Tuesday, December 27, 2011

What we have looked upon and touched with our hands...


St. John, whose feast we celebrate today, is an amazing person to look to when discerning a vocation.  Why?  It wasn't seeing the Babe in the manger at Bethlehem.  But John's own words in his Gospel when he arrived at the tomb on that first Easter morning:  he "saw and believed."  Not swaddling clothes, but the burials cloths are what cemented his faith.

Belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as John so eloquently expresses in the opening lines of his first letter: 

What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon
and touched with our hands
concerns the Word of life --
for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us --
what we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

(1 John 1:1-4)

As you sit and ponder these words today, ask yourself a few simple questions:  how do I see Christ today?  how do I touch Him?  how do I proclaim His presence to those around me?

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