Claire Smith

The Baptism of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Acts 10:34-38
Matthew 3:13-17

Reflection:

Have you experienced an event in your life which, at the time, made a deep impression upon you, only to fade with time into meaninglessness? Now, the power from that event is lost, hidden, buried deep within you. Do you wish to recover the meaning of what happened to you?

Follow the Gospel of Jesus’ baptism, and you will discover the meaning of your baptism.

Our baptism introduces us as one with Jesus as brothers and sisters, and “children of God.” This is real, but beyond our senses and understanding. It is a matter of pure faith and trust in the love of God for you. That may be a faith challenge in itself! The same voice that Jesus heard spoken to Him speaks within us with the receiving of the sacrament of Baptism.

“This is my beloved son/daughter with whom I am well pleased.”  Mt.3:17

Follow the Gospel of Jesus’ baptism, and you will discover the meaning of yours.
What is a common experience we have, no matter what age we may be?
We seek to be filled with hope, to have guarantees for what is coming next for us?

In John the Baptist’s time people were desperately in need of hope! There were no signs that anything was going to change in their lives. They lived under the fear of persecution by the ruling powers of Rome.

Nevertheless, there was a lingering tradition through which people were hoping for a Messiah. “Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit…” (Isaiah 43: 1) They knew from their ancestry that a Messiah was coming. But Who, from Where, and How would this come to be?

John the Baptist would lead them to the true Messiah the Son of God. Leading people to hope!

Could that be a way of describing our baptismal call? Leading people to hope?

What leads people to hope?                                      

Consider statements like these as leading people to hope:

“I understand.”
“You can trust me.”
“I am available to talk.”
“This is what my faith tells me.”
“I will be on your side.”
“I will respect your wishes.”
“I will be truthful with you.”
“I will encourage you to be your best self.”
“I will make it easier for you to tell the truth.”
“I am able to understand.”
“I forgive you.”
“Let me know what happens, and we can talk some more.”
“Your differences make me want to listen to you.”
“I am sorry.”
“I am with you when you are weak, and helpless or, defenseless.”

Jesus wanted to be baptized by John in order to show everyone that He is like us in all things but sin. We read about this when people talked about Jesus eating dinner with known sinners. How he even recruited a tax collector to be one of his disciples.

Why were we baptized?

First, God chose us we did not choose God. It was out of love that you and I were baptized into the family of God. Jesus wants to draw close to each one of us. By being baptized with the hundreds of others that day in the Jordan River, He wanted to identify with us, He even identified with the effects of sin that we experience: suffering, disappointment, rejection, discount, unfulfilled promises and expectations.

Second, Jesus wants us to continue the mission which he began, when the Spirit led him into the desert for 40 days, to find the strength to face the devil in every circumstance of threat.

Through our paying attention to the Word of Life, through our example and words, and our behavior towards others, we can lead others to hope. That mission comes through our oneness with Christ in our Baptism in Him. What a mission we have!

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

1 John 5:5-13
Luke 5:12-16

Reflection:

We are coming to the end of an entire liturgical season in which we celebrate the incarnation. There are so many layers to this that we can’t possibly explore them all. Perhaps because of that, it is easy to miss some of the most basic lessons.

For instance, words matter. Just as God’s words of creation took flesh in light, stars, seas, dry land, animals and humans, and just as the very Word of God became flesh here on earth, our words also take on flesh.  Unfortunately, sometimes the words of bullies take on flesh with disastrous results, even suicides, of those bullied. Other times a word of healing or compassion actually brings healing and compassion. Words of hope actually bring hope. The way we talk to ourselves, the way we talk to and about others, the way we talk to and about God – it all matters.

And it will continue to matter long after the Christmas season is over. Words are important. So how can I help the Word to continually become flesh in my own words and actions?

Especially in a toxic atmosphere of insults, degradation, and vilification, I need to resist the impulse to hit back verbally, to insult, demean, or disrespect any person (or any entire class of people). I need to pray for the strength to imitate Jesus in standing up for others when they are being insulted or disrespected, even at cost to myself. I need to be a disciple that brings God’s healing power to bear in every interaction. I need to meet, talk with, learn from, and befriend those who are of different races, cultures, economic status, and backgrounds than mine so I can hear the word that God speaks to them and expand my perspectives. I need to be a transparent instrument of the Word become flesh.

Wow, this is hard! It’s much easier to concentrate on the tree, the food, the gifts, and the parties. But that is not the heart of what Christmas is about, nor the message of Epiphany (which means “showing”). We must go much farther and do much more in order to fulfill this mission of discipleship. And because it is indeed so hard, we need each other, so that as a community we can challenge, support, and hold each other accountable in the work of the reign of God. We need prayer and deep reliance on the Christ who is embodied within each of us. We need open eyes, courageous mouths, soft hearts, and unafraid wills.

This is the vision placed before us during this season and throughout the year. As you put away the decorations and sigh over the gained weight, can you refuse to put away the challenge? Can you join me in committing yourself today, in the present, to diligence in becoming a transparent mouthpiece of the Word made flesh? God needs your voice, your actions, your words. Let’s refuse to let the Word be silenced just because Christmas is over.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

1 John 4:19-5:4
Luke 4:14-22a

Reflection:

There May Yet Be a Gift to Discover?

The trail of the Magi is still fresh. We are happy for the Holy Family that they received such good gifts. We all love gifts!

The Chosen People are gifted, indeed ‘chosen’. They are light-bearers, a city upon a hill whose light would attract all nations. In salvation history Isaias the prophet told Israel that the day would come when the gentiles would take hold of the garments of the Jews and be led by them to God. Israel not only received such a gift but were blessed with the joy of being gift bearers. We also love giving joy and gifts!

At Christmas this year an Orthodox nun from Belarus stopped by our monastery to pass a few hours as she awaited a connecting flight to take her home. As we walked through the monastery she quietly told me that she liked her icons more than the type of art on our walls. I know that she has a sensitivity to the depth of meaning in an Icon that I do not appreciate. Even in teasing her that she was enjoying the best of both worlds, a Christmas celebration and then her Epiphany celebration, I knew I could not appreciate her depth of joy for all the meaning of the Epiphany. It is hard for me to see the gift of God’s love revealed to all the nations and celebrated in the Epiphany as being a greater celebration than Jesus’ birth. I can easily include what the Epiphany celebrates in Jesus’ birth.

But Matthew, whose gospel gives us the visit of the Magi, writes for a Jewish audience and underlines how universal is the gift at the end of the gospel when Jesus tells those who gather at the Ascension to go even to the ends of the earth to tell the Good News to all peoples. So, Matthew is stressing this universal gift. He must have a reason for doing so. It is not a given. He is saying, ‘some with the gift may be holding back, not unlike such a temptation any of us might feel having fallen in love with a particular gift we are going to surrender. Be honest, it’s not only the little kids who have that problem, right?’

In Nazareth, the joy of the gift will turn to a bit of anger in the next sentence just beyond today’s gospel. Some don’t want to share their gift.

I am fascinated by my Orthodox friend who has a deep awareness that God shares with all the gift given to Israel. St. Paul will say that the Chosen People would always be chosen in their role of revealing the gift of God to the world, but he gives up trying to explain the mystery of how God’s love unfolds! But Jesus is the Messiah for whom Israel waited and all the world unknowingly longed, and in whose coming creation is graced. Some would put brakes on the generous giving of God’s love to all. Some take it for granted, and some focus on it with profound joy and awareness.

Where are we on the gift-giving/receiving spectrum? Do we express thanks? Do we like to share our new treasures? Does the gift unite me to the giver more joyfully or intimately? Will it be a gift we always remember, and even one that whets our appetite, makes us wonder or even long about the possibilities of the next one to come?

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

John 4: 11-18
Mark 6: 45-52

Reflection:

Take Courage and Do Not Be Afraid

The secret of the spiritual life consists in this: that we try, with a spirit of faith and with sincerity of heart, to unite ourselves to God in the midst of all the vicissitudes of life. The important thing is that we withdraw our interior life from that region where the changes and fluctuations of this world shake and disturb it, and place it in that serene region where there are no vacillations, but only stability and peace. Thus, the Church petitions in one of her prayers: “That, amid the changing things of this world, our hearts may be set where true joy is found.”

Our life is so complex! So very many elements enter into it! We are affected by everything, even by the weather: cold, heat, cloudy days. Hence, with greater reason do these various states of our soul affect our being. Again, I say, this is the reason our life is so complex.

The long biblical tradition, echoed by Saint John in today’s first reading, said that no one could look upon the face of God and live. Yet in the human face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made flesh for our salvation, we have seen the true face of God’s unimaginable love.

The Infant Jesus cannot yet speak, yet when the day comes that he can, no force of nature will prevent him from coming to us. Even when we are tossed about by the storms in our lives, we are reassured by his words, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” As we “acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God,” the love that sends him over the water to us is brought to perfection in us.

Let us learn how to guard our treasure equally well at midnight and at high noon, whether the tempest is unleashed, or the sun shines brilliantly in a cloudless sky.  (Servant of God Luis Maria Martinez) God is for us refuge and strength: let us come before him with songs of praise.

Deacon Peter Smith serves at St. Mary’s/Holy Family Parish in Alabama, a religion teacher at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, and a member of our extended Passionist Family.

Scripture:

1 John 4:7-10
Mark 6:34-44

Reflection:

“In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.” (1 John 4:9)

I must confess, that when I read the above passage, I don’t get very excited. I don’t feel affirmed or want to change my way of living. Maybe I’ve heard it too often, I don’t know.

Last Friday after wrangling with myself for some time, and realizing I really had nothing better to do, I decided to see “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” a Sony Pictures movie currently at the theaters telling the story of Fred Rogers. I didn’t think I’d learn anything new or get any new insights into Fred Rogers. While I’ve never watched him on TV, I’ve heard and read much about him over the years.

Wow! What a surprise when I found myself crying and being moved watching Tom Hanks (Fred) bring to life Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) a writer for Esquire who in some ways resembled my own life’s experience. I left the theater, grateful that the Spirit moved me to go and experience this, yet another take on a person some might call a saint. Actually, Vogel suggests this to Roger’s wife, (Susan Kelechi Watson) who responds: “Please don’t do that.” She insists he is just like you and me, and if we want, we can live our lives just like him. What a challenge, to live my life just like Fred Rogers.

Maybe I can substitute “Fred” for “his only-begotten Son” in this passage. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent Fred Rogers into the world so that we might have life.

I hope and pray that when I’m gone people will be able to say: “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent Dan into the world so that we might have life.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture:

1 John 3:22-4:6
Matthew 4:12, 17, 23-25

Reflection:

We live in a world of instant reactions. A Facebook, Instagram, or Tweet is posted and, with questionable forethought, people respond, often with unflattering or hurtful words.

Recently, while driving to our Grandmother’s childhood home deep in the Kentucky countryside, I noticed a young man emerging from a dilapidated trailer home. Someone riding in our car blurted to us, “Meth Head,” meaning the man was a methamphetamine addict.

This derogatory judgment startled me. I thought, “How could anyone be quick to pigeon hole a man they did not even know? Could he not be living life with cancer? Is a family member ill and demanding his time and attention? Or, if he was an addict, isn’t that a disease?

But upon deeper reflection, I realize that there are times I am quick to categorize, criticize and castigate a fellow human with minimal knowledge about their history or life circumstances.

Pope Francis, in his remarkable Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, notes how destructive such quick assessments can be: “Detraction and calumny are acts of terrorism: a bomb is thrown and the attacker walks away, calm and contented.”

Quick judgments can be the work of the “spirit of the antichrist…the spirit of deceit,” in St. John’s words in today’s first reading.

In our prayerful, quiet times with God, we are given the grace to reflect on how these spirits work in our minds, how they pull us far from God and divide us from one another.

In his remarkable Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola writes in-depth on the discernment of spirits. To listen to God in our lives requires the discipline, much like that of a superior athlete or artist, to be alone with God to let the Spirit speak in silence.

The fruit of this discipline is the fruit Jesus experienced in today’s Gospel. Upset by the arrest of John the Baptist by the political powers of his day, Jesus retreats to the seaside, no doubt to pray and reflect. He emerges like a bolt of lightning, sourced in the Holy Spirit, to preach, heal and live the love of God.

What spirits are at work in you? Which is the Holy Spirit? What is the Holy Spirit asking of you today?

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.