I struggled with today’s first reading where is says, “Anyone who has been begotten by God
does not sin, because the begotten Son of God protects him, and the Evil One does not touch him.”
Was I not begotten by God since I have sinned on numerous occasions? Was I not protected by the Lord our God?
The answer came to me…FREE WILL
So great is His love for us He gave us free will. To choose to love Him and to choose to live in His grace.
If we prayed to Him for help before we gave in to the Sin at hand He would surely have protected us and depending on the situation even send His Holy Angels to fight for us.
As children of God so loved by Him, how have we become smaller, so then He can grow greater in our loves such that joy will be complete. Are our egos still puffed up thinking we are all we need? Do we see ourselves as greater than others? Wiser, stronger, more powerful, more connected, more influential, and for some Holier than everyone else? It is said that the greatest sin is Pride! And for good reason, though many others would argue that the greatest sin to overcome for them is lust. It does not matter! Choosing ourselves, choosing to Sin is what distances us from our loving God! We lose not only our precious relationship with Him but we lost His protection. Only by turning back to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shall we be restored, healed and in full communion with our One triune God.
Blessed Mother intercede for us that we may remain steadfast in the love of Your Son Jesus our Lord. Help us that we may never lose our God. Amen
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First reading
1 John 5:14-21 ·
If we ask for anything, he will hear us
We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything,
and it is in accordance with his will,
he will hear us;
and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us,
we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him.
If anybody sees his brother commit a sin
that is not a deadly sin,
he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner
– not those who commit a deadly sin;
for there is a sin that is death,
and I will not say that you must pray about that.
Every kind of wrong-doing is sin,
but not all sin is deadly.
We know that anyone who has been begotten by God
does not sin,
because the begotten Son of God protects him,
and the Evil One does not touch him.
We know that we belong to God,
but the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.
We know, too, that the Son of God has come,
and has given us the power
to know the true God.
We are in the true God,
as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God,
this is eternal life.
Children, be on your guard against false gods.
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Gospel
John 3:22-30
‘He must grow greater and I must grow smaller: my joy is complete’
Jesus went with his disciples into the Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised. At the same time John was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and people were going there to be baptised. This was before John had been put in prison.
Now some of John’s disciples had opened a discussion with a Jew about purification, so they went to John and said, ‘Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now; and everyone is going to him.’
John replied:
‘A man can lay claim
only to what is given him from heaven.
‘You yourselves can bear me out: I said: I myself am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent in front of him.
‘The bride is only for the bridegroom;
and yet the bridegroom’s friend,
who stands there and listens,
is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
This same joy I feel, and now it is complete.
He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.’
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