Thursday, February 2 (January 20), 2023

1Peter IV:12-V:5; Mk. XII:38-44
On the day of the Epiphany we have seen in action that the entire plan of our salvation is wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, through the good will of the Father and communion of the Holy Spirit.  And today the Apostle tells us that everyone’s personal salvation, likewise, can be accomplished only by the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” [1Peter 1:2].  Our capacity for faith is known to God the Father in advance; He meets us half-way with His good will, calls us to salvation and nurtures our faith by the grace of the Holy Spirit.   In the Sacrament of Baptism, by sprinkling us with the blood of our Lord the Savior, the Holy Spirit gains entry into our soul and abides in us, giving us immeasurable help on our way to salvation.
Let us then praise, extol and magnify the Most Holy Trinity, the good provider of our salvation, and, “giving it all diligence”, follow the example of our Maker and Deliverer and hasten to acquire all possible virtues, lest we “be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord” and locked out of “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior”  [2Peter 1:5,8,11] whither we are called.

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