“As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you.”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from St John…..John’s writings are not straight forward……He is a mystic….One cannot read John’s Gospel like the other Gospels because John was not like the other three Gospel writers…He was the closest disciple to Jesus Christ and something else to keep in mind…John lived with the Mother of God for years after the death of Christ…That time living with Our Lady had to have left a deep impact on him…That is why he is different and that is why we must pay extra attention to what he has to say…..…….”Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life. I write you these things about those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him”……….When one is living in the state of grace, one receives the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord)…..As I read this passage of John, the line that jumped out at me the most was this…..”so that you do not need anyone to teach you”…….This is a direct reference to two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are wisdom and knowledge….The secular world defines wisdom and knowledge very differently…One can have a very high aptitude and incredible analytical intelligence and still lack authentic wisdom and knowledge - The kind that St John eludes to here in his Gospel…….The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind….A secular person reading this “thinks” such a statement is crazy…..But Sacramental grace is real and so is the Holy Spirit…This is why John says…”you do not need anyone to teach you”…..The problem is…Are we living in the state of grace?…..There is only one way to do this…..Go to Confession frequently, which opens up our soul to receive grace - So that grace floods our soul when we received the Blessed Sacrament at Mass…..As Catholics - Are we doing this?…….Do you realize that someone could go to Mass everyday of his life - If that person does not got to Confession, the grace of the Sacrament WILL NOT penetrate their soul - Do you understand this?….St John tells us today……”His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him”…….The last part of this sentence is so very important - Did you catch it?……..”Remain in him”

“He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord”

For those who have studied advanced mathematics, one knows that there comes a point when studying just does not cut it…You either have a mind for math or you don’t…..I have taken three semesters of advanced mathematics in college and there came a point when my mind simply could not grasp the topics any more….Understanding math and having an analytical mind is a gift - And like all gifts, it can’t be self manufactured no matter how hard you try….Such a person who has this kind of mind sees a math problem three dimensionally as opposed to the person who does not have the gift - they see the math problem two dimensionally…Why do I bring this up?….The kind of knowledge St John is referencing here in his Gospel is “three dimensional” - It is a gift of the Holy Spirit…And this gift is only received by living a Sacramental life….This is why there are many brilliant theologians who get it all wrong…...They get it wrong because they are “thinking” two dimensionally……As Catholics we have to understand this….True knowledge - True wisdom - What we “see” - What we “hear”….....All this comes from the Holy Spirit….It has nothing to do with raw analytical intelligence……And anyone can posses this gift - But only if we live Sacramentally.

“I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”

St John today at Mass tells us all something that can easily be missed…Or maybe even dismissed by those who believe themselves to be sophisticated by modern standards…..The knowledge John talks about does not come from books….And its this knowledge that not only saves our soul but guides our decisions and also determines what we see and don’t see in the world around us…..For example……Freemasonry, which is an ancient organization committed against the Catholic Church….They uses the symbol of the eye in a triangle…This is a direct reference to what St John tells us today - But a mockery of it - Seeing in and through the Holy Spirit…Freemasons claim that they are the ones “that see”….This is how the devil operates - He attempts to mock God ever so slightly and twists the truth in such a way that people get fooled……..But God will not be mocked and nor can God be fooled…….And if we do as St John says today….We too will not be fooled….”As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you”……………JMJ

Trust the plan - We don’t have to “see” where we are going - We just have to keep going!

Today the Universal Church commemorates the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God……We are told in the Gospel today that at the birth of Jesus, Mary…..”kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart…..While Mary was born pure…She did not understand everything…But Mary trusted……And make no mistake about it….The life of the Holy family was not easy…..They were refugees in Egypt and once they settled in Nazareth - They lived what we would call a “blue collar” existence - I am sure money was “tight” but they had each other - The entire time, Mary trusted and took life as it came to her…..She did not have to understand everything - She simply trusted…..Today begins a New Year…No one knows what this year will bring to us…But like Our Mother Mary, we must trust….That God in his infinite wisdom and providence will continue to fulfill his plan of salvation for the world - His way not our way…..This morning I was scrolling through the news….Our world is in so much chaos….I thought to myself…When is Christ going to return?…..Only God knows - But in the mean time - I must trust in God’s plan…Come “hell or high water”…..Nothing that happens is out of the control of God….And all things work towards a great good, even when we can not see it…….In the Book of Isaiah we read that…”I will lead the blind on a way they do not know by paths they do not know I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These are my promises: I made them, I will not forsake them”…Whenever I think all is lost, that the world is hopeless, I always think of this line from Isaiah, the great prophet of the Old Testament…Nothing broken cannot be fixed by God….And frankly only God can fix it….Again, it comes down to trust….As Mary our mother trusted, so must we….God has a plan and we are simply just a small part of that plan…That means we cannot “fix” the mess we see around us…But it does mean we have something to do - We don’t “get off the hook so easy” as we say in New Jersey…We each have something to do - Something that God will use for the great good…That means YOU & ME!….But the “heavy lifting” belongs to God…And like Our Lady in today’s Gospel written by St Luke…She simply did her part……and “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”……Our Lady was not the solution - And she knew it……She gave birth to the solution…..and committed her life to it……..How about us?…Let’s simply do our best and do our part.

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son”

When one reads history, patterns emerge….We see how God works in and through the actions of mankind but as events take place, we can not see as God sees, especially in real time….When the will of mankind refuses to bend - God permits events to “help us out” - To bend our will….Why? - Because God loves us ands while we at times may be “uncomfortable” or thing don’t go as we would like or planned - God is working on us…Shaping us…Transforming us…..That is how we become a Holy People…..As students of history, we may look at what is happening to Western Civilization right now…How it is being literally dismantled by its ruling class….Under the guise of “climate change”, which has become a false religion to some and to others, its simply a tool to grab power….In the process our cities are falling apart……..the middle class is disappearing…..all of this is being done intentionally and is happening right before our eyes….How can God work out his plan through all this?…….Just as the Jewish people of the Old Testament suffered, it was through that suffering, that miraculously their eyes were opened once again to God…Maybe - Just Maybe…..Because we are a “stiff-necked people”….God in his infinite mercy is allowing all we see to happen - Which in turn will “open the eyes of the blind” once again and turn hearts back to God…..Speaking personally, that is what I think is happening…But as it’s happening, I often think to myself…”But why do “I” have to suffer God?”….”I get it”…..But do I “get it”?…….In my hubris, I forget that I too am a work in progress…God is shaping me and my family as well….And he uses many “tools” to do it…..Being “comfortable” is not always part of the equation sadly - Why? - Because we are a “stiff necked people”…This is how we must think and in doing so, we can have peace even amongst chaos….That everything we see around us is working towards a great good…That heaven is our true home….That God allows everything we see to happen to “open the eyes of the blind” - For their own good…Why?….Because heaven is forever but so is hell…..And God does not want anyone in hell….But when his people don’t listen to him and we create our own hell here on earth…God has to step in…..Let us trust him as our heavenly Mother trusted him.

“As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.”

Today in the Gospel of St Luke read to us at Mass…We hear that Our Lady did not understand everything, she simply trusted in the one that did…And so must we - That is my “take away” from the Gospel today…..We don’t have to “see” everything In front of us…We simply have to take one step at a time - As may father would say to me often - “Straight ahead”…..Years ago, I would help a friend of mine who was blind go to our Saturday Bible Study at our church……Jim taught me a lot…He would place his hand upon my shoulder and walk behind me…He never knew where we were going - He simply trusted me - That I would get him to his seat….Many times as I was guiding Jim to his seat - I thought to myself - This is how I must be…I don’t realize just “how blind” I am……..I MUST simply trust in God - Who is the only one we “sees” and simply place my hand on His shoulder and allow Him to guide me to where I need to go…Jim would do this with such peace of mind…I always marveled at his courage and trust…..Being that today is the first day of the year…Maybe a good prayer for today could be….”God - Help me to trust you…Thy will be done! - You know the way - I do not”….That prayer sounds crazy in a way…but if we say it from the heart….A huge weight will be lifted…..And like my old friend Jim - “We will find our seat” despite being blind….Trust the plan - We don’t have to “see” where we are going - We just have to keep going!………….JMJ