In November 2022, a friend gathered the gang to do some dream writing for the coming year. Before that, the assignment was to look back at 2022 and list down 30 successes or achievements. Thirty?! I was doubtful about filling up that list. But as I began to reflect, I recognized successes that I never thought of: helping our household helper gain the confidence to cook, becoming a better listener, mastering a work-from-home setup, then going back to face to-face teaching, carving out “me time” after each workday, and participating in my daughter’s school bazaar. 

At the end of the task, we were asked: How do you now feel? All I could say was I was grateful, happy, and loved. I was overwhelmed at the long list because none of the things I had written were accomplished by me alone. God was behind each success—planting the dream, pruning my motives, nurturing attitudes, or growing my love. The fruitful year was not only through my own efforts, but also by the grace of my God from whom all goodness flows. Geraldine G. Catral (ggabrielcatral@gmail.com) 

Reflect:

Think back at how God has brought big and small successes to your life. Have you given Him thanks for all these? 

Dear Lord, thank You for blessing the work of my hands. Help me to always remain in You that I may bear good fruit. 

St. Peter Chanel, priest and martyr, pray for us.

First Reading | Acts 9:26-31

The conversion of Saul (newly named as Paul) is a sign of the Gospel’s power to transform lives in the most unexpected ways. God continues to do this today. Miracles are not just for first generation Christians. God also wants to work signs and wonders among us. Let us pray and intercede for this and then step out in faith, expecting God to act. 

²⁶ When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. ²⁷ Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles, and he reported to them how on the way he had seen the Lord and that he had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but they tried to kill him. ³⁰ And when the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him on his way to Tarsus. ³¹ The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32

R: I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people. 

²⁶ I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the Lord. ²⁷ The lowly shall eat their fill; they who seek the Lord shall praise him: “May your hearts live forever!” (R) ²⁸ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; all the families of the nations shall bow down before him. (R) ³⁰ To him alone shall bow down all who sleep in the earth; before him shall bend all who go down into the dust. (R) ³¹ And to him my soul shall live; my descendants shall serve him. Let the coming generation be told of the Lord ³² that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born the justice he has shown. (R) 

Second Reading | 1 John 3:18-24

Our love for God and one another is expressed in our way of life. It is the witness of love at work in us that makes a powerful witness to the truth of the Gospel. The world easily forgets all that Christians do—hospitals, schools, hospices, and other charitable works—in the desire to be self-sufficient and remove the mysteries of faith from our society. In this attempt to remove the Church’s influence from the world, we see the rapid dismantling of society’s health in general, particularly in the mental health of people. 

¹⁸ Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. ¹⁹ Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him ²⁰ in whatever our hearts condemn, for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God ²² and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit that he gave us.  

Gospel | John 15:1-8

Jesus is the vine, apart from which we are powerless to eliminate sin and eradicate the suffering of the world. Yes, humanism can bring us toward that goal but not entirely; humanism cannot deal with the power of sin at work within us and in the world. We need faith to access the power to overcome sin. 

Gospel Acclamation

Remain in me as I remain in you, says the Lord. Whoever remains in me will bear much fruit. 

¹ Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. ² He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. ³ You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” 

Read the Bible in one year! Read 2 KINGS 4 - 6 today.

Of Intimacy and Attachment

Today, Jesus speaks of the intimate connection that should characterize a Christian’s relationship with Him. As a branch must remain connected to the vine, lest it withers and dies, so a Christian must be to Jesus. “Remain in me,” Jesus said, “as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). 

As Jesus lives an eternal intimacy with the Father, so must every Christian be intimately connected with Jesus. Care must be taken, though, to distinguish between intimacy and attachment. 

I am on my second tour of duty as resident formator and professor in the seminary, now totaling fifteen years and counting. I have met countless young men in the seminary who were in formation for the priesthood, not because they wanted to but because their fathers wanted them to. It was either the father was a frustrated seminarian who wanted his son to take his place or a father who simply wanted a son-priest. In both cases, the son was denied the chance to become the person he wanted to be. 

In a relationship of intimacy, the lover remains in the beloved, and vice versa. But the lovers know when to go and to let go. Their intimacy empowers one another and enables each one to be their own person. Jesus loved His disciples but He let them go and bear fruit. 

In a relationship of attachment, people feel strangled and suffocated. Instead of being empowered, they are overpowered. In a relationship of attachment, people manipulate one another out of insecurity and mutual dependency. Fr. Joel O. Jason 

Reflection Question:

What characterizes your relationships—intimacy or attachment? 

Thank You, O Lord, for Your love that liberates and empowers. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ___________________________________________