By the Faithful Disciple<\/i><\/p>\n
GROW AS A DISCIPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n I want to be a sanctuary lamp,\u201d Samantha, my childhood friend, once remarked. \u201cTo be the little flame that reminds everyone, \u2018God is here.\u2019\u201d In those short phrases, Samantha summarized not only her personal vocation, but also the all-important mission of St. John the Baptist. Like the candle burning before the tabernacle, St. John was not the long-awaited Messiah; his God-given task was to point others to Jesus. We hear this theme of St. John\u2019s message expressed repeatedly in today\u2019s readings: \u201cThe King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst\u201d; \u201cGreat in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!\u201d; \u201cone mightier than I is coming.\u201d God himself would soon be among them \u2013 indeed, he was already there. Although 2,000 years separate us from St. John the Baptist\u2019s ministry, the little flame still burns in the sanctuary to remind us that God has not only come, but he remains in our midst. This is cause for rejoicing: the same Jesus to whom John pointed is present among us in the Blessed Sacrament.<\/p>\n GO EVANGELIZE<\/strong><\/p>\n Becoming more attuned and attentive to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist \u2013 that is, to God in our midst \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 entails embracing another part of St. John the Baptist\u2019s message. In today\u2019s Gospel, St. John counsels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 people from all walks of life to prepare for the coming Messiah by changing their lives. Only by turning away from sin and committing themselves to God will they be able to recognize and follow Christ when he comes. If we desire deeper faith in the Eucharist, our preparation must be similar: we ask God to show us the dusty corners of our souls which we have concealed from his merciful love. Then, confident in his willingness to forgive, we approach him in the sacrament of confession. This is his ardent desire: that, having come among us, he might forgive and heal us. Such is the meaning behind the consoling words of the Prophet Zephaniah in today\u2019s first reading: \u201cHe will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love.\u201d<\/p>\n SING<\/strong><\/p>\n O Christ, whom nations sigh for Whom priest and prophet long foretold, come break the captive fetters, Redeem the long-lost fold<\/i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By the Faithful Disciple GROW AS A DISCIPLE I want to be a sanctuary lamp,\u201d Samantha, my childhood friend, once remarked. \u201cTo be the little flame that reminds everyone, \u2018God is here.\u2019\u201d In those short phrases, Samantha summarized not only her personal vocation, but also the all-important mission of St. John the Baptist. Like the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parish","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11104,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102\/revisions\/11104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}