challenge exists and we have to keep the light burning.

The Courage to follow the star

There is something wonderful about this story - God’s revelation now reaches all the ends of the world. We are all invited to encounter Christ: it doesn’t matter who we are, where we come from or.. whatever.

God wants us to encounter Jesus and does all that He can - He gives us all a star, guidance and direction in life. God uses what we are into, what we like and are interested and invites us to journey through it. The challenge is to follow the guidance that God provides. How many times we prefer to do what we want and ask God either to make it happen or to clean up after ourselves when things go wrong.

What is the star that God has sent us? sent me?

I am saddened by the other characters in the story. Herod and his scholars knew where the Messiah would be born and yet they stayed home. They asked the Magi to go and then go back and tell them all about. WOW... centuries of waiting and that’s all they did. Sure, I understand: this wasn’t the first time someone claimed to be the messiah, but how many of these wannabes had people from the east undertake such a journey. The Magi were Herod’s star. He didn’t follow.

Not only we are to follow the star but we are also a star for someone else. Would God entrust us with guiding someone to Christ? Do we understand how much He loves us that He asks us to do what He did in the past?

I want to live this feast totally taken by following the star that God has given me.