Christmas Octave, Saturday – 30th December 2023 – 1 John 2,12-17; Lk 2,36-40
Value System of Christian
In the first reading, John addresses three different generations of believers in families: Children, Parents and Youngsters. He says that their value system should be markedly different from those who only seek earthly pleasures. Continuing from yesterday’s discussion on ‘walking in the light’, John now focuses on the condition to be ‘detached from the world.’ He informs his readers that they should keep their eyes focused on the ways of God and not be enticed by merely worldly values. The world has two meanings in John’s writing. On the one hand, it can refer simply to the material environment in which we find ourselves and includes everything in our planet and in the whole universe. In other worlds, it refers to God’s creation which the Creator found ‘very good.’ We are called by the Gospel to be very much part of that world, to be fully inserted into it (Mt 5,13). And indeed, we are an integral part of the earth: we come from it and at the end we go back to it (Gen 3,19). However, ‘world’ also refers to all sorts of thinking which is far from the thinking of God. Specifically, the worldly inclinations are summed up here: the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride in riches. This is the ‘world’ from which we must be detached. By embracing those things which are in conflict with the vision of God, we close ourselves to His love for us. We are invited to have a strong relationship with God and it also demands a different attitude to the worldly ways.
