Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 30, 2020

John 2:12-17

I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

The Apostle John wrote three letters that we possess now and which are included in the New Testament.  Since he mostly lived and worked in Asia Minor after the persecution in Jerusalem broke out, these letter were probably directed to the churches established there while he was preaching in other places.  The Church faced many difficulties in Asia Minor in the First Century.  There were relatively few Jews in the land, and these were not receptive to the Gospel, generally speaking.  Most of the converts to the Faith were accustomed to pagan ways and beliefs.  Slow, patient work was required to form them into Christians.  The Faith also came into conflict with the Gnostics, who attempted to subvert belief in Christ and to absorb it into their belief system.  Key among their beliefs was that the physical was the enemy of the spiritual, and so God could not have been made man, but could only have appeared as a man.  This meant that there could not have redemption on the Cross, and that Christ did not truly die.  Combatting this, John opens his First Letter by insisting on the physical reality of Christ the Lord: “that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1).  John says that he himself saw, heard, and touched the Word made flesh. 

In the second chapter of this Letter, John encourages these Gentile Christians to live holy lives.  He calls them “fathers”, “young men”, and “children”, not necessarily according to their physical ages, but rather according to their level of faith and spiritual growth: “I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake.”  That is, to the newly catechized and baptized.  They are “children” because they must now grow and become spiritually mature.  “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.”  John calls some of the Gentile Christians “fathers” for they “knew” the Lord, “who is from the beginning”.  The Greek word for “to know” used here particularly carries the sense of knowing through personal experience, as distinct from theoretical knowledge.  These Christians “knew” the Lord in his preaching, which John had relayed to them, and in the Holy Eucharist, which they received.  They had experience of the Lord in their hearts.  “I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One.”  That is, these have received forgiveness and grace in baptism, and are now persevering in virtuous lives.  John elaborates: “I write to you, children, because you know the Father.”  That is, they are at the beginning of their knowledge of the Faith.  “I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.”  To know Christ is to have life: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17, 3).  “I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One.”  John adds “the word of God remains in you” to what he has already said.  This “word” is no abstract concept or collection of sayings, for “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword . . . and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4, 12).  It is grace — the life of God — abiding in the soul.

To these, the beginners, the proficient, and the perfect, John writes, urging them, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  The “things of the world” are anything that prevents a person from living for God and which causes that person to live for himself: “sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life”, including fame, riches, possessions, ambition, and power.  John is saying that one who devotes himself to gaining power, or to satisfying his lust, or to climbing “the corporate ladder” does not have the love of God within him.  We live in a crumbling world: “the world and its enticement are passing away.”  One who scrambles after the crumbles looks ridiculous but also fails to gain anything lasting, and loses his soul.  When we leave this world, we must have no remaining attachments to it or to even venial sin, or we will be delayed in our entry into life to be purged of them.  

“But whoever does the will of God remains forever.”  Not our own will, but the will of God.  No matter what level of spiritual growth we have obtained, the fight against our own willfulness goes on until the end of our lives.  It is prayer, grace, and perseverance that carry us to the finish line.