SỐNG VÀ CHIA SẺ LC- THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

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Category: 3. Sống & Chia Sẻ Lời Chúa
  •  
    Mo Nguyen
    Jan 12 at 12:42 AM
     
     

     

      THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD / A

           SUNDAY 12 JANUARY 2020

         

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                    Jesus is Baptized by John   

          JESUS' BAPTISM AND OURS (A)

                                               (Matthew 3: 13 - 17)

    A few years ago news came from England that Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth, was leaving the Royal Marines. He took only four months to discover that military service was not his thing.

     

    At the time the news was received with shock and horror. 'It's bad form,' some said, 'a lack of loyalty and a dereliction of duty’. There was speculation that his mother was upset and that his father was furious.

     

    This is actually a fairly common family situation. Parents have their own ideas about a suitable career or occupation for their child. The children have different ideas, or no ideas, about what they want to do with their future. Or perhaps along the way they chop and change from one thing to another, until at long last the day comes when they start to settle down.

     

    Jesus of Nazareth had lived with his mother Mary in the little town of Nazareth for about 30 years. It seems that his foster-father Joseph had died when Jesus was a teenager, and that the son took over the family building business. No doubt this pleased his mother.

     

    So we can only wonder what she was feeling that day he told her he was leaving home, and leaving Nazareth, as well as the building trade they had relied upon for years and years, and going off on his own somewhere far away. Worse than that, that he was going to no new job, or at least to nothing for which he had been trained. We may presume that this news rocked Mary, left her feeling very sad and very worried.

     

    But there was no holding him back. For he had a hunch that God had something quite special for him to do. He didn't know exactly what it was. But it would be something to do with that amazing fellow John, who had been baptizing repentant sinners left, right, and centre, in the River Jordan.

     

    And so our gospel today tells us: 'Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.' (He was baptized, not because he needed a baptism of repentance himself but in order to identify with, and reach out to those who did).

     

    Then it happened. There and then, after he was baptized, the awareness hit him like a bolt from the blue. He had always known and felt that he was deeply loved by God. In his prayers, he had always called God both 'My Father' and 'Our Father'. But on this occasion God speaks to him so loudly and so clearly that there can be no mistake about his identity before God, and about what God expected of him: 'You are my beloved Son and Servant', God assures him. In other words, there and then God is asking him to be nothing less than the Messiah, the promised Saviour, the one who would make God's kingdom, God’s rule and reign over everything and everybody, begin to happen everywhere.

     

    In effect, the message Jesus was hearing from God at his baptism was this: 'Go to my people. Tell them that I love them. Show them that I love them. Gather them together and bring them back to me.' There and then Jesus understood the whole future direction of his life.

     

    Now that he knew what was expected of him there would be no holding back and no delay. As we hear in our Second Reading today, in that famous verse from the Acts of the Apostles: '... because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil'.

     

    We too, all of us, are dearly and deeply loved by God. He is our Father too. We are His sons and daughters. We have been made so by our baptism. We are also brothers and sisters of Jesus. By our baptism we have been joined to his person, and share in his life and mission. So much so, that each of us may be called ‘another Christ’.

     

    As we celebrate his baptism and ours in this Eucharist, then, can we re-open our hearts to his call? Can we hear him saying to us what he said to Jesus: 'Go to my people. Tell them that I love them. Show them that I love them. Gather them together and bring them back to me’?

     

    Fr Brian Gleeson

     

    The Baptism of Jesus - Christian Music Video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSjuUBNkr1w

     

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    Chúa Giêsu Chịu Phép Rửa:

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPxLJDhMLL4