We are in the first week of the new
year of 2012, and we are still in the Christmas season. We will be hearing excerpts from the letters
of John in our first readings this week.
These letters were probably produced by the same community that wrote
the Gospel of John. That community wrote
these letters probably more than 100 years after Jesus’ birth, so they were
wrestling with a great deal in terms of 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
the children of God. However, we hear
the community deal very openly about sin, about the need to give up our
sinfulness 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 it
was very challenging and difficult at times as well. Every week, we would have to write down a
pastoral ministry conversation that we had with a patient whom we visited, and
then our professor and fellow classmates would give us a critique of that
conversation, high-lightings 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. I really grew a lot that
summer in my ministry, and I think it shows how important it is to look at our
sins and to try to achieve a conversion of heart in 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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