“Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father” (I John 2:24).
John is writing these words to encourage his community who has been wounded by a split in the community with those who walked away from the truth of the faith. The major point at issue appears to have been the identity of Jesus. Those who walked away were those who refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God.
Both factions believed in and were followers of Jesus but the ones that opposed the truth were those that could not bring themselves to believe that he was fully human and fully divine. For them how could the divinity of God enter humanity? They could not believe that the Son became human, that he only appeared to be, or his body was just like a glove to be cast off.
Yet, that is exactly the opposite of what we have been celebrating this past week, which has been the incarnation, the reality that the Son of God was conceived in and born of the Virgin Mary. This is why we also celebrated yesterday that Mary is the Mother of God. Jesus truly is fully divine and fully human.
John is encouraging those who did not leave to remain in the truth that they have been taught, so that what they “heard from the beginning” would remain with them. What they heard from the beginning was to remain in the love of Jesus. As Jesus taught: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23). John would echo this teaching just a few verses later: “For this is the message you had heard from the beginning: we should love one another” (I John 3:11).
In I John 2:24 that we read today, the word, remain, appears three times. Remain comes from the Greek word menō. It can also be translated as stay, reside, or abide. I like abide. If we want to know the truth about Jesus, we need to know Jesus and abide in him and his love. The prayers we pray, the words we read in the Bible, the Masses we participate in are not to be just motions we go through like spiritual calisthenics. They are opportunities for growing in our relationship with Jesus and his Father.
This is just as true with our relationships with one another. If we do not pay attention to one another, listen but do not hear, are not there for each other, a distance grows, doubt creeps in, and trust weakens. When we are actively engaged in each other’s lives, hear as well as listen, communicate, support each other in our ups and downs, we grow closer, confidence grows, and trust strengthens.
We resist the lies and receive the truth when we slow down enough to receive and abide in the one who loves us more than we can imagine. The one who knows every hair on our head and who has carved us in the palm of his hand: Our loving God and Father.
To grow as disciples of Jesus in this new year, to grow in our relationships, we are invited again and again to breathe and slow down, to receive and ponder his word, to receive his Body and Blood, to see and serve him in one another, and to rest and abide in his word, his presence, and the love of his Father that he has shared with us. It is very easy to get diverted, distracted, to rev up and get busy, but our primary goal of this day and this year is to breathe, rest, receive, and abide in the love of Jesus who is fully God and fully man, his love that he so much wants to share with us.
When we make time to do that each day, we will abide in the love of the Son, and so abide in the Father, as we experience the love between them, the Holy Spirit. Every thought, decision, action, and word will then flow from the love of our Father who created us. As we are purified and transformed by his love, we will continue to heal and so will our relationships with one another.
Photo: Saturday evening after Mass at St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL
Spiritual Stepping Stones 