Prayer of the Christmas season
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 John 3,7-10
Children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright. Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the devil. No one who is a child of God sins because God's seed remains in him. Nor can he sin, because he is a child of God. This is what distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil: whoever does not live uprightly and does not love his brother is not from God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Already in his Gospel, John reports the words that Jesus said about the devil: he is "a liar and the father of lies" (Jn 8:44). Jesus came to free us from the power of the devil that drives us to sin and lie. The apostle knows well that sin continues to be present in the lives of Christians, rather is obvious that there is. The choice the disciples are called to do is to practice righteousness. But this is possible only if we remain attached to Jesus, if we remain in him. Those who stay tied to Christ will be nourished by this vital energy, by his love and therefore will yield good fruit. The Johannine parable of the vine and the branches comes to mind (Jn 15:1-5). The apostle does not intend to say that believers do not fall into sin. But if they keep the love of God in their hearts, they have already conquered evil in a radical way and they live in communion with God and their brothers and sisters. For this "they cannot sin." Even if we are all sinners, and we truly are, in believers there is a "divine seed" which guides us on the way of love. Whoever is born in God--John emphasizes--does not sin because the love of God remains in him or her through the Spirit. And the Spirit makes us carry out the works of God. For this reason, the children of God distance themselves from the children of evil. The latter in fact do not practice justice. They do not observe the only one commandment, that of love which ties us to God and our brothers and sisters. It is in love that true justice is manifested.