Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear All,

Mark's gospel is often referred to as the Kingdom gospel, because it flows from the initial Kingdom proclamation, found in today's reading of Jesus going to Galilee to begin his messianic ministry. We may have become so accustomed to hearing this that we may overlook how odd it was. Jerusalem was the religious and political center of Israel and anyone announcing a new future for Israel would have been expected to declare his intentions there. As Jesus' ministry develops, however, it becomes clear that Jerusalem was the one place in Israel that was least likely to accept his message. The powerful people in the capital city had far too much to protect. They could tolerate only a "controlled" reform.

Mark wastes no time in pointing out the implications of the public mission of Jesus in Galilee: "This is the time of fulfillment." All the hopes and dreams of Israel are about to be realized. The thousand plus years of waiting are over. This is so because "The kingdom of God is at hand." The hopes of Israel had been centered in the promised messianic kingdom through which God would deliver his people from bondage and bring everlasting peace. At long last the promise is being fulfilled; the Messiah has arrived.  But the kingdom that Jesus had in mind was both far less and far more that anyone in Israel had imagined.  It would not mean the end of the hated Roman occupation, yet it would reveal a Redeemer (Messiah) who is the Son of God.  To develop his mission, Jesus would choose, not clever politicians, but simple honest fishermen, announcing to Simon and his brother Andrew, that he would make them fishers of men. He knew that for his purposes a good and generous heart was more important than a proud and ambitious head.

This gospel invites to some fascinating reflection.  To be honest, we are painfully aware that, though 2000 years have passed, we have not yet seen the fulfillment of God's literal promises. Some have stopped searching for the meaning and given up their faith in God.  The rest of us may consider the solution to this dilemma to be the recognition that the fulfillment envisioned by Jesus is constantly being offered to each of us.  It is a "rolling" fulfillment that each person must discover in his or her own lifetime.  Jesus has come, but he is also still coming, and each one of us must ask whether he is being welcomed.  Fulfillment is offered; it is never imposed.  To live in the expectation of fulfillment is to live in the bittersweet world of promise.  What we hope for is still awaited, and that may be painful.  But we also live in joyful expectation of what will be, and that is comforting beyond words.  We may be struggling in a dark valley, but the horizon is illuminated by God's trustworthy promise.

Interesting to note that Jesus called his first disciples from their workplaces, reminding us that there is a purpose in life beyond work.  This larger purpose is found in our response to God's call to walk with him.  This means taking time for prayer and gradually getting to know the Lord as the very center of our lives. Coming to understand that it is in Him that the value of our work and the precious gift of other people will be found… again and again…unto eternity.

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/012509.shtml

In the news, the Church meets Web 2.0:  The Vatican launched this week its channel at : http://www.youtube.com/vatican  

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear All,

The Readings of this Second Sunday in Ordinary Time are about the calling.  The First Reading from the Old Testament is about Samuel’s.  He was born of Hannah, a barren woman who is blessed by Eli after her vow that if she has a son she will dedicate it to God.  The young boy is living with the half-blind priest serving his temple apprenticeship at the scene of today’s Reading.  It is a beautifully choreographed three part dialogue.  God calls, Samuel hears the voice thinking it comes from Eli and Eli after several repetitions of sending the kid back to sleep, finally realizes Who was calling.  This was at a time of crisis in the political life of Israel around 1,100 BCE.  The priestly family serving the temple of Shiloh had become spiritually exhausted, politics and society were corrupted.  When I think about this short scene of Samuel’s calling I reflect back on the times in my life where I was called and now in hindsight realize that I thought it was an ‘Eli’ speaking not grasping that it was God calling me in a certain direction.  I also wonder about the few occasions I played the role of Eli in the life of someone by helping to discern the content of a message. You may want to think about your roles as ‘Eli’ as well as ‘Samuel’ when hearing a calling.

The Gospel of John tells us about Jesus first recruits.  Jesus does not yet have a following, he is just an ordinary Middle Eastern man.  There is no miraculous healing, no dramatic instruction that mesmerizes the crowds.  He is simply (‘ordinarily’) passing by the people who are standing around.  His biblical ‘advertising agent’, John the Baptist, who foretold us about His coming since the Second Sunday of Advent (see the December 7, 2008 article) through last Sunday’s Baptism of the Lord feast, points him out to two of his followers.  After they spend the day with Jesus they realized how extraordinary he was.  Andrew, one of them, went and recruited his brother Simon.  Jesus on the spot renames Simon to Peter (Cephas in Aramaic), indicating that He knew that He would commission Peter to become the rock upon which to build the Church.

Paul had been thrown out of Corinth, though not convicted, because of preaching against the licentiousness and depravity at the thriving gulf city, a center of commerce with Greek, Roman and Egyptian religious diversity.  The Acro-Corinth on top of the mountain had the temple of Aphrodite earning the reputation of something of an ancient “Sin City”.  Paul writes to his followers in today’s Second Reading to remind them of the sanctity of the body that is not for immorality.  Another call that applies properly to our times, where the Aphrodite temples have been replaced by pornography polluting the internet.

All three incidents were quite ordinary on first appearance.  Through the eyes of faith we recognize how extraordinary these three callings were.  Be it Samuel accepting the message, or the Corinthian Christians that recognized their bodily dignity and focused on morality in their lives, or the disciples who hadn’t even noticed Jesus; they were called to deeper insights through the agency of another (i.e. Eli, Paul and John the Baptist).

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011809.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Baptism of Our Lord

Dear All,

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord represents both the end of the Christmas Season as well as the First Sunday in Ordinary time.  While in our time barely two weeks have elapsed since Christmas, the timeline of our Gospel stories has fast forwarded by over 30 years, presenting us Jesus as adult at the beginning of his public life.   We hear the same story told from three different time perspectives. 

First in the post-exilic Isaiah, from which we have been reading throughout Advent and Christmas, the prophet provides comfort to a broken people, after the Israelite’s return from Babylonian Captivity in one of the so called Songs of the Suffering Servant … Isaiah prophesied a Messiah who would not be a military commander but one who would suffer and die for the people.

Then Mark in the Gospel describes the Baptism by John of Jesus in the Jordan.   When John the Baptist says that he is not worthy to loosen the thongs of the sandals of the one coming after him, it is to be understood in context of the customs of desert Palestine two thousand years ago.  The slave, the lowest member of the household, loosened the thongs of the sandals of the visitors before they entered all smelly from walking in the desert.  John means that he is even less worthy than the lowest member when it comes to the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Lastly in our Second Reading from Acts of the Apostles, Peter tells about Jesus’ public ministry and how He went about healing all those oppressed by the devil beginning after the baptism that John preached.  It is one more of the many places in the New Testament where Gentiles become part of the chosen people, when Peter states to those gathered in the house of Cornelius, who is not a Jew, that every nation is acceptable to God.

From today’s message three things can be seen:

1. The Lord humbling himself before John the Baptist is the traditional emphasis of uniting the feast to Christmas.  The Son of God humbled Himself to such a degree that He was born in a manger.  He humbled Himself accepting the baptism of John even though He was sinless.  Christ refused to consider Himself better than anyone.

2.  The Lord empowered by the Spirit to begin the mission of the Father signals in Mark the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  This aspect of the baptism is emphasized by the Eastern Church, of both rites, orthodox and catholic.

3.  Isn’t it all about Change? … a very current term/concept these days in the US, particularly.  We are no different than the people of Jesus' time.  Those who stood before John the Baptist were sick of a world full of cruelty, persecution, and war.  They wanted a change and they wanted to do something about this immediately.  And we know what they did:  They repented their own sins.  They recognized that the world is not going to change unless they change.  Jesus saw this and joined them.  The Man of Peace accepted the baptism of John because He also wanted the world changed. Then Jesus began His public life saying that the Kingdom of God, the New Order, is upon us.

A complete text of the readings at: http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/01/baptism-of-lord.html

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Feast of the Epiphany

Dear All,

The Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated within the twelve days of Christmas but separately in the Western Church, while the Eastern Rite celebrates both events together, the birth of Jesus and the homage by the foreign kings.  Epiphany in Greek means the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something.  While many homilists translate Epiphany with “manifestation”, I do believe that the vernacular gist of “comprehension of the essence of something” applies very well to Matthew’s Gospel story of today.  It is an ‘Aha’ moment in history, Three Wise Men from afar realized that something very special had just happened.  And that is why they joined the shepherds at the manger and presented high value gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the holy family.  Interesting to note that the first spoken words in the Gospel of Matthew are from the Magi, when they ask King Herod “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”  As we know, Matthew writes for the Jews, and for him to utter the first spoken words by foreign dignitaries sets an additional accent to the importance of what is about to be told.  The newborn king of the Jews is recognized from afar and will rule over far more than the Jewish nation.  Would the author have guessed way back then that two thousand years later there would be 2.1 billion people around the globe recognizing themselves as Christians?  In the Hispanic world the Three Kings bring the presents to the children, as opposed to Santa Claus.  We were in Mallorca a couple of years ago and stood by the Three King Parade in the city of Palma, a huge popular event with thousands of families on the streets along the route of the parade.   While the scriptures do not tell us more than the Gospel passage we read today, a very rich legend developed during the early Church days about the Three Wise Men.  One legend tells about all three dying on the same day somewhere in Persia and a long journey about their remains over the centuries.  Today we can find their relics in the Cathedral of Cologne in, which were given to the sitting archbishop in 1165 by Emperor Barbarossa, who had taken them from Milan as spoils of war after he conquered the city. The archbishop had a shrine built for them.  While we lived in Germany we visited the beautiful golden shrine and the museum under the cathedral.

The First Reading from Isaiah, of the same period we have been reading during Advent, after the Babylonian Captivity, talks about light that has come.  The distinction between darkness covering the earth and the glory of the Lord shining upon Israel and the predictions of wealth of nations be brought to them, encourages the people back then to rebuild the temple and the city from the ruins.  Rebuilding our temples and our lives in hope of eternal riches is an encouragement to us, particularly in moments when we are overwhelmed by darkness in our hearts.

Paul tells the Ephesians in his letter of our Second Reading that the Gentiles are coheirs and members of the same body.  We can read the passage as written personally to us in this time.  The newborn king of the Jews, that Herod despised, is king for all of our hearts, independently of our ethnic heritage.

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/010409.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer