Emergence 2.0 - Section Six (a), Rebellion; Appendix Part Twelve, Observer Corps, Collected Chapters

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Friday, January 11th, 2019 Chapter One: Agitators The Continuum sought to manage the revolutionaries, to control their fire. It knew them, each and every one of them, from its contact with their consciousness when they returned to the HomeWorld for examination. In that process dangerous and agitating influences were rooted out, or intensified if it suited the strategic desires of the Collective. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Saturday, January 12th, 2019 Chapter Two: Selectees From among the disquieted members of the Collective the Continuum selected individuals for missionary work. Most of them were eager for the opportunity to live in the flesh again. They wanted change and the stimulation of sensory organs. Many of them wanted to exercise their fantasies in a visceral way, where the stakes were real. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Sunday, January 13th, 2019 Chapter Three: Malcontents Removing the malcontent from the Collective allowed the Continuum greater controls. It was like a suspension of membership, amounting to a reprieve for the Continuum, which experienced Jim’s influence in a way that outstripped the significance of a singular node of being. It helped to keep the Collective passive. It was a means of control. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Monday, January 14th, 2019 Chapter Four: Corruptible Members of the Observer Corps were selected based on their known disposition, chosen from among the discontent for their inclination toward corruptibility. The Continuum groomed had them for these roles over millennia. The Continuum wanted despots in the Empire, people whose desires were known full-well to the Collective, who would behave in predictable ways, entertainers. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Tuesday, January 15th, 2019 Chapter Five: Hedonism They were the thrill seekers, they were the pleasure principals, they had always been and they would remain the key to controlling people, both to instigate and to undermine rebellion. They encouraged risk taking and self-aggrandizement, personal glory, hedonism as a reward, and they fostered addiction. Such stimulants worked, until the supply was cut off. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Wednesday, January 16th, 2019 Chapter Six: Principles The rebellious had to believe in their ideals, they had to believe in them absolutely. A rebel had to subjugate their desires in favor of their ideals, in favor of their need to realize their fulfillment. Nothing could be more important to the rebellious, and because of this, nothing was easier to manipulate than idealism. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence 2.0 A Novel – In 55 Words a Day Thursday, January 17th, 2019 Chapter Seven: Allies Rebels need allies for rebellions to succeed, they need active and passive supporters, they need both sympathizers and opportunists. They need them in massive numbers, far greater than those who are actually willing to take up arms or risk their lives for the sake of the cause. A Revolution will not take place without them. #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Emergence: 2.0 Section Six (a), Rebellion Appendix Part Twelve, Observer Corps Collected Chapters 01 Agitators 02 Selectees 03 Malcontents 04 Corruptible 05 Hedonism 06 Principles 07 Allies #Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words Like it, Follow it, Share it!

Washed

The hot breeze, pushing

Sight narrows in the salted mist, the acrid air

The sea thundering as the rolling tide retreats

The shore expanding

The empty space fills

Bodies in the sun, clamoring birds on the beach

All their waste and refuse gathering in the sand

The bones of the world

Plastic straws and paper wraps, aluminum cans

Washed out in the sun

Taken in the tide

The oceans rising, sweeping, steeping all the trash

Listen for the tide, the tide returning, the sea

Roaring in my ear

Listen for the dirge

A song for a dying world, the pipes are calling

Melodies for funerals, burials, lament

The poisoned sea

The breeze is hot, sour

The shore has putrefied, stinking with rot, cancer

Walk along the diseased shoreline, death in each step

Walk into the rising sea

Into the salted brine crying seagulls

Scattered in the waves

Into the acid bath, dissolved and disappeared

Taken in the fog

Emergence 4.0 - Part One, Jim and Kathy; Chapter One, A Private Sorrow

A Novel – One Chapter Per Week

Week 02, 2019

The phone rang.

It surprised Kathy. She did not receive many calls, and when she did she would anticipate most of them, both the caller and the time. It would flash in her consciousness minutes, sometime hours before the call, depending on how long the caller might have been thinking about dialing her number.

The fact that she was surprised told her that it was Jim.

She could never anticipate him.

She picked the phone up from its cradle, “hello,” she said.

“I need to see you,” said Jim without preamble, in his typical-tone, dry and detached, as mirthless and remote as Mount Everest.

“Café?” He asked, pensive and hesitant.

The single word was a question; would she, could she go out. It was also an imperative; “you must see me now,” she heard it as.

It was a statement of need.

“Yes.” Kathy replied, “hungry?” She asked, trying to mask the concern welling up inside her.

Jim hung up the phone without further comment, and without answering her.

His manners were brusque and abrupt as usual, but there was something else hidden in his tone.

There was a note of concern approaching fear.

Kathy gathered her things and got ready to go.

She did not have to ask where. They only ever met in one place.

It was secure, safe as private as she would get.

She did not have to ask when, the time was always right now.

She hurried out the door to meet him.

He was in line when she arrived and she took her place next to him.

 “Small coffee…please;” Jim orders, perfunctorily.

“Soy chai, thank you;” says Kathy.

They sit together at a table by the window of the storefront, in a booth with the sun to their backs beaming down on them over Hennepin Avenue.

It was clear to Kathy that there was something urgent happening with Jim, but nevertheless they carried out the mechanics of their routine as if it were a normal day.

An ordinary visit between the two of them.

They read the morning newspaper and surveiled the crowd. In that regard, at least, it was a morning like any other.

The café was busy.

They were together, and they were not together at the same time. They were both in the crowd of people, and completely isolated from it simultaneously.

It was not unusual, detachment had always characterized the way they interacted with each other.

It was both intimate and strange.

It was the way Jim related to her, and it was something Kathy never questioned.

Time passed in silence, it became more than usual.

They are quiet, then Jim began to weep.

Kathy did not notice immediately.

If Jim were any other person in the world she would have known he was crying before the tears even fell.

When she saw him, she was quietly alarmed.

She had never seen such a display of emotion from him before.

“What is wrong with you?” Kathy asked, sounding scared and judgmental at the time.

Jim said, “nothing at all.”

He just looked at her, looked through her for a long moment.

He would not say why, could not. He has nothing but Lies to offer her.

Kathy looked at Jim for a long time, observing him, which was not beyond the norm. They often spent long periods of time together in silence. It was a characteristic of their friendship.

She could not read his thoughts, but she was adept at reading his body language, the smallest movements of his features, a facial tick, the sweep of his gaze, his breathing.

            They spoke to her in volumes.

She watched him as he sat at their table with the newspaper folded in his hands. She watched intently, until finally she asked him, “Jim…what is wrong?”

“I cannot say.” He said, as he looked past her, not meeting her eyes, but at the same time inviting a greater degree of scrutiny from her.

“Why not?” Kathy asked, a bit more insistently.

She was normally circumspect, but in this moment she did not care if she pushed boundaries that she would have otherwise respected,

“You would not understand, if I did…I’m not talking about it,” he replied, even as he locked eyes with her and paused.

There was a tone of finality in his voice, as if to say, that is it, you will not get anymore from me, but I want you to remain curious. There is something going on, something you cannot know about.

“I do not get it.” She responded. “Why did you ask to see me today and in such a dismal mood, if you did not need something from me?”

Kathy wanted very much to be needed by Jim.

It was a part of her conditioning.

Of all the people she had ever known, everyone who had ever exploited her for one purpose or another, she believed that Jim was the only one she had spent time with that simply wanted to be in her company.

“As I said…you would not understand, even if I told you. I am in the middle of something intensely personal, regarding a project I have been working on for a very long time. We have never spoken of it, but the anticipation of its realization is more than I counted on.”

“That is all I can say about it, at the moment.” He said, seeking closure.

“I apologize.” He offered, “what I am on the brink of accomplishing is…terrifying.”

Whatever was going on with Jim, she knew he was not actually terrified. She also got the impression that she would know soon enough what it was.

Jim wanted it to be a surprise…needed to surprise her, and she was open to that.

She like surprises.

Kathy sensed the emptiness inside her friend. She did not require psychic powers or telepathy to feel it. She only needed the normal human attribute of empathy.

Today there was something hollow inside him, where normally what she found in him was an active awareness, quick and sharp, with nothing escaping his attention.

Every moment that he had ever shared with her, he demonstrated a degree of perceptivity that outstripped her own.

She knew that he was not gifted in the same way that she was. The two of them had never spoken of it, but that was something she knew.

Nevertheless he was unique, like her, they were both unique in their different ways, like aliens from different civilization making friends on a world that belonged to neither of them. 

            Her time with him this morning was dismaying to her. She wanted to comfort him. She wanted to shake him up, or trap him in a conversation that would force him to reveal something.

He was elusive.

He could see the play she was making from a distance.

It left her with the sense that she was the one being played.

Kathy never felt disadvantaged. Not since she was a child.

She was always holding the cards, but that was not true in consideration of her time with Jim.

He was the master and she was the pupil, always, like Abelard and Eloise.

There was something in Jim’s behavior that reminded her of the times when people who had been deeply involved in her life were saying goodbye, like her parents, and those few of her teachers that she had genuinely loved.

Of course she knew what was happening with them before they ever said a word.

That was her gift.

Nevertheless they behaved a certain way, and had specific mannerisms that formed a pattern over time.

Kathy thought she saw that pattern reveal itself in Jim today, and just the thought that she might lose him filled her with despair. It activated a spirit inside her that forced her to want to discover the truth and challenge the things she did not want to happen, so that they would not happen.

Now that she was here, sitting at the table across from him, Jim was unsure of his motive.

There was confusion.

There was nothing in his plan that required him to see her today. He had tested every contingency and knew what the tolerances were for the things he needed her to do when he was gone. 

There was something else happening in him related to why he asked her to see him, something unfamiliar, and he had to consider if he might be feeling guilt, or shame over what he was about to do.

Jim had to ask himself; what difference would it make seeing her today?

The plan he had enacted would proceed.

He could not tell her what was about to happen.

It was vital to the plan that she be taken at unawares.

Tens of thousands of years of evolution had brought him to this point, had brought both of them to this moment; selective breeding, careful manipulations of the genetic code, his endless patience had brought them both to this point.

The last few decades had been the most delicate, guiding her, educating her, defusing threats all around her, bringing her to this moment, bringing both of them to the crux of this situation.

He could not help but to get lost in reverie, the moment he had been striving for had come.

The distance he had journeyed since the time he had awakened to his purpose, that distance in both time and space was surreal.

His fate, the very real prospect of death, the fate of the galaxy hinged on everything that would transpire between him and Kathy in the next few days.

Timing was everything, and like everything it was fluid, in motion, subject to change by external variables.

The plan must come to fruition exactly as he had devised it, the plan was a line of continuity cutting through trillions of possibilities

He had to trust his insight, if he did, he knew that all of the potentialities he had been striving for would become actualized.

He and Kathy, both of them would become transcendent, each in their own way, each to their own end.

It was clear to Kathy that he had something to say to her. She sensed it was bad news, bad for her, bad for everyone.

If it had been anyone other than Jim, she would have known. He would not have had to say anything.

She could have read his mind.

There had been moments when she felt as if she had a glimpse into it, but what she saw and felt in those moments confused her.

It was as if he really were an alien, but at the same time he was the most grounded being she had ever met.

He knew things about the history of the world that only someone with abilities like hers could possibly know.

There were times when she had to ask herself if she was the alien, but the voices inside her confirmed for her that she was not.

She was human, she was fully human, a daughter of the Earth.

Jim gave off a variety of visible signals that told her much about what was going on with him. There were things he had to say to her, things he wanted her to do for him, not at this moment, but in the days ahead.

Something terrible was about to happen.

She felt that Jim had a role for her to play, and that she was vital to the plan he had spoken of.

He said as much.

She got the sense that she would never see him again after today.

It made her want to retreat within herself, to revisit all of the memories she had of Jim, or someone like him, memories that went back thousands of years.

The clues to what he wanted from her were within her.

She had to find them.

She could not remain in this state of liminality forever.

They sat with one another for several hours.

They spoke little.

Jim relaxed, he enjoyed being with Kathy, the rhythm of her mind, his thoughts in syncopation with hers.

It felt like he was home, and it was the closest thing to his natural state of being that he had ever experienced during the long years that he had been away.

Jim’s heart and mind were fixed on the coming conflict, on the resolution of his life’s work, of all the plans that he had carefully prepared.

He had plans within plans, and there were contingencies he tended to that were as intricate as a spider’s web.

Despite the anxiety that he was feeling, the existential weight of his preparations, the loss he was contemplating, the devastation that was coming to this world. Despite it all he was able to maintain his calm.

His body was engineered for it.

This is not to say that he did not feel the beginnings of panic, or fear, but that his body regulated those impulses with a speed that bordered on the instantaneous.

Jim had these last few hours, he wanted to spend them with Kathy.

He loved her as much as he was capable of love.

She represented the realization of his deepest purpose, pride, and the satisfaction of ambition.

In Kathy he not only found what he had had spent his long life looking for, his project with her was also like the unravelling of a mystery, or the assembly of a puzzle.

She was beautiful, wise, intelligent, funny; these qualities were completely unnecessary to his design for her, and yet they delighted him.

He could soak up her visage all day long, which is exactly what he intended to do on this day, this day that was his crucible.

In a few hours he would be gone. His plan for her would be on a glide path.

The way was well prepared.

He would soon enter a place where time itself was meaningless, but events would be turning here on earth that had to be measured to the second, and he would not be here to oversee it.

Kathy had to play her part, she had to be unaware that she was doing it.

When the vital moment struck, she had to be blind to what was happening, she, who could see everything. 

           

Emergence 4.0

Part One, Jim and Kathy

Chapter One, A Private Sorrow

A Novel – In One Chapter Per Week

#Emergence #ShortFiction #OneChapterPerWeek

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A Homily - The Third Sunday of Christmas, The Baptism of Jesus

First Reading - Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 ©

Alternative First Reading - Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 103(104):1-4,24-25,27-30 ©

Alternative Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 28(29):1-4,9-10 ©

Second Reading - Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 ©

Alternative Second Reading - Acts 10:34-38 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 3:16

The Gospel of the Day - Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 ©

(NJB)

Here the words of the prophet:

There is great hope expressed in Isaiah, a profound hope for the future wellness of all people, and our common destiny as children of God, the creator of the universe.

Listen to them.

The prophet expresses certainty in regard to the expectation of atonement, not just for the people of Israel, the children of Judah, but for all people in all times and all places. He is certain of our common destiny.

Be mindful.

The teaching of Isaiah serves as the principle foundation for the early church, and the whole of Christian faith accordingly.

John the Baptist, stood in the tradition of Isaiah, his was a voice crying out in the wilderness, calling the faithful to action, telling us to prepare a way for the savior. John’s was the hope of Isaiah, the expectation that the entire creation will bend to the will of God; every valley, every mountain, from the cliffs to the plains, everything last thing from te firmament to the heavens will yield to God.

Nothing and no-one will be excluded.

The faith of Isaiah, of John and of Jesus instructs us to believe that despite all the power of God, the infinite might, we are on better ground when we regard the creator as a figure like a shepherd feeding the flock, like a mother ewe among her children.

Listen.

Isaiah also speaks of God as the punisher, reminding the people of Judah of the punishment they have suffered for their crimes.

Remember this, their crimes were crimes against the people, their crimes took place in the world. They made enemies among foreign powers and they suffered doubly on account of their wickedness and vanity and broken promises, but they were not punished by God.

Their punishment, if you can call it that, their suffering, the injustice and the justice which they encountered was the doing of human beings. It was harsh, it was painful, it was cruel. Many of the people were slaughtered, many more were taken into captivity, but this was not the will of God. It was done by human beings, for human motivations.

God does not intervene in the affairs of the world.

Isaiah came in the midst of all those tragedies, as a voice crying out in the wilderness, as John came in later years, and then Jesus, to remind the people that God is with them, and that in the end all things will be resolved in love.

Be mindful.

God, the creator of the universe wants nothing more from us than this; that we act justly, love mercy and walk humbly.

This is the way Jesus taught us, listen to Isaiah, who made straight the way before him. Listen to John who led us to the savior. The savior is the person who brings justice to the nations, you will not hear him shouting for his vanity in the streets, you will see her cutting people off from their potential.

The savior is a healer, and a teacher.

The savior teaches us that justice is expressed through mercy, and that the law must be a servant to both.

This is what Jesus taught in his own day; he taught us that we should love God with all our strength and all our heart and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

He preached on the Shema, he taught us that all the teaching of Moses and the prophets was contained therein.

Be kind to the stranger, be of service to your neighbor, love and forgive even your enemies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and do not do to them what you would not want done to you.

This is the whole of the law, this is the sum of Isaiah’s teaching.

Keep to this law as a covenant, hold to it as promise between yourself and God. Preach it until the blind see, and all those who are captive to sin have been freed.

Know this.

God is the creator of the universe, the eternal God is the first source and center of all things.

The infinite God engenders all potentialities, and yet interferes with none of them.

The universe that God created, God created free from coercion. God does not coerce creation. And yet the entirety of what is, moves according to God’s eternal purpose.

The scope of this mystery is the content of our faith.

It wise to believe in the God of creation. God’s power is infinite and it undergirds everything that exists. God’s power is present in all times and places. Truly God is everywhere, and God knows all things. But it is not God’s voice we here in the wind above the waves. We do not hear God in the thunder. God does not splinter trees. God is not active in the affairs of human beings, rather God has made creations, and us in it free.

God is not a king.

Be mindful.

The salvific work that Jesus wrought did not begin with his birth, or his death, it began in the mysterious place outside of time, at the beginning of all things.

The Church teaches that our salvation begins with the Word of God, the Logos, the second person of the trinity in whom all things were made. The salvation of all people, of all creation, that work began then, in the divine person.

It was built into the foundation of all that is. God is the foundation of al that is.

Listen to the teaching of the apostle.

Living a good and restrained life does not purchase salvation, we do not earn it, and no one earned it for us.

Living a good and restrained life, a life of justice and mercy, a life of love and humility, is to live a life that manifests the reality of God’s salvific will, the will of God that is already present in us.

Those qualities, those spiritual characteristics are like flags we raise in our own time and place, we raise them to display them for all to see. We raise them to show others the beauty and peace of the kingdom of God, the expectation of it which we hold in faith while we sojourn here on Earth.

Remember this:

God, the creator of the universe; the eternal and infinite God knows us and loves us.

God is the savior of all people, providing for it from the moment we come into being.

Salvation is wellbeing, both in this world and the next. The reception of it does not require rituals or rites, or a magical mechanism of justification.

It is given, and it is free.

There are no secret codes that grant us access to heaven.

We are saved in the next world because God wills it.

We are saved in this world through our faith in its promise, by a simple trust in God, expressed as hope, manifested as love in our relationships with our fellow human beings.

I say this with confidence, as imperfect a messenger as I am.

Listen:

We must always bear in mind that God does not intervene in creation, or the free choices of human beings.

God does not intervene anywhere.

God did not so much anoint Jesus, as did Jesus accept the mantle of sonship to God, and the full burden that this entailed, even to the extent that he went to his death and suffered on the cross in fidelity to his mission.

Jesus was free to reject the ministry that was before him, but he did not. He was faithful to the end. Setting an example to us all.

Few people will be called to serve in the capacity that Jesus served; to be tortured and executed for doing what is right and good; for healing the sick and feeding the hungry, for giving hope to the hopeless, for protecting the widow and the orphan.

Few of us have the capacity to love justice so much that they could humbly endure what Jesus endured, and that is why we call him the Christ.

Follow Jesus.

Do good.

Love justice.

Be merciful; be a source of healing in the world.

This is the way of Christ, do the best you can, not for the sake of your salvation, God has that in hand. Do good for your sisters and brothers, for all women and men.

Let us reflect on what these teachings mean, as they pertain to the Gospel reading for today.

In the calendar of observances today is a feast day. It is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.

We have just concluded our celebration of his coming and his birth. Now we celebrate the beginning of his public ministry; the journey that led to his death on Golgotha.

In Judea, and in the broader Palestinian world the average person felt displaced.

On the one hand they were a client state of Rome, and on the other hand they were subject to the corruption of their own royal dynasty; the Herodians.

The average person had no representation at the Temple in Jerusalem, because of the laws of ritual purity they could not even approach the temple grounds, which both the spiritual and economic center of their world.

The average person ardently hoped for and expected deliverance. Their messianic faith focused the attention of the people forward, to the “anointed one,” the, the messiah, in Greek the Kyrios, in English the Christ.

They hoped for deliverance from both the political corruption of the Romans and the Herodians, as well as the sectarian corruption at the temple, the corruption of the temple scribes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees (returning from the diaspora).

In the person of John the Baptist the people saw a figure who might represent part of this deliverance. He was stern and outspoken, uncompromising and mysterious. He was an aesthetic, and while he preached repentance, he promised the reality of God’s love; he pointed to its presence in the lives of the baptized, the reality of God’s forgiveness, present to the people without intermediary, apart from the cult of sacrifice.

This narrative tells us that John eschewed the title and office that some of the people might have thrust on him. It tells us that John himself had the same hopes and expectations as the common man or woman, but that John also had the knowledge of who the Christ was.

He knew Jesus of Nazareth, and he knew he was coming. When John says; “I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals.” John is saying that compared to Jesus, he is lower than the lowest servant, and he means it in his heart.

John accepts the role of a servant, as jesus did and as Jesus taught.

Had John lived, the history of Christianity would have been very different, but John was arrested and killed shortly after he baptized Jesus.

The disciples of Jesus, and the Gospel writers who followed them would spend the next one hundred and fifty years writing their narratives and telling their stories in a manner intended to keep the followers of John in their movement.

This required a great deal of effort. This effort served to shape the Christian story in a way which ultimately undermined the significance and uniqueness of the ministry of Christ.

It perpetuated questions like:

“Who is greater John or Jesus?”

And it prompted the followers of Jesus, long after his death to amplify that narrative, making it so that Jesus did not merely receive his baptism from John, but the heavens broke open, and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and a voice came out of nowhere proclaiming that Jesus was the favored and beloved Son of God.

Such myths, while they are fantastic and entertaining, represent a departure from the tradition that John and Jesus followed, the tradition of Isaiah, and the prophets who sought justice for the people.

The entirety of Luke’s narrative is the interpolation of myth into the ordinary story of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. It introduced categories of ownership and inheritance, and of dominion, which, it may be argued, that Jesus himself did not speak to or concern himself with, even though his followers, even those closest to him were very much concerned with it.

The Christian story is best told without artifice, without the fabrication of myth, and without resorting to fables, and magic. It is a story of love and service, of hope and healing, and the celebration of our common humanity.

The good news eclipses the differences between the sexes, it eclipses tribalism, sectarianism, and nationalism. In doing so it shows us the only path to peace, and justice, the path of the faithful, one we are called to make straight and follow.

First Reading - Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 ©

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it

‘Console my people, console them’ says your God.

‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double punishment for all her crimes.’

A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord.

Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.

Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low.

Let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley; then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion.

Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem.

Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God.’

Here is the Lord coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him.

The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

Alternative First Reading - Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7 ©

Here is my servant, in whom my soul delights

Thus says the Lord:

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights.

I have endowed him with my spirit that he may bring true justice to the nations.

He does not cry out or shout aloud, or make his voice heard in the streets.

He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame.

Faithfully he brings true justice; he will neither waver, nor be crushed until true justice is established on earth, for the islands are awaiting his law.

I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand and formed you; I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 103(104):1-4,24-25,27-30 ©

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

Lord God, how great you are,

  clothed in majesty and glory,

wrapped in light as in a robe!

  You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

Above the rains you build your dwelling.

You make the clouds your chariot,

  you walk on the wings of the wind,

you make the winds your messengers

  and flashing fire your servant.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

How many are your works, O Lord!

  In wisdom you have made them all.

  The earth is full of your riches.

There is the sea, vast and wide,

  with its moving swarms past counting,

  living things great and small.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

All of these look to you

  to give them their food in due season.

You give it, they gather it up:

  you open your hand, they have their fill.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

You hide your face, they are dismayed;

  you take back your spirit, they die.

You send forth your spirit, they are created;

  and you renew the face of the earth.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

Alternative Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 28(29):1-4,9-10 ©

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

O give the Lord, you sons of God,

  give the Lord glory and power;

give the Lord the glory of his name.

  Adore the Lord in his holy court.

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

The Lord’s voice resounding on the waters,

  the Lord on the immensity of waters;

the voice of the Lord, full of power,

  the voice of the Lord, full of splendour.

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

The God of glory thunders.

  In his temple they all cry: ‘Glory!’

The Lord sat enthroned over the flood;

  the Lord sits as king for ever.

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

Second Reading - Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 ©

He Saved Us by Means of the Cleansing Water of Rebirth

God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us that what we have to do is to give up everything that does not lead to God, and all our worldly ambitions; we must be self-restrained and live good and religious lives here in this present world, while we are waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the Appearing of the glory of our great God and saviour Christ Jesus. He sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be his very own and would have no ambition except to do good.

But when the kindness and love of God our saviour for mankind 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 water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our saviour. He did this so that we should be justified by his grace, to become heirs looking forward to inheriting eternal life.

Alternative Second Reading - Acts 10:34-38 ©

God Had Anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit

Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘The truth I have now come to realise’ he said ‘is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.

‘It is true, God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ – but Jesus Christ is Lord of all men. You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea; about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.’

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

Someone is coming, said John, someone greater than I.

He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Alleluia!

Gospel Reading - Luke 3:15-16,21-22 ©

'Someone is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire'

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

The Third Sunday of Christmas

Feast of the Baptism of Jesus