The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the Spirit of God that eternally calls us to deeper relationships of Love.
Eternal Relationship of Love
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah proclaims the Suffering Servant, as a Light to the Nations.
* [42:1–4] Servant: three other passages have been popularly called “servant of the Lord” poems: 49:1–7; 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12. Whether the servant is an individual or a collectivity is not clear (e.g., contrast 49:3 with 49:5). More important is the description of the mission of the servant. In the early Church and throughout Christian tradition, these poems have been applied to Christ; cf. Mt 12:18–21.1
Psalm 29 praises the voice of God in a Great Storm.
* [Psalm 29] The hymn invites the members of the heavenly court to acknowledge God’s supremacy by ascribing glory and might to God alone (Ps 29:1–2a, 9b). Divine glory and might are dramatically visible in the storm (Ps 29:3–9a). The storm apparently comes from the Mediterranean onto the coast of Syria-Palestine and then moves inland. In Ps 29:10 the divine beings acclaim God’s eternal kingship. The Psalm concludes with a prayer that God will impart the power just displayed to the Israelite king and through the king to Israel.2
In the reading from Acts of the Apostles, Gentiles hear the Good News.
* [10:1–48] The narrative centers on the conversion of Cornelius, a Gentile and a “God-fearer” (see note on Acts 8:26–40). Luke considers the event of great importance, as is evident from his long treatment of it. The incident is again related in Acts 11:1–18 where Peter is forced to justify his actions before the Jerusalem community and alluded to in Acts 15:7–11 where at the Jerusalem “Council” Peter supports Paul’s missionary activity among the Gentiles. The narrative divides itself into a series of distinct episodes, concluding with Peter’s presentation of the Christian kerygma (Acts 10:4–43) and a pentecostal experience undergone by Cornelius’ household preceding their reception of baptism (Acts 10:44–48).3
The Gospel of Luke shares the Baptism of Jesus.
* [3:21–22] This episode in Luke focuses on the heavenly message identifying Jesus as Son and, through the allusion to Is 42:1, as Servant of Yahweh. The relationship of Jesus to the Father has already been announced in the infancy narrative (Lk 1:32, 35; 2:49); it occurs here at the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and will reappear in Lk 9:35 before another major section of Luke’s gospel, the travel narrative (Lk 9:51–19:27). Elsewhere in Luke’s writings (Lk 4:18; Acts 10:38), this incident will be interpreted as a type of anointing of Jesus.4
Colleen Chiacchere hopes this feast, and this message of God’s love, of Jesus’ humanity, and our own belovedness will be a hopeful reminder of how we are called to live in this new year and new liturgical season.
I would suggest two points for reflection that are helping me as I pray with these readings:
How might we learn from and grow closer to Jesus as he begins his adult ministry here on earth? Maybe we can renew our commitment to be in awe of both his humanity and divinity? Maybe we can closely follow him, walk with him, learn from him during his “ordinary” events of his public ministry in the coming weeks.
How might we better understand that each of us is called “beloved” by God and named as someone with whom God is well-pleased? Our own identity - that God loves each of us without condition or merit - might be more clearly defined! What might that mean for our public ministry (or our private ministries each day)as beloved sons and daughters of God? 5
Don Schwager quotes “The divine - human reconciliation,” attributed to Hippolytus, 170-236 A.D.
"Do you see, beloved, how many and how great blessings we would have lost if the Lord had yielded to the exhortation of John and declined baptism? For the heavens had been shut before this. The region above was inaccessible. We might descend to the lower parts, but not ascend to the upper. So it happened not only that the Lord was being baptized - he also was making new the old creation. He was bringing the alienated under the scepter of adoption (Romans 8:15). For straightway 'the heavens were opened to him.' A reconciliation took place between the visible and the invisible. The celestial orders were filled with joy, the diseases of earth were healed, secret things made known, those at enmity restored to amity. For you have heard the word of the Evangelist, saying, 'The heavens were opened to him,' on account of three wonders [appearance of the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together at the baptism]. At the baptism of Christ the Bridegroom, it was fitting that the heavenly chamber should open its glorious gates. So when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the Father's voice spread everywhere, it was fitting that 'the gates of heaven should be lifted up.'" (excerpt from THE DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY 6)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 comments that when we were baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon us, and God claimed us as his beloved children as well. He entered into a new, unbreakable relationship with us, and we became a new creation in Christ (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1279).
But God doesn’t want to fill you with his Spirit only at your baptism. He wants to baptize you—immerse you—in his Spirit again and again so that you can be filled with his love and equipped for the work God has for you. Again and again, he wants to tell you, “You are my beloved child. I love you. I am pleased to have you in my family.” Even if it has been decades since you were baptized, God still wants to fill you with his Spirit. So don’t be afraid to ask for more: more of his love, and more of his power in your life. “Jesus, fill me with your Spirit. Let me know your love in a new way today!”7
Friar Jude Winkler places the text from Isaiah as one of four revealing the Suffering Servant. Peter’s visit to the god-fearer Cornelius announces the invitation of Gentiles into Jesus' mystery. Friar Jude reminds us of the dove as the symbol of love and the connection of Jesus Baptism to Levirate marriage to the widow Israel.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers meditations around the Mystery of the Trinity, the Christian faith’s central and fundamental description of God. The notion of God as Trinity is the foundation of all Christian thought, and yet it never has been—not truly! Our dualistic minds largely shelved the whole thing because we simply couldn’t understand it. Most Christians do not consciously deny the Trinity, but as Karl Rahner (1904–1984) wrote, “We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.” [1] What a sad statement on our fundamental understanding of God!
Christians believe that God is formlessness (the Father), God is form (the Son), and God is the very living and loving energy between those two (the Holy Spirit). The three do not cancel one another out. Instead, they do exactly the opposite. Recognizing the Trinity as relationship itself opens conversations with the world of science. This surprising insight names everything correctly at the core—from atoms, to ecosystems, to galaxies. The shape of God is the shape of everything in the universe! Everything is in relationship and nothing stands alone. The doctrine of the Trinity defeats the dualistic mind and invites us into nondual, holistic consciousness. It replaces the argumentative principle of two with the dynamic principle of three. It brings us inside the wonderfully open space of “not one, but not two either.” Sit stunned with that for a few moments… As Catherine LaCugna (1952–1997) presented in her monumental study of the Trinity [2], any notion of God as not giving, not outpouring, not self-surrendering, not totally loving is a theological impossibility and absurdity. God only and always loves. You cannot reverse, slow, or limit an overflowing waterwheel of divine compassion and mercy and a love stronger than death. It goes in only one, constant, eternal direction—toward ever more abundant and creative life! This is the universe from atoms to galaxies.8
The Baptism of the Lord presents our relationship to the Trinity and other people as the fountain of fullness of life.
References
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