First reading 1 John 3:7-10
No-one sins who has been begotten by God
My children, do not let anyone lead you astray:
to live a holy life
is to be holy just as he is holy;
to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil,
since the devil was a sinner from the beginning.
It was to undo all that the devil has done
that the Son of God appeared.
No one who has been begotten by God sins;
because God’s seed remains inside him,
he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.
In this way we distinguish the children of God
from the children of the devil:
anybody not living a holy life
and not loving his brother
is no child of God’s.
Responsorial Psalm 97(98):1,7-9
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.
Let the sea and all within it, thunder;
the world, and all its peoples.
Let the rivers clap their hands
and the hills ring out their joy
at the presence of the Lord: for he comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the world with justice
and the peoples with fairness.
Gospel John 1:35-42
‘We have found the Messiah’
As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher – ‘where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.
One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock
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A living encounter with Jesus
The gospel recounts to us an encounter that John’s disciples had with Jesus. It marked a turning point in their lives because, in Jesus, they encountered God Himself, who welcomed them into His own life of love.
Like the disciples, we also need to have our own living encounters with Jesus. We can meet Him in concrete moments during the day. For example, when we pray and experience Him alive and real in our lives and feel loved as we are by God, or when we sense that we are accompanied by a faithful God through a challenging situation we find ourselves in, or when He challenges us to follow His selfless way of loving someone, etc. As we enter this new year, Jesus invites us to encounter Him again: “Come and see”. Let us heed His call and welcome Him, the Word made flesh, into our lives as He welcomes us into His.
Reflective question:
How do I encounter Jesus welcoming me into His life of love?
How do I encounter Jesus welcoming me into His life of love?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year B” by Sr Monika Punan FMVD.
