In today’s first reading Paul greets the Corinthians with these words: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The words of this greeting are also used as one of the greetings at the beginning of mass:
Priest: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
People reply: “And with your spirit.”
The words of this greeting were important to the Corinthians and are important to us because they remind us of our Christian identity through baptism: we are graced people; we are people who have true peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to list all the different ways we have been enriched by this grace of God. He has “enriched [us] in every way…with all discourse and all knowledge…not lacking in any spiritual gift.” These are gifts from God, not something we have earned. Finally, and most importantly Paul assures us that “God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have been called into fellowship or communion with Jesus our Lord.
Paul begins his letters and we begin mass with this greeting of grace to remind us of who we are. We have been created in God’s image and likeness and we have been recreated as we put on the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism. The challenge that Paul will put before the Corinthians and before us is to show forth the image of God in our daily life by following in the footsteps of Jesus. This means, Paul suggests, that we live humble and loving lives, not boasting in our own achievements but boasting and trusting in God who is always faithful.
Today is the memorial the of the Passion of John the Baptist. He was the humble forerunner of Jesus. John prepared the way for Jesus and humbly declared:
“No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.” (John 3:27-30).
Like John you and I have received the grace of God. Like John you and I are called to prepare the way of the Lord by our words and actions.
Image: “IMG_1048 Pieter Bruegel 1526-1569 Anvers Predigt Johannes des Täufers. La prédication de Jean Baptiste Homily of John the Baptist Schwerin.Staatliches Museum Copie vers 1600” by jean louis mazieres is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.