Homily for Dec. 28, 2023
Octave of Christmas
1 John 1: 5—2: 2
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence,
N.R.
“Beloved: If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing” (1 John 1: 9).
We’re all aware of our moral failures—our free and
deliberate choices to yield ourselves to sin:
to pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, anger, etc. In most cases, we quickly regret such words,
actions, or thoughts, or our failure to speak or act when we should have.
How gracious is God to forgive us in Christ and cleanse
us—to wipe our slates clean! (How many
kids today even know what it means to “wipe a slate clean”?) Our sins may be cause for shame. But our confession of them, our
acknowledgement, glorifies God—not our sins or our shame but our turning to
him; he loves us so much and continually renews us interiorly, restoring in us
the image of our Lord Jesus, so that with Jesus we might inherit a share of the
Father’s eternal kingdom: “If we walk in
the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and
the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin” (1:7).
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