Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)
I recently received a card from a friend. The front cover showed a cat looking out the window proclaiming, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life!” and the inside of the card said “But don’t sweat it, tomorrow is too.” That card came to mind as I read Psalm 2: “God said to me, ‘You are mine. It is I who have begotten you this day.'” Indeed, everyday God declares a fresh start. If yesterday you forgot, well then you are begotten yet again today. Start fresh, start right where you are. That’s what I hear the Spirit saying to me today. How about you?
The Readings
1 John 3:22-4:6
We receive from God whatever we ask, because we obey God’s commandments and do what pleases God.
And this is God’s commandment: that we should believe in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey these commandments abide in God, and God abides in them. And by this we know that God abides in us, by the Spirit that God has given us.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Psalm 2:7-8,10-12
I will proclaim the decree of God.
God said to me, ‘You are mine.
It is I who have begotten you this day.
Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations,
make the ends of the earth in your possession.
Now, O leaders, understand;
take warning, rulers of the earth.
Serve God with awe and trembling,
paying homage,
lest God be angry and you perish;
for God’s anger will suddenly blaze.
Blessed are they who put their trust in God.
Matthew 4:12-17,23-25
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.’
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
With one exception, the readings are from the website below, with adjustments to make the text more inclusive. The Psalm is from Psalms Anew, St. Mary’s Press, 1986.
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