First Reading – Isaiah
42:1-4, 6-7 ©
Responsorial Psalm –
Psalm 28(29):1-4, 9-10 ©
Second Reading – Acts
10:34-38 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Mark
9:8
The Gospel According to Matthew
3:13 - 17 ©
(NJB)
The First Sunday in
Ordinary Time (Year A), The Baptism of Jesus
Listen!
God,
the creator of the universe, God wants nothing more from us than this: that we
act justly, love mercy and walk humbly through the length of our days.
This
is way Jesus taught us. Listen to Isaiah, who made straight the way before him.
Be
mindful.
The
savior is the person who brings justice to the nations, you will not hear him
shouting for the sake of vanity in the streets or on the airwaves, you will not
see her cutting people off from their potential, putting them down or
diminishing them.
The
savior teaches us that justice is expressed through mercy, and that the law subservient
to it.
As
Jesus taught in his own day: love God with all your strength, and all your
heart, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
This
is the Shema, and it is the first
article of our faith.
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 have done to you.
This,
Jesus told us, is the whole of the law and the teaching of the prophets.
Keep
to this law, keep it as a covenant, keep it as promise between yourself and
God. Preach it until the blind see and all those who are the captives of sin
have been freed.
Consider
the psalm for today:
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, there is no place where God is not.
God
knows all things, God knows you, even as you know yourself.
Know
this: 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 or rend them asunder. God is
not active in the affairs of human beings; rather God has made creation, and us
in it, free.
God
is not a king.
Listen!
God
does not intervene in creation, or the free choices of human beings.
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.
Jesus
was free to reject the ministry that was before, 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; few will be
called to be tortured, and executed for bearing witness to what is right and
good.
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, but for the good of your sisters and
brothers, for all women and men.
Be
mindful
The
reading for today is a pure distillation of mythological tropes common among
the Hebrew people.
It
carries forward a set of theological themes that were very important in the first
century.
It
also situates the early Jesus Movement clearly within Rabbinical Judaism, which
is otherwise known as Pharisaical Judaism.
In
the reading for today Jesus is presented as a Pharisee, as a Jew of the
Synagogue, his followers address him as Rabbi, and the central concern among
the actors: Jesus, Peter, James, and John, concerns the foretelling that Jesus
will rise from the dead.
Know
this.
In
ancient Judaism, only the Pharisees taught the resurrection of the dead.
Beyond
these immediate concerns the writers of Mark’s Gospel were also interested in
conveying the message that their teachings were in total alignment with
historical Judaism, therefore they depict Jesus as another Abraham, who was
also visited by divine messengers, and they show him changed, as Moses was changed
on the mountain; furthermore, they show him being given the endorsement of
Moses, and also of the prophet Elijah.
This
trope is a concrete expression of the faith of the Jesus Movement that their
teaching was in alignment with the tradition of the Patriarchs of the Covenant,
with the Law Giver and the Prophets.
The
writers of the Gospel wanted to convey the message that In Jesus the whole
history of the people was complete.
Know
this: the narrative is a fiction, these events never happened, they are a
literary invention.
It
does not transmit a historical truth about the Life of Jesus, but rather a
historical truth about what people believed concerning Jesus, roughly fifty
years after his death.
Matthew 3:13 - 17 ©
Jesus
was baptized by John.
It
was the first moment of his public career.
He
was baptized, he was purified, he was shriven.
The
forms had been obeyed, and the gathered crowds were there to witness, the
heaven open, and the Spirit of God, creator of the universe, descending on
Jesus like a dove.
John
was like Moses at the river Jordan. He was never meant to walk in the promised
land. Jesus was like Joshua, he ushered the people in.
John
was the elder son, he was not meant to inherit. Jesus was the promised son, in
whom the hope of humanity was carried.
John
was the goat, at the rite of expiation, Jesus was the lamb taken to slaughter.
High
priest and king, they were one with each other.
Believing
it does not make it true.
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
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 – 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 – Mark
9:8
Alleluia, alleluia!
The
heavens opened and the Father’s voice resounded:
‘This
is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to
Matthew 3:13 - 17 ©
'This is my Son, the
Beloved'
Jesus
appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. John tried
to dissuade him. ‘It is I who need baptism from you’ he said ‘and yet you come
to me!’ But Jesus replied, ‘Leave it like this for the time being; it is
fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands.’ At
this, John gave in to him.
As
soon as Jesus was baptised he came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens
opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on
him. And a voice spoke from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour
rests on him.’
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