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HOMILIES ARCHIVE
HOMILIES
Dear Audience,For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!
The Baptism of the Lord
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0First Reading
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (40:1-5, 9-11)
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made now; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms of David (104:1-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30)
(R) O bless the Lord, my soul.
O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. You have spread out the heavens like a tent-cloth. (R)
You have constructed your palace upon the waters. You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind. You make the winds your messengers, and flaming fire your ministers. (R)
How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all - the earth is full of your creatures; the sea also, great and wide, in which are schools without number, of living things both small and great. (R)
They look to you to give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filed with good things. (R)
If you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (R)
Second Reading
A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to Titus (2:11-14, 3:4-7)
Beloved: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.
When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.
Gospel
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (3:15-16, 21-22)
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
(P) The Gospel of the Lord.(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Homily
In history books all the dates are followed by the suffix B.C. or A.D. What do they stand for? B.C. and A.D are commonly used to tell chronological years. As most people know, B.C stands for "Before Christ", and therefore a great number of people incorrectly think that A.D. means "After Death". A.D. actually stands for the Latin phrase - Anno Domini which means "in the year of the Lord" or "the year that Christ was born". The use of A.D. goes back to the sixth century when the Christian monk, Dionysius Exiguus introduced the phrase "Anno Domini", to signify that all time belongs to God and to remind us of the time when God became man and came to dwell among us and thus usher in His grand plan of redemption. Some people do not want to use B.C and A.D obviously because of the references to Jesus. They like to use B.C.E which means "Before the Common Era" and C.E. which stands for "Common Era". This can be traced back only to the 17th century when the Jewish scholars and others began to use it in their secular, academic and scientific writings. It does not matter which one is used. But these terms are important for understanding our Christian faith.
To us, Christians, the Bible is more than just a history book, a story book or a book of moral truths. It is the inspired Word of God. We believe that God inspired His prophets to speak on His behalf and He also led some of them to remember and write down the revelations, and this was written over a period of 1,500 years, from around 1450 B.C. which is the time of Moses to about 100 A.D. by more than 40 different authors from various backgrounds and circumstances. It is divided into two parts, 46 books make up the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. The Old Testament contains the story of the ancient Israelites, or Hebrew people, and the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. The New Testament consists of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, which record the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament as well as the letters written to various individuals and communities instructing them in Christian faith and Christian living.
The Old Testament, written well before Jesus' birth, is frequently quoted by Jesus. For instance, we read in the Gospel of Luke (4:16-18) when Jesus was growing up in Nazareth, on the Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue and read a passage from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Biblical scholars also refer to the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 in a cave, which included fragments from every book of the Old Testament as evidence. Even Jews who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah agree that the Old Testament books were written long before the birth of Jesus.
The Book of the Prophet Malachi written around 400 B.C. is the last book of the Old Testament. We know very little about Malachi. There isn't much information about his life in the Bible. But he was definitely, a messenger from God who came to warn the people about their sins. He was the last of three prophets - Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi - who prophesied to the Jews after they had returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile. The Gospel of Matthew written about 40 A.D. is the first book of the New Testament. Some say that the first New Testament book written about 45 A.D. - 50 A.D. is the letter of James. Let us put aside that issue for the moment.
What is significant to us is the time between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the first book of the New Testament which is over 400 years apart. Becaus e according to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi and after him the Israelites waited only for the Messiah to come. And they are still waiting for Him. But Christians believe that Moses is the first prophet, and Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament times, and the time between Malachi and Jesus Christ was used to prepare the world for the arrival of John the Baptist and Christ, the Messiah.
That's why in today's gospel we read, "The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ.", Luke (3:15). Why did the people think that John might be the promised one--the Messiah? It is because John was much more than a prophet. He was enthusiastic and passionate about his mission. He not only boldly called on the people to repent for their sins and turn to God but also spoke with integrity and humility of heart. He was known by his godly character. John's holiness was such that even Herod who ordered his beheading, recognized it.
Mark in his Gospel (6:20) writes, "Herod was in awe of John, knowing him to be a good and upright man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him." We also see John's humility in his response to those who thought that he might be the Christ. He told them, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.", Marc (3:16).
In his response John distinguishes himself from Jesus in two ways:
- He saw Jesus as someone mightier than him.
Jesus' baptism is more powerful than his baptism for he baptized with water which was an outward symbol but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. But what is inspiring in the whole text is that John compared himself to the Messiah and referred to his own unworthiness to untie the Messiah's sandals. It is very obvious John's reference to the sandals of the Messiah is a reference to his own lowliness. Despite a large following, even before Jesus came to him to be baptized, John humbly asserted that he was not the Messiah and, he did not even consider himself to be the second lowest servant in the ancient Jewish tradition, who removed his master's sandals before washing their feet, a task very demeaning at the time of Jesus.
Much later Jesus would show his extraordinary humility by washing the feet of his disciples, the job of the lowest of all servants in the household. At the time of Baptism too God publicly acknowledged the humility of Jesus and declared him the beloved son. One of the most essential messages that everyone today needs to hear is that the key to God's blessing is humility. No matter what we do in our life, if it lacks humility, then God will resist everything else we do. Let us, therefore, cultivate humility but not false humility.
Let us truly magnify God, deny ourselves of the pleasures of this world, repent and confess our sins, and consider others and their welfare as more important than ours, so that in humility we will come to know and accept the truth about ourselves and so in turn our relationship with God and others may be strengthened, and we can experience more joy, contentment, confidence and peace.
(P) Amen.God Bless You!
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