The defectors

As the secular calendar year comes to a close, news outlets invariably list the famous people who left this world during the year.

It may not seem like the happiest way to prepare for the New Year, but there it is.

On this last day of the secular calendar year, the middle of today’s first reading (1 John 2:18-21) focuses on people who have left the Church.

They went out from us,
but they were not really of our number;
if they had been,
they would have remained with us.
Their desertion shows
that none of them was of our number.

But you have the anointing
that comes from the Holy One,
and you all have knowledge.

Faith is a gift and it does not bloom with the same fullness in everyone.

Apostasy is a tragic thing, but our focus should not be on people who have left the Church or even on famous people who have entered the Church. Rather, our focus should be on God’s gift of faith, on letting it blossom ever more fully within us, and on doing our best to share that gift with others.

We are reminded of the glories of that gift in today’s Gospel (John 1:1-18) in the wondrous hymn that reminds us of the foundation of our faith and what we celebrate in this ongoing season of Christmas.

May the light of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shine ever more brightly upon us, within us, and from us in the year of Our Lord 2008.

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it….

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.