A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Who then is conqueror of the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the son of god. Jesus Christ it is, who came through water and blood, not in water only, but in water and in blood. It is the spirit who testifies to this and the spirit is truth.
Thus, there are three that testify, the spirit and the water and the blood. And these three three are of one accord. Do we not accept human testimony? The testimony of god is much greater. It is the testimony god has given on his own son's behalf.
Whoever believes in the son of god possesses that testimony within his heart. Whoever does not believe god has made god a liar. By refusing to believe in the testimony he has given on his own son's behalf. That's pretty strong stuff. The testimony is this, god gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son.
Whoever possesses a son, therefore, possesses life. Whoever does not possess the son of god does not possess life. I have written all of this to you to make you realize, says Saint John, that you possess eternal life. You who believe in the name of the son of god and this is the word of the lord. Think you heard that the second time.
The name of the father and of the son, the holy spirit, amen. But you can bear it. It's not too bad. I spent some of yesterday or misspent it reading phone seller who's a man who has written some very, very, good stuff as we say on, this on the Christian life. And this particular page or two that struck my eye and I thought I would bring here this morning has to do with with recognizing Christ.
Because as he says, the the face of Christ isn't always the face that we want. It's not always the face we would like to see, and it's far from the face we would like to embrace. But sometimes it's pretty bloody. Sometimes it's dirty, sweaty, stinky. And then he goes on to develop this idea that we have to see Christ where he is, and that's it goes on to develop that in the poor and the needy and on, you know, and all this.
It's beautifully said and so true. But in all of this, you know one thing? He doesn't say a word about recognizing Christ in yourself. Not a word. And, you know, people don't think enough about we we hear so much today since John Stuart Mill and the utilitarians of the nineteenth century.
You know, I love to talk like this when it's a nice snowy morning out there. But the thing is, here we have a situation where we're supposed to be gung ho for other people, and there's nothing wrong with that for Pete's sake. But that isn't what Christ said. That's not his commandment of love to love your neighbor. You see, the greatest kind of a lie is a partial truth.
Never forget it. No rational person tells a downright lie. You may be caught in it, and then you will then be embarrassed, and you will be invited to take the last place at the banquet table. You tell a half truth. The commandment of love is first, god.
Please god. The second is yourself. And this is what you should love. This is from the old testament. Remember, love god with your whole heart, with your whole soul, your whole mind, and all that, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Well, then, in other words, what Christ is saying, echoing the Old Testament, he's saying, love god, love your neighbor because you I love yourself because you love god, and then love your neighbor as you love yourself. Self love is a standard for loving your neighbor. So if you don't have any love of self, what do you have to to love your neighbor with? It's common sense. Yet in all of that article, which is it's a beautiful thing.
There's not one word in there about recognizing Christ in yourself, that we are the temples of the holy spirit. As Flannery brought out in one of her very, very fine short stories with these two little girls, thinking in terms of, you know, the ordinary sins of the flesh, and they were saying, well, we cannot do that because we are temples of the holy spirit. Well, unless you recognize that in yourself, how can you recognize that in anybody else? And give them the respect that they deserve, not because they are what they are, but because they are what they are because of god. God.
God. And our holy father in his in his document on women, place of women in the church, which didn't get universal acceptance, favorable, he that's what he begins and he insists upon that god that from the very beginning of Genesis, god made human beings to his image and his likeness, and that means me. And I have to begin there. When I look in the mirror, what do I see in a mirror? An unshaven face will look a little bit better perhaps if you wanna get some whiskers off of it or what?
Do I see Christ in myself? And if I don't, how in the world am I going to see it in anybody else? And remember, his mother Theresa, Calcutta says, I don't love the poor. I love God and Christ. That's what makes me love the poor.
They are not lovable. Christ is not lovable on the cross. We love him because he was god and our savior, not because he was an executed criminal, so found before the great law. Remember, all legalities are pretty well kept. And so let us realize that.
You've got you cannot have respect and love proper for your neighbor unless you have proper respect and love for yourself. And that comes from your loving god because you are his creature, and he made you to his image and likeness. And that you includes all other yous. It's that simple. But you you break this thing down and you put all your your eggs in the basket of loving neighbor, that's nothing but altruism.
And that's the old nineteenth century stuff of of John Stuart Mill and and, Jerry Bentham and and and James Mill, which came over this country. And it's very popular today. It's around Christmas time, we were all we we drown in it. But you see, when you when somebody says you have to love your neighbor, ask them why I have to love my neighbor. Why must I do that?
Now the follower of Christ has a very easy answer because my neighbor, in some way and in some mysterious way, embodies the son of god just as I do. And as I love myself because of that, so I must love my neighbor. You cannot love god and hate your neighbor, and that's not an original statement. And so let us you see, in so many instances that people do not have a proper regard for themselves, and that's especially true of our young people. All this stuff that I've been reading recently about it, including some statements of our holy father, they all say that.
How do you account for this higher suicide rate among adolescents? These young people with the whole of life spreading before them, and these are people not who are down have the troubles or or or ill or have or afflicted with the great tragedies of life. These are young people who are really in a in a certain sense unburdened with the burdens of life. And here, they're going on killing themselves. It's the second highest killer next to the automobile.
Why? Why? Because they do not know who they are, and they have no conception of what life is all about. They don't have it. Now they may have had the words, they may have spoken, but words are the cheapest thing on god's earth.
So the first thing is the first commandment, love god. And the second is like to the first, to love your neighbor as you love yourself because god made you both. In the name of the father and the son and the spirit. Amen.