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As we come to the end of another year, we need to hear John's message about Jesus the Word bringing light into the darkness of our world. We have seen much darkness in recent days and we fear that there may be even greater darkness ahead. But the Word is "a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness cannot overpower". As the First Reading reminds us "several antichrists have already appeared". These are all the agents of darkness - agents of terror and violence, agents of greed and corruption, agents of injustice and exploitation. These are not just faraway threats. They have always been with us and each one of us is tainted with them. But, through our baptism and our incorporation into Christ, we have been endowed with the grace and truth that come to us through him. We are called, like John the Baptist, to be witnesses of light bringing hope and confidence among those who live in fear and darkness. As John tells us elsewhere, true love casts out all fear. Father, help us to share fully in the life of Jesus our Lord, for through Him comes the salvation that all are searching for. |
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P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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That Christians may free themselves from the subtle forms of cultural conditioning which prevent them from recognising the dignity and rights of others
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Our vocation and mission as Christians is to bring the light of Christ to the world in order to preserve the world from corruption by permeating it with the values of the Gospel. We need, ourselves, first and foremost to be enlightened by Christ. We do not generate light, we only refract, reflect and radiate. It is His light that we must cast on the world. The more transparent our lives are with the values of the Gospel, the better is the light of Christ reflected and the less we are seen. The world in which we live is mixed with wheat and weeds. There is good and evil. Consumerism is but the logical sequence of a materialistic way of life. Spiritual values are forgotten. Our wants are made to appear as our needs and we are forced to get so immersed in the joys of this world as to forget the joys of the world to come. We are admonished to be aware lest we be trapped by these and other forms of cultural conditioning that mark this world. Awareness is the first step to change. We pray that this awareness may help us to be delivered from the cultural conditioning that hinders and hampers our vision and prevents us from recognising the dignity and the rights of others. | |
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