Are you prepared for God's extraordinary action in your life?
As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, our readings speak to
the power of reconciliation and restoration, the product of God's extraordinary
action in our lives. The people of
Isaiah's time are to be reassured because of their imminent reconciliation with
the Lord: give comfort to my people, the Lord tells the faithful remnant,
tell Jerusalem that her service is at an
end. God's power is even at work in
the desert, where the highway shall
be made straight, so that the glory of the Lord may be revealed, and God's might will once
again be evident to God's people: Here comes with power the Lord God, who
rules by a strong arm. Through God's
extraordinary action, God is present to his people, reaching out to restore
them to covenant relationship with him. How manifold are your works, O Lord!
says Psalm 104 as the psalmist celebrates the extraordinary existence we are
privileged to enjoy through God's ongoing work in our lives.
God was no less present in extraordinary ways to his
Son. In Luke's Gospel, the heavens open
after Jesus' baptism, while the Son of God is praying, in intimate conversation
with the Father. And when the Holy
Spirit descends like a dove, we are witness to a theophany manifesting the link
between heaven and earth, the eternal and the time-bound. Baptism by water is a commitment to
reconciliation, and Jesus' baptism makes this reconciliation all the more
real. For Jesus is baptized in order to
enter more fully into the humanity he has come to save; God's extraordinary
action singles him out as our future savior
Jesus Christ. John the Baptist is
like the faithful remnant of Isaiah, helping to restore the people to relationship; Jesus'
baptism allows God to confirm that relationship as one of kinship: You are
my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. As the Letter to Titus suggests, the grace of God has appeared, Jesus
himself, teaching us how to live and purifying us, cleansing for himself a people as his own, so that we might be ever
more open and respond to the love with which we are blessed, to the salvation
that is ours, to the extraordinary ways God works in each of us, every day.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
No comments:
Post a Comment