THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

12 JANUARY 2025

 

          Our popular culture speaks of Christmas in the past tense.  We ask one another, “How was your Christmas?  Where did you spend Christmas?  Did your annoying uncle come to cause trouble with his heavy drinking and political arguments?”  The stores no longer carry anything associated with Christmas, because they are obsessed with telling us to buy all kinds of stuff for Valentine’s Day.

            But for us, who are disciples of Jesus Christ and members of the Catholic Church, Christmas is not over.  Beginning on the evening of December 24, we reflected on the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ for eight days, an Octave.  Last Sunday, we meditated on the manifestation (Epiphany) of Jesus Christ to the entire world through Saint Matthew’s account of the journey of the magi.  On this last day of the Christmas Season, we reflect on Saint Luke’s account of the manifestation of Jesus Christ at his baptism in the waters of the River Jordan.  As an adult thirty years after his birth, Jesus knows who he is.  Angels had announced his identity when they proclaimed his birth to shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem.  The magi identified him by the gifts they brought:  gold for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh to anoint his body after he had died on the cross for our salvation. 

            That is why the Baptism of Jesus is so important.  In being baptized in the River Jordan, the true nature of Jesus is manifested. John baptizes people as an invitation to repent of their sins.  Even though John the Baptist is a very popular and engaging character, he points away from himself and invites people to trust his cousin.  He identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah for whom people had been waiting for centuries.  Saint Luke does not describe the actual event of the baptism of Jesus.  Instead, he tells us that after the baptism, Jesus is praying.  Heaven is opened, and the Holy Spirit descends on him in bodily form like a dove.  The voice comes from heaven and announces that Jesus is his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased.

            With this manifestation, Jesus begins his public ministry.  As the beloved Son of God, he will proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand.  He will teach how to become be part of this kingdom.  He will work miracles as signs pointing to the presence of this kingdom.  In fact, we will hear from the Gospel of Saint John next Sunday that Jesus will manifest himself in one of his most important miracles.  He will change water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. 

            When we were baptized, you and I became brothers and sisters as members of the Body of Christ.  When he is manifested in the waters of the River Jordan, Jesus is clearly not alone.  The Holy Spirit has descended on him, and the Father refers to him as his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased.   As he continues his public ministry, the Father and the Holy Spirit will be with him, even as he hangs in agony on the cross.  In being immersed in the waters of the River Jordan, he is demonstrating that unity of the Trinity.  He becomes aware that he is not alone.

            You and I are not alone either.  We walk our pilgrimage of life together as brothers and sisters.  When we spend time in prayer, we become more aware that we have been immersed in the life of the Trinity when we were baptized.  When we are fed by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at this Altar, we express our faith that the Lord can transform the water of our ordinary lives into the wine of God’s love.  No matter what happens in this New Year, we can have the same confidence as Saint Peter, who speaks in the Acts of the Apostles after baptizing Cornelius and his family.  God is with us at every step of our lives and will not abandon us.

 

 

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

5 JANUARY 2025

 

            Saint Paul tells the Ephesians that he has been given the stewardship of God’s grace.  That gift was given to him on the road to Damascus, when the Risen Lord appeared to him to initiate a most dramatic conversion.  As a responsible steward, Saint Paul spent the rest of his life sharing that gift with people, especially non-Jewish Gentiles.

            Saint Matthew explains the gift of God’s grace today.  The magi are probably astrologers who respond not by a direct revelation by God, but by a star, part of God’s creation.  They follow the star, much like the Israelites followed a pillar of fire when leaving Egypt.  Expecting that a king would be born in a capital city, they arrive in Jerusalem.  There, the acting king seeks the advice of the chief priests and the scribes.  They quote the Prophet Micah that the child would be born in Bethlehem.  He sends them there, not to do homage, but to eliminate a potential rival.       

            Directed by the star, they arrive in Bethlehem.  Entering the house, they encounter what appears to be an ordinary baby.  But, guided by the revelation of the Prophet Micah, they perceive much more.  They prostrate themselves to do him homage, acknowledging by their gifts the true identity of this child.  The gold identifies him as the king they had traveled to visit.  The frankincense declares that he is God, and not just an ordinary king in the line of King David.  The myrrh reflects his mission.  Obeying the will of his Father, he will sacrifice his entire life on the cross for the salvation of all.  Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they depart by another way to their country.

            The irony is striking.  Those who know better should have recognized this gift of God’s grace.  But they ignore it.  Those who have had no understanding or interest in the gift get it.  Their encounter with this gift changed them, indicated by their decision to return home by another way.  The poet T.S. Eliot expresses this conversion in his poem, “Journey of the Magi.”  Eliot speaks from the perspective of one of the magi in his old age.  He describes the difficulties he and his fellow travelers had encountered on their way to Bethlehem.  After painting a word picture of the Mystery that they had encountered, he ends the poem by saying: “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease there, in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.”  No longer aliens, they now share the gift of God’s grace that Saint Paul describes in the second reading.

            In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah tells Jerusalem to rise in splendor and be so radiant that the world will see the Lord’s light reflected through her inhabitants.  Ironically, he speaks to exiles recently returned to Jerusalem after their fifty-year exile in Babylon.  There is no splendor or radiance in this destroyed city.  But Isaiah promises that God will prevail and overcome their darkness and hard work of rebuilding their city.  Saint Matthew sees this prophecy fulfilled in today’s Gospel.  The magi encounter the splendor and radiance of the infant, who is king, God, and suffering servant.

            No matter how dark and discouraging we may find our world today, we too have been baptized as stewards of God’s grace.  At this Mass, we hear ordinary words and see gifts of bread and wine.  Like the magi, we hear the Lord speaking to us in the Word.  We look beyond the appearance of bread and wine.  We prostrate ourselves during the Eucharistic Prayer in homage and encounter the Lord’s presence as his Body and Precious Blood.  Instead of bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we bring the gifts of our hearts in praise and thanksgiving.  Then, transformed by these gifts, we are sent out to be stewards of God’s grace to those we encounter in this New Year.