Friar’s Corner: The joy of finding Jesus, the Messiah
Isaiah 42:1-4-6–7; Psalm 29:or 104; Acts 10:34-38; Acts 10:34-38
I hope and pray you have taken some time this past week to think of what gift you would want to give Jesus. Last week we celebrated the visit of three Wise Men from the East who went to worship the newborn king of the world with their gifts for him of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I continue to offer the Trinity, our Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit, my love for all the love they continue to share with me.
St. John told us in his first letter in chapter four, verse 10, that God first loved us and still does love us. What we can do is love him back and love our fellow human beings also? We obviously have different levels of love for different people. We first are grateful and love our parents for giving us life. There then could be a ranking of our love for others, our spouse, children, brothers and sisters, friends, parishioners and various co-workers. In other words those closest to us.
Now friends of God, we make a drastic shift in our Sunday liturgies. We have finished reflecting about some of the many things that happened around the conception and birth of the world’s Messiah, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us only one thing about Jesus’ “private life,” his journey with his parents to the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover when he was twelve years old.
Jesus’ public mission
Then we skip eighteen years to the beginning of his public ministry when Jesus was thirty years old. Jesus’ public life begins with his baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John the Baptist.
Three gospels give us the same basic story. Jesus came one afternoon to be baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. As God and perfect, he did not need to repent of any past sins against God. He was God and still is God. He had taken on our human nature to save us and open the gates of heaven not just for the Jews but for the whole human race. The (new) Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us in paragraph 536:
“The baptism of Jesus is on his part the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God’s suffering Servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already the ‘Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ Already he is anticipating the ‘baptism’ of his bloody death. Already he is coming to ‘fulfill all the righteousness,’ that is, he is, he is submitting himself entirely to his Father’s will: out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The Father’s voice responds to the Son’s acceptance, proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The (Holy) Spirit whom Jesus possessed in fullness from his conception comes to ‘rest on him.’ Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all mankind. At his baptism’ the heavens were opened’ – the heavens that Adam’s sin had closed – and the waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation.”
This is a short theological presentation of what Jesus’ baptism was and is still about for our journey through this life to get to heaven. God had and has a plan for all people on this earth. We are all his children. He is the power and energy that holds all things together. Jesus opened up a new path to heaven for all of humanity by establishing his Church to be the primary source of his power.
Have a blessed week in this new year.
+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
