Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

Beloved:
What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon
and touched with our hands
concerns the Word of life—
for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us—
what we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.
1 John 1:1-4

Reflection:
There is joy in today's readings. It is related to us about Jesus rising from the dead. In 1 John he is relating what he has seen, heard and touched of our Lord. He is proclaiming the Truth about the Word of life.

John relates his joy and the joy of the others so too we may share in this joy. How wonderful that is! When we read this proclamation, don't we feel the excitement they feel in the telling. We too can almost envision what they have seen and heard.

I recall how easily it is to put ourselves in the place of characters in books that we read. There is so much out there that captures our imagination. For instance, Harry Potter captures the imagination of people who read the book, so when they see the movie it does not even compare to the book. I have never read any of the Harry Potter books, but others I know have and spoke of this. This is just an example, not one to go read to see what I am talking about. This one just happened to come to mind for an example.

When we read the Bible it doesn't quite capture us in the same way a novel would. But when we are open to God's Word then this beautiful book comes to life. When we sin and read parts that speak to us of our sin, then we need to listen and correct what we need to fix in order to live joy filled lives filled with the love of God.