Called for the Victory of Justice

Albani: The Baptism of Christ

Called for the Victory of Justice
The Baptism of the Lord, Sunday Year A, January 9, 2011
[Is 42:1–4, 6–7.   Ps 29:1–2, 3–4, 3, 9–10. Acts 10:34–38.  Mt 3:13–17.]

We hear today what God whispers as Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism .

Moms and dads, grandmas and granddads: What do you whisper into the ears of your children? It may be that their very lives depend on your message.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus hears words of love from His Father: Jesus is the “beloved son” who pleases His Father.

With this event we have fast-forwarded from the infant Jesus to the mature Jesus of  Nazareth who enters the world scene to begin a wondrous ministry of salvation - a mission of victory.

And we heard in the beautiful first reading from Isaiah today, the first of what we call the “Servant of the Lord Oracles.”

Certainly this was familiar to Jesus. As a pious Jew, He had probably heard this many times.

He probably prayed and meditated on those words and found in them the very essence of His divine vocation.

And then word gets to Nazareth and to Jesus that His cousin John is preaching repentance and conducting ritual washings in the Jordan.  Jesus must have known in that moment that the “fullness of time” had come for Him to bring “justice to the nations.”

Jesus must have known that He is called and grasped by the hand for the very “triumph of justice.” To bring out all those who live in darkness!

And so He sets out from Nazareth some 65 miles away to seek out John at the Jordan.

And certainly John knew just who Jesus was, because he protested that he was not worthy to baptize Jesus.

Jesus replied: “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

For us – Jesus says: for Himself and for John.

That is an important few words: Here the identities are clear: Jesus and John in particular are “to fulfill all righteousness” in specific and particular ways and according to God’s mission for them.

So today at the Jordan we encounter God who overturns all the expectations of the Prophet.

Today, Jesus who is God submits to the ministry of man.

Today, the Sinless One identifies Himself with his creatures – with men and women who through Adam’s sin have fallen.

Today, Jesus becomes one with His people.

Jesus becomes the leader – He Himself becomes the perfecting covenant for Israel and for all people!

Jesus submits to baptism at the hands of the man who is His herald – the voice in the wilderness who points to Him as Messiah.

We have to remember that John’s baptism is for repentance and the forgiveness of sin.

In Matthew’s Gospel, just two verses prior to where today’s reading begins, John tells us: “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire” (3:11)

Jesus' baptism points us forward to the Sacramental Baptism that you and I have received at the hands of deacons or priests: our own being “born again of water and the spirit.”

A gift and share in God’s divine life given by God – who always takes the initiative – through the hands of His ministers.

And with new life and new creation through Baptism we too, become beloved sons and daughters of God. With all the rights – and all the responsibilities – that this entails.

I love to think about Jesus' baptism and the events that followed immediately after it.  Think about it: it is a great Theophany – a tremendous manifestation of God:

The heavens are opened!
The Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
And the voice of God is heard!

And that beautiful message – the message that points out the beloved son!

Today, the norm for Baptism is that we baptize infants. Sometimes we hear an objection from parents that a child shouldn’t be baptized, that it should grow up free to determine for him- or herself whether or not to be a Christian.

And as well-meaning as that might be, it is deceptively superficial. It assumes that the child will grow up in some kind of a space where he will not be influenced one way or another by others. To put it bluntly, there is no such thing as neutral space.

Think about this: No child can be asked if he wants life of not.

Life itself is a gift from his parents and the creative action of God.

And just as parents have brought forth the child to life as its representatives, so to speak, parents must continue to represent the child by care and food, clothing, love, education.

No child can make decisions about those things.

His parents represent him!

This is what we call the phenomenon of representation.

And if the parents truly love the child, can they withhold from him the grace to help him make decisions about right and wrong, good and evil, true and false,
the way of God…and the way of the world?

The answer is, quite simply, no. These things cannot be withheld from the child.

It would be like holding out the child to drown in a sea of all the possible interpretations of the world and those who live and act in it, with no way to discern—with no moral compass and no rudder by which to steer their ship of life.

For us, Baptism is the entry onto the Christian way of life.

And believing parents cannot withhold baptism any more than they can withhold food.

All children are God’s creation. Yes, it is a creation entrusted to parents, but it is not their creation.

The right and responsibility of parents is to make their children not in their own image,
but in the image of God!

Point to a crucifix and ask anyone if they would want to go through that kind of torture to gain eternal life.
Very quickly, they will answer you that Jesus has done that for us!

Exactly! Jesus gives us the very model for the phenomenon of representation!

Recently I heard a young woman speak with such great eloquence about her faith.

At one point, she stopped and smiled, and then she said: “I’m God’s girl. You don’t mess with God’s girl. I’ve got a sign on my forehead that says: ‘You better be nice to me because my father runs the world’. ”

Yes, our Father runs the world. And, if we identify ourselves as God’s children, we have to walk with Jesus in the way that He points out!

We are members of a family who are loved because God has loved us first – loved us even before we were formed in the womb – God loved us when we were just the very idea of God.

And as members of the family, it is important for us to know that our first vocation is to show ourselves as beloved sons and daughters.

If we live out our Baptism, then we are to live and move and have our being so that we are cooperators and coworkers in the mission to bring forth the Kingdom of God in our very midst!

Baptism is an invitation to us to share in the divine life…

A mandate for us, too, to fulfill all righteousness.

It is a mandate we need to take seriously, because it is really not so much about what particular job we do in life, but about how we do it.

And no matter what it is that we choose to do in life, We are called first to the vocation of family.

Mothers and Fathers: you are called and reminded in the rite of Baptism to be the first and best of teachers of your children, “bearing witness to the faith” by what you say and do.

And children: you are called to bring forth your Christian dignity unstained and “to walk always as children of the light.”

We hear in today’s Gospel the very voice of God who speaks to and of Jesus as the beloved son.

That voice is for us to hear, to understand, to treasure, and to act on.

The late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus put it like this:
     "We are called to be heroes and heroines in persevering
      in the exciting adventure, the high adventure
      of being in the pilgrim people
      who lead the entire cosmos toward the promised land."

It is a journey that calls us to greatness.

God himself tells us today, “I the Lord have called you for the victory of justice; I have grasped you by the hand…

God's call to victory all begins at home.

Mothers, fathers, it begins with the love, the encouragement, the confidence, the empowerment that you whisper into the ears of your children.

It begins with your willingness to be a member of the pilgrim church that groans, and reaches, and yearns for God.

Jesus who is God in the flesh receives love and encouragement today from the Father in heaven. Jesus, who actually blesses the waters by his immersion.

Jesus, who blesses the earth by his walking on it.
Jesus who even blesses the air by his breathing of it.
Jesus, who makes all things new invites us today to hear the voice, and to recognize and follow Him.

My friends, we are called for the victory of justice – our very lives depend on it!

Finding the Center

Giotto: The Kiss of Judas

Finding the Center
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, November 14, 2010
[Mal 3:19–20a.  Ps 98:5–6, 7–8, 9.  2 Thes 3:7–12.  Lk 21:5–19.]   

The great Bible scholar William Barkley once wrote,

“There are two great days in a person's life - the day we are born and the day we discover why.”

That’s a beautiful thought to help us begin to try and understand what Jesus is telling the people we encounter in today’s Gospel: people who are standing before the magnificence of the Second Jerusalem Temple.

It was the center of all worship to God.

And yet the true Temple is there, too – right in their midst – right in the center of things.

That Temple is Jesus.

The Gospel that we hear today is good news wrapped in the prophetic voice of Jesus who tells us about the signs of the times.

Every time I hear this Gospel, I worry for those who hear it with me, and I wonder how many people greet this Gospel with fear and anxiety. How many hear only the doom and gloom of Jesus’ prophetic message and fail to hear the joy and the hope and the call to continuing conversion.

Jesus speaks here in what we call “apocalyptic” terms. We hear that word, and naturally think about the end of the world.

The word apocalypse refers really not to the end, but to the “lifting of the veil” It is a combination of the word apo – “off” and kalyptein – “to cover.”

So Jesus’ words are an unveiling, a revelation of something – and here, it is a great truth.

The Gospel writer Luke is not so much revealing only the events of the end times, but also really telling us all about the time of crisis in which his community finds themselves.

After all, they are also seeing wars, earthquakes, and famines. They who hear the Gospel in the early days are being handed over - some of them by their own family members – and they are being persecuted even to death.

Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Temple – well, that happened in 70 A.D., when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem.

What is most difficult for us to determine in this Gospel is how the apocalyptic material and the descriptions of real history of the Gospel writer’s time are being interwoven so that the message is for us as well.

We don’t want to be scared into submission to God. That’s not God’s style.

A people who follow God because they are slaves to fear are not a people who are free.

A people who follow God because he is the bright morning sun of justice are the freest people of all.

God doesn’t call us into fear. He draws us with cords of love.  He calls us into a kingdom that is characterized by His justice, love, and peace. Remember that!

Hold that in your hearts today – do not be afraid.

We see or hear all too often that one or another doomsayer is predicting the end of the world – we see it in the proclamations of self-appointed prophets, or we are scared out of our wits by some movie or TV show.
There have been over 220 major predictions that the end of the world was immanent even to the date and time – the world is still here!

Two of those first gloom and doom predictors and messiah pretenders are even named in the Book of Acts (5:36–37).

Jesus tells his followers and us: don’t be deceived – don’t follow them!

I’ll let you in on a secret: No one knows about the end of time!

Jesus tells us, “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32. Also Matt 24:36).

What Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel is: Don’t let yourselves be duped! Don’t be unprepared….

And we have heard that message time and again over the past year.

There are stories about the servant who begins to misbehave when his master is delayed; About waiting for the bridegroom who comes at an unexpected time; About masters of the house who don’t know when the house is going to be broken into.

But we still don’t know the time.

And we’ve heard about a shepherd who goes in search of his lost sheep and a father who welcomes back his prodigal son.

These stories tell us something about who God is!

And so, even in all the stuff of persecution and suffering that the world was subject to, and is subject to,

and will be subject to, we are not to be afraid.

We need to find our center, and we need to know that the center is God.

Fr. Robert Barron, who is a renown preacher, reminds us in a recent column about the beautiful Rose Windows and the “wheel of fortune” that are focal points in the Gothic cathedrals.

The middle point of these windows and wheels is Christ.

On all of the spokes – at the outer rim – are depictions of saints or scripture stories.

On the “wheel of fortune” at the top, is a king and the inscription “I am reigning.” At the three o’clock position and falling downward is another man with the inscription “I have reigned.” At the bottom is a poor man with the inscription “I am without power.” At the nine o’clock position and rising up is a man who looks toward the king: “I will reign.”

Four points: Man at his finest, man falling, man at his most powerless, and man ascending.

A wheel of fortune and misfortune.

Man at his best… Man at his worst…

But in the center of it all – there is Christ.

You know, there is a theoretical point in the center of any wheel that is static, is still, is unmoved.

And from that center point, everything makes sense, everything has order, everything has beauty.

The center – that’s the point we need to move toward.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are not the center.

We need to realize that we are often too far away from God because we have tried to make God in our image instead of trying to make ourselves conform to what God wants for us!

And God tells us again and again that He wants us to have a share in the divine life – in His divine life!

Will we try to be conformed to that?

God wants us to become holy as our father in heaven is holy.

And then, the hour? the day? the signs of the times? They will hold no fear.

We will be ever closer to finding out that second great day that William Barclay spoke about – the day when we discover the why we were born.

In the center, my dear friends, is that vision of hope and glory – a glimpse of the righteousness and life that we hope and yearn for without fear or terror.

Several verses later on in this Gospel, words we do not hear in today's reading, Jesus finishes his discourse, and he tells us this: 
"But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at     hand."

That second great day that William Barclay spoke about is there – the day when we find out why we were born – to be redeemed!

To be brought back, to be healed, to be welcomed in from our exile.

On that day, we will see what the prophet Malachi told us: we will see the glorious rising of the “sun of justice with its healing rays.”

What Shall We Do?

What Shall We Do?
Third Sunday of Advent, Year C
Zep 3:14-18a . Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6. Phil 4:4-7. Lk 3:10-18.

Joy! It permeates the readings of this day!
It permeates even the colors of our vestments and the color of this Sunday’s advent candle.

Like the soft dew in the morning, like the first rays of the sun, this joy, this hope, this feeling that the Lord is coming…

This joy gives light to the penitential season of Advent – this time of waiting, of longing.

Today is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of joy! When you take the penitential purple of Advent and lighten it, if you will, you get the color of rose: joy lightens, yes, even our vestments—and shows us as a people of hope!

That term “Gaudate,” means “rejoice”—be joyful over and over again. We hear it in today’s second reading: “Rejoice in the Lord always; I say it again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.”

How beautiful is that!

The Lord is near! The kingdom of heaven is at hand!

And did you hear in the first reading that there are four commands to rejoice? One right after another:
Shout for joy
Sing joyfully
Be glad
Exult with all your heart.

Whenever the Scriptures talk about the coming of the messiah, as these readings do, joy abounds and overflows.

Joy is a different thing than happiness, you know?
Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit – it is a God-given grace.

This is so different than the concept of “happiness.”
Happiness comes with ownership or possession. And when you’ve closed around that possession, you have finished – you have met the goal.
You are content! You contain what it is that you own.

But joy, well... joy has a sense of longing – it is the fruit of a relationship.
Where happiness is kind of a state of being – joy has a kind of longing –
It is the pilgrim’s condition – and with this longing is a sense of pure delight, because we delight in the Lord – a person, not a thing to possess.

And in the midst of all this talk about joy, we have John the Baptist again.

We heard about him in last week’s Gospel.
Half of that Gospel was given over to the who’s, the what’s, the where’s and when’s – we were identifying John to put John on this day, in this year, in this reign of the king – and to identify him as: The Son of Zechariah.

Talk about joy – John was the infant who leapt for joy in his mother’s womb, when he heard the sound of Mary – the Blessed Mother’s voice.

John – for all of his tragic end, was and is a kind of patron saint for joy!

This week, we know who he is, and he is answering questions.
You see, in the few verses that we missed between last week and this,
John has told this crowd that they must produce good fruits
as a sign of their repentance.

Now we have groups within the crowd, all asking John,
“what shall we do?”
John has an answer, and in a nutshell, in three words, it is this: act with justice.

That rings down through the centuries, not only for the people in that crowd,
But for the people in this crowd today – sitting here around the table of the word and the table of the eucharist: act with justice!

That’s what we’re sent out to do from these readings –
It’s what we’re sent out to do as as we receive in Holy Communion
The king of love,
The king of charity,
The king of justice,
The king of peace.

We need to do more than hear words and receive communion. Our very presence here charges all of us: act with justice.

And as Christians , we have to do this for all people. We have to love our enemies.

Look at these tax collectors—they were considered to be public sinners! Jewish tax collectors were collecting for Rome.
They were extorting their own people to get a profit.

But John doesn’t tell them to stop being tax collectors.
He tells them: stop charging more than is proper. Act with justice.

And he doesn’t tell the soldiers – who well might have been Roman soldiers in the crowd – he doesn’t tell them “Put down your lances.”
No, he says, “Don’t abuse your power.”
He tells them: Act with justice.

That simple message—in the everyday stuff of where they already are:
act with justice.
Do the right thing, not the powerful thing.

All this – and now another joy.
John in today’s gospel doesn’t announce the birth of Jesus. John comes to announce the ministerial presence of Jesus.

“Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

The crowd back with John awaited the coming of a messiah.
The Gospel tells us they were “filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ.”

The hope of the ages had been made manifest in John. Some 450 years had gone by with no prophetic voice to the Jews.
They waited and they watched, and they longed for the coming of the Messiah.
They longed for this joy!

And now, after this period of silence, John the Baptist appears on the scene: John breaks God’s silence!
His simple message is the prophet’s message: act with justice.
It is Isaiah’s message. Jeremiah’s message, Amos’ message,

The hope of the ages is now manifest in John.
And because of this, John knows that he has to be careful in pointing out the right way.
John points to the “mightier one who is coming … who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John points us to Jesus, too, by his message.

And we who wait in the darkening skies of late fall,
we who live in times of things expected yet unfulfilled,
we who sense time going by… time slipping by…

We are told on this day, in this time to rejoice!

God is near. His kingdom is at hand – a matter of :
Already—but not just yet in its fullness.
A matter of breaking through in the kindness, in the justice, in the love that we show to each other in the ordinary stuff of our ordinary lives.

We need this reminder to rejoice. We need this reminder of the messiah among us who is Great in our midst.

We need to remember in this time also to have joy.

Today we rejoice because God calls out to us through John the Baptist. He speaks to us of our poverty, and in our darkness,
and he tells us how we can gain great riches.

We can act with justice. We can extend charity. We can love.

We can help break forth the dawn of the light of hope—that peace of God, that the second reading tells us “surpasses all understanding.”

That’s real joy!

The Lord is close at hand, my friends!
Joy in justice, love, and peace, is truly at hand for you and for me.

Gaudete! Great in our midst is the Holy One of Israel!