It can be said that Christmas season is one of the happiest liturgical seasons.
It’s happy because that is the time to call to remembrance that God gave us the
best gift ever. That is not a sum of money, a precious property, but a person,
a person who is living with us. That is his own son. In this Holy Mass, let us
pray so that the happiness of the Holy night will last forever every day in our
life. And may God teach us the way to share our peace, joy and happiness with
others, especially the lonely and miserable people.
In tonight’s Gospel, prophet Simeon talked about the revelation of the
thoughts of many hearts: “and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”.
It’s very strange. How can a heart think? How can a heart of a person have
thoughts? Thoughts are usually the products of a head or a brain. Yes, that is
the normal biological operate. People usually think with brain. Anyway, in the
category of faith, people cannot only think by head. They have to think by
heart. In other words, it is not enough to think by brain. People have to think
by heart.
The mystery of Christmas, the mystery of God making flesh, promote us to
think by our own heart. The presence of Jesus as a human being in the world
question us continuously about the love God gives us. Therefore, we are called
not only to know him by head but specially to know him by heart, and follow his
life style.
But, how can we know that we really know him by heart or not? Saint John, in his letter, teaches us a
practical way to test our knowledge of heart about Jesus. According to John, the
way to prove that we really know Jesus by heart is to keep his commandments.
John said: “Whoever says,
"I know him," but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in
him”
The commandment saint John wants to remind us is “to love one another as
Jesus love”. And only by keeping that commandment a person can be in the light,
if not, he still in darkness. Saint John emphasize: “Whoever says he is in the
light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his
brothers remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall”
Perhaps, some of us have ever experienced that we have ever been liars,
when we know Jesus only by name, by studying, by attending holy mass, by
pilgrimages, but doesn’t recognize that Jesus is present lively in our brothers
and sisters who we meet every day in our life. Perhaps, there have ever been more
than once in our life we passed through the suffering people without a little compassion.
Perhaps, we sometimes walk in the darkness when we still somehow hate
our brothers and sisters, but we don’t know, and we are not mindful.
Tonight’s Gospel tells us that Baby Jesus was brought to the Temple to
be consecrated to God to complete the law of God: "Every first-born shall
be consecrated to the Lord”. Being consecrated means that from that moment
Jesus belongs to God. From then on, Jesus no longer lives for himself but lives
only for God. And Jesus really devoted his whole life for God in the way he
loves and takes care of the poor and the sinners, in the way he lives and dies
for other people.
May the love of Baby Jesus touch our heart and change our heart. May He help
us to know him truly by heart. May He remind us always that each one of us was
consecrated to God from the moment when we were baptized, so that we can
imitate his way of life by loving and taking care of our brothers and sisters
every moment in our life. Amen.
