Friends
Peace be with you.
It’s so important to feel included and welcomed. In freshman year of high school, I became friends with a guy who was my closest friend throughout my four years. He had been in a different middle school but, as there was only one high school in my home town, we got to know each other and became friends there. It started because Marshalltown High school would let you leave campus for lunch as long as you made it back by your next period. He invited me to his house because his Mom was cooking lunch. I was really hesitant because I didn’t know him very well or his Mom at all. What if she was kinda mean? But, I went anyway and she was the nicest person I ever met. She had food ready and asked about how our day was going and just made me feel welcome. She even hugged me as I left and told me I was always welcome at their house. On the following Saturday, we were going to hang out and watch a movie and I went over and knocked on the screen door. I saw his Mom and Dad sitting in the living room. His Mom turned to the door and looked a little angry and said, “Dennis, what are you doing? You’re family! You don’t need to knock at this house. Just come on in and make yourself at home.” Then she smiled a big smile to let me know that she was only kidding. And, for all four years of high school, I was like a part of the family.
I think of that experience and many others where I’ve been invited into a person’s family on this celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. For instance, let’s look at the first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah. This is the bridge between second and third Isaiah, meaning scholars believe this is the last chapter of Isaiah written to the israelites when they were in Exile in Babylon. God speaks a word of welcome to them. Over and over again, he says come to the water, come to receive grain and eat, come without paying and without cost, come to me heedfully, It’s like God knows they’ve suffered enough, they’ve been too far away from him, and it’s time to welcome them back. I hope we’ll soon hear God say to everyone, “Come back to church! The pandemic is over and it is safe again to gather as my people. Come receive the body, blood soul and divinity of Christ” Let’s all pray we soon hear this message!
But we should also hear the other two parts of this reading as well. God is welcoming us, true, and inviting us, even more true. But God also invites us to seek for him because his ways are not our ways nor are his thoughts our thoughts. We are comfortable with a God who seeks us out and hangs out in our kitchen and living room until it’s time for us to go to heaven and then he welcomes us there. But we are less comfortable with a God who tells us that we need to be different than the people around us, better than the people around us. Baptism is associated with dying with Christ in order to be raised with him. During our earthly life, dying with Christ means realizing that God’s ways and thoughts must be our focus instead of the endless search for power, prestige, and wealth.
Our focus, as the last part says, will be the word. God says through Isaiah that his Word will be like the rains and snow which water the earth and make plants to grow. That doesn’t make much sense to us because our snows don’t make plants grow, it kills them. But, in the desert, any precipitation is welcome and snows tend to melt off quickly. There’s no need for snow plows over there. So, God’s Word will not return void but will achieve the end for which God sent it by feeding us and making our faith grow. I think that’s why it’s important to spend time each day with the Bible, reading passages and listening to what God might be speaking to you. I’m always amazed at how, despite the fact that I read the same daily Mass scripture passage every two or three years, it hits me very differently depending upon where I’m at and what is happening. For instance, this past Wednesday, I was, like many of you, very disturbed by what happened in the capitol. It was a sad day for our country. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened and the news wasn’t helping to assuage my fears. On Thursday, I was praying midday prayer and I prayed Psalm 57 that gave me such comfort…
2 Have mercy on me, God, have mercy,
for in you my soul has taken refuge.
In the shadow of your wings I take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
I spent a lot of time with those few words and found myself next to the tabernacle taking refuge in the Lord.
You see, God’s word isn’t just scripture. The purpose of scripture is to move our heart to God’s word, who is Jesus Christ. Today we celebrate his baptism and, in the gospel passage from Mark, we hear how Jesus’ baptism changes it from the way his cousin, St. John the Baptist, was doing them. John’s were merely a washing away of sin. But, Jesus’ baptism tears open the heavens so that the Holy Spirit could ascend upon him and the Father could proclaim that Jesus was his son with whom he is well pleased.
Most likely, our baptism was not nearly this dramatic. However, this passage tells us what is expected of us, the baptized. We may not have heard a voice from the Father calling us his son or daughter but we are called to live like God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters, as though his will is above our will and his ways and thoughts far more important than our thoughts and ways. The Spirit in the form of a dove probably didn’t descend from the heavens but the Spirit did come upon you to empower you to welcome God into your homes, your families, and your lives and to develop the gifts and talents he has given you. And the heavens may not have been torn asunder but God did tear asunder all that separates us from him and invited us into this new relationship of being his son and daughter. It was like, by being baptized, he said to us, “You don’t need to knock on my door. You’re family!” Do we want to be part of the family of God or are we too afraid to open ourselves up to the blessed life God has for us?
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