The Church celebrates Sunday, January 13, 2019, as the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “After the Lord was baptized, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Amen.”
The Baptism of our Lord brings the season of Christmas to a close. In the Gospel of Saint Luke, the Church recalls Our Lord's second manifestation or epiphany, which occurs on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan. Jesus descends into the River Jordan to sanctify its waters and to give them the power to beget sons and daughters of God. The event takes on the importance of a second creation in which the entire Trinity (God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit) intervenes. In the Eastern Church this feast is called Theophany precisely because God appears in the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
In the First Reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, the prophet stirs up hopes of a return of the exiles from Babylon by urging them not to give up hope, especially not to embrace the gods of their captors, but to remain faithful to the one, true God of Israel. He tells them their liberation is near and urges them to cleanse their hearts and souls so the Lord will find no mountains or deep valleys of sin as he comes to free them and lead them back to Zion.
In his Letter to Titus, in the Second Reading, Saint Paul urges his young companion to preach God’s salvation and lead God’s people to reject godless ways and worldly desires and live temperate lives worthy of children of God. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to become children of God in whom he is well pleased.
First Reading: Is 40: 1-5.9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by a strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment:
As we said last Sunday, the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord, of all the Old Testament Books, pride of place in the liturgy belongs to the Book of Isaiah. It leads the collection of Old Testament prophets more for its religious importance and beauty than for its age and size. The prophet Isaiah, often considered the greatest of the prophets, was born in about 765 BC into a Jerusalem aristocratic family. He received his prophetic vocation in 740 BC and his long ministry spanned a period of over forty years.
The Book of Isaiah covers three distinct periods of Israel’s history. The first part, chapters 1-39, was written by the prophet himself. Chapter 40, from where our reading is taken, through chapter 55 are usually designated Second Isaiah, and Chapters 56 through 66 form the third part. These later chapters are thought to have been written by an unknown poet near the end of the Babylonian exile.
There are four sections in the book of Isaiah that are called the “Suffering Servant Songs.” They depict in deeply touching poetry, a chosen servant who must suffer much because of his fidelity to God. Our reading is taken from the first of those songs. Isaiah describes the election, anointing and mission of the servant, as well as the way the servant will go about accomplishing the objectives set out by God.
He sees the captivity of the Israelites as part of God’s old plan and therefore exhorts his fellow Jews in exile to resist the temptation of embracing the Babylonian religion. He stirs up hopes of an imminent return to Judah, where the Lord will again be acknowledged as King. He then describes the triumphal return with the Lord leading them along a straight path through the wilderness back to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
As we reflect on this reading, let us also envisage the day – hopefully soon – when our own brothers and sisters, who are currently living in exile in neighboring Nigeria, or who are internally displaced in other parts of our land, will be able to return to their own homes, or whatever may be left of what they once called home -- if anything is left at all. We pray that God should touch the hearts of our political leaders so they can see the folly of this war they are prosecuting against their own people in the name of unity and oneness of the land. Amen.
Second Reading: Titus 2: 11-14; 3:4-7
Beloved: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good. When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Titus, to whom Paul addresses this letter, is a Gentile Christian (Gal 2:1-2) and a close associate of Paul on his missionary journeys and his apostolic ministry (2 Cor 2: 13; 7: 6, 13-14). It is he whom Paul charges with the heavy task of carrying his severe letter to his converts of Corinth to clear up the difficult situation that has arisen in that church (2 Cor 7: 6-8). Paul also entrusts him with the responsibility of taking up the collection from Corinth to the poor Christians of Jerusalem (2 Cor 8: 6ff).
Paul apparently put Titus in charge of the church on the Greek island of Crete in the Aegean sea and, in this letter, he urges Titus, among other things, to appoint presbyter-bishops for each of the local churches of Crete, ensuring that they be good, capable men who are above reproach in their personal lives and in their supervision of their families. Paul wants these men to help Titus combat the errors of faith that are threatening the Christian communities of the island. He also wants men who can transform the lives of the Christians in response to the loving salvation that has been given to them by God in Christ Jesus. The appointed leaders must lead Christians to put their faith into practice through good works, thereby constituting a true force for good in the world.
How does Paul’s Letter to Titus help us in Cameroon today? Paul’s insistence that Christian leaders be men and women of integrity and sobriety, not greed, speaks to us directly. Our Church leaders (bishops, priests and the religious) must be people of charity, who lead by example. They must preach the gospel of Jesus, not theirs, and let the people know that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the ground of the hope we have to become heirs to eternal life.
Let us join our Church leaders, especially in Cameroon today, to take care of the poor and the dispossessed among us; and there are many of them today, who have become internally displaced persons fleeing the senseless violence destroying the northwest and southwest regions of our country. Many of them are living among us, here in the Archdiocese of Douala, and our Archbishop, Samuel Kleda, has asked that we open the doors of our hearts and of our homes to them. May the charity and generosity Paul talks about in his Letter to Titus be ours as well. We make our supplication through Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. The heavens were opened and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Alleluia.
Gospel: Lk 3: 15-16. 21-22
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise be to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
The people in Israel are waiting for a Messiah, a king, who would right the wrongs of their current reality and restore Israel. Many have gathered around John to be baptized in expectation that something would soon happen — the Messiah was coming. However, in their midst, stands the Messiah but none of them recognizes him, not even John who baptizes him as he baptizes the other individuals coming to him seeking salvation.
“Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan” is the first Luminous mystery of the Rosary. For the Jews the Jordan River is not any ordinary water source. It is a river that symbolizes new beginnings. Elijah the prophet is taken up to heaven at the Jordan. Elisha, his successor, begins his prophetic ministry at this same spot. Naaman the Syrian is cured of his leprosy at this river. However, what stands out even more is its association with the Exodus story for after fleeing from slavery in Egypt and wandering in the desert for forty years, the Israelites finally enter the Promised Land by passing through the Jordan River. The prophets use the Exodus story as an image for what God would do in the messianic age.
In choosing the Jordan River for his baptisms, John sends a powerful message, which is that the new exodus is here! In inviting people to travel out into the desert, go down into the waters of the Jordan, and reenter the land, John encourages them to reenact the Exodus story. This symbolic action expresses hope that the final great exodus is about to take place. It is no wonder therefore that there is so much enthusiasm and expectation surrounding John’s movement.
John the Baptist preaches a baptism of repentance, which means that he invites people to express sorrow for their sins by taking a purely symbolic bath in the Jordan. He announces the coming of a new age of grace and mercy with a symbolic washing away of sin. God Himself had baptized in ages past to signal new beginnings. The whole world, which had sunk into sin was baptized in the great flood in the time of Noah. The people of Israel had been baptized twice during the Exodus to cleanse them from the idolatry of Egypt, once in the Red Sea as they were leaving Egypt, and a second time in the Jordan as they entered the Promised Land after forty years of wandering. John says that, while his baptism is merely one of water, the coming Messiah “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Fire symbolizes the energy of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what He touches. He purifies and sanctifies. This includes the power needed to do God’s will
Many of the incidents that accompany Christ's baptism are symbolical of what happens at our own baptism. At Christ's baptism the Holy Spirit descends upon Him; at our baptism the Trinity also makes its home in our soul. At His baptism Christ is proclaimed the "Beloved Son" of the Father; at our own baptism we become the adopted sons of God. At Christ's baptism the heavens are opened; at our baptism heaven is also opened to us. At His baptism Jesus prays; after our own baptism let us too pray to avoid sin and remain faithful to our baptismal vows. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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