20150111 IDENTIFICATION AS THE BASIS FOR MISSION
Readings at Mass
EITHER:
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First reading
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Isaiah 55:1-11 ©
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Thus says the Lord:
Oh, come to the water
all you who are thirsty;
though you have no
money, come!
Buy corn without
money, and eat,
and, at no cost, wine
and milk.
Why spend money on
what is not bread,
your wages on what
fails to satisfy?
Listen, listen to me,
and you will have good things to eat
and rich food to
enjoy.
Pay attention, come
to me;
listen, and your soul
will live.
With you I will make
an everlasting covenant
out of the favours
promised to David.
See, I have made of
you a witness to the peoples,
a leader and a master
of the nations.
See, you will summon
a nation you never knew,
those unknown will
come hurrying to you,
for the sake of the
Lord your God,
of the Holy One of
Israel who will glorify you.
Seek the Lord while
he is still to be found,
call to him while he
is still near.
Let the wicked man
abandon his way,
the evil man his
thoughts.
Let him turn back to
the Lord who will take pity on him,
to our God who is
rich in forgiving;
for my thoughts are
not your thoughts,
my ways not your
ways – it is the Lord who speaks.
Yes, the heavens are
as high above earth
as my ways are above
your ways,
my thoughts above
your thoughts.
Yes, as the rain and
the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the
earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and
bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me
empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.
OR:
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Alternative
First reading
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Isaiah
42:1-4,6-7 ©
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Thus says the Lord:
Here is my servant
whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom
my soul delights.
I have endowed him
with my spirit
that he may bring
true justice to the nations.
He does not cry out
or shout aloud,
or make his voice
heard in the streets.
He does not break the
crushed reed,
nor quench the
wavering flame.
Faithfully he brings
true justice;
he will neither
waver, nor be crushed
until true justice is
established on earth,
for the islands are
awaiting his law.
I, the Lord, have
called you to serve the cause of right;
I have taken you by
the hand and formed you;
I have appointed you
as covenant of the people and light of the nations,
to open the eyes of
the blind,
to free captives from
prison,
and those who live in
darkness from the dungeon.
EITHER:
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Canticle
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Isaiah 12 ©
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The rejoicing of
a redeemed people
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With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation.
Truly, God is my
salvation,
I trust,
I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my
strength, my song,
he became
my saviour.
With joy you will
draw water
from the
wells of salvation.
With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation.
Give thanks to the Lord,
give praise to his name!
Make his
mighty deeds known to the peoples!
Declare
the greatness of his name.
With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation.
Sing a psalm to the
Lord
for he
has done glorious deeds;
make them
known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing
and shout for joy,
for great
in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation.
OR:
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Alternative
Psalm
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Psalm
28:1-4,9-10 ©
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The Lord will
bless his people with peace.
O give the Lord, you
sons of God,
give the
Lord glory and power;
give the Lord the
glory of his name.
Adore the
Lord in his holy court.
The Lord will
bless his people with peace.
The Lord’s voice
resounding on the waters,
the Lord
on the immensity of waters;
the voice of the
Lord, full of power,
the voice
of the Lord, full of splendour.
The Lord will
bless his people with peace.
The God of glory
thunders.
In his
temple they all cry: ‘Glory!’
The Lord sat
enthroned over the flood;
the Lord
sits as king for ever.
The Lord will
bless his people with peace.
EITHER:
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Second reading
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1 John 5:1-9 ©
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Whoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by
God;
and whoever loves the
Father that begot him
loves the child whom
he begets.
We can be sure that
we love God’s children
if we love God
himself and do what he has commanded us;
this is what loving
God is –
keeping his
commandments;
and his commandments
are not difficult,
because anyone who
has been begotten by God
has already overcome
the world;
this is the victory
over the world –
our faith.
Who can overcome the
world?
Only the man who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God:
Jesus Christ who came
by water and blood,
not with water only,
but with water and
blood;
with the Spirit as
another witness –
since the Spirit is
the truth –
so that there are
three witnesses,
the Spirit, the water
and the blood,
and all three of them
agree.
We accept the
testimony of human witnesses,
but God’s testimony
is much greater,
and this is God’s
testimony,
given as evidence for
his Son.
OR:
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Alternative
Second reading
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Acts 10:34-38 ©
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Peter addressed
Cornelius and his household: ‘The truth I have now come to realise’ he said ‘is
that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who
fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.
‘It is
true, God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the
good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ – but Jesus Christ is Lord
of all men. You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea; about
Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee, after John had been preaching
baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because
God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen
into the power of the devil.’
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Jn1:29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
John saw Jesus coming
towards him, and said:
This is the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 1:7-11 ©
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In the course of his
preaching John the Baptist said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more
powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his
sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy
Spirit.’
It
was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in
the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the
heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice
came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’
IDENTIFICATION
AS THE BASIS FOR MISSION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: ISAIAH 42:1-4,6-7; ACTS 10:34-38; MARK 1:7-11
Today,
we celebrate the baptism of the Lord. This feast is a culmination of
Christmas and Epiphany. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ the
king who will bring peace on earth. Epiphany celebrates His mission to be
the light to the nations. Today we see the promises fulfilled when Christ
takes up this mission at His baptism.
As we
celebrate the baptism of Our Lord, we recall our own baptism. We are
never baptised only for ourselves or for our own salvation. We are
chosen and called for the mission of saving others. To be baptised is to
take the same mission of Christ upon ourselves. That is why we share in the
threefold office of Christ as priest, king and prophet.
Hence, we
need to reflect on our calling as Christians. Two important questions
must be asked. This is the question of the basis of mission and what this
mission entails. The question often asked by theologians is why was the
Lord baptised when He was sinless? The fact of baptism is accepted by all
scholars and stated by all the evangelists. It was not an apologetic fact
that could be used by the Church to boost her claims of Jesus’
divinity. But both underscore the fundamental need of identification
for mission.
The first level of
identification is with humanity. One reason suggested for His baptism was that He wanted to
be identified with us in our sins. Though He knew no sin, yet He carried
our sins upon Himself. He is the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant in
Isaiah in the first reading. In order to feel called to help others, we
must learn to feel with them. That is why Pope Francis says we must first
smell the sheep if we were to help them effectively. We must go to the
front line to attend to the wounded soldiers. Only by identifying with
them, can we feel for them and with them.
But it is not enough to
be identified with our fellowmen. Otherwise it becomes merely humanism and ideology.
It can lead to anger and resentment against humanity and God, especially when
we see so much injustice and innocent suffering in the world. This
is the case of those who work for social justice. Instead of making things more
just through dialogue, they resort to arms and violence to achieve their
agenda.
From identifying with
man, we are called to be identified with God. This is the other aspect of
Christ’s baptism. His baptism was His calling and consciousness of His
mission. It was His experience of His identity as the Son of the
Father. At His baptism, He heard the voice of His Father. “You are
my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” His baptism therefore was a
moment of consciousness when Jesus experienced an intense love of His Father,
resulting in mission.
The true meaning of
Sonship is to be identified with the Father’s love and mind. It is to share in His
Spirit. The Son is the expression of the Father. That is why Jesus
told Philip, “To see me is to see the Father.” This explains why
Jesus went about doing good. His incarnation, His self-emptying is
because of His Father’s love. Sharing in His Father’s love, He emptied
Himself of His divinity and sacrificed His life to manifest His Father’s love
for humanity.
What is the Spirit of
the Father? It
is the spirit of compassion and forgiveness. The work of Christ is
carried out in human lowliness. Jesus stripped Himself of His divinity to
be identified with us so that He could be a compassionate high priest. The way
of Jesus is one of vicarious suffering and innocent suffering. He did not
take things into His own hands like the revolutionaries of His time.
What is the mission of
Christ? He is called to bring peace to the nations. This is what the responsorial says,
“The Lord will bless his people with peace.” St Paul says, “Jesus Christ –
but Jesus Christ is Lord of all men.”
There can be no peace
unless there is justice. Like the suffering servant, He Is called to bring justice to the
nations. “Faithfully he brings true justice; he will neither waver, nor be
crushed until true justice is established on earth, for the islands are
awaiting his law.” The gospel that Jesus preached is based on
justice for all. This justice is always tempered with compassion as
well. Christ Jesus, like the suffering servant, suffered
unjustly but He did not use violence to restore justice. Instead, He used
love, compassion and forgiveness to win over His traitors, enemies and
detractors.
How to bring peace and
justice to the nations? Jesus was called to be the light of the nations which
we celebrated last Sunday on Epiphany. This means that we need to enlighten the people by
liberating them from their bondages. “I, the Lord, have called you to
serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand and formed you; I have
appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations, to open the
eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness
from the dungeon.”
In other words, we must
proclaim the truth which is Christ and the Word of God both in words and in
deeds. The world must be enlightened to the truth about love, meaning
and purpose in life. We must help humanity to understand their true
calling in life and their identity so that they can live their lives
purposefully, not just for this life on earth but for eternity. We must
proclaim the truth about God and the truth about man. More importantly,
not just by our words but by our lives. We must live an exemplary life of
truth and love if we were to enlighten the world. Unless we live radically
the gospel life, we are not going to impact others by our preaching.
Secondly, we are called
to the ministry of healing, especially of relationships. As
Christians we need to work for peace by acting justly in our relationships. Justice is the basic expression
of charity. Justice is to give what is due to others. Charity is to
give them what is not their right. Hence, justice requires that we treat
our workers well and they in turn must do an honest job. Justice demands
that we respect life. We do not marginalise people because of gender,
religion or races. Peter made this clear when he said, “The truth I have
now come to realise is that God does not have favourites.” Of course, we must
go beyond justice to charity in helping the poor and underprivileged.
How is this to be done?
We cannot enlighten the world nor have the capacity to help others without the
help of God. This
empowerment presupposes we too have an experience of sonship which is the
unconditional love of God and His mercy for us. Only then can we find the
same love and passion for humanity. This was the experience of St Peter when he
came to realise that God has no favourites. The desire to spread the Good News
to the Gentiles came about because of the vision that He had received earlier
that everything created by God is good; and most of all when the Gentiles
received the gift of the Holy Spirit as they did at Pentecost.
Consequently, if we want
enter into the sonship of Christ it must be through the same Spirit that
anointed Him at His baptism. Just as the Heavenly Father embraced Jesus and called Him His
beloved Son, so too at our baptism, we are made sons and daughters of God in
Christ. Just as Mother Mary on the feast of Epiphany held the child to be
adored by the Magi, the Father at the baptism of Jesus revealed His Son as the
saviour of the world to be worshipped by all the nations. St Luke
remarked, “God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and
because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had
fallen into the power of the devil.” We need to be empowered by the Holy
Spirit as Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said,
“I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”
Indeed, the baptism of
Jesus is but His desire to show us that this is the way to receive His Holy
Spirit. The
sacrament of baptism is the means by which we are reborn sacramentally.
At Christmas, Christ was born from the Virgin Mary, which is a mystery.
Today, He is born in our hearts through the sacraments, which is also a mystery
that we celebrate. It is for this reason that the feast of the Baptism of
the Lord follows immediately after the feast of Christmas, so that this common
theme of being reborn in Christ is made a reality. Christ came to be born
at Christmas for the sole intention that we be reborn in Him through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit
anew.
We need to be
re-evangelized through a renewal of the Holy Spirit who leads us to recognize
and experience Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This explains why Jesus was also baptized.
Through Christ, God gives us the Spirit once again. His baptism
reinforces the fact that Jesus who is anointed in the Holy Spirit will be the
one who will give us the Spirit of His Father. Through the Holy Spirit,
He was reaffirmed as a man His divine sonship. For this reason, Christ
receives the Spirit not merely for Himself, since the Spirit is His and has
already been given to Him. Rather, He receives it for our sake in His human
nature so that in turn we receive the same Holy Spirit will also be renewed in
our nature. Through the Holy Spirit, like Christ, we also receive all the
gifts that come from Him for the work of mission, and for the building of the Church.
Let us therefore
consider seriously how we ourselves renew and re-appropriate our faith that was
given to us at baptism.
We need to examine whether we are Catholics in name or in fact as well.
The danger is that many of us have become nominal Catholics complacent in our
faith. When we lack the desire to bring Christ to others and to announce
the Good News, clearly, our faith is in grave danger. If we do not want
to lose our faith, then we must proclaim it to others. But we need to
rediscover our faith by seeking for a deeper personal relationship with the
Lord and pray for a conversion experience so that Jesus is once again
experienced in the power of the Spirit as our Lord and Savior.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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