The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, January 5, 2002
St. John Neumann
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 John 3:11-21
Psalm 100:1-5
John 1:43-51
A Reflection on Today's Scripture:
We live in a time that is great for setting agendas, goals and
measuring degrees of success or failure. We call it 'quality
assurance', taken from a business model. That is all fine, BUT Christ
asks that we do much more than that. He asks that we 'follow Him"
(John 1:43). To follow Him means letting Him take the lead, really
take the lead. When we 'follow Christ we have as our mentor our very
author. We have One who 'walks the walk' as we say today. He IS what
He asks us to do and be. For example, He not only suggests washing
the feet of each other, He does it. We read in today's gospel how
Christ gently, but clearly, called each of His apostles to 'follow
Him'.
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. John Neumann, a man who
heard and so generously responded to God's call. He came to the 'New
World', North America, to establish parishes and schools for
immigrants. St. John Neumann allowed God to lead him.
Our challenge, like that of the apostles, and later St. John Neumann
is to respond to the call of Christ "follow Me". This is not a
passive role on our part. It is the hardest thing we can do! Only God
knows what can happen....and the rewards can be 'heavenly'!
- Joan of Jesus, ocds
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All scripture quotes are from the Douay-Rheims edition of the Catholic Bible.
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