My Incoherent Babbling

January 12, 2014

 

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Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Lectionary: 21

Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
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.

R/ (11b) The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
R/ The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
R/ The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
R/ The Lord will bless his people with peace.

Peter proceeded to speak to those gathered
in the house of Cornelius, saying:
“In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly
is acceptable to him.
You know the word that he sent to the Israelites
as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,
what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.”

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him.
John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.”
Then he allowed him.
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.”

 

 

I would have to admit something to you - that may startle you. But God has not fulfilled my expectations. This may be a hard to hear, but I must be honest with you. God has not fulfilled my expectations. There, I said it! And if you were to be honest with yourselves, you would admit that God has not fulfilled your expectations. St. John the Baptist would admit this.

John was the cousin of Jesus, and no doubt that his mother, St Elizabeth, would have told him that Mary was the mother of their Lord. John probably met Jesus at family gatherings as they were growing up. This all motivated John to give up everything in the world in his adulthood and prepare for the time that Jesus would enter into His kingdom.

He became a celibate; he never married. This was a common practice in the Old Testament for prophets called by God. They renounced ever from being with a woman. All the prophets in the Old Testament were celibates. The only exception to this was the prophet Hosea. It was not that marriage was sinful. In fact, marriage is good. God has instituted marriage. It is one of the seven sacraments of the Church. But although marriage is good, celibacy is better. If one can handle celibacy, it can bring the person closer to God. And John wanted that closeness to God. He gave up all things that the world had to offer, and went to live in the wilderness. He wore a scratchy camel-hair shirt and lived on locusts and honey. This was an extreme form of mortification, which I would not recommend anyone to do today. But drastic measures are required for those drastic times. John knew that his cousin was the promised Messiah. Any day now he would announce his kingship to the Jews and destroy the Roman oppressors. There would be a kingdom of peace. This was St. John’s expectations. It was the expectations of all the Jews at that time.

Imagine the scene of St. John the Baptist, baptizing people at the River Jordan. St. John was preaching repentance, which is the turning away from their sins and turning back to God. The people would even confess their sins aloud. And John would then baptize them, which was a symbol of them turning away from their sins toward God. The baptism symbolized that their sins were washed away and their rising out of the water symbolized their newness of life with God. As St John baptized each person in line, his next one was his cousin Jesus. Ah, finally Jesus would reveal Himself to everyone in all His glory. He would announce that He is the Christ, the long-expected Messiah. But – wait a minute! No, this cannot be! He is not here to announce that He is the Messiah! He is here to be BAPTIZED!  No, tell me that this is not true, Jesus! This is not what I expected of you! – so thought St John. I should be baptized by you, Lord! That is what I expected! But YOU baptized by ME! This cannot be!

What is that Lord? Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness? Very well, Lord! Have it your way, Lord. You are the potter and I am the clay! I don’t understand why you are doing this. I don’t understand why you are telling me to do this! I know you have no need to be baptized. You are sinless. You have no sins from which to repent. But I submit to your will, Lord.

After Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened. The Holy Spirit came as a dove and rested on Jesus. The Father spoke from heaven “This is my beloved Son, on whom I am well-pleased”. The other two Persons of the Trinity showed the approval on what Jesus had done. This was Jesus’ first public act of humility. Jesus was always humbly obedient to His heavenly father. And He was also humbly obedient to his parent’s, Joseph and Mary. But this was the first time that the public saw his humility and his obedience. There will be other times they will see it – culminated in Christ’s death on the cross. But this is the first time the public saw it.

By Jesus being baptized, this changed the role of baptism. His divine life touched the waters so that the waters touch us now with divine life. John baptized with water only. But now we are baptized with water and the Holy Spirit – so that the Spirit too will rest on us. John’s baptism was only a symbol of the newness of life. But our baptism now actually brings us the newness of life. It causes us to be born again into a new life in Christ.

As St. John had false expectations about the coming Messiah, so we must reflect in what ways we have false expectations of the Lord. Maybe we expect the Lord to protect us from any suffering. But Christ Himself suffered. And many of His saints have suffered, and even suffered martyrdom. Maybe we expect the Lord will tolerate any mortal sins we may be doing. Maybe we expect our Lord not to demand that we go to Confession to be forgiven. Maybe we expect our Lord to be more tolerant of sexual sins because our society is more tolerant of sexual sins. Maybe we expect that our Lord would honor divorce papers issued by a civil court and that an annulment from the Church is not necessary.  In other words, we expect that God be just like us. We expect God to think like us, and treat us exactly the way we would treat us. But God is not us. His ways are not our ways. We must humble ourselves to God and allow Him to reveal Himself through his Church, and obey Him accordingly.

If we humbly obey God, then God will appear to us in judgment and say to us “This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased”. Place no expectations on God. Let God be God. Then at the end, God will meet more than what we could have possibly expected.