Homily
for January 13, 2008
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
The Baptism of the Lord
By Fr. Andrew Moyo Topic:
Spending time with our Lord
+ + +
Gospel: Mt 3:13-17 Jesus came from
Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to
prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you
are coming to me?" Jesus said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus
it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed
him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold,
the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the
heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The Baptism of our Lord Last week we celebrated the Epiphany
of the Lord. This week we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus,
which is also an epiphany. In the
Baptism, God the Father reveals to humanity the true identity of his
Son. All four evangelists talk about this event
and each focus on a different aspect of Jesus’ baptism. In Mark’s
Gospel, after Jesus is baptized, he
alone hears the voice from heaven.
(Mk1:9-11). Luke emphasizes the
fact that Jesus was praying when the Holy Spirit descended. (LK
3:21-22).
In John’s Gospel, John the Baptist witnesses the Spirit coming upon
Jesus (Jn1:29-34). In Matthew, the
experience is public and all can see the heavens opening, hear the
voice and
see the dove. + Heavens opening God’s coming was to be symbolized by
the opening of the
heavens; “Oh that you would open the heaven and come down.”
(Isaiah 64:1, 63:19). When the heavens are closed, this means
that
God is not available; there is no help from above. The torn
heavens are the first step of the
availability of God. God is among his
people. This confirms the identity of
Jesus—Emanuel—God is with us. +The dove The dove symbolizes the love between
the Father and the
Son. In Hellenistic cultures, a lover
might convey his feelings to a beloved by giving her a dove. The
dove symbolizes love and hence, the
proclamation that follows is interesting,
“This
is my son the beloved, with whom I am well pleased”
Jesus is the
beloved Son of God. The baptism of Jesus is a reminder of
our baptism. It is a reminder of our identity. Who are
we?
We are the beloved children of God.
In Baptism, we are recreated and we are made new. Catholics
believe that in baptism, we are
made one with Christ. Luther taught differently. He taught
that in baptism we are covered with
grace as “fresh white snow covers dung.” That’s wrong!
Baptism
makes us a new creation in God…children of God and full heirs to God’s
very
divinity.
In the Second Letter of Peter, the first chapter says, “His
divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness,
by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promise by
which we
become partakers of the divine nature.” We are partakers in the divine nature
because of the
grace of God. This is clear from the
prologue of John, “He came to his own, but his own did not accept him.
But
those who accepted him he gave the grace to become children of God.
We are God’s children not because of our own
merits, but because of God’s grace. God
then is everything we are nothing. This realization therefore calls us to
develop a union
with God. This can be developed and
cultivated through Eucharistic adoration.
The most important thing about Eucharistic adoration is being in the
presence of God. It is not so much about
what you say in the presence of the Lord.
Someone in this community once recounted to me this story. It was
a about a couple who had been married
for many years. After which the wife
began to suffer from Alzheimer’s and was at Sombrillo. For eleven
years, she suffered. In spite of the sickness, the two were
always
together; The husband would walk her around in her
wheelchair and when
seated, they would be holding each other’s hand. In these eleven
years, they never spoke a
word between themselves. Finally the
wife died. At the funeral, the husband
was asked to say something about his wife.
He said,” I miss her.” The most
important thing was the fact of being together.
This is the same also with our relationship with the Lord. The
most important thing is to be in the
presence of the Lord. People get worried
when they hear about spending an hour in the presence of the
Lord. They start thinking, “What will I say? What will I do
in an hour when I cannot even
concentrate in church? St. John Mary
Vianney once said, “I look at him and he looks at me and we are happy
together.” In Eucharistic adoration, we
are in the presence of Jesus. He is
present to us and we are present to him. Fruits: The presence of the Lord changes our
lives; it fills us
to the brim, with joy, peace and happiness.
If you need peace, tranquility, and sincerity, there is no better place
to find it than in the presence of the Lord.
I always leave adoration with peace in my heart, knowing that I have
spent time in a most valuable way. Adoration is also the source of our
strength. A well-meaning critic once asked Mother
Theresa, how she could justify the fact that her sisters were spending
so much
time in private prayer instead of caring for the sick and serving the
sick. Blessed Theresa replied, “If my
sisters did not spend so much time in prayer, they could not serve the
sick and
the poor.” Prayer before the Eucharist is the
source and strength of
our apostolate. In Eucharistic
adoration, the love of God is expressed and strengthened – so that love
of
neighbor may flow from it. Pope John Paul II once said,
“The
church and the world
have a great need of the Eucharistic worship.
Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous
with our time in going to
meet him in adoration”