+(Intro) Today we will hear Jesus saying to his disciples that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and then he proceeds to heal all who are sick. Let us reflect a moment on how we may need healing in our own lives.

(After the gospel) Jesus is telling us today that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. So much of the Christmas season is a daily reminder of how close Jesus desires to be in our world, in each one of our lives so that we might abide in him and he in us. Isn’t this what the Kingdom of heaven is, this mutual abiding so that Christ’s healing presence may pervade the whole of our lives.

John’s first letter, that we just heard from, sums up all of God’s commandments in the call to believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ and to love one another. And we can experience this happening by the Spirit that is being given to us.

St John then goes on to tell us of how important it is to test the spirits so as to recognize the spirit of the world as opposed to the Spirit of God. To live in the awareness of the nearness of God, acknowledging Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is to have within us, the Spirit of God. To deny this nearness of Jesus in the flesh is the spirit of the world is to be caught up into the mind of the world.

God desires more than any of us may dare to imagine, to be deeply involved in our lives through this Eucharist we are about to receive. For here we receive the very Body and Blood of Him who is now glorified in the Kingdom of heaven. May this Love fill the whole of our lives..

1 John 3:22-4:6; Matt 4:12-17; 23-25