Christmas Weekday
Saturday before Epiphany
 

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

Saint Bede the Venerable comments on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“The believer in Christ has already died to his old life and has been born again by faith, but it is not yet clear what the full extent of that new life will be. However, we do at least know that we shall be immortal and unchanging, because we shall enjoy the contemplation of God’s eternity. Because we shall be blessed we shall be like Christ, yet at the same time we shall be unlike him because he is our Creator and we are only creatures. It seems that this verse applies most obviously to our resurrection body, which will be immortal. In that case we shall be like God after the likeness of his Son, who alone among the persons of the Trinity took a human body in which he died and rose again and which he then took with him into heaven. We shall see God as he is, but this does not mean that we shall fully understand him. For it is one thing to see and another thing to see in such a way as to understand everything.” (On 1 John)


Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
who were pleased to shine forth with new light
through the coming of your Only Begotten Son,
grant, we pray,
that, just as he was pleased to share our bodily form
through the childbearing of the Virgin Mary,
so we, too, may one day merit
to become companions in his kingdom of grace.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen