Knowing Christ for Sure: Humble Enough to Receive a Divine Help and Observing His Commandment of Love - Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Now, it has been five days since the Christ incarnated in the human flesh of Jesus was born of Mary, as today is the Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas. Have you encountered him yet? Do you know him now?

The readings of this day (1 John 2:3-11; Luke 2:22-35) are about knowing Jesus as the Christ. The Gospel Reading (Luke 2:22-35) reminds that Simeon knew that the baby boy brought by Mary and Joseph to the Temple in Jerusalem was the Christ, whom he had been hoping to see and assured to see before his death by the Holy Spirit. The First Reading (1 John 2:3-11) challenges us how we can prove that we know Christ truly. John wrote this against gnostic heretics, who were proud of their knowledge of Christ. According to him, knowing Christ is not to have a mere knowledge of Christ but to live the way of Christ by observing his commandment of love.

To know Christ, we need a divine help. We cannot know Christ on our own.

Remember, it was not Peter per se to correctly identify Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), as the Christological identity of Jesus was revealed to him by the Father in heaven (Matthew 16:17).

And there are more cases of God helping us find, recognize, and know Christ, besides the Father’s intervention.

For example, Elizabeth was able to recognize the incarnated Christ when he was still a very tiny fetus in Mary’s womb, because she was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41-44). The shepherds, who paid homage to the newborn incarnated Christ at his birth site, learned that the baby in a manger was the Christ, because an angel of the Lord told them (Luke 2:8-20). Simeon recognized the baby boy brought by Mary and Joseph to the Temple was the Christ, because the Holy Spirit was on him and revealed his encounter with him in anticipation (Luke 2:25-33).

Would you recognize a poor baby placed on a manger as the Christ, without any divine help? Would you see the Christ even though he was hidden in Mary’s womb without a help of the Holy Spirit? Could you recognize a newborn Jewish boy brought to the Temple for dedication as the Christ, without the Holy Spirit being on you? Would you realize that Jesus from Nazareth, son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary, as the Christ, just because his teaching was astonishing and he performed miraculous signs, without a divine intervention?

Throughout the Gospel narratives, you see that those who did not recognize Jesus as the Christ are rather arrogant (e.g. John 8:12-9:41). And they are not really loving people, are they? Because of their pride, they thought that they knew God better than those whom they looked down. But the truth is otherwise. According to the First Reading (1 John 2:3-11), they knew nothing about Christ, because of their hatred, besides their arrogance. Look how they ridiculed Jesus and how they treated the blind man healed by Jesus. No wonder Jesus said:

I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him (Matthew 11:25-27).

No one knows Christ the Son, except the Father, who was with him (John 1:1) and has sent him (John 3:16, 1 John 4:10), unless the Christ wishes to reveal his Christological truth to a person, who are humble and ready to follow him. And, according to John, to follow him in his way is the observe his commandment of love (1 John 2:3-11).

Are you humble and ready to follow Christ by observing his commandment of love to be worthy of a divine help to recognize Christ and know him by loving one another as he has loved us (John 13:34)? This way, others will know that you know Christ (John 13:35).

If you have already encountered the newborn Christ, and know him, you are already following him in his way by observing his commandment of love. This way, you are not in darkness but in the light of God (1 John 2:8-11; cf. 1:5-10; cf. John 8:12; cf. Isaiah 9:1-2). So, you can see what this new born baby brought by Mary and Joseph for the firstborn dedication mandate to God (Exodus 13:2,12,15; 22:29; 34:20; cf. Numbers 3:13) in the Temple will bring about (Luke 2:29-32; cf. Luke 1:50-55; cf. Luke 1:68-79), as Simeon foresaw, assisted by the Holy Spirit (Luke 2:22-35).