On this day after Christmas, several things come together to reinforce a tremendous message so strong that I cannot but help to believe that the message is Divinely communicated and reiterated for me and other open hearts and minds. This message directs our faith in God and our faith in each other and directly builds up both our relationship with God and each other.
Today’s 2nd reading, my pastor’s homily and an article in Parade Magazine combine to communicate and reiterate an important Divine message. Everyone (in our lives) is a gift of God. What they give us and how they treat us…what we give them and how we treat them are gifts as well. When we use our gifts to serve others, we most effectively build up and encourage the People of God. When that happens, we experience the way of life that Jesus lived and modeled for us. Through the imitation of Jesus, our model, we communicate God’s love, and we experience God’s love.
Conversely, when we think only of ourselves, we loose what God offers us….we loose out of experiencing the Light of Christ from others. Our God-given gifts are used ineffectively when we keep them to ourselves.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians (3: 12-21), he invites us to “put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” while “bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” St Paul goes on to say “and over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection.” St Paul invites us to do everything with gratitude in our hearts to God and to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
My pastor, Fr. Vincent began his homily asking us (the congregation) if we had a wonderful Christmas. He opened with talking about our holiday time with family. Migrating from mentioning about spending time with family, he said that in reality, we can get on each others nerves. In reality, we don’t always exist in harmony. And after giving a few humorous examples, he brilliantly took the congregation through an exercise, which was an awesome teachable moment. He asked us to prayerfully think of one of our family members. He reminded us that the person we were prayerfully thinking about was a gift of God.
As I participated, I initially thought about the differences between my family member and me. …how those differences causes us to not always see eye to eye. But as Fr. Vincent took us through his guided reflection, I was guided to the source of love that brought our family together and how the source of love, God dwells in us and in the midst of our family when we care for each other and take care of one another. My heart and mind were brought back to the words from the second reading from Colossians and all of the behaviors and character traits St Paul encouraged in the early Christians and in us: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…and to do all that with love…as Christ did and does for us.
Finally, the third source of inspiration this early Sunday morning was Parade Magazine’s article about Oprah. The article written by Lynn Sherr was written in interview format. What jumped out at me was Oprah’s answer to one of the last questions. “In all of the years that you’ve been doing such successful television, what have you learned from people?”
Oprah responds, “Everybody just wants to be heard.” Oprah quotes Toni Morrison, “what every child wants to know is, Do your eyes light up when I enter the room? Did you hear me and did what I say mean anything to you? “ Oprah goes on to say, “That’s all they are looking for. That’s what everybody is looking for.” Oprah says her ability to communicate with people around the world has been so rewarded because she understands that.
…Oh, if we could be conscience of that 24/7. If we can listen, acknowledge and affirm what people have to offer…If we could be more about doing for others instead of doing for ourselves…how different the world would be.
Let us pray for the grace to remember that everyone is a gift of God. Let us acknowledge and affirm, people’s gifts. Let us work to serve, accept, encourage and build others up in the way St Paul encourages us through his letter to the Colossians. Let us always remember our blessings God gives us. Let that remembrance flow from grateful hearts. The love of God that is the Light of Christ will live in us and be reflected from us. Let us serve each other and work to make this world a better place and a place of peace and love.
I pray that you continue to experience all the joy, hope and love of the Christmas season. My prayers are with you and for you in the coming New Year.
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