Do We Know?

After being baptized, Jesus was led into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days and when that was finished, the enemy came to tempt Jesus. He attacked Him by putting Jesus' identity at question, "If you are the Son of God..." The enemy knew who he was dealing with, otherwise he wouldn't have wasted his time. Jesus also knew who He was in the presence of - the prince of darkness and lies. He knew that every word that should come forth from his mouth would lead to death and misery. Only God' words have the power to save and give life. That is why the enemy quoted Scripture. He knows of the power of the Word of God and he dared try to use it as part of his scheme to bring down Our Lord and all of humanity. The enemy tried to tempt Jesus with the most basic of necessities - food. He knew the Lord must have been hungry, having fasted for 40 days, and so he figured he ought to try to tempt the Lord to use His power for His own good, to turn the stones into bread, and by doing so show that He is the Son of God. However, Our Lord knew that His power was not to save Himself but to save others, to give life to others, and to bring others to His Father. More so than bread, Our Lord knew that it is the Word of God that will sustain Him and nurture Him. So too for us. It is the Word of God and the Bread of Life that came down from heaven that will truly satiate us and fill us. Let us not allow the enemy to tell us otherwise. It is not the earthly food or pleasures that will truly make us happy. Only what is from above can satisfy us because we were made for heaven. The devil knows this and we must too.

This is the Time

“After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
‘This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.’”

Mark 1:14-15

On this first day of the first week in Ordinary Time the Church reads the beginning of the book of the Prophet Samuel, chronicling the suffering of his mother, Hannah who is barren while her husband’s other wife has several children. The other wife, Peninnah rubs its in and always reminds Hannah of how the Lord had made her barren. Whenever they would make there annual pilgrimage to the Temple Hannah would become sad, cry, and refuse to eat anything. Despite not being able to produce any children, Hannah’s husband loves her deeply and tries his best to make her feel loved and not lesser because she was unable to produce children. But Hannah was unable to be consoled.

In the Gospel we are presented with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee, which takes place after John the Baptist had been arrested. The first words of Jesus were “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” This is the time of fulfillment. There is a sense of urgency here, a theme which runs through Mark’s Gospel. What is being fulfilled? The Kingdom of God is here. In fact, it is right in front of them: Jesus Christ. He is the Kingdom. And what should our response be in the presence of Christ and the coming Kingdom? Repent and believe. We are called to repent and believe because the time for all things to be made new is here. Jesus then goes and calls His first disciples: Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, and John — two pairs of brothers. It always makes me wonder what was it that made them all stop what they were doing and to follow Jesus right then and there. They literally dropped whatever they had in their hands and followed Jesus. By this abandoning of their current lives, they were repenting, turning around, and following Jesus and in doing so, believing in Him and the Good News He brings.

On the one hand in the first reading we see a faithful woman who had been barren and suffered embarrassment and ridicule for it. And on the other hand we are told that the one who went before the Lord preparing His way and urged the people to turn from their ways had been arrested. Although we cannot see it yet, we know Hannah eventually bears Samuel, who becomes a great prophet and John the Baptist gives his life bearing witness to Christ and His Gospel. The sufferings of both resulted in life, life not for themselves, but for others, for the greater glory of God, a life that would lead to the time that Jesus announced as the time of fulfillment.

As we begin Ordinary Time, I invite all of us to reflect on our journey of faith and our response to Jesus’ invitation to repent and believe. Do we, like the first disciples, drop whatever it is that keeps us away from God, and follow Jesus or are we hesitant? If we are hesitant, what are the causes of that hesitation? May we ask the Lord for the grace to see these causes and the courage to look them face to face and with the Lord embrace them and allow Him to bring new life through them.

Calling of the First Apostles, 1481, Domenico Ghirlandaio

Being Made New

“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.”

Luke 3:21-22a

Baptism is the sacrament through which original sin is washed away and through which one is made new and become children of God. Although Jesus had no sin and did not need to be made into the family of God, He was baptized. Why? Jesus asked John to baptize Him because He was one with our humanity and it was the sins of man that was washed away. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus was in complete solidarity with us. He became one of us so that might be like Him and with Him.

At the Baptism of the Lord, the Trinity was publicly revealed to us: the voice of the Father, the Holy Spirit descending, and the Son in the Jordan River. The Father spoke to the Son saying, “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The Father affirms Jesus in His identity as beloved Son, and those present witnessed and heard this. Because Jesus is Son, we too who are baptized share in the Sonship of Christ, and we too are the beloved sons and daughters of the Father. With Jesus’ baptism humanity has been made new. We have become a new creation in Christ. What was loss by our first parents, Adam and Even, Christ has restored and transformed. Sin and death shrinks in the face of grace and eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, we have been made new and we are the beloved of the Father. May we never forget this and may we always remind others of this truth.

The Baptism of Christ, c. 1690, Antoine Coypel