Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

 

For the past 6 weeks we have been reflecting on the coming among us of the Son of God – the Word was made flesh and pitched his tent among us (Jn1)  The Eternal Word of the God took on our human nature in all its beauty and frailty - sin excepted – in Mary’s womb and was born as a baby.

 Today we meet Jesus, the fully grown man, at prayer after having been baptised by John the Baptist.  John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance – the people who came to him acknowledged their sins and were baptised as a sign of their repentance.  Jesus, the sinless and all holy One, did not need baptism – yet he accepts John’s baptism as a sign of his solidarity with sinful men and women.  This act of humility - of total self-emptying – caused heaven to open and the Holy Spirit to descend and the voice of the Father declares: “You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.”  Here we have a great mystery: that at the very moment when Jesus stands in solidarity with sinners the Father should declare him as his beloved Son on whom rests His favour – (and by inclusion all of us) - and we have the revelation of the Holy Trinity.  As St Paul tells us in today second reading: “When the kindness and love of God our saviour for humankind were revealed, it was not because he was concerned with any righteous actions we might have done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us by means of the cleansing waters of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:4)

In the waters of the Jordan, Jesus stands in solidarity with sinful humankind while in the waters of Baptism we are incorporated into Him and the voice of the Father addressed to Him is also addressed to each of us: “You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.” 

 

As Jesus experienced the opening of heaven when he had fully embraced the poverty of sinful humanity and was at prayer – so too for us – in prayer we become aware of the depths of our own poverty and wretched sinfulness.  Somehow in direct proportion to our honesty and humility we grow in awareness of God’s great merciful love and of our true identity in Christ – beloved children of God and brothers and sisters of each other and of Jesus our Brother.  When we are really present in the depths of our heart, God cannot resist us for He says through the Prophet Isaiah “My eyes are drawn to the one of humbled and contrite spirit” (Is 66:2)

Feast of the Holy Trinity

The antiphons in the Divine Office today give expression to our wonder and awe before the mystery Blessed Trinity, Three persons in one God. They keep circling round this mystery so incomprehensible to us. The plain chant melodies especially make our hearts swell with something beyond our capacity to put into words, giving voice to an awareness of the majesty and utter transcendence of God, the beauty of which almost hurts. The mystery of the Godhead, of God as he is in Himself Father, Son and Holy Spirit the most ineffable of all mysteries draws us, creates yearnings in us, leaves us restless even frustrated in our inability to worship God as He deserves. I am captivated by the ‘Otherness’ of God. On this Feast I long for Heaven where this ache to worship will be satisfied and I will know even as I am Known.

And yet when we come to the Mass readings for today’s Liturgy- God’s own Word about Himself given to us today to celebrate the mystery of the Trinity we are invited to reflect not on His Transcendence but on His immanence. In fact the focus seems to be more on us than on God. It seems that what God wants is for us to see Him as Love, love that has no other desire than to share Himself, pour Himself out, draw us in to Himself. The inner mystery of the God head is the mystery of love poured out. This mystery is made manifest to us in Jesus in whom we see our God made visible and who by His life death and Resurrection makes it possible for us through baptism in to Him to become heirs with Him and in and through him to enter into the heart of the Trinity The breath taking reality is that our God, totally sufficient in Himself and having no intrinsic need of us longs to share his life with us. As the spear entered Jesus side and blood and water flowed out, He received us into his heart. In Jesus we are taken up into the life of God. Hidden with Christ in God, immersed and enfolded in the love of the Trinity we too now experience God’s own desire for all peoples to know his love and our hearts burn with a longing to make disciples of all nations.

God who so loves the world has entrusted to us the awesome and privileged task of reflecting His love to all whom we encounter. In this time and place we are called to witness to Him, to be a place where his love can be seen in our world. We have the mission of making disciples, through our presence, our prayer, our words and our deeds. In this context ‘I am with you always until the end of time’ takes on a new dimension. In a very real way, God depends on us to make Him visibly present in our world, until the end of time.

We may not be able to find words to adequately extol the greatness of our God or to express our gratitude for the wonder of His love but actions speak louder than words.

Perhaps like Mary and with Mary we as the poet G.M. Hopkins so beautifully expresses it have only this one work to do

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.