Advent Reflections

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord concludes the celebration of the Christmas season. After today, our churches will take down their festive Christmas decorations including the prominence of the manger scene. The baptism of Jesus marks the shift in the focus of the liturgical year from the infant Jesus to the adult Jesus. The heavenly voice proclaims Jesus to be "my beloved Son." With his baptism in the Jordan by John, Jesus begins his adult ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. He proclaims the Kingdom of God in word and deed.

The goal of every disciple of Jesus is to disciple another person. By baptism we are all Evangelizers. How do you disciple a man or woman? Jesus' typical call to the seekers of his day was, "Follow me!"

Lepers and Wise Men? Who would have thought the light of the Epiphany would shine on both, so strategically close together in the liturgy? We’re tempted to assume there is some mistake in the choice of this Gospel for the Friday after Epiphany…

Both the reading and the Gospel today speak to a central claim of Christian life: love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. It is often tempting to think that as long as we stay spiritually clean and upright with God, we can treat people however we like. Yet this is fundamentally opposed to the teaching of the Church as illustrated in these readings. God loved us before we loved him and created each of us out of love.

Today's gospel picks up from yesterday's story about feeding the five thousand. The disciples had returned tired and hungry from being away on ministry and Jesus had taken them away for rest. We read, too, that it did not work out that way. Jesus had a change of plans. I wonder how that went over with the tired disciples. I wonder, too, if the suggestion that Jesus dismiss the crowd to find food may have come from human weariness; the sooner the crowd left, the sooner we get our rest. I don't imagine Jesus' response - feed them yourselves - went over too well as they saw themselves going into the cities to shop. Perhaps, a little tension in the air?