'Above all, God wants to give us himself and his Word.' Sunday Reflections, The Baptism of the Lord, Year B

Baptistry, San Marco, Venice

Italian Mosaic Artist [Web Gallery of Art] 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 1:7-11 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

[John the Baptist] preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Benedict XVI baptises in the Sistne ChapelFeast of the Baptism of the Lord 2011

FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

MASS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Sistine Chapel, Sunday, 8 January 2012

[I have highlighted parts of Pope Benedict's homily]

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is always a joy to celebrate this Holy Mass with the baptism of children on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I greet you all with affection, dear parents, godparents and all of you, relatives and friends! You have come here — you said so aloud — so that your newborn babies may receive the gift of God’s grace, the seed of eternal life. You, parents, have desired this. You thought of Baptism even before your child was born. Your duty as Christian parents made you think immediately of the sacrament that marks entry into divine life and into the community of the Church. We can say that this was your first educational decision as witnesses of the faith to your children: it is a fundamental decision!

The parents’ task, helped by the godfather and godmother, is to raise their son or daughter. Raising children is very demanding and at times taxes our human capability, which is always limited. However, educating becomes a marvellous mission if it is carried out in collaboration with God who is the first and true educator of every human being.

In the First Reading, we heard from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, God addresses his people precisely as a teacher. He puts the Israelites on their guard against the danger of quenching their thirst and appeasing their hunger at the wrong sources: “Why”, he says, “do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?” (Is 55:2). God wants to give us good things to drink and to eat, things that do us good; whereas at times we use our resources mistakenly, we use them for things that are useless, indeed, even harmful. Above all, God wants to give us himself and his Word. He knows that in distancing ourselves from him we will soon run into difficulty — like the Prodigal Son of the parable — and, especially, that we will lose our human dignity. And for this reason he assures us that he is infinite mercy, that his thoughts and ways are unlike ours — fortunately! — and that we can always return to him, to the Father’s house. Thereafter he assures us that if we receive his Word it will bear good fruits in our life, like the rain that waters the earth (cf. Is 55:10-11).

We responded to these words which the Lord has addressed to us through the Prophet Isaiah with the refrain of the Psalm: We will “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation”. As adults, we have striven to draw from the good springs for our own good and for the good of those entrusted to our responsibility, and you in particular, dear parents and godparents, for the good of these children.

And what are “the springs of salvation”? They are the Word of God and the sacraments. Adults are the first who should nourish themselves at these sources, so as to be able to guide those who are younger in their development. Parents must give much, but in order to give they need in turn to receive, otherwise they are drained, they dry up. Parents are not the spring, just as we priests are not the spring. Rather, we are like channels through which the life-giving sap of God’s love must flow. If we cut ourselves off from his spring, we ourselves are the first to feel the negative effects and are no longer able to educate others. For this reason we have committed ourselves by saying: We will “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation”.

Baptism of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

And we now come to the Second Reading and to the Gospel. They say that the first and principal education takes place through witness. The Gospel speaks of John the Baptist. John was a great educator of his disciples, because he led them to the encounter with Jesus to whom he bore witness. He did not exalt himself, he did not wish to keep his disciples bound to him. Yet John was a great prophet, his fame was very great. When Jesus arrived John drew back and pointed to him: “After me comes he who is mightier than I…. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:7-8).

The true teacher does not bind people to himself, he is not possessive. He wants his son or daughter, or disciple, to learn to know the truth and to establish a personal relationship with it. The educator does his duty fully, he assures his attentive and faithful presence because his objective is that the person being educated listen to the voice of truth speaking to his heart and follow it on a personal journey. 

Let us return once again to the witness. In the Second Reading, the Apostle John writes: “And the Spirit is the witness” (1 Jn 5:7). He is referring to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who bears witness to Jesus, testifying that he is the Christ, the Son of God. This is also apparent in the scene of the Baptism in the River Jordan: the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove to reveal that he is the Only-Begotten Son of the eternal Father (cf. Mk 1:10). In his Gospel too, John underlines this aspect where Jesus says to the disciples: “When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 15:26-27). This is a great comfort to us in the work of educating in faith, because we know that we are not alone and that our witness is sustained by the Holy Spirit.

It is very important for you parents, and also for the godparents, to believe strongly in the presence and in the action of the Holy Spirit, to invoke him and to welcome him within you, through prayer and through the sacraments. It is he, in fact, who illumines the mind and warms the heart of the educator so that he or she can pass on the knowledge and love of Jesus. Prayer is the first condition for teaching because by praying we prepare ourselves to leave the initiative to God, to entrust children to him, who knows them before and better than we, and who knows perfectly what their true good is. And at the same time, when we pray we listen to God’s inspiration in order to do our part well, which in any case is our duty and which we are bound to do. The sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance, enable us to carry out our educational action in union with Christ, in communion with him and continuously renewed by his forgiveness. Prayer and the sacraments obtain for us that light of truth thanks to which we are able to be at once tender and strong, gentle and firm, silent and communicative at the right time, admonishing and correcting in the right way.

Dear friends, let us therefore all invoke the Holy Spirit together so that he may come down upon these children in abundance, consecrate them in the image of Jesus Christ and always go with them on their journey through life. Let us entrust them to the motherly guidance of Mary Most Holy, so that they may grow in age, wisdom and grace and become true Christians, faithful and joyful witnesses of God’s love. Amen.

First Holy Communion after Baptism and Confirmation

Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City, Philippines 

These are the three sacraments of initiation, all of which were received by some of the girls, two of them by others, some years ago on Pentecost Sunday.

May each of us thank God today for our parents and godparents who brought us to be baptized so that we might receive 'the seed of eternal life'. 

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

First Sunday after the Epiphany

Feast of the Holy Family

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 1-10-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:1-7. Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.  

Authentic Beauty

Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

Jesus bleibet meine Freude

(Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring)

Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Sung in the original German by Voces8 with Nick Deutsch on oboe and Alexander Hamilton on organ.

This music and this performance are for me the embodiment of Pope Benedict's description of Authentic Beauty above.

'My actions and my desires can have a divine scope and can change the face of the earth.' Sunday Reflections, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Feeding the Hungry

Master of the Acts of Mercy [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Matthew 14:13-21 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Stamp issued in Chile for the beatification of Fr Alberto Hurtado SJ, 16 October 1994

The late Fr John Griffin, a Columban colleague from New Zealand, who after many years in the Philippines went to work in Chile, wrote about a great saint of our times, San Alberto Hurtado SJ, a native of that country, in the last printed edition of Misyon, the Columban magazine in the Philippines that I edited from 2002 until 2017, the March-April 2008 issue.

One story he told in that article is a perfect expression of what happened in today's gospel. But first a little background in that same article:

Overall, Fr Hurtado is best known and remembered throughout Chile for his Hogar de Cristo (Christ’s Home) Foundation. The seed for this was sown late one night when he was on his way home to San Ignacio. He met a man who was in poor health, had eaten nothing all day and had nowhere to go.

This was the priest’s first encounter with such poverty and it moved him greatly. He did what he could for the man and then asked: ‘What are our Catholics doing for those who have no roof over their heads?’ He began asking this question during his retreats and so was born the idea of ‘Hogar de Cristo’. He formed a board of directors from people eager to help – six men and 30 women. Land was available alongside the Jesuit parish of Jesus the Worker and the first night-shelters were built and an appeal for funds began. By 1945 there were five shelters that had been able to house 12,000 poor men. Now it was time to do something for the numerous ‘street kids’ who spent their nights under the many bridges over the Mapocho River which runs for miles through Santiago. These youngsters needed educations as well as shelter and land was donated for this purpose a few miles to the north of the city near Colina railway station and a children’s home was built.

Today's gospel tells us: Jesus said to them, 'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.'

Stamp issued in Chile in 2001 for the centennial of the birth of  Padré Hurtado

Fr Griffin continues about San Alberto: 

Providence was always on his side. At a meeting one night his board of directors was unwilling, for lack of funds, to approve a new project. In the midst of discussions there was an unexpected call for Fr Hurtado to attend to someone at his front door. He had a brief conversation with the caller who said she wanted to leave a gift to help the great work he was doing.

He gratefully put her envelope in his pocket, wished her a good evening and returned to his meeting. He looked at the contents of the envelope as he sat down. Then he tossed a cheque onto the table saying, ‘There you are, you of little faith!’ It was for one million pesos – worth about US$30,000 at that time.

Statue of San Alberto Hurtado SJ

Viña del Mar, Chile, his birthplace [Wikipedia]

The directors on the board of Hogar de Cristo were being prudent, as they were supposed to be and, in being so, following what Jesus teaches us elsewhere in the gospels. But Father Alberto was listening to what Jesus said to the Apostles today: They need not go away; you give them something to eat.

I'm sure that when Father Alberto threw the check on the table and said 'There you are, you of little faith' he did so with a smile that expressed both irony and gratitude and that the board members saw the irony and felt the same sense of gratitude.

Once again we find the presence of Jesus in the needs of others - and in one who joyfully lives the Gospel.

Smile and move forward! Total sacrifice is perpetual joy. The squaring of the circle? No. Because there is a secret link between the gift of self, out of love, and peace of soul. (San Alberto in a retreat to priests, 1948.)

The Gospel, radiant with the glory of Christ's cross, constantly invites us to rejoice. (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, No 5, 2013.)

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Lambert Lombard [Web Gallery of Art]

TheMultiplication of the Loaves

Meditation during a retreat by San Alberto on the gift of self and cooperation.

Some of the details here are found in St John’s Gospel.

        

Indecision, faintheartedness is the great obstacle in the plan of cooperation.  We think: I’m not worth all that much, and from this comes discouragement: It makes no difference whether I act or fail to act.  Our powers of action are so limited.  Is my unpretentious work worthwhile? Does my abstaining from this have any meaning? If I fail to sacrifice myself nothing changes.  No one needs me . . . A mediocre vocation?  How many vocations are lost. It is the advice of the devil that is partly true.  The difficulty must be faced.

The solution

5,000 men along with women and children have been hungry for three days… Food? They would need at least 200 denarii to feed them and this is the approximate yearly salary of a labourer.

In the desert!  Tell them to go! But Andrew, more observant says: There are 5 loaves and 2 fish, but what are these among so many! Here we have our same problem: the disproportion.

And the loaves.  Made of barley, hard as rocks (the Jews used wheat).  And the fish.  They were from the lake, small, rather mushy in texture, carried by a young boy in a sack that had lain on the ground for three days in the heat . . . not much of a solution. 

Did the Lord despise this offering? No, and with his blessing he fed all the hungry and had leftovers. Neither did he despise the leftovers: 12 baskets of the surplus were gathered, fish heads and bones, but even this he valued. 

The young boy consented to give Christ his poor offering, not realizing that he would feed the multitude.  He believed that he had lost his small possession but he found instead that there was even a surplus and that he had cooperated for the good of the others. 

And me . . . like those fish (less than those loaves) bruised and perhaps decomposing but in the hands of Christ my action may have a divine scope a divine reach. 

Remember Ignatius, Augustine, Camillus de Lellis, and Matt Talbot, base sinners whose lives were converted into spiritual nourishment for millions who will continue to feed on their witness. 

My actions and my desires can have a divine scope and can change the face of the earth.  I will not know it, the fish did not know it either. I can do a great deal if I remain in Christ; I can accomplish much if I cooperate with Christ . . .

A Hymn to Alberto Hurtado SJ

Written by Pablo Coloma for the beatification of Blessed Alberto on 16 October 1994, Sung by Pablo Coloma and Ximena Concha

Alberto, hoy resuena tu nombre                        

Se escucha tu palabra encendida

Tu rostro hoy recorre las calles

Tu huella marca un nuevo camino

Profeta que anunciaste el Reino

Supiste denunciar el dolor

Reíste con un canto a la vida

Mostraste un camino mejor.

Alberto, your name resounds today,

your enlightening word is heard, 

your face is seen today on the streets,

your footprints mark a new path.

A prophet who proclaimed the Kingdom,

who knew about pain,

who laughed with a song to life,

who showed a better way.

Alberto contemplé tu figura

incendiando las calles de una oscura ciudad.

Y vi que mil rostros reían

y otros más comprendían que era el paso de Dios.

Alberto has tocado nuestra alma

y ya siento que enciende ese fuego de Dios.

Tu vida fue un regalo divino,

una historia que hizo de este Chile un hogar.

Alberto, I watched you

lighting up the streets of a dark city.

And I saw a thousand faces laughing

and others who understood that that was the way of God.

Alberto, you have touched our soul

and I feel that I am lit by the fire of God.

Your life was a divine gift,

a story that made this Chile a home.

Maestro que enseñaste a vivir

la vida como lo hizo Jesús,

mirando en los hombres que sufren

su cuerpo castigado en la cruz.

A teacher who taught how to live

as Jesus did,

looking at those who suffer,

his body punished on the cross.

Apóstol, compañero de pobres,

viviste en tu carne el dolor

de tantos que viván despreciados,

tus manos fueron pan y un hogar.

Apostle, companion of the poor, 

you lived in your flesh the pain

of the many who are despised,

your hands were bread and a home.

Alberto contemplé tu figura

incendiando las calles de una oscura ciudad.

Y vi que mil rostros reían

y otros más comprendían que era el paso de Dios.

Alberto has tocado nuestra alma

y ya siento que enciende ese fuego de Dios.

Tu vida derramada en las calles

se alsa inmensa hasta el cielo en las manos de todos.

Alberto, I watched you

lighting up the streets of a dark city.

And I saw a thousand faces laughing and others who understood

that that was the way of God.

Alberto, you have touched our soul

and I feel that I am lit by the fire of God.

Your life poured out on the streets

is infinitely raised to heaven in the hands of all.

Just as St Teresa of Kolkata is known to everyone simply as 'Mother Teresa' and St Pius of Pietrelcina as 'Padre Pio', San Alberto is known to Chileans still as 'Padré Hurtado'.

Schola Gregoriana Abba Caelum, Seoul, Korea

Antiphona ad communionem  

Communion Antiphon Wisdom 16:20

Panem de caelo dedisti nobis, Domine,

You have given us, O Lord, bread form heaven,

habentem omne delectamentum, et omnem saporem suavitas.

endowed with all delights and sweetness to every taste.

On Sundays in Ordinary Time there is a choice between a Communion Antiphon with an Old Testament text and one with a New Testament text. The above is the former.

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)

This Sunday, 2 August, is the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost in the calendar that uses the TLM. Complete Mass in Latin and English here.