Reading I
1 Jn 3:22–4:6
Beloved:
We receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit whom he gave us.
Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God,
and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist
who, as you heard, is to come,
but in fact is already in the world.
You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.
They belong to the world;
accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world,
and the world listens to them.
We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us.
This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
Gospel
Mt 4:12-17, 23-25
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
His fame spread to all of Syria,
and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases
and racked with pain,
those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics,
and he cured them.
And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea,
and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
Meditation: 1 John 3:22–4:6
So many voices! Around us and within us, we hear conflicting messages: “Look out for Number One.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do your own thing.” “You’re wasting your time.” “Here (this medication, this publication, this program, this college, this job) lies the key to fulfillment.” How can we tell which voices come from God, which choices “please him” (1 John 3:22)?
John says one key to discerning whether a spirit or an idea is of God is to see whether it affirms or denies Jesus as the Son of God made flesh. A hallmark of our Catholic faith is its insistence that we are not just spirits trapped in bodies but that God is redeeming us body and soul. Our bodies are so important to him that his Son came to us in a human body, and took that resurrected body back to heaven with him.
What does this mean in practice? Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t just mean doing “spiritual” things like praying and going to church, essential as they are. In fact, the devil may even encourage us to focus on religious practices if we are still ignoring the ways we may be failing to live out our everyday lives in generous, forgiving love with the people around us. The Holy Spirit would never prompt us to say, “Sorry, I can’t help you right now; I’m busy praying.”
A follower of Jesus takes good care of his body—and of the whole earth that God created. God wants us to bring Jesus into our homes and our workplaces. Whether we are teaching theology or making rivets, we are to do our work for the glory of God, in a way that builds his kingdom on earth. We may or may not be called to do “great things” but, as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, we are all called to do “small things with great love.”
Spend a few moments reviewing your day with the Lord. What are your commitments and plans? Whom do you expect to meet? What parts of your day are still unscheduled? Ask Jesus to help you approach each planned event, and to accept each new opportunity, with the love he gives you.
“Jesus, thank you for coming to earth to share your life with me. Today I offer you my work and play, my tasks and relationships, my sufferings and celebrations. Let your love in me affect everything I do.”
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