Coming to See

Gospel: John 1: 29-35

The Christmas season presents us with people who both fail to see who Jesus is as well as those who do.  Those who come to recognize Jesus are Mary, Elizabeth, the shepherds, the Magi, Simeon, and Anna.  John the Baptist will come to recognize Jesus after initially failing to do so, much like his father Zechariah.  John will require the voice of God and the descent of the Spirit at the Jordan river in order to recognize Jesus for who he is.

We might well forgive ourselves, then, in our failures to recognize Jesus in our daily life.  After all, someone like John the Baptist had his failures, and so will the disciples throughout Jesus' life.  All of these saw marvelous things, too!  We are not likely to experience such phenomena as they did, and yet we have as much access to the Lord Jesus as they did.  

God is born among us each day in the person of Jesus in every encounter we have with another person.  Each person is someone we are called to love and have compassion for in our lives.  Each person is another Christ, one who reveals Christ's presence to the world, my neighbor whom I am called to love.  The more we recognize this truth, the more loving and compassionate we will be.