“Voices Proclaim and Souls Fly” by Beth DeCristofaro
If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. (1 John: 2:29, 3:1)
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, 'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.' (John 1:29)
Piety
Make of me, Lord, someone who within my commonplace life is able to proclaim “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord”
Study
Like many of us, I feel very beset by those faults and failings which remind me so daily that I have not yet “made it” to a place of goodness, obedience, true discipleship. Indeed, our upbringing is often more concerned with learning to do the right thing – in church, in school, at home – than living in the joy of being a brother/sister of Jesus. Being His sister or brother opens us to the Spirit who propels us to right living. How, John says, can it not when we know the Lamb of God is present!
Eugénie de Guérin, the mystic writer said “When the soul has laid down its faults at the feet of God, it feels as though it had wings”[i] What a joy! What an opportunity! I have so many faults that as I relinquish one at a time what joy will fill me! In a recent dark and frightening moment, I asked God, “Where are you?” A very small but distinct and powerful sense answered: “Inside you.” The dark and frightening reality did not change. I changed my perception to one of knowing God was, is and will be there within. Wings! Our relationship with the Lamb of God was made known by John, is now our reality and will be in our eternal life to come. God’s grace frees us to fly.
Action
As a New Years’ resolution perhaps, it would be freeing to look for joy in all moments instead of guilt or “how can I do better”! The Spirit pointed out the Lamb to John who accepted with unbridled certainty. Let us open our hearts to the Spirit’s movement. Fly!
[i] “Jesus 2000, Mark J Link, SJ, Thomas Moore Publishing, 1997, p. 53.
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