Daily Gospel Meditation - Sunday 13Jan 2008 - THE EVERYDAY GIFTS I CAN TAKE FOR GRANTED

[BarbaraTherese]

At times I can take things for granted. I can take it for granted that I am a practising Catholic and that I live a life that is mostly against the general culture in which I live. I can take many things about my life for granted as if they were mine almost by right…failing to sight that all these things are a great Grace from God indeed and for which I need be unfailingly and humbly grateful, praising God for His Goodness.
The other thing that struck me about today’s Gospel was those qualities that were and are those of Christ out to be those qualities that live in me and that I need to take great care not to smother them by a desire to be conforming to my own culture. If these qualities live in me ever so very slightly, it remains a great Gift of God that they do for which, again, I should be unfailingly and humbly grateful, praising God for His Goodness.
One of the most beautiful things Jesus said is “the smoking flax I will not quench nor break the bruised reed”…how often is the fire of my Faith almost quenched and only smoking, how often is my discouragment like a bruised reed - and yet it is never quite despairing of Faith, nor is my discouragement total despair. These too are great Gifts of The Lord that I do not totally despair and abandon Faith.

Background explanation of today’s Readings appears in the next post.
Blessings…Barb

DAILY MASS READINGS
usccb.org/nab/011308.shtml

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=01&day=13&year=2008&x=12&y=8

Why would the perfect Son of God have to be baptized? Like John before us, we hesitate as Jesus approaches the waters of the Jordan. After all, being without sin he didn’t need to repent. The answer is that he did it for us. By receiving John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus was identifying with us in a complete and intimate way. On that day, he embraced God’s perfect plan to fulfill all righteousness by taking upon himself all of our sins. So from the very beginning of his public ministry, Jesus began embracing our sin. It’s as if his first steps out of the Jordan River were steps on the way of the cross—all for us!
As amazing as this is, there is more. Matthew tells us that at Jesus’ baptism “the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove” (Matthew 3:16). With this coming of the Holy Spirit, a whole new era began. Jesus began his mission with power and wonders. Having defeated the temptations of the evil one, he proclaimed the kingdom of God—and miracles followed. Jesus hadn’t said or done such things before his baptism. From that moment on, nothing was ever the same.
It gets even better! This descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus was also for us. But why, if Jesus’ death and resurrection forgave our sins, did he baptize us with the Holy Spirit? He didn’t come just to forgive us

but to initiate a whole new way of life for us.

Having redeemed us,

he now wants to take the rest of our lives to transform us so that we can become more and more like him.

We received so much when we were baptized. Today, stop and savor the fullness of divine life in which you share. Why live, act, and think like a pauper? The kingdom of God is within you, and you will never be the same! “Lord Jesus, the heavens are open. Pour your Spirit upon me. Help me to see your kingdom more fully. Make me more conscious of your kingdom, empower me and transform me.”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Background
ocarm.org/lectio/lecteng2.php

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Mt 13: 13 The adult Jesus
After John “appears” on the scene (13:1), Jesus of Nazareth, where he spent his childhood and early youth (Mt 12:23), goes to the river Jordan. As a good Israelite, he watches the authentic religious movements that spring up among the people. He shows that he approves of the work of John and decides to be baptised with water, not, of course, to receive forgiveness for sins, but to unite himself and share fully in the expectations and hopes of all men and women. It is not humankind that goes to Him, but He who goes towards humankind, according to the logic of the incarnation.

John’s attempt to prevent the baptism of Jesus is his acknowledgement of the difference between the two and an awareness of the new (the New Covenant) making its appearance. “The one who follows me… will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire… his winnowing-fan is in his hand… will clear… will gather… will burn…” (vv.11-12). Jesus’ attitude is still one of submitting to God’s saving plan (in this way, do all that righteousness demands),

respecting the manner (in humility-kenosis)

and the times (the time-kairos). We also see the difference between the two from their families of origin (priestly for John), from the places (Jerusalem for John, Nazareth for Jesus) from the manner of conception (a proclamation to the father, Zachary, in the old style; a proclamation to the mother, Mary), the parents’ ages (those of John old). Everything points to the passage from the old to the new. Matthew prepares the readers for the newness of the Christ: “you have heard it said, but I say to you” (Mt 5).

In Matthew’s Gospel we have the solemn “adoration of the Magi” in acknowledgement of the royalty and divinity of Jesus. Luke also adds the acknowledgement of Elisabeth (Lk 1:42-43), of the angels (Lk 2:13-14) of the shepherds (Lk 2:20), and of the old Simeon and Anna (Lk 2:30; 28). All the Evangelists record the proclamation of the divine identity of Jesus by God the Father and the Holy Spirit present in the form of a dove. Matthew says clearly “This is” not “you are” my Son, the Beloved. Jesus is divine by nature and also the new Adam, the beginning of a new humanity reconciled with God as well as nature reconciled with God by means of Christ’s immersion in the waters. The heavens are reopened after being closed for such a long time by sin, and earth is blessed.
The descent of Christ into the waters prefigures his descent into hell and the words of the Psalmist come true (Ps 74: 13-14), he crushes the head of the foe. The Baptism not only prefigures, but inaugurates and anticipates Satan’s defeat and the liberation of Adam.
However, it will not be easy to recognise the Messiah in his weakness. John himself has some doubts when in prison, and he sends his disciples to ask “are you the one who is to come or have we got to wait for someone else?” (Mt 11:3).

In the tradition of the Eastern churches, the Baptism of Jesus is the most important liturgical feast of the Christmas cycle. On 6 January they celebrate together the baptism, birth, visit of the Magi, the wedding feast of Cana, as one fact. Rather than the historical development of the life of Jesus, they stress his theological-saving relevance. They do not dwell on the sentimental aspect, but on the historical manifestation of God and his acknowledgement as Lord.
Cyril of Jerusalem says that Jesus gives the waters of baptism “the colour of his divinity” (III mystagogic catechesis, 1).
Gregory Naziazen writes that the creation of this world and the creation of the spiritual world, once foes, reunite in friendship, and we humans, united in one choir with the angels, partake of their praises (PG 46,599).
The descent into the waters corresponds to the descent into the bowels of the earth symbolised by the birth in a cave. The destructive waters become waters of salvation for the just.

The Old Testament readings of the liturgical Vespers recall the saving waters: the Spirit hovers over the waters at the time of creation (Gn 1), the waters of the Nile save Moses (Ex 2), the waters open for the people of Israel to go through (Ex 14), the waters of Mara become sweet (Ex 15), the waters of the Jordan open before the Arc (Jos 3), the waters of the Jordan heal Naaman the leper (2Kings 5) etc. Jesus then at the wedding feast in Cana transforms water into wine (Jn 2) as a sign that the time of salvation has come.