It is 4th January 2017. The readings are from 1 John 3:7-10; and the Gospel from John 1:35-42. The first reading focuses on our belonging to God or to devil based on the way we relate with one another. The seed of sin is sowed in our lives even today by the evil one. Yet, we easily roll back to our evil ways opposed to holiness. God is our creator who put the seed of love in each one of us. How come we live contrary to that divine love within and allowing the thorns and thistles of evil to thrive in and around our hearts? We need to make a serious and series of effort to be good and holy every moment of our lives. The unholy actions and behaviours are accumulated without much effort. And therefore we need to strive harder consistently to be holy. True holiness is built on love and service without boundaries. Holiness does not consist in rubrics and religiously pious display of oneself. Our model and inspiration of our holiness is Jesus himself. We will never be perfect within our life time on earth like Jesus matching His extraordinary holiness revealed in his personal and public life. That does not stop us to be holy through our humble service to the humanity. Moreover, we must not stop being holy just avoiding sinful life only rather our holiness must make our love better and our service wider. We need to remind ourselves that God’s love is deep within each one of us and that needs to be shared with the voiceless, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the poor our communities. Our solidarity with such people is the proof that God’s love is not yet invaded by the satanic, selfish and evil presence. Christ is our reason and motivation to bring the love of God in every tiny act of love, kindness and mercy we express to the suffering humanity. We must never be tired or prejudiced in loving the poor. “Anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother/sister is no child of God’s.” (1 Jn.3:10). The responsorial Psalm praises, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” (Ps.97:3). The Gospel invites us to meet the Messiah in our daily living. Do we know Jesus, the Messiah? What is our motivation for following Jesus? Jesus knows our potentialities to be holy and good. Let us acknowledge the innumerable possibilities to love and serve to Jesus in others. May you have good day.