Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day
Jesus took our sin upon himself in his baptism to free and redeem us so we can experience the love of the Holy Spirit.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17).
These words echo from the heavens as Jesus rises from the waters of the Jordan River from which he has just been baptized. This passage from Matthew gives us a glimpse of the Mystery of the Trinity. The Spirit of God descended like a dove on the one whom God the Father proclaimed as his Son.
We celebrate each Christmas Season the birth of Jesus who is the Son of God in the flesh. Jesus remained divine, fully God as he became fully human. Jesus entered into our human condition so that he could redeem us. For if he is not human, he could not redeem what he was not. If he is not divine, he would not have the power to redeem us. Our redemption is beyond our capacity as finite human beings.
The Season of Christmas ends on today’s feast of Jesus’ baptism. Jesus did not come to John to be baptized because of his sin. Jesus embraced all aspects of our humanity, yet he did so in all things but sin. John the Baptist made this clear in today’s reading. For as Jesus approached him to be baptized, John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus came “to fulfill all righteousness”(cf. Mt 3:14-15) by carrying our sins with him to the waters of the Jordan, as he would do again on the Cross.
We who are baptized are baptized into the death and new life of Jesus. We are born again through the working of the same Spirit who “overshadowed” (cf Lk 1:35) Mary, descended like a dove over Jesus as he rose from the waters of the Jordan, and brought back Jesus from the depths of his descent into Hell. In becoming one with us in our humanity, Jesus, though he did not sin, took upon himself the sin of the world and conquered it and death. Through our participation in his life, we do as well. We become a part of his new creation where death does not have the last word.
One of the gifts of our final months, weeks, and days together was that both JoAnn and I could feel the closeness of the Holy Spirit. Our love for God and each other continued to grow. We continued to learn about and seek to understand our differences. We certainly experienced sadness but never lost hope or succumbed to despair. We continued to be there for one another each step of the way. Jesus died for us that he could be with us in our darkest hours. He was present and accompanied us, and I know he has led JoAnn home where she now intercedes for us.
Jesus is just as present in your life as he is in ours. That is why we celebrate this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord today, to recall again that Jesus became one with us, to take upon himself our sin to free and redeem us so that we can become one with him and his Father as we share the love between them the Holy Spirit.
Photo: JoAnn and I outside Keck School of Medicine USC
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 12, 2020
There are joys and fulfillment in bearing witness to our mission.
“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(Jn 3:29b-30).
How could John be feeling joy with decrease? This is counter to what many aspire to in our country. Aren’t we supposed to obtain more, be more popular, and not rest on our laurels, if we are to be happy? If our end goal is, fame or honor, wealth, power, and/or pleasure, then yes that would be true. But John is giving us an insight here about what brings us real joy.
Real joy comes from within when we have found our meaning and purpose in life, our mission. John was clear about his mission. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He experienced this from the time when he leaped in the womb when Mary first arrived to see Elizabeth. From that moment, he was preparing the way for Jesus and continued to do so into his adult life. He was not distracted by how many people he was or was not baptizing, but he was focused on preparing people to be ready for the coming of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).
John is not threatened by Jesus, he is overjoyed that the time of fulfillment had come. What John had been called to do by God he had been doing. The reality that Jesus increased and John decreased brought John joy because this was the fulfillment of his mission. How many of us get to experience the fruits of our labor?
If we want to be happy, experience joy and be fulfilled in our life, then following the lead of John the Baptist is a pretty good way to start. I do not mean selling off everything and living in the wilderness. The important point is that John cultivated a relationship with God. He came to know his voice, was open to his direction, acted on God’s leading, found confirmation, and became clear of the part he was to play in salvation history.
Each and every one of us has a specific role to play in God’s plan. We come to understand our mission by slowing down and becoming consciously aware of the relationship God is inviting us to participate in. As we do so we also experience the Holy Spirit who “impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission” (Francis 2014, 48).
This week I returned to Cardinal Newman HS after my leave of absence. Being back on campus and teaching in the classroom has truly been a joy. It is among my colleagues and students that I encounter Jesus each day and bear witness to his love that I experience. Teaching has been and continues to be a significant part of the mission the Holy Spirit has called me to participate in.
When we make the time to listen and we will hear and begin to recognize the voice of Jesus in the silence of our hearts, we will better discern where we are placing our time and energy, as well as better examine how God is inviting us through his creation, our experiences, and relationships. As we step out and risk, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, he will not only confirm for us but provide us with the means to accomplish our mission.
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Photo: Returning to my classroom a few hours before the students begin their first day back! God is good!!!
Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 11, 2020
Jesus does not keep us at arm’s length but draws close to touch us with his love.
The man in today’s Gospel scene takes a tremendous risk by approaching Jesus. He is a leper and so considered unclean. The appropriate response when someone was coming into his general vicinity was to give as wide a berth as possible, if not remove themselves from view, or to make themselves known to be unclean to any passerby.
This state of uncleanness was not a mere sense of hygiene. This was considered ritual impurity. So anyone touching or being touched by a leper would be considered unclean. For this reason, lepers were ostracized from family, friends, and the larger community socially as well as being forbidden to worship. This is a horrific state to find oneself in, for as human beings we are social beings who want to belong, to be a part of, and to be loved.
The leper cast aside all social norms and fell prostrate before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean” (Lk 5:12). Jesus knew full well the social norms, and it is very telling that not only did Jesus heal the man, but he did so by placing his hand on the man. He could have easily said, “I do will it. Be made clean” (Lk 5:13), without touching him and the man would have been healed. There are Gospel accounts of Jesus doing just that.
Jesus says more in his willingness to touch the leper than he does even with words of healing. He does not keep him at a distance but instead places himself on the same level as the man. Neither does Jesus become unclean, but the man becomes clean and the tremendous stigma of him having to be separated from the human touch is removed. With that simple touch, Jesus comes close and in doing so, the man will no longer be kept at arm’s length but restored to his community and the opportunity for fellowship.
This is what the Son of God has come to do. He has come close to all of us. He has become human so we can see the face of God, we can feel the tenderness of his touch, and we are understood when no one else can or is willing to do so. Jesus has come close so that we know that we are not alone, that we are loved more than we can ever imagine, more than we can ever mess up, more than our worst mistake, or sin. Jesus has come close so we can experience how it is to belong, to be loved and cared for as we are. Having received this wonderful gift, we are to come close also to those who have for too long been kept at arm’s length and love them as Jesus has loved us.
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Photo: Logo from the Leprosy Mission in Australia
Link for the Mass reading for Friday, January 10, 2020
Jesus, please help us to work together to bring about an acceptable year of the Lord in 2020!
He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).
Jesus, who had just sat down, spoke these words to his hometown congregation in Nazareth who had just heard him read the passage from the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus proclaimed that he was the one to whom Isaiah was talking about. Luke chose to place this event as the starting point of Jesus’ public ministry, of bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord (Lk 4:18-19).
This message of universal healing for all of humanity, restoration and reconciliation for all people would be the mission of Jesus. He presents to his hometown folk the message that he would be the vehicle to bring the love and redemptive work of his Father to all the nations, to invite all people to be aware of the reality present to them: that God his Father is inviting all into communion and relationship. The poor mentioned were not just in reference to those experiencing material poverty, but also to those finding themselves on the margins of society, the outcasts, those on the peripheries. The captives were not only those imprisoned for debts or crimes but those bound in the chains of their own sin and addiction. The blind were not only those who could not physically see but those who experienced the spiritual blindness of pride and arrogance. The oppressed were not just those under the iron fist of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes, but those pressed down through their own self imposed anxieties and fears.
In what ways are we in need of Jesus’ teaching, healing and restorative power? What is keeping us on the peripheries, apart from communion and fellowship? What sins and addiction keep us bound, what fears and anxieties keep us oppressed? What is keeping us blind to the reality that God is in our midst and seeking a deeper relationship with us? Today we hear or read again Jesus’ words proclaimed in the Gospel. Jesus invites us to be healed and to align ourselves with his will and ministry of loving service to others.
The same words Jesus spoke to the people of his own hometown he is speaking to us. Will we hold on to our biases and prejudices, to our tribe, our nation, our political party? Or will we come to Jesus, kneel before him, acknowledge our need for his healing and make him the Lord of our life? We can embrace the uniqueness of how God created us as individuals while at the same time engage with an open and welcoming posture that respects the rich diversity of all the nations and peoples.
Let us spend some time today examining our conscience. Then come to Jesus with a contrite, sorrowful heart for what we have done and what we have failed to do. May we feel his healing hands on our bowed heads and the warmth of his forgiveness and love pouring through us as we are purged of our sin and pride. Then, in recognition of how much suffering and pain is present in our country and world, let us ask Jesus how and where we can participate with him in bringing healing and reconciliation to others, to bring about an “acceptable year of the Lord” in 2020 (Lk 4:19).
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Photo: Tapestries of the saints hanging in the sanctuary of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, CA.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 9, 2020
“Jesus went off to the mountain to pray.” What is prayer?
And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray (Mk 6:46). We often read in the Gospels that Jesus went off by himself to pray. I am sure this was not a practice that he began during his public ministry, but one that he learned and developed from Mary and Joseph. The Apostles themselves witnessed Jesus praying, and in the account of Luke 11:1, one of his disciples asked Jesus to pray.
Pope Francis in a general audience he gave in 2013 shared that, “the Church is apostolic because she is founded on the preaching and prayer of the apostles” (Francis 2014, 37). Jesus prayed, he taught his Apostles to pray, and we are at our best when we are people of prayer. We hear of prayer and that we need to pray, but what is prayer and how do we pray?
That we even desire to pray, that we even want to be closer to God is already a prayer. This is true because we are experiencing an invitation from God to draw close to him, to develop a relationship with him, to come to know the one who knows us better than we know our self.
Fr. William Barry in his book, God and You, describes how prayer is becoming consciously aware of our relationship with God. This helps to counter the idea that God is like a gumball machine in the sky, we just need to say the right types of prayers, be good, say them in the proper order and we will get what we want, we will be happy. “God is in relationship with each and every created thing in the universe and in relationship to the whole of it… whether that being is aware of the relationship or not.” The amazing thing about God is that “he will not force himself on us. He continually tries to arouse our awareness and interest in him” (Barry 1987, 12-13).
God reaches out to us in so many ways such as a majestic sunrise or sunset, the ebb and flow of the waves on a beach, and the brilliant radiance of a starlit sky. He can also do so through our trials of sickness, pain, others who are being hurt, or encountering injustice, he is also present through our every day relationships and experiences. The key is to be aware of what is being stirred up within us when we experience something and allow ourselves to “wonder about the experience and its meaning” (Barry, 13).
What is most important regarding becoming people of prayer is our awareness, our becoming conscious that we have a relationship with God. “This relationship is based on God’s actions to establish it and his desire that we become conscious of who he is and wants to be for us. Our consciousness depends on our willingness to pay attention to God’s actions, or at least to experiences that might be actions of God, and to let our desires for God be aroused” (Barry, 14).
Another question that Fr. Barry answers regarding prayer is that if God knows everything about us, why bother to pray at all? God is not just wanting information, he is inviting us to a relationship. He wants to know whether we believe he cares how we feel and whether we are willing to let him in, to let him know what we feel and desire. We need to be honest in our dialogue of prayer and be willing to reveal ourselves to God, while at the same time, be open and willing to allow him to reveal what he seeks to reveal of himself to us. This is how we build authentic relationships with God and each other (cf. Barry, 15).
Jesus, we feel your invitation in so many small ways each day, though often, we allow our harried pace, distractions, and temptations to lead us away from the gift of your presence. Please help us to slow down and rest in the wonder of how God our Father is present to us and the love of the Holy Spirit is working in our life each and every day. Help us to realize we do not need to be perfect to come to you, to say the right words to be heard by you, nor to feel that we have to say any word at all, but we can just rest in your loving gaze. Help us to be conscious, to be aware of how much God cares about us, that he is interested in how we feel and what we think. Help us to remember that we are all called to be holy, to be saints, to be mystics because you call each and every one of us to be in a relationship with you.
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Photo: Hiking at Fort Funston Beach in San Francisco, CA during Thanksgiving with Mia, Jack, Christy, and Harley.
Barry, William A. S.J. God and You: Prayer as a Personal Relationship by William Barry SJ. New York: Paulist Press, 1987.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Can we be moved to love? Yes, when we allow ourselves to receive God’s love.
We can observe two movements of Jesus going out to serve others in today’s Gospel. The first is evident in the beginning verse: “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34). Jesus witnessed their deeper, spiritual hunger. The crowd gathered around Jesus for they were hungry, yet they were not even aware of the depth of their hunger.
Surely, they heard the accounts of Jesus preaching with authority, his healings, and exorcisms. They wondered if he could be the Messiah, the one who had been promised, present now in their midst. Yet, for the vast number of them, if not all gathered, they sought a leader, that Jesus was not. He was not to be a mighty military leader, he would not train his followers in guerilla warfare, and Jesus would not conquer the Roman occupation with might.
After his teaching, the time grew late and he and his disciples were aware of the hunger of the crowd. The disciples only saw the five loaves and two fish that were present, barely if enough to feed the Twelve, let alone the vast multitude. Their first instinct was to send them on their way such that they could fend for themselves. Jesus, who knew the Father, knew there were no limitations to his providential care. Jesus: Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to [his] disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all (Mk 6:41).
Jesus shepherded and provided nourishment for five thousand men, so if that number was not including women and children, the number could have been easily doubled, and all ate and were satisfied (Mk 6:42). Jesus was aware of their deepest needs and provided for them. Jesus knew their spiritual hunger as well as their physical hunger, better than those who came to listen to him.
Are we so different today? We think we know what we need, but how many times are they really apparent goods or substitutes for what we truly hunger for deep down? We continually strive to be autonomous, self-sufficient, able to control and govern our own affairs. We witness this when the disciples wanted to send off the people to get their own food, and they would deal with the meager amount they had. Yet, this is counter to who we have been created to be.
Jesus showed his disciples time and again the way of God was not self-sufficiency, but self-surrender. They were and we are to place our complete reliance on God. We are to allow ourselves to be loved by God and so love others in return. This is not an emotion but an act of being aware of another in their time of need, being present, and allowing God to happen. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). May we turn our heart and mind to God daily so to receive and savor his love, so to be moved to love and serve him in one another in turn.
Photo from pexels.com
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 7, 2019
Jesus is the light that shines in our darkness. As we repent, he will shine his light through us for others.
In yesterday’s Gospel reading we celebrated the Epiphany, in which the three magi encountered Jesus. They left changed, no longer following a star to find a king, but bearing the light of Christ from their encounter. Next Sunday we will recall the Baptism of Jesus by John. Today the daily readings jump ahead to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist has been arrested. He must decrease and Jesus increases.
Jesus inaugurates his ministry echoing the words of John’s ministry: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). John prepared the way for the Kingdom to come, Jesus himself in his person is the Kingdom of heaven. Heaven is not so much a place but a state of communion with God, and who better to embody the reality of heaven than the Son of God in our midst. He who remained fully divine, in communion with his Father, while becoming human and living among us.
Jesus proclaimed his promise of the Kingdom to his people who were suffering. He is the one who has been promised. Jesus is the fulfillment of their greatest hope. Matthew summarized the ministry of Jesus thus: “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” (Mt 4:23).
Jesus provided hope and healing to those who were losing hope, a people struggling, and in pain. Jesus taught the way, the truth and the life with authority, providing light amidst the growing darkness. He did so through not only being the Kingdom in their midst, not only being their light to guide their way, but also empowering and freeing them from their slavery to the sin that kept them bound. He helped them to see that they could not be enslaved by anyone or anything. Jesus helped the people to see that what kept them bound was their separation from God.
Jesus did not only come to the people of Galilee two thousand years ago. His message and person is meant for everyone. Jesus proclaims his message again to us today, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). There is no better new year’s resolution to begin with than this! Jesus is still present to us, providing hope and healing, providing his presence of love and mercy, providing his teaching which shines a light in our darkness, and he is empowering us to receive his gift so that we too can rise up freed from our slavery to our own selfishness and sin. May we decrease so to allow Jesus to increase. In this way, we too will bear Christ and empower others as we provide the same presence of his love, mercy, and forgiveness with those in our midst.
Photo: Out for an evening walk last night.
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 6, 2020.
Like the Magi, may we receive the light of Christ and share it with others.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage” (Mt 2:1-2).
At some point as they approached Jerusalem, the magi lost track of the star, did it become cloudy, did they close in on the city during the day, or did they believe it was the proper protocol that in entering the city they ought to check in with Herod first before proceeding? We don’t know. But somehow these magi were led by a star with the belief that they were to pay homage to the king of the Jews in a distant land.
What drew them from their home miles away? What inspired them to leave the comfort of their everyday routine? This was no easy journey, and it was a risky adventure. Yet something or someone inspired them, invited them to come. They said yes. And though they were misdirected for a time, when they left the audience of King Herod and resumed their pilgrimage, they again saw the star and were “overjoyed” (Mt 2:10).
That joy must have multiplied when they prostrated themselves before the baby king, the one who they risked and sought all for they had now found. In reality, their journey had only begun. Their lives would be forever changed and they would go back a different way than they came. The magi would not return to Herod, nor would they return to their home quite the same. They would not return from this journey and just go back to business as usual. The magi carried within them their encounter with the Christ; the light that drew them, they now carried inside of them.
They would proclaim him in the East. The magi did what they were called to do, to encounter the Christ and bring his light to the world. They and those who followed the same invitation are why we are still able to hear this same message today.
Today is the feast of Epiphany, and it is on this day that we celebrate that the King of the Jews, Jesus the Christ, has made his salvation known to the whole world. The manifestation of God’s glory came to the Jews first as the chosen people of God and then to all the Nations. The Son of God has become one of us and one with us so that all people are given the offer to be saved.
We too are invited. We like the magi are called to put the light of Christ first in our life. Let us seek each day to encounter him and his plan. Distractions, diversions, and temptations, many appealing and apparent goods will reach out to grasp at us and lead us astray, yet to put Jesus first will help all other priorities to fall into their proper order and place.
Bishop Robert Barron in his book, To Light a Fire on Earth, writes about becoming part of God’s “Theodrama”, using the Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar’s term. God is directing all of creation, all of the cosmos, and each of us to play our part. “The key”, Bishop Barron writes, “is to find the role that God has designed for us, even if it looks like a bit part… When, through faith, we see every moment and every creature as an ingredient in the divine plan, when we know that there is a gracious providence at work in the universe, we live in joyful surrender and with a great sense of wonder.”
This is what the Epiphany is about. Jesus manifesting his light to us so that we can finally come to see that we are not the center of the universe, but he is. “When we decenter the ego, and live in exciting and unpredictable relationship to God, we realize very clearly that our lives are not about us. And that’s a liberating discovery” (Barron 2017, 164-165).
May we follow the lead of the magi, and prostrate ourselves before our Lord and Savior. Let us lay face down and surrender to him our all and when ready, rise again forever changed, ready to go forth and proclaim the Gospel of the Lord!
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Photo: The Magi following the star accessed from http://www.free-hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers.com
Barron, Robert and John L. Allen Jr. To Light a Fire on the Earth. New York: Image, 2017.
Link for today’s reading of the Mass for Sunday, January 5, 2020
