What is God doing? (Bishop Robert Barron)

   St. Paul tells us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We see the world around us. And we can learn to understand it according to conventional categories—political, cultural, economic, etc. Christians don’t turn from the world that reason delivers. 

   But our primary orientation is not given by reason; it’s given by faith. This has nothing to do with irrationality or credulity. It has to do with an appreciation of God and the movement of God—in and through all of the conventional events perceived in the conventional manner. 

   What is God doing? Sometimes it is exceedingly hard to see. But we trust. It might happen slowly and in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, but God is always acting. From the smallest beginnings can come the accomplishment of God’s purpose. 

   God is working, though we can’t see it with our eyes. That’s why Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

 --Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, Wedding at Cana (1971), https://searchcollection.asianart.org/objects/9582/the-wedding-at-cana
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 19, 2025: There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit...

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…

How often do we see God at work? 

    At the end of the exile of the Israelites in Babylon, the author of Third Isaiah assures the people that, even now, the God whom they had abandoned has not given up on them. In fact, God will transform not only the reputation of the people – Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory, the prophet says – God will also transform his God’s relationship with them: you shall be called “my Delight” and your land “Espoused.” God’s mercy is a forgiveness that heals; the entire existence and identity of the people will be transformed by God’s action in their lives. The prophet calls the people to see God at work in their midst, and to follow the recommendation of Psalm 96: Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations with a new song, giving to the Lord glory and praise, the glory due his name.’ 

    In John’s Gospel, the story of the wedding at Cana is the beginning of his signs, signs that will reveal Jesus by showing God at work through him. Those present come to believe in him, with a growing confidence that Jesus is the one God sent, the one in whom all can put their faith. Taking six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washings, Jesus transforms them into something entirely new – the good wine. In so doing, Jesus is transforming not only Jewish practice but also the way the people present understand their faith in God; God at work in Jesus reveals his glory! 

    But God’s work didn’t stop with Jesus. As Paul reminds the Corinthians, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. The Holy Spirit’s activity in and through the members of the Body of Christ is meant to be a manifestation of Christ himself in the world, through the transformation not only of the members themselves, but also of all those whom we allow God to transform through us. We reveal Christ whenever we allow the Spirit to work through us, thanks to our different gifts, which are manifestations of the Spirit given for some benefit. All that it requires of us that we remain open to allowing God to work, building the faith and hope that make us church, and revealing – what else? – God’s glory! Proclaim it!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Drenched as we are (Jan Richardson)

As if we could call you
anything other than
beloved
and blessed
drenched as we are
in our love for you
washed as we are
by our delight in you
born anew as we are
by the grace that flows
from the heart of the one
who bore you to us. 

--Jan Richardson,
"Blessing the Baptism" 

Image & poem source:  https://paintedprayerbook.com/2013/01/09/baptism-of-jesus-washed/

Let us welcome God's presence (St. Louis / Pope Francis)

I think more of the place where I was baptized
than of the cathedral where I was crowned.
 For the dignity of a child of God,
which was bestowed on me at baptism,
is greater than that of the ruler of the kingdom.
The latter I shall lose at death;
the other will be my passport to everlasting glory.

–St. Louis IX, King of France 

    And we can ask ourselves: am I aware of the immense gift I carry within me through Baptism? Do I acknowledge, in my life, the light of the presence of God, who sees me as His beloved son, His beloved daughter? And now, in memory of our Baptism, let us welcome God’s presence within us. We can do so with the sign of the cross, which traces in us the memory of the grace of God, who loves us and wishes to stay with us. That sign of the cross reminds us of this. Let us do it together: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Baptism of St. Louis de Montfort, Monfort-sur-Meu, France, https://www.montfortian.info/photogallery/gen--350eme-anniversaire-du-bapteme-de-st-louis-marie-de-montfort.html. (Note that St. Louis, King of France and St. Louis de Montfort are two different French saints of the same name.)
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Jesus' prayerful moment (Shively Smith)

    [In chapter 3,] Luke narrates a four-part baptism sequence in which (1) the people who asked questions were baptized, followed by (2) Jesus’ baptism, and (3) his prayerful moment, accompanied by (4) a visual and auditory revelation. Luke does not describe the form of baptism, only that Jesus and the people were baptized. Similarly, we are not told what Jesus prayed, only that he prayed immediately after baptism. Nonetheless, Jesus’ prayer is a uniquely Lucan detail because neither Matthew nor Mark report it. 

    What is the purpose of prayer in Luke’s baptism story? Perhaps Howard Thurman offers an insight in his meditation called, “Who, or What, is to Blame?” when he says, “Through prayer, meditation, and singleness of mind, the individual’s life may be invaded by strength, insight, and courage sufficient for his needs” (Thurman, Meditations of the Heart). 

--Shively Smith 

Image source:  https://cacina.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/carry-the-gospel-with-you-1487/
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The door to the spiritual life (Bishop Robert Barron)

    One of the earliest descriptions of Baptism is vitae spiritualis ianua, which means “the door to the spiritual life.” To grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something really decisive about Christianity. 

    For Christianity is not primarily about “becoming a good person” or “doing the right thing” or, in Flannery O’Connor’s famous phrase, “having a heart of gold.” Let’s face it: anyone—pagan, Muslim, Jew, nonbeliever—can be any of those things. 

    To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ and hence drawn into the very dynamics of the inner life of God. We become a member of his Mystical Body, sharing in his relationship to the Father. 

    It is so important that we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” For Baptism draws us into the relationship between the Father and the Son, which is to say in the Holy Spirit. Baptism, therefore, is all about grace—our incorporation, through the power of God’s love, into God’s own life. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
January 3, 2022

Image source: Andrea Pisano, Baptism of His Disciples, Baptistery, Florence (1330), https://www.wga.hu/html_m/p/pisano1/andrea/1southdo/panel_09.html
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Do I love them that much? (Madeleine L'Engle)

   In my mind’s ear I can hear God saying to God, “Can I do it? Do I love them that much? Can I leave my galaxies, my solar systems, can I leave the hydrogen clouds and the birthing stars and the journeyings of comets, can I leave all that I have made, give it all up, and become a tiny, unknowing seed in the belly of a young girl? Do I love them that much? Do I have to do that in order to show them what it is to be human?” Yes! The answer on our part is a grateful Alleluia! Amen! God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son…

--Madeleine L’Engle,
Penguins and Golden Calves

Image source: David Bonnell, Baptism of Christ II, https://www.deaconrudysnotes.org/the-baptism-of-the-lord/
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