'Above all I invite you to remember your own Baptism' (BXVI). Sunday Reflections, Baptism of the Lord, Year C

 

The Baptism of Christ

Francesco Mochi [Web Gallery of Art] 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

At that time: As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptise you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’

Now when all the people were baptised by John the Baptist and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Comfort ye, my people

From Handel's Messiah

Tenor: Jon Vickers; Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is the beginning of the First Reading of today's Mass (Isaiah 40:1-3). The translation is that of the Authorized (King James) Version, used by Handel.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Baptism of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

BENEDICT XVI ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square Sunday, 13 January 2013

[Emphases added.]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With this Sunday following the Epiphany the Christmas Season draws to a close: the time of light, the light of Christ who appears, like the new sun on the horizon of humanity, dispelling the shadows of evil and ignorance. We celebrate today the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus: that Child, Son of the Virgin, whom we contemplated in the mystery of his Birth. We behold him today as an adult immersing himself in the waters of the River Jordan and thereby sanctifying all water and the whole world, as the Eastern Tradition stresses. But why did Jesus, in whom there is no shadow of sin, go to be baptized by John? Why did he perform that gesture of penitence and conversion, beside all those people who in this way were trying to prepare for the coming of the Messiah? 

That gesture — which marks the start of Christ’s public life — comes in continuity with the Incarnation, the descent of God from the highest heaven into the abyss of hell. The meaning of this movement of divine lowering is expressed in a single word: love, the very name of God. The Apostle John writes: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”, and he sent him “to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:9-10). That is why the first public act of Jesus was to receive baptism from John, who, seeing him approaching, said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

Luke the Evangelist recounts that while Jesus, having received baptism, “was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’” (3:21-22). This Jesus is the Son of God who is totally immersed in the will of the Father’s love. This Jesus is the One who will die on the cross and rise again through the power of the same Spirit who now descends upon him and consecrates him. This Jesus is the new man who wills to live as the son of God, that is, in love; the man who in the face of the evil of the world, by choosing the path of humility and responsibility he chooses not to save himself but to offer his own life for truth and justice. 

Being Christian means living like this, but this kind of life involves a rebirth: to be reborn from on high, from God, from Grace. This rebirth is the Baptism, which Christ gives to the Church in order to regenerate men and women to new life. An ancient text attributed to St Hippolytus states: “Whoever goes down into these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God, throws off his servitude, and is raised to filial status” Discourse on the Epiphany, 10: PG 10, 862).

Following tradition, this morning I had the joy of baptizing a large group of infants who were born in the past three or four months. At this moment, I would like to extend my prayers and my blessing to all newborn babes; but above all I would like to invite you all to remember your own Baptism, the spiritual rebirth that opened the way to eternal life to us. May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, rediscover the beauty of being reborn from on high, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.

Sistine Chapel, 13 January 2013

Traditional Latin Mass

The Epiphany of the Lord

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-12-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossian 3:12-17. Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.

Christ Among the Doctors

Leonaert Bramer [Web Gallery of Art]

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? (Luke 2:49; Gospel)

'Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?' Sunday Reflections, The Holy Family, Year C

 

The Holy Family

Heinrich Meyring [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 2:41-52 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

The parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ Among the Doctors

Leonaert Bramer [Web Gallery of Art]

Today is the Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. On 19 March the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today's gospel refers to Joseph and Mary as the parents of Jesus. Mary says reproachfully to her Son, Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. To the puzzlement of both Mary and Joseph, Jesus replies, Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?

St Matthew shows clearly the role of St Joseph in the life of Jesus: an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).

Joseph's first responsibility was to be the husband of Mary and, as such, was to name her Son, thereby becoming his legal father. In some paintings of the Nativity St Joseph is a background figure, or partly hidden in the dark, but clearly protective of Jesus and Mary, and in an attitude of worship towards the Infant.

The Nativity

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

But in depictions of the Flight into Egypt, of which there are many, we often find St Joseph leading the way, as in this woodcarving. 

The Flight into Egypt

Unknown Flemish Master [Web Gallery of Art]

The Greek-born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 1614) who settled in Toledo, Spain, as a young man was known as 'El Greco', 'The Greek'. In the  painting below he captures the role of St Joseph as a protective parent.

St Joseph and the Christ Child

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

As a child I saw my parents as my father and mother. Now I remember them not only as that but as husband and wife. And sometimes I think that the Church over-emphasises the importance of the family at the expense of marriage, which is the foundation of the family. St Joseph's primary responsibility was to be the husband of Mary and, as such, to be the one known as the father of Jesus, even though Mary's Son wasn't his. 

And in today's gospel Mary painfully discovers that, in a sense, he isn't hers either, as he says, Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? At the beginning of his adolescence Jesus was, in his humanity, coming in touch with his heavenly Father's will. The mystery of Jesus being both God and Man is something we cannot fathom. St Paul says that Jesus though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2:6).

But this incident shows us that Mary and Joseph as parents suffered the same pain that every parent of an adolescent goes through. They were learning that they did not 'own' Jesus, that they would have to let him go at some stage.

I recall some incidents involving my father. One was when I was no more than three, possibly only two. Like St Joseph, he was a carpenter and made a little saddle that he put on the crossbar of his bicycle on which he went to work every morning. I recall him taking me for a 'spin', probably on a Saturday afternoon, in the area where we lived at the time, I sitting joyfully on the little wooden saddle he had made. It's like a short video in my mind that captures a moment of sheer delight between father and son.

Then when I was around ten he taught me how to ride a bicycle. I borrowed that of a cousin a little older than me. Dad held the back of the saddle tightly so that I wouldn't lose balance and stayed with me patiently. Then at a certain point I realised that he wasn't holding it anymore and that I was moving forward without falling. He knew when to let go. 

[Source: Coloring-pictures.net]

He taught me how to swim around that same time, with the same approach. He gave me a sense of security - but didn't cling on when I didn't need that kind of security anymore.

And when I was 18 both my parents let me go with their full blessing when I entered St Columban's, Dalgan Park, to become a missionary priest. Their faith was part of the reason I made that decision.

My parents taught me what trust was by trusting me. In Ireland the symbol of adulthood was - and maybe still is, I don't know - the key to the house. I was given the key when I was only 13. None of my friends had that privilege. On one occasion three years later when I came home very late on my bicycle from a dance my parents were waiting at the door sick with worry, as Mary and Joseph were sick with worry when they couldn’t find Jesus. Nobody on our street had a telephone and mobile phones probably weren't even in the imaginations of science-fiction writers then. But all I got was a well-deserved scolding from my parents, standing together, who still trusted me to use my key responsibly.

As I look back now, I see clearly that my parents were husband and wife first, and father and mother second. That did not mean that they saw parenthood as being of lesser importance but that they saw it as being a consequence of being married. I think they had their priorities right.

The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that marriage is the root of the family. Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:20-21).

The Wexford Carol

Featuring Alison Krauss (singer), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Natalie MacMaster (fiddle), Shane Shanahan (percussion) and Cristina Pato (bagpipes).

As far as I know, The Wexford Carol is the only Irish Christmas carol that is widely known and performed internationally. None of the performers in the video are Irish.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Sunday within the Octave of Christmas

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-29-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 4:1-7.  Gospel: Luke 2:33-40.

Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel . . . (Luke 2:34; Gospel).

'The baptismal font that unites the child with the Body of Christ and the life of the Church.' Sunday Reflections, The Baptism of the Lord, Year C

 

The Baptism of Christ

Francesco Mochi [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Note: In the New American Bible (NAB) lectionary you will find an alternative First Reading, Responsorial Psalm and Second Reading that may be used in Year C.  The Jerusalem Bible version above gives only only what the NAB gives as alternative readings and psalm. The Gospel below is always read in Year C.

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)  

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,  John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Comfort ye, my people

From Handel's Messiah

Tenor: Jon Vickers; Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is the beginning of the alternative First Reading of today's Mass (Isaiah 40:1-3). The translation is that of the Authorized (King James) Version, used by Handel.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Baptism of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

At our baptism the Father spoke the same words to each of us, his beloved sons and daughters. At Mass yesterday, Saturday, these powerful words of St John were read: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins  (1 John 4:9-10).

At our baptism, as at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan the love of God was made manifest among us. What greater assurance can we have of God's love?

In 1984 a young person in Belgium full of anger towards everything connected with religion wrote a letter to an older person, a layman, expressing his feelings. The older man replied, in part:

When I was still a teenager, I discovered that God, in the person of Jesus, loved us and loved me with a love that is foolish, but very real. He suffered the most excruciating torture in order to save us, to save me, to save each one of us personally from the grip of evil, and to enable us to share, if we so will, in his divine life. That, if we accept him, his Father will become our Father, my Father. That Mary, his mother, will also become my mother, our mother.

From that day on my life changed. By that I mean my way of looking at things, because I'm afraid I'm still the same poor chap, with the same faults as before. But my weaknesses don't discourage me any longer: on the contrary, they provide me with a reason for trusting totally in the all-powerful strength of my Father who is also your Father.

The ‘same poor chap’ who wrote that letter was the late King Baudouin of the Belgians who died suddenly in 1993. In it he was taking to heart the words of the First Letter of St John: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And in recognising that he himself is still the same poor chap he is acknowledging that Jesus is not ashamed of him, no more than Jesus was ashamed of the sinners he lined up with to be baptized by John, even if he himself was utterly sinless.

King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola in 1969

[Wikipedia]

King Baudouin wasn't ashamed of his subjects or of those who came to his country from elsewhere. The London newspaper, The Independent, carried an astonishing story about his funeral (I've highlighted some parts):

A former prostitute paid an emotional homage to King Baudouin at the funeral Mass. One of a handful of people chosen to deliver orations, Luz, a Filipino, praised the King for his fight against the international sex trade. She stood in silence as a writer, Chris de Stoop, read aloud the words she had written. She had met the King when he paid a highly-publicised visit to a brothel in Antwerp, and De Stoop said both the King and Queen had wanted her to address the funeral. This was her homage:

Now my friend passed away, who else can help us? I come from Manila. My family is very poor. I was promised a nice job in Europe. But Belgian men put us in a sex club. Belgian men put us in prostitution. We cried and we refused. But nobody could help us. We were forced. We were treated like slaves. When I could run away, I was arrested by police. I had many problems. 

Last year the King came to see us in Antwerp. We were five girls there. We cried again but it was different tears. The King was holding my arm. He listened to me. Only the King listened to us. He was shocked. There are too many victims here. From Manila. From Bangkok. From Santo Domingo. From Budapest. From eastern Europe. All looking for a better life in the West. All pushed into prostitution. The King was fighting against this sex trade. He was standing up for us. He was a real king. I called him my friend.

Mary Magdalene in Penitence

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

King Baudouin, living his faith in Jesus Christ, brought hope into the lives of people on the margins, the hope that Jesus brought into the world by standing with us sinners in the River Jordan. The King himself had suffered much in his lifetime. His mother, Princess Astrid of Sweden, died in a car accident when he was only five. He, his sister and brother, with their father King Leopold III were under house arrest during World War II and spent part of it in Germany. In 1951 Leopold, a cause of bitter division in Belgium because of his surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940, abdicated and his elder son took over, not yet 21.

In 1960 the young king married Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón from Spain. To their great sorrow, they had no children. Queen Fabiola had five miscarriages.

In 1990 King Baudouin asked the government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he wouldn't have to sign a bill legalising abortion. The government agreed. The King's stand was one of principle, though he was unable to stop the law coming into force.

King Baudouin went to Mass every day and to confession regularly. The baptism of Jesus by St John the Baptist might spur each of us on to avail of the sacrament of reconciliation often and to us priests to make ourselves available for it. The King would write a 'thought for the day' in his pocket diary, a text from the Mass.

And in that diary, after his death, this prayer was found:

Lord, make us suffer with the suffering of others. 

Lord, let us never again keep our happiness to ourselves. 

Make us share the agony of all suffering humanity. 

And deliver us from ourselves, if that is in accordance with your will.

Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens

[Wikipedia]

The king’s close friend and biographer, Cardinal Suenens, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, wrote that Baudouin once confided to a friend his purpose in being King of the Belgians:

To love his country, 

to pray for his country, 

and to suffer for his country.

King Baudouin lived out his baptism as a disciple of Jesus, knowing that through baptism he was a brother of Jesus and of the Belgian people he was called to serve. He lived out the sacrament of matrimony by his great love for his wife and queen, Fabiola. He truly believed that Jesus loved him with a deep personal love.

Though none of us is a king or queen, Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, loves each of us with that same personal love and draws us into the love of his Father as our Father. And we can adapt King Baudouin’s words in expressing his purpose in being king as our purpose in living out our baptism:

To love our family, community, country, 

to pray for our family, community, country, 

and to suffer for our family, community, country.

Baptistry, St Mark's Cathedral-Basilica, Venice

Italian Mosaic Artist [Web Gallery of Art]

Baisteadh

leis An Athair Pádraig Ó Croiligh

Nuair a chaoineann páiste ag an Bhaisteadh

Deirtear go bhfuil sé sona.

An é go dtuigeann an páiste ag an aois sin

An bhaint idir Eaglais agus céasadh Chríost?

Nó an dtuigeann an páiste an chiall

Atá le sagartacht, ríogacht and fáidheoireacht

An uair a chuirtear an ola ar a cheann?

Éide bhán, ola agus coinneall,

Ní mó iad ná an t-uisce a dhoirtear ar a chloigeann.

Agus is comhartha cinnte arís é

Pobal na clainne atá bailithe timpeall.

Umar an bhaiste a aontaíonn an páiste

Le Corp Chríost agus le saol na hEaglaise

Tionchar an phobail agus críonnacht na muintire

A chuireann fás faoin saol úr i gCríost.

From Brúitíní Creidimh published by Foilseacháin Ábhar Spioradálta, 2005.

Baptism

by Fr Pádraig Ó Croiligh

My non-poetic, literal translation from the Irish.

When a child cries during Baptism

It is said to be happy.

Is it that the child at that age understands

The connection between Church and the Crucifixion of Christ?

Or does the child understand the meaning of

Priesthood, kingship and prophecy

When it is anointed on the head?

A white garment, oil and candle,

But none more important than the water poured on the child's head.

And another sure sigh is

The family community gathered around.

The baptismal font that unites the child

With the Body of Christ and the life of the Church.

The influence of the faithful and the wisdom of the community

Bring growth to this new life in Christ.

Pater Noster

Our Father sung in Latin by St John Paul II

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 01-09-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17.  Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.

Christ Among the Doctors

Leonaert Bramer [Web Gallery of Art]