More thoughts on baptism

 

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Matthew 3:13–17

Friends, Matthew’s account of Jesus’s baptism points to the significance of this foundational sacrament. Listen to the great theologian Gregory of Nazianzus: “Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . . It is called ‘gift’ because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; ‘grace’ since it is given even to the guilty.” Jesus said, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” Baptism is the sacramental ratification of that choice. And this is why we speak of baptism as justifying us and washing away our sin. We are—all of us—born into a deeply dysfunctional world, a world conditioned by millenia of selfishness, cruelty, injustice, stupidity, and fear. This has created a poisonous atmosphere that conditions all of our thoughts and moves and actions.  Do you see why the stress on grace is so important? Baptism is the moment when the Holy Spirit draws us out of this fallen world and into a new world, the very life of the Trinity. That’s why baptism involves being born again, lifted up, enlightened, transformed, saved—and why the Church speaks of the baptized as a “new creature.”  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on John the Baptist

 

Saturday after Epiphany

John 3:22–30

Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on John the Baptist. I think it’s fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus without understanding John, which is precisely why all four evangelists tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus. John did not draw attention to himself. Rather, he presented himself as a preparation, a forerunner, a prophet preparing the way of the Lord. He was summing up much of Israelite history but stressing that this history was open-ended, unfinished. And therefore, how powerful it was when, upon spying Jesus coming to be baptized, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning of that: Behold the one who has come to be sacrificed. Behold the sacrifice, which will sum up, complete, and perfect the temple. Moreover, behold the Passover lamb, who sums up the whole meaning of that event and brings it to fulfillment. And this is why John says, “He must increase; I must decrease.” In other words, the overture is complete, and now the great opera begins. The preparatory work of Israel is over, and now the Messiah will reign. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Baptism of the Lord

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings the Christmas season to a close. It is a true Christmas mystery because it belongs to the larger mystery of Epiphany. Just as the star revealed Christ to the Magi, so too the Lord’s Baptism manifests the Savior to the world. Jesus’ descent into the waters of the Jordan at the age of thirty inaugurates the public mission that began with his humble birth.

At the Jordan, Jesus stands among the multitude – not only of Judea, but of all sinful humanity. John’s baptism is a sign of repentance, calling for conversion and newness of life. Jesus submits not out of his own need, but in humility and solidarity. From the cave of Bethlehem to the river Jordan, he stands where humanity stands, bearing our burdens of sin.

The descent into the water signifies death: death to sin and life apart from God. Rising from the water signifies forgiveness and the beginning of new life. These signs become fully clear only in light of the Cross and Resurrection. Jesus’ baptism already anticipates the Paschal Mystery, when the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. In our baptism, we confess our sins and seek freedom; in his baptism, our Lord takes that burden upon himself.

The Father’s voice – “This is my beloved Son” – and the Spirit descending like a dove reveal the mystery in its depth. Baptism opens the way from isolation into communion, drawing the baptized into the life of the Holy Trinity. As Christmas draws to a close, the Baptism of the Lord points us toward Lent and Easter, reminding us that the Child born in the manger leads us into the waters and, through them, into eternal life.


Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.

Thoughts on solitude

 

Solitude of Heart

From: Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

It is probably difficult, if not impossible, to move from loneliness to solitude without any form of withdrawal from a distracting world…. But the solitude that really counts is the solitude of the heart; it is an inner quality or attitude that does not depend on physical isolation…. It seems more important than ever to stress that solitude is one of the human capacities that can exist, be maintained and developed in the center of a big city, in the middle of a large crowd and in the context of a very active and productive life. A man or woman who has developed this solitude of heart is no longer pulled apart by the most divergent stimuli of the surrounding world but is able to perceive and understand this world from a quiet inner center.

Reflection Question: What is one distraction you will practice withdrawing from today?

“Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.”   - Luke 6: 12

More thoughts on the Epiphany

 

Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Matthew 2:1–12

Friends, the story of the magi told in today’s Gospel is a summary of the principal dynamics of the spiritual life. Watching the night sky with scrupulous attention for signs of God’s purpose, the magi evoke the importance of alertness in the spiritual order. We must keep our eyes open to see what God is up to.  Once they saw the star, they moved, despite the length of the journey. Sometimes people know what God wants them to do but they don’t act, either out of fear, laziness, or the influence of bad habits. The magi teach us to move.  When they spoke to Herod of the birth of a new King, he tried to use them to destroy the baby. When you walk the path that God has laid out for you, expect opposition. The wise men came to Bethlehem and gave the child their precious gifts. When you come to Christ, break open the very best of yourself and make it a gift for him. Finally, they returned to their home country by another route. As Fulton Sheen commented so magnificently: Of course they did; for no one comes to Christ and goes back the same way he came! Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on baptism

 

Christmas Weekday

John 1:29–34

Friends, today’s Gospel reports John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus. One of the earliest descriptions of baptism is vitae spiritualis ianua, which means “the door to the spiritual life.” To grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something really decisive about Christianity.  For Christianity is not primarily about “becoming a good person” or “doing the right thing” or, in Flannery O’Connor’s famous phrase, “having a heart of gold.” Let’s face it: Anyone—pagan, Muslim, Jew, nonbeliever—can be any of those things. To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ and hence drawn into the very dynamics of the inner life of God. We become a member of his mystical body, sharing in his relationship to the Father.  It is so important that we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” For baptism draws us into the relationship between the Father and the Son, which is to say in the Holy Spirit. Baptism, therefore, is all about grace—our incorporation, through the power of God’s love, into God’s own life. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Epiphany

This Sunday we celebrate Epiphany, a central mystery of the Christmas season. The prophet Isaiah proclaims the core of the feast: “Rise up, Jerusalem, your light has come.” That light is the appearance of the Son of God among us. The word epiphany means “manifestation,” and this feast celebrates the moment when the newborn Savior, through the visitation of the Magi, is revealed not only to Israel, but to all the nations. The light that once guided Israel’s journey now shines for all peoples and every age.

Isaiah foretells that the “wealth of nations” will be drawn to this light: caravans from the East, bearing gifts and proclaiming the praises of the Lord. These gifts are more than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They symbolize what all people bring into an encounter with God, and what we bring to Mass every Sunday – our lives, our struggles, our hopes, offered to God so that they may be transformed. The true wealth of nations, then, is not silver or gold, but the sons and daughters of every land who come to kneel before Christ.

In their journey, which included an inward search for truth, the Magi discovered not an idea but a Person: God’s Son lying in a manger. This shattered their expectations, and so they knelt and did him homage. The encounter changed not only the course of their journey home but, indeed, their very lives. And so it is for us.

From encounter with Christ flows mission. We who have sought and found him—or been found by him—do not simply return home unchanged. We are sent forth to live what we have received, so that others, through our words and actions, may be drawn to Christ.

Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.