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​For many youth and young adults who actively participated in intentional communities such as youth groups and college ministries, what endures beyond the events, emotional and spiritual ‘highs’, and accolades is friendship in its truest form. Adults discover this same and unique experience of relationship in parish small groups, retreats, bible study groups and ministries. Although not all have the ideal experience, the many do discover that true friends share in each other’s joys and support one another through challenging times; they help each other grow in emotional and intellectual maturity, faith, virtue, knowledge of self and understanding of ‘the other’.  They help each other to become that which they were made to be, men and women of communion.
 
This “personal identity that is at once an orientation to the other is founded essentially on the Trinity of divine Persons. God is not a solitary being, but a communion of three Persons… no person is as such alone in the universe but is always constituted with others and is summoned to form a community with them. Pgh 41 ITC Communion and stewardship: Human persons created in the image of God
 
What distinguishes this Christian experience from others is that the Christian experience is rooted in affirmation of the nature of the human person, as created by God in the image and likeness of God.  It therefore holds up the choice to love as charity, which is virtue, and aims for authentic self-gift, to love by willing the good of the other. If a so-called Christian intentional community is not so rooted, it becomes merely another social grouping of like-minded folks unattached to universal truth and subject to change relative to the thoughts, opinions and feelings of the group or the group’s leaders.  Conversely, any non-religious group in which it is possible for the participants to experience something akin to the authentic Christian experience, do so because of adherence to fundamental truths of the nature of the human person and found most fully revealed in Christianity.

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Today the Church is reminding us that we have been created for something greater than passing comforts, empty pleasures, superficial popularity, and earthly achievements. We all want our lives to matter, to make a lasting difference in this world, not just a passing difference, a little scratch on the surface. But do we all want to live fully and faithfully under Christ's rule, firmly entrusting our lives into his care so that we can all reach our God given potential to make the world a better place, living in the imitation of Christ the King, experience fulfillment of purpose and the interior peace that follows. 
 
Jesus came to inaugurate among us the Kingdom of God. It is he himself who embodies the whole vision of the Kingdom by the way he lived, spoke, worked, taught, healed, liberated, and finally sacrificed his life in love for us.  He is our model, the one we are to imitate. There is no other who so completely reveals to us the truth of who we are and who we were made to become.
 
Colossians tells us that before all, he existed, and it is he holds it all together, sustains and supports the unity of creation. In him, we gain our freedom, through the forgiveness of our sins.  By him who frees us from the power of darkness, we are brought into his Kingdom to live freely what we now see clearly is our true identity. It is in him, the first-born of all creation that we see the image of the unseen God and ourselves. 
 
Yet, we find it so difficult to remain free and faithful. We are all too willing to hide who we are, what we believe and find that too easily we cede our influence to the knowing and the ignorant minions of the enemy. Bombarded by media messages that tell us to keep our religion to ourselves and out of the public square we effectively allow the world to be ruled by the shadow masters. If we truly believe that Christ is the Savior, that there really is one God who created us and redeemed us, we should not be afraid to bring that faith to action in the society around us. If we don't, others will fill the void. 
 

• If we don't defend and spread Christian values in society, what values will thrive there?
• If we don't continue to bring Christ into culture, what will culture become?

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The 'Reason for the Season', is YOU...

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…” seems to simply be a boring and long list of names. But for the Jewish people, genealogies told a story. They gave identity. They repeated for each generation, the promises of God; fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled.
 
In particular, this is a genealogy of fulfillment. It is the genealogy of the Son of God. Matthew is asking his readers to remember the covenant made with Abraham: “…your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice…” (Genesis 22:17-18). He wants us to remember the promises made to David: “…And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). 
 
When we read this genealogy, we should do so with awareness that the first people to hear it had been waiting a really long time for fulfillment. For generations, they passed on the knowledge of the promises and prophecies of God. So, in this beginning of Matthew’s story, they hear much more than a list of names. They hear fulfillment and faithfulness. They hear hope and love.  Through thousands of years of waiting, the promise made in Genesis 3:15 has been kept. The oaths made to Abraham, Moses, David have been remembered. The Lord has been true to his promises. 
 
Reminds us that God is faithful.
There are many occasions in the Old Testament when the God declared the future promise to Israel that there would one day be a New Covenant between them and their God, such as in Jeremiah 31:31-34.
 
See, days are coming—says the LORD—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, though I was their master— says the LORD. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days— says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer teach their friends and relatives, “Know the LORD!” Everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me— says the LORD —for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sin.
 
On the night of the Last Supper, this everlasting covenant which is Christ, Jesus while in the company of his disciples speaks of its fulfillment in his passion, death and resurrection, with his words during the institution of the Eucharist, saying: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). 
 
“Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:16). “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
 
Reminds us who we are, really…
The popular idea today is that you have to look deep within yourself to discover your true identity. But, what if you don’t like what you find? What do you do?  We could drop our expectations so as to never be disappointed in ourselves and others, or seek the truth about ourselves from the one who created us.  Easy, ask God in prayer – Who am I?- God will answer quickly and comprehensively with a bullet pointed list that describes your identity… right? No. 
​
But, with our sin induced confusion about ourselves, God prepared a plan to answer the question for everyone.  The answer is in the incarnation, the birth of the Son of God that we celebrate this weekend.  
 
When you find your identity in Christ, in the revelation of who Jesus is and what He has done, rather than on what you find hidden deep inside yourself, you can live life to its truest, not distracted by whatever momentary messages are dictating the way you live.
 
What does it mean to have your identity hidden in Christ? It means, you abandon any image of yourself that is not from God. … You start believing what God says about you.” Finding your identity in Christ means you do a better job believing that what God says about you is truer than what anyone else (including yourself) says. When you’re tempted to believe that you’re either much better than you really are, or much worse than you really are, look to what the Bible says about you.
 
Ephesians, in the first chapter says “in Christ” or “in Him” about 11 times and describe a host of incredible things about ourselves that if we truly believed, it would change everything. It says that those in Christ are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (verse 3), chosen (verse 4), predestined and adopted (verse 5), redeemed and forgiven (verse 7), grace has been lavished on them (verse 7), that they are “in the know” on God’s will (verse 9), have been given an inheritance (verse 11), and are sealed by the Holy Spirit (verse 13). 
 
If you come to base your identity in these statements, it roots your identity in something that can’t be changed and can’t go away. Jesus.
 
We are reminded, why it is we celebrate today.