Let me start with a straightforward question:
“What does it mean to be a faithful Christian?”
If you were pressed to answer, what would you say?
Maybe someone would say, you receive your sacraments.
Or, you go to Mass faithfully and go to confession.
Or, you give to charity and the church, you live a good life.
Or some combination of the above.
These are good answers, but incomplete,
especially if people end up talking about following rules
or checking off items on a to-do list.
Here’s the answer I propose to you:
To be a Christian is to be another Christ;
And I want to put a big, bold line under the word “be” in that sentence.
This isn’t just a matter of things we DO.
Rather, it’s all about who and what you and I are:
It is what you and I become,
which happens only with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Today is the Solemnity of the Epiphany.
Epiphany represents the first
revealing and sending-out of the Good News of a Savior,
of God coming into the world to set a longed-for change in motion.
On Christmas we were given the present,
On Epiphany, we tell everyone, “Look at the great gift God sent me!”
This brings to mind the startling words of St. Athanasius:
“God became man so that men might become God.”
Epiphany – with the arrival of foreigners to venerate the child King –
is when this astounding news began to be revealed to the world.
Now, someone might find those words shocking.
After all, isn’t that what the devil wanted? To be God?
Here’s the difference.
Satan wanted to kick God out of heaven.
What God wants is to have us join him and be united to him.
So when God offers you heaven, it’s not a sin to accept!
So back to my opening question:
What does it mean to be a faithful Christian?
It’s about who we become. Little Christs.
People filled with the light of Christ, changed by it,
made pure, made new, made heavenly.
There’s a film that plays on TV this time of year,
you’ve probably seen it, called “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
At one point, the hero George is trying to woo his wife-to-be, Mary.
He romantically offers to lasso the moon for her.
And then he says, “you could swallow it, and it'd all dissolve, see?
And moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes,
and the ends of your hair.”
Am I the only one who, hearing that, thinks of the Holy Eucharist?
God gives us, not the moon, but “true Light from true Light.”
He literally gives himself to us, holding nothing back.
What happens when we receive God fully, not fighting him?
If there is a challenge or an “action item” here, how about this?
In this new year of our Lord 2025, pray and think about
how you will let that heavenly light penetrate you, change you –
and to shine out of you.
Let’s you and me think about our life as a Christian,
not in terms of “doing,” although that is important –
but rather, in terms of WHO YOU ARE, and who we WILL BE.
You surely have noticed, I speak often about confession.
Confession is the sacrament of conversion.
And what many don’t realize is, sin isn’t just something we DO.
It’s about what you and I are becoming.
If I lie, once, twice, five times, over and over…
At some point, it’s what I am. I am a liar.
Confession is that essential step of opening up to let God change us.
It is the first step admitting, I can’t do this on my own.
You’ve also heard a lot about change: the life of our parish –
our three parishes coming together – is all caught up in change.
That, too, is a process of conversion.
You’ve been very open, and that is a huge part
of any success we’re experiencing.
But remember, the essential point of all we’ve been doing
is to become a family of believers who are powerful witnesses.
The Catholic Church of 2025 can’t just wait for folks to show up.
Part of the conversion we ask for is to be witnesses.
It’s not mainly about the right words, or memorizing explanations.
Yes, knowing our Faith is important.
But the witness that attracts others is how genuinely you and I live it.
So that brings us back, not merely to what we do –
but what and who you and are becoming, by God’s grace.
Jesus came into the world to show you, me, and everyone
what it means to be not twisted and broken, but fully alive in God.
Truly free, not enslaved by sin and habit.
Full of grace; full of life. Full of heaven. Full of God.
“God became man so that men and women might become God.”
So, the daily choices we face? That’s how we sort it out:
These things don’t get me there.
But other choices help me become more like Jesus.
Maybe I’ll seek those more.
Who do you want to be? What will you do to get there?
