January 29^th 2017. Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mt 5:1-12A

 ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Mt 5:1-12A

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 
He began to teach them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Summary . . . The Gospel this week proclaims the Beatitudes. How can poverty, mourning, meekness and persecution be sources of blessing? It is not poverty in itself, or mourning in itself, or persecution in itself that constitute a blessing. These states are pathways to God. They make us ready for the action of God in our lives.

            Usually, we provide a summary of the homily here, but the entire homily this week is really a summary of the meaning of the Beatitudes. Please try to read it in its entirety!

Why is the one who mourns blessed? How is being persecuted a blessing? The blessing does not come from he fact of being bereaved or the fact of being persecuted. It comes from the fact that such states prepare us for the action of God in our lives.

Last week we heard the proclamation of the Kingdom of God by Jesus. This week, we hear the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ longest and most comprehensive discourse in all of the Synoptic Gospels. Consider for a moment the structure of the eight Beatitudes proclaimed in this week’s liturgy.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land, etc.

The fact that the phrase “Blessed are . .” is hammered out in rhythmic fashion at the beginning of each Beatitude tends to make us focus on the words that come immediately after the phrase. In other words, we register that the poor in spirit are blessed, those who mourn are blessed, those who are meek are blessed, etc. But this can cause us to lose the authentic sense of what Jesus is saying. Those who mourn are not blessed by the fact that they are mourning. Those who are persecuted are not blessed by the fact that they are persecuted. It is the second element in each phrase - the part that comes after the “because” - that tells us why these people are blessed! It is a matter of cause and effect, after all, and it is this second part that tells us the reason for the blessing. The poor in spirit are blessed because there is something in this condition that allows them to possess the Kingdom of Heaven.  Those who mourn are blessed because this condition is the departure point for arriving at authentic consolation. The beautiful passive form of the verb  - “they shall be consoled” - tells us that it is God who will do the consoling. The meek are blessed because they will inherit the land. Those who hunger and thirst for justice will be satisfied. The justice referred to here is not a legalistic, forensic form of justice but the justice of the Kingdom of Heaven, the justice of God, our relationship with him. Those who hunger and thirst for a real relationship with him are blessed because they will be satisfied. The hunger and privation that they feel is the point of departure for attaining genuine fulfilment. The merciful are blessed because they will receive mercy. They pardon others and have a more fundamental blessing in store for themselves because they too will be pardoned. The pure in heart are blessed because they will see God. A pure heart is a heart that has said “no” to certain things. It is not confused, has not made compromises, is not tainted. This act of being pure is not easy. It is painful and requires renunciation and abnegations. But these renunciations in themselves are not the point! The point is to be able to see God! To have one’s eyes fixed on the invisible and to arrive at the contemplation of God in Paradise.

It is not poverty, persecution or mourning that we seek. We seek heavenly consolation. We seek the Kingdom of heaven. Poverty of spirit, mourning, persecution and meekness are all pathways to the Kingdom.

The Beatitudes are really posing eight questions of us: Do you wish to possess the Kingdom of God? Do you seek authentic consolation? Are you interested in a genuine inheritance? Do you want to be satisfied in a complete and eternal way? Would you like to be pardoned deeply? Have you a desire to see God? Do you long to be a child of God? Do you want to enter into that Kingdom which alone is worthy of our allegiance? If a person is interested in these “fullnesses”, then he must return to the beginning of the Beatitudes and look at the eight pathways announced by this passage.

Summary of the ways in which these pathways lead to blessings

Poverty is not something pleasant. To be poor in spirit signifies to have the sort of simplicity within that is the precondition for possessing the greatest riches of all. To be in a state of grief is the precondition for receiving the fullness of consolation. Tears and mourning by themselves can often prompt the sort of useless consolations that serve nothing.  But mourning can also bring a beam of wisdom with respect to life. Weeping can be an important occasion, a gift that God bestows on us. Even while we are suffering, the Lord is preparing us for something else. Meekness involves bending to others as if they were stronger than us. It involves a control of aggression, of avoiding clashing with others, a refraining from standing up to others. We hate being meek! We hate behaving like sheep for the slaughter! We prefer to assert ourselves, but in so doing we lose the “land”, the possession that the Lord wants to bestow on us. All we end up with is that which we are able to take with our own force and our own aggression. Meekness, by contrast, is the road to authentic possession. To have hunger and thirst for justice is to feel oneself to be unjust. It is to be aware on one’s need for a greater righteousness. It is to be aware of one’s own sinfulness. To be merciful is to acknowledge that I do not have the right to stand over others in judgement. How often we focus on describing the sins of others and fail to see our own sinfulness. The person who is merciful is someone who has their perspective on themselves in order.  All of these things help us to realize that our hearts as they are now are inadequate and deficient. The pure of heart are those who realize that we must often resist the temptations to follow where the heart would like to lead us. We must be able to choose to do that which is right, because many of the choices before our hearts are simply wrong. The one who is persecuted is someone who has been excluded. The etymology of the word refers to someone who has been thrown out, marginalized. If the persecuted are blessed then it means that it is in some sense important that we are excluded by this world if we are to arrive at the Kingdom of Heaven. If you are the centre of popularity in this world then you are far from the Kingdom of Heaven, simple as that! To be on the threshold of the Kingdom means to be on the margins of this world. What does it matter if people think badly of us because we follow the Lord Jesus? We are a disappointment to this world if we follow the Lord! How fortunate we are if there is opposition, if there is no applause for us! Later on in the same sermon, Jesus will say, “Woe to you if people speak well of you, for they did the same for the false prophets”. To be a true prophet is to be on the margins of this world. What an interesting life this is! What a beautiful, unique life! The Christian life is not banal or predictable. It is full of absolute novelty, a journey of discovery that the Lord has prepared for us.

January 22^nd 2017. Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mt 4:12-23

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Mt 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading describes the region of Galilee as a place of darkness and foretells that the people of this region will see a great light. Capernaum was located on the “way of the sea”, a commercial route far away from the purity of the observance of the Jewish Law. There would have been a lot of ambivalence and paganism in this cosmopolitan atmosphere. Jesus could have begun his mission in a much “holier” place. He could have called his first disciples while they were praying in the Synagogue. But he chose to begin in this confused and uncertain situation. The message of this Gospel is that Jesus comes looking for us no matter how distant we are from him. He calls us where we are now, in the tangled mess of our lives, and invites us to a new way of living.

His appearance in Galilee is only the beginning of a mission in which Jesus will enter into the most profound darkness of humanity. Jesus will descend into the death of man and take him by the hand and call him forth. Do not look at your own bad situation and wonder if you are worthy of being called or not! Look at the one who is calling you, right now, today! Do not look at your own capacities, but look at his power! He is the one who knows how to transform the darkness of our lives into the light of life.

Jesus does not begin his mission in a place where a pure form of religion is being practiced. He does not go to an area in which everyone is ready to receive him. Rather, he begins in a locality full of pagan beliefs and ambivalence towards the Jewish Law

The first reading from the prophet Isaiah is quoted in the Gospel reading. It tells us that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”, and that “the yolk that burdened the people shall be broken as on the day of Midian”. This reference to Midian recalls an event recounted in the Old Testament when the Judge Gideon overcame a great enemy of thousands of Midianites with a small force of just three hundred men. Gideon managed this with an unconventional strategy using torches and the sound of trumpets after nightfall, simulating the arrival of a great army. In the Gospel, the text from Isaiah is cited and we arrive at the dramatic moment of the arrest of John the Baptist. Jesus knows that the time to begin his mission has come. Jesus goes to Capernaum in Galilee, on the shores of the river. Capernaum is the most important city on “the way of the sea”. This way of the sea was an important commercial route at the crossroads between north and south, and east and west. The route led to the Mediterranean and boats coming in that direction from the Sea of Galilee would have docked at Capernaum. As a result of this commerce and the mixture of different nationalities, Galilee was like a periphery with little in common with the traditions of Judea. Strangely, the history of salvation does not take its starting point in a place of purity or perfection, tranquillity or stability, but from a chaos in which there were many pagans and people passing through. There would have been a lot of ambivalence here and a laxity with regard to obedience to the Law. It was on the confines of other cities like the Decapolis - a group of ten Roman cities in this area – and Sepphoris – a splendid city of Greek origin. In this place of “darkness” Our Lord begins his mission! Jesus does not start from things that are already working well but from the things that are broken, things that are confused and in darkness.

Jesus calls his disciples while they are caught up in the tangle of life, not when they are in the Synagogue praying! Where ever we are, no matter how bad our situation may be, Jesus comes to find us and calls us forth. His most profound mission will be to enter into the darkness of the death of humanity and call us all to new life.

John the Baptist’s time has come to an end and now Jesus’ mission must begin. And it begins in a place that is not very presentable! Galilee, in fact, is rarely mentioned in the Scriptures, and it is described by Isaiah as the place where the people walked in darkness. Jesus comes to call people who live in this state of existence, people who find themselves at the periphery. How Pope Francis loves this particular theme! And rightfully so, because that is where the voice of the Lord is to be found. The call of Peter, Andrew, James and John occurs in this very situation. Where, exactly, did the call take place? They were not called whilst they were in the Synagogue praying! Rather they were summoned when they were working, in the fullness of their own competence, in a place where God didn’t seem to have any relevance whatsoever. It is in this situation that the Lord seeks them out. He was preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” But it was at hand for who? For those who were working far away from the Temple? Surely these were the least likely characters to be called! And this is the real surprise! When Jesus became incarnate he did not assume a condition that made unusual demands on us. He makes himself present among profane things. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand not because we are near to the Kingdom, but because Jesus has come close to us. The Lord has come to Galilee, has appeared in Capernaum, has walked the way of the sea and called those caught up in the tangle of ordinary life. He calls us exactly as we are. This Gospel passage announces to us that there is no place where God cannot find us. He will come to us no matter how distant and lost we may be. His appearance in Galilee is only the beginning of a mission in which Jesus will enter into the most profound darkness of humanity. Jesus will descend into the death of man and take him by the hand and call him forth. Do not look at our own bad situation and wonder if we are worthy of being called or not! Look at the one who calls us! Do not look at our own capacities, but look at his power! He is the one who knows how to transform darkness into light.

January 15^th 2017. Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: John 1:29-34

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: John 1:29-34

Seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptising with water.’ John also declared, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.”

Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . John the Baptist points out Jesus and says, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. Before the Exodus, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and spread his blood upon their doorposts, thus saving them from extermination when the Angel of Death passed by. The Exodus was a historical event at one moment in time, but Jesus is the lamb of God who saves us from death, saves us from separation with God in a much more radical way. The true drama of human life is our exile from God, our broken communion with the Father, the emptiness we feel inside of us. We seek to resolve human problems by creating structures, developing democracy, eradicating poverty. There is no doubt that much human progress has been achieved, but no political or economic solution can tackle the fundamental issue at the heart of humanity – our sinfulness. Only Jesus can confront that problem, but how does he do it? We translate the phrase from John the Baptist as “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” but the original Greek says “who takes upon himself the sins of the world”. This difference is important and demonstrates the self-giving manner in which Christ saves us. Only Jesus can touch the emptiness and alienation that is inside the human heart, and he does it in a personal way. John the Baptist testified to the presence of the Holy Spirit with Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit is not about dramatic gifts or extraordinary abilities. The fundamental gift of the Spirit is the forgiveness of our sins and the planting in our hearts of a solid joy that comes from being pardoned and loved.

In Egypt the people were saved from extermination by the blood of the lamb spread on each doorpost. But Jesus is the lamb who saves all of us from extermination in a much more general sense. All of us are separated from God. We do not have full communion with him. We are cut off from God and in need of a lamb to save us.

In the Gospel, John the Baptist points out Jesus in a very distinctive manner. The key for interpreting this passage is given by the second canticle of the servant found in the first reading. Here the Lord says, “You are my servant Israel in whom I shall be glorified”. This servant was formed in the womb by the Lord with a definite purpose. He is not only to be a servant, but will be a light to the nations through whom salvation will reach the ends of the earth. What is this salvation referred to in the prophet Isaiah? John the Baptist is the last of the prophets and sees the Lord Jesus approaching him. He describes the salvation wrought by Jesus in liturgical language, in terms of the most important liturgy of the Jewish people – the Passover. The lamb of the Passover saved the people of Israel from extermination in Egypt.  If the blood of the lamb was spread on the door, then the Angel of Death passed over the household, whilst the first-born of each Egyptian household was slain. This extermination was a particular historical event confined to a particular place and time, but it came to refer to death in a much more general sense, the death that is a daily feature of human life. The true drama of human existence is the fact of our separation from God, the fact that we are not in full communion with him, our self-imposed solitude in the face of the love of God.

We work hard to bring justice and democracy to the world, but our structural changes can only achieve so much. The radical thing amiss with humanity is its state of sin. No structure can tackle our sinfulness, our broken communion with God. How does this lamb bring us back into communion with God? By wiping away sin like the way chalk is wiped off the blackboard? No, Jesus takes our sins upon himself.

John the Baptist points out the lamb of God “who takes away the sins of the world”. This translation comes from the Latin rendering of the phrase which has been used liturgically from ancient times. The Greek term used originally in John’s Gospel means to “take upon himself the sins of the world”. The sins are tackled not simply by eliminating them but by bearing them. Who can tackle the enigma of humanity, the disaster of its separation from God? We have tried to improve humanity by developing democracy and improving our structures, and there is no doubt that many good and beneficial things have been achieved. Some poverties have been eliminated and there has been healthy evolution in certain quarters. But there is something dramatically amiss that we cannot achieve by ourselves. No matter what wonderful structures we construct, we cannot remove sin from the life of humanity. No human being is able to tackle this fundamental issue. The Pharisees will later criticize Jesus for his claim to forgive sins because they know that only God can accomplish that. Only God can touch, resolve, illuminate this interior crisis of man. Our vices, the irresolution of our being, the barriers we construct around us, the emptiness we feel within – these are all symptoms of the separation between us and God, of the fact that we are not rooted in the love of the Father.

The Holy Spirit is with Jesus and his mission is the forgiveness of sins. We sometimes think the Holy Spirit is given so that we can do extraordinary feats, but his fundamental mission is to forgive our sins and plant the joy of being loved firmly in our hearts.

“Behold, the Lamb of God!” It is for this reason that John is convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, because of his ability to bear our sins. Only Jesus is capable of entering into the sadness of humanity, taking it upon himself on the cross when he becomes the sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb who is given, the Lamb who is slain, but yet wins the most difficult of all battles – the battle that rages within the heart of man. Other generations will come, people throughout history who will appropriate this salvation by allowing Jesus to bear our faults. The prophet Isaiah in the first reading foretells the coming of this servant who is not only a servant but also the light that leads us out of darkness of our solitude. Jesus is the servant upon whom the Holy Spirit comes to rest. The presence of the Holy Spirit does not refer to stunning gifts of knowledge or extraordinary abilities. The Holy Spirit is given for the forgiveness of sins, for planting solidly in the heart of man that which he lacks: the joy of being loved, the joy of being forgiven. John the Baptist announces that which was there from the beginning, the plan of God that exists from eternity. The Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, has a mission with respect to humanity, to love us and forgive us.

January 8^th 2017. The Baptism of Our Lord

GOSPEL: Matthew 3:13-17

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. John tried to dissuade him. ‘It is I who need baptism from you’ he said ‘and yet you come to me!’ But Jesus replied, ‘Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands’. At this, John gave in to him.

As soon as Jesus was baptised he came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice spoke from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him’.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading is from Isaiah 42, a chapter that speaks of a servant who will achieve marvellous things: he will bring God’s righteousness to humanity and will be a covenant to the peoples and a light to all nations. But how is this servant going to accomplish such wonderful deeds? By his personal attributes or his frenzied actions? No! The servant’s defining characteristic is that he is beloved by the Lord, elected, chosen, selected out personally. But he is not only chosen, he is also favoured, blessed, sustained and held by the hand. We find the same theme when we read Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus. Before the event, Jesus tells John the Baptist that he is not interested in following the human pecking order of who is superior to who, or who should baptize who: all Jesus cares about is fulfilling his mission. This involves starting from zero, becoming as lowly as the lowest one of us. But if Jesus starts from zero in human terms, then what is his foundation for the great mission of bringing God’s righteousness to the world? His starting point is manifested at the moment of his baptism. The Spirit descends on him and we hear the voice of the Father, “This is my son, the beloved, on whom my favour rests”. Jesus is the servant spoken of in Isaiah whose entire existence is grounded on the fact that he is loved, chosen and sent by the Father. And there is a fundamental message here regarding our baptism too. Woe to us if we do not see in the baptism of Jesus the meaning of our own baptism! Our life as Christians - our activity in the church - cannot be based upon our attributes, actions, or two-bit strategies! To confront the challenges we face as men, women, ministers of the Gospel, spouses, parents, colleagues, friends, we need to begin from who we are before God. The immensity of who we are for him is what our baptism testifies to. Our baptism cries aloud that our value in the eyes of God is worth infinitely more than our talents and attributes, our actions and what we possess. In baptism, God has gratuitously elected us, called us, chosen us, favoured us, blessed us, and loved us. He has taken us out from the old man and brought us into a new life that is based entirely on his love.  

The Gospel account of the baptism of Jesus makes reference to passages from Genesis and the prophet Isaiah. The text in Genesis speaks of a “beloved son” whilst the piece from Isaiah describes a servant on whom the favour of the Lord rests. The fact that Jesus is a beloved Son of the Father doesn’t stop him from being a dedicated servant.

The account of Jesus’ baptism that we read on Sunday comes from Matthew 3. Every passage from the Bible is a mine from which many treasures can be unearthed. Each story can be looked at from many different points of view, but we will follow the interpretation suggested to us in Sunday’s liturgy by reading the Gospel passage in the light of the first reading. The first reading that is chosen for the Sunday Eucharist always contains a key for interpreting the Gospel. On Sunday the first reading is the Canticle of the Servant of God from Chapter 42 of the prophet Isaiah. The Gospel reading from Matthew actually cites this passage from Isaiah, but it mixes it with a citation from Genesis 22, where Abraham is called to sacrifice Isaac. At the beginning of Isaiah 42 we read:

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have endowed him with my spirit
that he may bring true justice to the nations.

He does not cry out or shout aloud,
or make his voice heard in the streets.
He does not break the crushed reed,
nor quench the wavering flame.

Faithfully he brings true justice;  
he will neither waver, nor be crushed
until true justice is established on earth,

This marvellous passage continues and we will hear all of it at Mass on Sunday. Our Gospel reading then cites the first words of this canticle. When Jesus goes to be baptized, John tries to stop him saying, “I need to be baptized by you, but you come to me for baptism?” Jesus replies, “Let it be so for now so that all righteousness will be fulfilled”. After the baptism, Jesus emerges from the water and we are treated to a complete manifestation of the Trinity. The Spirit of God descends like a dove and the voice of the Father is heard, “This is my Son, the beloved on whom my favour rests”. Here we have a mixed reference to Genesis 22 (where Isaac – the only son of Abraham - is described as the “beloved”) and Isaiah 42 (“Here is my chosen one in whom my soul delights”). As in Genesis 22, Jesus is referred to as the “Son”, but Isaiah 42 reminds us that he is also a servant.

John is told that Jesus must undergo baptism in order to fulfil “all righteousness.” Jesus is the servant mentioned in Isaiah who will bring God’s righteousness to the world. How will he achieve this great goal? By respecting the human pecking order of honour that John wishes to respect by insisting that Jesus baptize him? NO! Jesus’ starting point is somewhere else!

Why does the Gospel take such pains to recount this rather futile-sounding exchange between John the Baptist and Jesus? Isaiah 42 helps us to understand the significance of this exchange for each one of us. What is the “righteousness” that Jesus must accomplish? It is not a forensic righteousness in the sense of a rule or a ritual that must be respected. We are talking here about the righteousness that is at the very heart of God’s plan for humanity. The state of unrighteousness is when we find ourselves separated from God’s plan. Some passages in the Old Testament speak of the “retribution of God”. God’s “retribution” is the misery and unhappiness that awaits us when we follow a course that does not lead where the Lord wants. Sin and deceit entail that we are living in a manner different to the one that God has planned for us. Jesus’s mission is to establish this righteousness. He is about to embark on his mission and encounters John, his precursor, who follows a line of reasoning that is perfectly understandable to each one of us. Why should Jesus come to John for baptism? There is an issue here regarding the relative significance of these two characters. John wants to give honour to the Lord Jesus and it seems logical that Jesus should accept this proper ordering of things. But this sort of logic is nothing more than the way we continue on in our existence from day to day.  We base ourselves on these human building blocks of the honour that we derive from certain attributes that we possess, on the attention that we can garner from certain goals that we achieve. Jesus comes and rejects this pedestal, this notion that he is more than others, the whole mentality in which one person is compared to another. His mission is to bring about the righteousness of God for the salvation of the world and he must make something else his starting point.  

The incredible achievements of this servant will be based entirely on the fact that he is beloved, chosen, elected, sustained, favoured, blessed, held by the Father

The Holy Spirit descends and a voice comes from heaven, “This is my Son the beloved. On him my favour rests”. In the text from Isaiah we are presented with a servant who will achieve extraordinary things: he will bring justice to the nations and will not waver until he has fulfilled his mission. This is what Jesus is referring to when he speaks to John the Baptist: the fact that he will make the world righteous. The “islands” referred to in Isaiah were considered of unimaginable distance away. Thus the mission of the servant extended to the whole world. He was to be appointed as covenant to the peoples and light to the nations. How will the servant accomplish such incredible deeds? The foundation of what he will achieve is his relationship with God, not the honour given to him by men! The Lord Jesus begins from zero in earthly terms. He openly says that his prestige among men doesn’t interest him and is of no use to him. All that matters to him is who is he is in the eyes of the Father, the beloved Son on whom his favour rests. The passage from Isaiah makes reference to “my” servant. In Hebrew, the possessive pronoun is put at the end of the sentence, so it reads as “servant of mine”, emphasizing the intimate relationship between them. And we are told that the Lord defends and sustains this servant, maintains him and holds his hand. The servant is the “elected one”, the one who has been chosen, picked out from the crowd. The word in Hebrew for “elected” means to be selected out in order to become extraordinary. Furthermore, the servant is the one “in whom my soul delights”. All of these attributes are actions of God on behalf of the servant. Similarly, in the Gospel, we have, “This is my Son, the beloved”. “Beloved” is a passive term and indicates the joyful state of this Son who is sustained by the strength of the love of a tender Father.

As for Jesus, so also for each one of us. Woe to us if we do not see in the baptism of Jesus the meaning of our own baptism! The baptism of Jesus tells us that it is the fact of being beloved and elected by the Father that is the foundation of the mission of Christ. And so too for us. We will not construct the Church upon our two-bit strategies and frenzied activities. Our sole starting point must the fact that we are beloved and chosen by God. Only then can the life of the Spirit be manifested in us.

This is the foundation of Christian action! Woe to us if we do not learn from this Feast of the Baptism of Jesus the meaning of our own baptism! In the first place, baptism concerns the power of God, not human considerations or honour or pecking order. We shouldn’t think that the church can be constructed upon ineffectual strategies where we focus on a myriad of things that are best left to the Lord. To confront the challenges we face as men, women, ministers of the Gospel, servants of the Lord, spouses, parents, colleagues, friends, siblings, constructors of society and the church, we need to begin from who we are before God. Who we are for him is what our baptism testifies to. Our baptism cries aloud that our value in the eyes of God is worth infinitely more than our talents and attributes, our actions and what we possess. God has gratuitously elected us, called us, taken us out from the old man and brought us into a new life that is based entirely on his love.