Second Sunday of the Year (A) 2014

2^nd. Sunday of Year (A).

(Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1^st. Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34)

In the first reading, taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard that God, speaking immediately to His Chosen People but ultimately embracing His promised Messiah, had said:

It is too little for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. 

Out of all the nations on earth, God had specially chosen, cherished and taught, one people, which became known as Israel.  By the time of Isaiah that teaching and cherishing had been ongoing for over a thousand years, and Isaiah himself was one of a line of prophets sent by God to His Chosen People to form it into a servant worthy and able to take God’s Name and His saving Word to the whole world.  Israel could not be the definitive Servant of God’s salvation because she herself, in her degree, shared in and was wounded by the sin of the world. Nevertheless, she would be the stock from which that ultimate Servant of God would rise Who would be uniquely able to fittingly reveal the Name, manifest and proclaim the Word, and show Himself to be the Salvation, of Israel’s God for the good of all mankind.
 

By means of the Old Testament covenant with Israel God did ultimately prepare a people able to bring forth the wondrously holy and sublimely beautiful Mary of Nazareth, of whom we read in the Song of Songs (2:1):

            I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, a lily among thorns.

Uniquely adorned with true and God-rejoicing humility, she it was who would welcome, endow with human flesh and blood, nurture and bring up, the Son and Servant of God that He might become the Son-of-man foreshadowed in the prophecy of Isaiah:

Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.  Let the earth open and salvation bud forth.  (45:8)

In Jesus – Son of God, become Son of Mary and Son of Man -- not only the Chosen People are called to become children of God in the well-beloved Son, but also the Gentiles -- who for millennia had walked in darkness and lived under the shadow of death -- are to be evangelized, invited, and empowered, to turn from their former ways and embrace the Good News of Jesus brought to them by His universal Church founded upon the Apostles.   The proclamation of the New Testament is, indeed, God’s offer of salvation to all nations through faith in Jesus, the Spirit-anointed-Saviour Who brings glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men of goodwill.  For mankind is to become one again in Jesus; sharing, as adopted children, a common heritage in the Kingdom of the Father, a heritage which the only-begotten-Son has won for them by shedding His blood on the Cross of Calvary before rising again on the third day; a heritage for which the Spirit bequeathed by Jesus will prepare them.  

We should be filled with gratitude, People of God, as we think on this: God trained the Jewish people for 2000 years, and then, in His immense mercy and goodness, put us -- in Jesus -- alongside and together with those He had chosen and cherished for so long!!  As St. Paul told the Christians of Rome (11:16-17):

If the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. And you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in to share the rich root of the olive tree. 

Let us now turn to today’s Gospel passage where you heard John the Baptist, the fore-runner of the promised Messiah, revealing Jesus to the Jewish people:

“I did not know Him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that He might be made known to Israel.”  John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon Him.   I did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’  Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.” 

You remember the scene when Jesus was coming up from the waters of the Jordan used by John for his baptism?  It was then -- when Jesus was dripping with water -- that John saw the Spirit coming down upon Jesus in the form of a dove, the symbol of peace, signifying here peace between God and man, and peace among men of good will; that peace which Jesus -- the promised Prince of Peace – alone could bring about.

Think of that scene, People of God, and then remember the words Jesus was later to say to Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews:

Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  (John 3:5)

Water and the Spirit: what did they mean for the Jews and the Gentiles, both called in Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, to become God’s children?  Listen, and wonder at the wisdom, the beauty, and the goodness, of God; for, in order to save mankind from the bonds of sin and death, God had to convict mankind of their sinfulness, in order that they might turn from sin, reject it, and embrace -- gratefully and wholeheartedly -- God’s offer of eternal life in Jesus, His beloved and only-begotten Son.

The Chosen People had, over thousands of years, become a supremely spiritual and moral people; and yet, although they had been given a Law which was holy, they had, in their observance of that Law, become ever more reliant on their own efforts: they had come to think that they were able to observe that Law by themselves and imagined they could, in that way, prove themselves worthy to be the Chosen People of God.  They came to regard themselves as having been chosen, not out of God’s boundless mercy, but because of their own particular spiritual superiority and ability; to believe that God had been right in choosing them, because they -- above all other nations -- had the strength of will and moral character to keep His Law.  There, People of God, we recognize the sin of the Jews: spiritual pride.

In this scene by the Jordan where John was offering a baptism of repentance, the Jewish people were being told that it was only by God's free gift of the Holy Spirit -- to be given through Jesus the Lamb of God -- that they could practice a holiness acceptable to Him Who is the all-holy One; only by God’s Gift, which is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, could they become holy; and the Spirit was wholly Jesus’ to give, which is why the Spirit was to be seen descending and resting upon Jesus as He came up out of the waters.

The Gentiles on the other hand, although they had risen to great social and cultural heights in the ancient empires, and most recently in the glories of Greece and the achievements of Rome, nevertheless, they had become morally degenerate despite all the truths they had glimpsed, the beauties they had created, and the grandeur of the social fabric they had established.  They had sunken into all sorts of moral abominations for which the Jews had come to despise them, despite themselves being subject to Rome’s omnipresent and all- subduing military power.

St. Paul, himself born and reared as a strict Pharisee, expressed this awareness of the Jews with regard to their conquerors when he wrote to the Romans:

Although they (the Gentiles) knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. …. God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.  (1:21-32) 

There you have the Gentiles’ sin: wallowing in abominations for which they needed to become repentant if they were to be washed clean; a cleansing symbolised by the water dripping off Jesus as He came up, out of the waters of the Jordan. 

Water and the Spirit for the cleansing of Jews and Gentiles: water and the Spirit, whereby Jesus would take upon HImself and redeem the sins of the world!  The whole of human life had been infected with the sin of Adam from its lowest depths to its highest achievements: social life, intellectual vigour, and spiritual aspirations, all had been stained by the Gentiles’ lust for pleasure and power, and the spiritual pride of Judaism; all had to be convicted of their sin in order that forgiveness and fulfilment could be offered to all.

People of God, as we recall these truths, let us rejoice with the deepest gratitude to the Father Who sent His beloved, only-begotten Son as:

The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world;

let us have generous appreciation for that people specially chosen of old to prepare the coming of Him Who -- as the Glory of Israel and Light of the Gentiles – now offers peace and salvation to all who believe in His Name; let us, finally, open our hearts to embrace His gift of the Spirit Who -- as the eternal bond of love between Father and Son -- wills to make us members of the heavenly Family and eternal Kingdom of God the Father.      

Baptism of the Lord Year A 2014

Baptism of the Lord (A)

(Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17)

Our readings today ended with and culminated in the voice of the heavenly Father Himself declaring:

            This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.

Notice that when John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to some of his disciples he did so by telling them of the mission Jesus would fulfil, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), just as the prophet Isaiah himself had done in our first reading, Here is My servant whom I uphold, My chosen one with whom I am well pleased … he shall bring forth justice to the nations.

At Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, however, the Father Himself -- speaking directly from heaven -- does not reveal Jesus by any words indicating what He had been sent to do for us; far from that, indeed, infinitely more than that, He proclaims simply and solely, the Person of Jesus; and, in doing so, He reveals His own Self, with the words:  

            This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.

With that proclamation the Father gives us a glimpse of the very essence of Divine Life and Beatitude in which the Father and Son are eternally One in the Holy Spirit of Love; and by manifesting His sheer delight in His Son made flesh, He thereby invites us to delight -- with Him -- in Jesus, ourselves; not simply, nor even primarily, because of what He does for us and on our behalf, but because of Who He is, the Holy One of God, both in Himself and with the Father.

There can, therefore, be no doubt about the focal point of our celebration today: we must look at, and seek to grow in appreciation of, Jesus, the Father's only  begotten and well-beloved Son, God’s chosen Servant in Whom His soul delights. 

Because it is well known that in the Church’s process of canonization it needs to be shown that candidates for such an honour had practiced Christian virtues to a heroic degree, it is easily assumed that holiness demands, first of all, the verifiable practice of public virtues.  This then leads certain devout, but nonetheless misguided, Catholics to think that holiness of life calls for the determining of a list of such virtues, which are then to be given special attention, one by one, and perfected by and in personal practice, until, hopefully, all are mastered … while always, of course, rejecting sin and avoiding occasions thereof.

Such thinking, however, is negative in its appreciation of Christian spirituality, in which -- as the word itself proclaims -- the Spirit should lead: it is also too redolent of pride in its reliance on human calculation (these virtues, in this order) and human endeavours (attentive practice gradually leading to perfection), and consequently, it projects a very barren approach to, and unattractive picture of, Christian holiness of life.

In truth, Christian holiness in all its fullness and purity cannot be characterized as anything other than a blazing fire of delight in God, above all and in all; as was shown most sublimely by our Blessed Lord Jesus Himself – in His Father’s house and about His Father’s business -- when lost to Mary and Joseph in the Temple at Jerusalem.  For Catholic  and Christian holiness of life, the practice of virtues flows freely and unconstrainedly from such a personally transforming and transcending Gift of divine love under the accompanying and ever-developing spirit of wisdom, self-discipline, and understanding.

First of all, therefore, we must want, seek, and pray to appreciate the Person of Jesus sent and given to us by the Father; and then, in Jesus and by the power of His Spirit, we should try to recognize, appreciate, and respond personally to, the Father, so that we begin to share in Jesus' own love for the Father.  Only in that way can our calling to become true disciples of Jesus be fulfilled, can we, in Him, become true children of the Father, by the Spirit.  

In our endeavour to appreciate something more of Jesus, therefore, let us turn our attention back to the prophet Isaiah who told us, in the first reading:

Here is My servant whom I uphold, My chosen one with I am pleased, upon Whom I have put My Spirit; He shall bring forth justice to the nations. 

And then let us recall what Peter told us in the second reading:

You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.

Both passages clearly relate to St. Matthew’s account in today’s Gospel reading of Jesus' experience on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist:

After Jesus was baptized, He came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for Him), and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon Him.

  

Now, John had not wanted to baptize Jesus, as you heard:

John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You are coming to me?” 

Jesus, however, insisted; He had come to do His Father's will -- all righteousness -- which meant that His life could not be lived in accordance with ordinary human standards, nor could it be subject to merely human judgements, however holy or authoritative those making such judgements might be:

Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  

Isaiah had foretold what mission the Father had in mind for Jesus:

            He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. 

Few words, indeed, but full of meaning, because the prophet’s ‘justice’ means God's truth and love, God’s own righteousness, ruling in us and bringing our lives to fulfilment.

Moreover, the prophet foretold how the Servant would go about His work, and so, indirectly, gave us some idea about what sort of person the Servant would prove to be:

He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. 

He will not, Isaiah says, abuse simple people by bombast, nor take advantage of them by any haranguing of emotional crowds; He will proclaim His message of justice and truth calmly, proscribing the violence of excitement, and showing full respect for His hearers.

Isaiah went on to show us another engaging aspect of God's Chosen Servant, when he added:

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench.

And so, though anointed with the Spirit and with power, Jesus would -- the prophet said -- be characterized by His gentleness, His personal respect for, and appreciation of, others.  This Peter confirmed in our second reading, saying:

He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Nevertheless, since Jesus had been given the mission to bring forth true justice on earth, He would inevitably meet with opposition in a sinful world, and this prospect led Isaiah to bring to our attention to yet another characteristic of the Chosen Servant and Beloved Son:

He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth.

And so, though -- in His gentleness and personal respect -- neither breaking what was bruised nor extinguishing what might still dimly glow, the Servant’s anointing with the Spirit and with power will not allow Him to become disheartened or be crushed by His painful experiences of life in a sinful world: He will be strong when facing trials similar to those we still encounter in our daily lives, and remain steadfast when encountering others far greater and more testing than any we will ever know, for He will live through them as the Servant obedient and faithful to His Lord at all times, as the Son in all things loving and witnessing to His Father.  Thus, Jesus would be like us -- one with us and able to understand us -- and yet, for all that, He would be most wonderfully and sublimely Unique: the only true One faithfully bringing forth justice and fulfilling all righteousness,  the supremely strong One, neither faltering nor failing in His mission:

            Till He has established justice in the earth.

And that, People of God, also means that Jesus will never give up seeking to help each one of us to recognise the Father's goodness and appreciate His love, nor in any way ever moderate His endeavours to gradually raise us up, by His Spirit, to become more and more worthy children of such a Father.

Today, however, there are many who try to proclaim the love of Jesus us by telling us how much He empathizes with us in our sufferings because He too has suffered; how His whole longing and aim is to bring us comfort and release, joy, peace and love, now.  And they leave it at that, being unwilling or afraid to speak of any further suffering to be borne or efforts to be made by those who want to belong to God.   And that is a travesty of the full truth; one which, though easy to proclaim, can be deadly in its effects; for it is a half-truth that would leave us no longer looking up to heaven but resting here on earth.  

The true Jesus, the Scriptures tell us:

Will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth;

that is, true justice in the hearts and minds, the lives and loves, of you and me, and all others like us throughout the whole world who will listen to His Good News and learn to fight the good fight here on earth while seeking for and aspiring to a new, eternal, home being prepared for us in heaven.

People of God, we are not always ready, perhaps not always willing, to lift our eyes to heaven, because the devil both abuses our weakness and disguises our ignorance so that we do not truly know our own needs, nor do we dare to recognise our own failings.  But Isaiah tells us clearly in the name of the Lord:

I formed You (My Servant) and set You as a covenant of the people, as a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. 

And so, since we all are – at times -- blind and prisoners to a greater or lesser degree, let us take care lest through pride we reject, or in fear turn away from, God's gift of such a Saviour sent to free us from the bonds of our perhaps well-loved sins and open our eyes to what we might indolently prefer to ignore. Therefore, People of God, putting our deepest trust in those words of the prophet Jeremiah (31:3-4):

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you, again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt,

let us resolve this very day to allow, indeed to beseech, God to rebuild our lives as He sees best, by conforming us in the Spirit to Jesus, in and from Whom alone we can learn to appreciate and love, ever more and more, the Father Who has revealed both Himself and His beloved Son to us in our Gospel reading today:

After Jesus was baptized, He came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for Him), and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him.  And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased." 

The Epiphany of Our Lord 2014

The Epiphany of Our Lord (2014)

(Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12)

This great solemnity of the Epiphany evokes the majesty, glory, and power of the One come from heaven to live among us for our salvation: a majesty testified to by the Father Himself speaking from heaven at His baptism in the Jordan; a glory manifested and confirmed again by the voice of the Father at His Transfiguration on the mount; a super-abundant power and saving compassion displayed at the wedding feast of Cana where He changed water into rich and copious new wine.  These signs of His majesty and glory, power and compassion, give us unshakeable confidence that what He has promised – freedom from the power of sin and death here on earth, and the hope of eternal salvation in and with Him in heaven -- He can and will fulfil in and for His Church, in and for you and me gathered here in His Church today to praise His most Holy Name.  

As you heard in the Gospel reading, this humble Lord of majesty, glory, and power, is the One to Whom the heavens themselves, nature’s primeval powers, gave obedient witness by means of a guiding star that disclosed His very birth- place;  the One Whom Israel’s inspired prophets and ancient scriptures had long foretold would come; the One recognized and worshipped this very day in Bethlehem of Judea by Magi from the East and first-fruits of the Gentiles, as King of the Jews, Prophet, and Priest.  Yes, indeed, People of God, we join with the mystic potential of creation itself, with our ancient fathers and forebears in faith, and with all those who, through the ages, have been and are humbly searching for God in accordance with their possibilities; and on the supremely solid basis of such a privilege, we have very, very good reason to rejoice on this day.

Our Blessed Saviour, however, does not clasp this glory to Himself exclusively, as we are invited and solicitously encouraged to understand from our first reading:

Rise up in splendour, Mother Church! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.   See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears His glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.

In these days of scandals, contradiction, and rejection, we must never forget the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy, for Mother Church is, even today, supremely privileged as the Spouse of Christ.  All nations of the world can walk surely by the light of her teaching, and the shining radiance of her saints is inspiration for all those called to share with Jesus His victory over the sin of the world and give glory to God in the highest.

Let us consider those prophetic words a little more closely:

            Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.

Mother Church can, and does, enrich the world with her proclamation of the truth; nevertheless, besides the light of Mother Church’s teaching, the shining radiance of her people’s lives is required that the nations may be brought to walk humbly yet confidently along the way of the Lord.   That means, that all of us -- each and every ordinary member of the Church -- has an essential role to play in enabling her to fulfil the commission given her by the Lord Jesus to continue in our world of today the work of evangelization and salvation that He started by His own life, death, and resurrection.  How can we rise to such a calling?

Jesus once told a Samaritan woman asking Him for the water of life (John 4:22s.):

You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.

 

The world around us manifests far greater ignorance than did the Samaritans of old concerning whom Jesus thus plainly spoke; for, worshipping above all money and power, ever-seeking pleasure and plenty, they aspire to nothing better than self-satisfaction and popular esteem; and to this day are found rejecting and mocking that salvation coming from the Jews who believe in Jesus and live by His Spirit, as St. Paul teaches:

One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh.   Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter.   We are the (true) circumcision, we who worship through the Spirit of God, who boast in Christ Jesus and do not put our confidence in flesh. (Romans 2:28s.; Philippians 3:3)

But let us not truncate Jesus’ words for, having denied the world’s gospel and exposed its false gods, He went on to tell the Samaritan woman and ourselves how we can show forth the shining radiance of Mother Church:

The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

And that, People of God, is the only worthy programme we can set for ourselves as disciples of Jesus in the world of today, to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; that is, to worship the Father in the power of the Spirit given us in Jesus’ Sacraments and by personal and loving response to the Truth made known to us in the Good News of Jesus: handed-down, proclaimed, and proferred to all men and women of good-will throughout the ages by Mother Church.

For – have no doubt about it -- the Good News of Jesus is God’s word, a word that does not return empty to God: 

The word that goes forth from My mouth shall not return to Me void, but shall do My will, achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) 

That means, that if we hear and embrace the truth of Jesus’ Good News in humble sincerity, seeking to understand, love, and serve Jesus and Him Who sent Him, then that Word, that Truth, will achieve the end for which it has been sent and  passed down to us and will set the Spirit at work in us: the Spirit of prayer Who supplies for our inability to pray at times; the Spirit of power Who enables us to resist all assaults of Satan and do what is beyond our natural powers; the Spirit of Love Who -- healing our sinfulness -- transfigures our weakness into the glory of the children of God.  That, People of God, is the programme we are invited to embrace today, to serve God with all sincerity -- as the prophet proclaimed:

True worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

As then you seek, in all sincerity, to read in private and hear in Church the Word of God, let the star that God’s unfailing Word will most certainly cause to rise within you -- usually without you even noticing it at first -- shine before you as you try to follow it as did the Magi of old; let it lead you to worship Jesus as the Father expects of you personally.  In that way Jesus will become a great joy for you; and, as you give your gifts to Him you will thereby begin to find your true selves, each one being formed in Jesus as a personal gift for the Father by the Spirit of Jesus.

Having found Jesus and worshipped Him in Spirit and in Truth, the Magi did not find it hard to leave without meeting Herod again.  There was, indeed, much splendour in his palace, many gifts were awaiting them on his tables, and flattery  a-plenty from his own lips and those of his courtiers, but what was all that in comparison with the peace, joy, and fulfilment, they had just experienced in the cave and at the crib in Bethlehem?  Could those who had been so privileged there as to hear or hear of the angels’ chorus, ever want to hear again, let alone be seduced by, the siren music of Herod’s dancers and the lascivious pleasures of cushions and wine.

For all who, in spirit, have made the Magi’s trip to Bethlehem and have begun to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, these words of St. Paul express all:

Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13s.)