Behold our God: The Baptism of the Lord Sunday

Behold our God:

The Baptism of the Lord Sunday

January 15, 2023

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Isaiah 49:5-6; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34

 

          I try to imagine the curiosity and intrigue of John’s disciples when they saw Jesus for the first time, and I then think of the first time I went on retreat to a Cistercian Trappist monastery. I think of the moment when I recognized Jesus who was there for me personally with a message from God that would help me change my worldview to become one of compassion and sensitivity. It was a message to reach out to those who are suffering and need the healing touch of God, but it was a moment that took my breath away and held me in a sacred stillness. I can today feel the intensity of that moment when I recognized Jesus as the one who consoles us in our suffering and calls upon us to extend our caring hands.

 

          When we see Jesus in our Scripture, we have to see the whole plan of God being acted out through him. When we see Jesus, we see God’s world. Scripture tells us that he was God’s servant, which he was able to begin in his fullness at his baptism, and we likewise receive our mission when we are baptized. Baptism is never a private family matter as it is the moment we are called to God’s greater glory, and it is a time in which we are welcomed and sent. Baptism is our great equalizer because our Christian dignity results because of our baptism. Ordination, holy orders, or joining a religious community does not elevate one because baptism is the foundational sacrament that calls us uniquely into ministry.

 

          It is always important for us as church to evaluate ourselves and figure out how we are living according to God’s kingdom. What do we expect of church ministers and priests? What style do we want them to have as they represent an aspect of God’s plan? What characteristics do we want to see that will bring us to this sense of wonder that takes our breath away as the first disciples experienced when they beheld the Lamb of God? How do we need to speak of our expectations for Church ministers today?

 

          Our baptism roots us in the life of Christ, and we must continue to grow in friendship with him as our mission develops. He was a man who went about doing good, even when it did not make sense, and we are called to do the same. While we follow the teachings of the Church, we follow Christ and His Spirit who represent God’s reign. It is good for us to discover once again what our baptism calls us to be and how we are to hasten the coming of the kingdom through our life. Are we that person upon which others look and say, “Wow. I have now seen the face of God?

This homily is for the catechetical series on Christ’s presence in our worship.

 

          Many people think of Sunday mass as the one hour of week that we give to worship, but the mass is set as a time of nourishment within the larger context of daily life. What happens outside of Mass is just as important as what happens within Mass. It is important to realize that we are not choosing us to attend worship services, that that it is God who is calling us together as a community to bring forth our prayers, concerns, and hopes.

 

          When we are dismissed from Mass, we are exhorted to go forth to live as God intends and to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. At the end of Mass, we receive a mission, and therefore, the rest of the week we are living out the faith. It is in this world that we encounter challenges, share joys and successes, and hear stories of sadness and woe. These events weigh us down, bring us doubt and greater faith, and give us hope. God is present to us in daily life, and the world in which we live is a sacred place.

 

          These are the events we bring into Church when we come to pray. We tell God about what is going on in our life and we share the details of our week. We know that we depend upon God and need grace on an ongoing basis. God calls us and our community together so that we depend upon one another and nourish our bonds of affection, and God knows we need this in order to be further nourished. A section of the introductory rites holds that the priest will gather all the prayers of the faithful and will present them to God in the name of Jesus. 

 

          Notice that we begin with a greeting in which we invoke the name of our Trinitarian God, knowing that we have help from one another and from the divine realm. We wish one another love, affection, and communion. We then ask for mercy from God as we bring to mind our need for forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation. This is a great equalizer because as each of us stands before God, we are seen as people with inherent dignity. Our social status, administrative position, ordination, wealth, poverty, educational level, nothing else matters except that we are people who believe in God and depend upon God’s mercy, and we ask Christ to heal and forgive us for the ways we have not responded well to God’s invitations and movements. If God forgives us, then we are to bring God’s mercy to others who likewise do not deserve it. 

 

          Once we have a sense that God hears and remembers us, we break out in song our great glory to God. We praise, bless, adore, and give thanks for all that God has done for us. We celebrate who God is for us and we profess God’s dominion over all creation. It is right for our full and active participation because we have just been redeemed and we know God cares for us. That’s why we sing joyfully.

 

          We then take time to pray. Silence always follows the call to prayer. The priest, knowing we all stand before God as equals in dignity, asks God to hear our prayers, to illumine our hearts, and to bestow peace on our times. The priest prays and all is done through Jesus Christ, who is risen, and alive, and reigns in God’s kingdom in the unity of the Spirit. With this moment of joy acknowledged, we take our seats so that we can hear the Word of God, the story of Jesus, broken open for us in the contexts of our daily life.

 

          As the Introductory Rites propose, we are to come together as one, to focus upon our unity, to establish communion, and then prepare us to listen to the Word of God and to celebrate the Eucharist as full as we can. Our goal is shared unity, a unity that proclaims Christ is our Lord, and we are all here to be nourished by God once again. God promises to remember us – while we are gathered and when we are sent forth.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

Monday: (Hebrews 5) Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.

 

Tuesday: (Hebrews 6) We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.

 

Wednesday: (Hebrews 7) Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings and blessed him. And Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name first means righteous king,
and he was also "king of Salem," that is, king of peace.

 

Thursday: (Hebrews 7) It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.

 

Friday (Hebrews 8) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt.

 

Saturday (Hebrews 9) A tabernacle was constructed, the outer one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of offering; this is called the Holy Place. Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. 

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 2) "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 2) "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?

 

Wednesday (Mark 3) There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up here before us."

 

Thursday (Mark 3) Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.

 

Friday (Mark 3) Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

 

Saturday (Mark 3) Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

 

Saints of the Week

 

January 17: Anthony, Abbot (251-356), was a wealthy Egyptian who gave away his inheritance to become a hermit. Many people sought him out for his holiness and asceticism. After many years in solitude, he formed the first Christian monastic community. Since he was revered, he went to Alexandria to encourage the persecuted Christians. He met Athanasius and helped him fight Arianism.

 

January 20: Fabian, pope and martyr (d. 250), was a layman and stranger in Rome during the time of his election as pope. A dove settled on his head, which reminded people of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove during the baptism. He served for 14 years until his martyrdom.

 

January 20: Sebastian, martyr (d. 300), was buried in the catacombs in Rome. He hailed from Milan and is often pictured with many arrows piercing his body. Much of what we know about him is legend.

 

January 21: Agnes, martyr (d. 305), is one of the early Roman martyrs. Little is known about her but she died around age 12 during a persecution. Because of her names connection with a lamb, her iconography depicts her holding a lamb to remind us of her sacrifice and innocence.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• January 15, 1955. The death of Daniel Lord SJ, popular writer, national director of the Sodality, founder of the Summer School of Catholic Action, and editor of The Queen's Work. 
• January 16, 1656. At Meliapore, the death of Fr. Robert de Nobili, nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine. Sent to the Madura mission, he learned to speak three languages and for 45 years labored among the high caste Brahmins. 
• January 17, 1890. Benedict Sestini died. He was an astronomer, editor, architect, mathematician, and teacher at Woodstock College. 
• January 18, 1615. The French Jesuits began a mission in Danang, Vietnam. 
• January 19, 1561. In South Africa, the baptism of the powerful King of Monomotapa, the king's mother, and 300 chiefs by Fr. Goncalvo de Silveira. 
• January 20, 1703. At Paris, the death of Fr. Francis de la Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV and a protector of the French Church against the Januarysenists. 
• January 21, 1764. Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris, wrote a pastoral defending the Jesuits against the attacks of Parliament. It was ordered to be burned by the public executioner.