January 15, 2017
« January 14 | January 16 »
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 Is 49:3, 5-6
The LORD said to me: You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!"
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:1-3
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Jn 1:29-34
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said,
'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'
I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel."
John testified further, saying,
"I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven
and remain upon him.
I did not know him,
but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'
Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God."
Why did Jeshuah go down to the Jordan to be baptised by John? According to Matthew's account, John thought it was not appropriate, but Jeshuah insisted they should do what everyone else was doing (Mt 3:15). In fact as it turned out the baptism was followed by a significant manifestation of the Spirit which anointed him. The Baptist had been expecting this, according to today's reading from John's gospel. In fact his purpose in preaching 'baptism of metanoia for the remission of sin' (Mk 1:4) was to prepare the people for Jeshuah's coming and provide a formal introduction.
Mark and Matthew note in particular that the Spirit came upon him after the baptism in the river: 'straightaway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.' You might wonder should we not be celebrating 'the anointing of Jesus' rather than his baptism of metanoia for the remission of sins.
In the following weeks the disciples were baptising too. John writes that 'when Jesus realized that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John— although it was not Jesus who did the baptizing but his disciples— he left Judea and went back to Galilee' (Jn 4:1-2). Since there is no further mention of baptising until after the resurrection we might assume that the practice was not continued, but why does John make a point of telling us Jeshuah was not baptising? Was it because Jeshuah had little time for rituals, seeing how their performance too often becomes a substitute for genuine spiritual experience.
According to the record in Acts baptism comes back into fashion in the early communities. However its meaning is not completely clear. Already in Acts 1:5 it is suggested that baptism with water in John's style was superseded: 'For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
Yet at the Pentecost event the people are called to baptism as the first step. I wonder what form it took with such a large number of applicants moved by Peter's words.
>When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:37-41)
Later on baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus is clearly superior to John's baptism of repentance, for the gift of the Spirit which it imparts. On one occasion Paul went to Ephesus and found some disciples there, 'and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. (Acts 19:1-7)
Over centuries the supposed need to clear the newborn of original sin has placed the emphasis almost exclusively on the cleansing of the soul by the ritual of washing. A better way would be to see the washing as a simple prelude to the anointing of the Spirit through laying on of hands. This washing would be a sign of metanoia expressing our willingness to be wholly transformed, to be made holy. With 'baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus' we are anointed with the Spirit as he was, a gift which sanctifies. The metanoia will be the work of a lifetime but with the power of the Spirit in us it will no longer be beyond our reach.
The significance of baptism is mostly wasted on infants. It may even have a negative effect when some grow up resentful in finding they'd been conscripted into the christian religion long before they were old enough to understand and voluntarily seek membership, or not. The damage is compounded with the imposing of further sacraments, confession, communion and confirmation on little children. Naturally we should welcome the new baby with blessings and promises of care. The gospels make a point of recording Jeshuah's positive attitude to children. The gospel challenge however is for adults, and to respond is an adult affair. It is surely good for children to grow up in a warm christian environment surrounded with inspiring and instructive images and practices, but we ought not trivialise the mystery of the Christ by thinking we can impose its richness on children via sacramental rituals.
And we wonder why so many choose not to go along with it when they're old enough to make a choice!
This is not a new question. From the early centuries there were those who wanted their whole family to be christian, and requested baptism for their children, and there were those who pointed out that this is nice, but without meaning, and potentially counterproductive. Today perhaps, with the indoctrinating religious education system that has done much damage to generations of children, the issue might have to be faced again. It seems that the improved catechetical methods of recent decades have not produced better results, which might indicate that the problems are deeper than content and method.
What does it really mean to celebrate the baptism of Jesus?
An interesting exercise: I try to remember the first time I personalised my response to the baptismal anointing of the Spirit, as an adult. When did I first say: I will!
And then a second question: What was the last time I did that?
Was it as recently as this morning?
Today's responsorial psalm marvelously sums up the role of the Anointed One, i.e., of Jesus and of those who are anointed in his name. Vs 6 has the phrase: 'You have opened an ear for me' which is so clumsy that one Hebrew manuscript even has 'You have fitted me with a body.' It's a pity such an important idea gets lost as we struggle with a inappropriate metaphor about piercing the cranium to make an ear for hearing. But the New Living Translation (NLT) gets it right:
Psalm 40: 6-9
You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.
Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand —
you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.
Then I said, “Look, I have come.
As is written about me in the Scriptures:
I take joy in doing your will, my God,
for your instructions are written on my heart.”
I have told all your people about your justice.
I have not been afraid to speak out,
as you, O Lord, well know.