WATER, FIRE AND THE SPIRIT

An act of Resubmission to the Lord

January 12, 2025: Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord

Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Titus 2: 11-14, 3:4-7; Luke 3: 15-16,21-22

We have come to the close of the Christmas Season - it ends with the solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. What does this feast communicate to us? What is the message that the celebration of Baptism offers us: a reminder towards a resubmission to the Lord.

Resubmission indicates that it has been a process, not something that is happening just once or right now. The Lord calls us and we respond to the Lord - that is the crux of our Christian life and we accept this mandate when we say, or the community says for us, 'yes' to the Lord - at our baptism.

The Baptism of Jesus was a resubmission too. The Lord had predestined and initiated God's salvific plan in Christ, but Jesus as a human person had to cooperate to that salvific plan of God... in order that in his obedience of faith, he shall be raised to be the Son of God (Rom 1:4-5); so are we, in our yes, we are raised to be sons and daughters of God.

We see in the event of baptism today, that this reclaim on the part of God over Jesus and the resubmission of Christ as the son of God. Jesus submits himself to be baptised by John, as the Gospel of John specifically outlines, where we see the resubmission of Christ, which was reflected then in the entire life of Jesus. On the part of the Almighty, there is a declaration to which John testifies: 'this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased'. In this whole event, we see three elements that mark the call to constant resubmission to the authority of God.

The first is the element of Water - waters that purify, revitalise and revive. John was baptising with water...people came to him to revive their goodwill to live righteous, to revitalise their desire to be acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, and to purify their acts and motives! Jesus arrives to purify that water that purifies, ratifying the need to long for purification, revitalisation and revival within us. The celebration today reminds us of this purpose of the baptismal promises, which demand our constant and continual purification, revitalisation and revival, in spite of our repeated failures and limitations.

The second is the element of Fire - fire that warms, burns and lights up. We are presented with the warmth of the Lord that wishes to console God's people, the burning zeal of the prophet who wishes to set things in order in the lives of the individuals and in the community of the people of God, and the light that shines from above giving us knowledge and wisdom. The Word, therefore, calls our attention to the journey we began at our baptism! We might have lagged behind, deviated, and in some way lost our way...but the warmth of the Lord invites us, the burning light that was presented to us convicts us and brings us to an enlightened return to the journey embarked upon.

The third is the element of the Spirit - the Spirit of power, the Spirit of renewal and the Spirit of adoption! The Spirit who came upon Jesus was the Spirit of power that God had filled Jesus with, that is why he proclaimed: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and God has sent me! The Spirit that was there with the people was the Spirit who constantly called them to renewal and effected that renewal in them, that is why the psalmist proclaimed: send forth your Spirit and the face of the earth shall be renewed. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit that makes us sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ, who share the same privilege and love that Christ has with God, our Father and Mother. One fact that we can never forget if we are disciples of Christ is, that we are children of God. It is not a flowery, euphemistic, metaphoric saying... but it is a fact, an experiential fact, or rather a fact to be experienced!

May the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, especially in this Year of Ordinary Jubilee 2025, at the beginning of this pilgrimage of hope, offer us a sense of hope, inspire us and lead us to focus on our baptism, our baptismal promises and the daily resubmission that we are called to make, as loving children, to God our loving Father and Mother.

 

God reveals: we are God's delight!

WORD 2day: Saturday after Epiphany

January 11, 2025 - 1 John 5: 14-21; John 3: 20-33

We are already at the threshold of the feast of Baptism... we have been preparing towards it, rather the Word has been preparing us towards this feast and today comes the peak of the revelations that God has made to us - that God delights in us. This message, we will soon be hearing in the occasion of the feast. 

This has three implications, as in the plain sight from the Word today. The first implication is that we belong to God. Our baptism, as the celebration of the feast of baptism of the Lord will son remind us, is fundamentally an essential transformation of our selves, as children who belong to God. That grants us numerous and bonteous favours - including the fact that whatever we ask, we shall receive in the merciful will of God. 

The second implication is that when we belong to God, the Lord delights in us and the delight of the Lord although it is not merited, can be lost if we decide to turn our backs to the Lord. That is our choice, and it is part of the implications of rejoicing in the fact that God delights in us. 

The third implication is that we are called to do all that we can to make God present wherever we are, if we are truly children of this God who delights in us. Not only that God delights in usm but the presence of God brings us joy, and that completes the joy that we can ever imagine in our own limited ways. 

Being children of God is a privilege given to us, and that God delights in us is the greatest source of joy that we can have. Let us prepare ourselves to celebrate this great feast of the year!  

God reveals: in water, in Spirit and in blood!

WORD 2day: Friday after Epiphany

January 10, 2025 - 1 John 5:5-13; Luke 5:12-16

We are getting very close to the feast of the baptism of the Lord, in fact it is towards that event  the Word this whole week is preparing us - from the epiphany to the baptism. This preparation involves a series of reflections offered to us by the Word everyday, on a particular aspect of revelation that God has given us, especially in Christ. The Word today speaks of three of those aspects: the water, the Spirit, and the blood.

The water, which enlivens and purifies, represents the new life that faith gives us in baptism. The Spirit, who sanctifies and consecrates, reminds us of having been chosen and set apart with the identity of the sons and daughters, the people of God. These two elements, the message they symbolise and the call that we have in them, we have spoken of in the past days. The element that stands out today is the third - Blood. 

Jesus himself would refer to this, when he indicates to the apostles the baptism that they would all have to receive - the baptism of the blood, the martyrdom. This refers to the testimony, the witness that our lives have to become. The testimony that we are called to give this world is that we have the Son, and therefore, we have life. Our lives have to stand out in front of the world, to manifest, to reveal to all persons, the life that God gives. 

The persons with leprosy, that Jesus cures, were called to go and show themselves to the priests and announce to the whole world the new life they have received. They were clearly instructed, not to bother about announcing the praises and glory of Christ - that would happen by itself. They were asked to announce to the world, their new life - in fact, that would have been the best proclamation of the glory and graciousness of God. 

Our baptism too invites us not to merely sing of the glories of the Lord, but announce to the world through our lives, the newness that the Lord brings, in water, in Spirit and in the blood!

God reveals: love as annointing in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Thursday after Epiphany

January 9, 2025 - 1 John 4:19 - 5:4; Luke 4: 14-22

The Word gives us a series of reasons to love: because God loves us; because anyone who says he or she loves God has to; because whoever believes in Jesus has to; because every one who is begotten by God has to; and finally Jesus summarises it, because we have been annointed with the Spirit. The sign, that we are people begotten by the Father, that we are people who accept and proclaim Jesus as the Lord, that we are people filled with the Spirit, is that we love one another. Isn't this what Jesus told us elsewhere: by this they will know that you are my disciples, by the the love that you have for one another (cf. 13: 35). 

Jesus reveals himself as a person filled with the Spirit, and the people notice it. The people marvelled at it. They were astonished by it. But for Jesus it was no matter of marvel or astonishment, it was his identity. He declared it with such simplicity and went about doing or living what he declared. He went about doing good, proclaiming liberty to the captives, new sight to the blind, freedom to the downtrodden, the year of Lord's favour to all! These became his mission because of his identity as the person filled with the Spirit - the identity of one who loved every one. 

There are two invitations presented to us in the Word today: to realise that we are people annointed with the Spirit, and to convince ourselves that love is an annointing in the Spirit. 

God reveals: to love is Christ

WORD 2day: Wednesday after Epiphany

January 8, 2025 - 1 John 4:11-18; Mark 6: 45-52

Let us take a close look at these two statements: "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God"; and the other statement, "God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him." There is a syllogistic corollary that John is creating in these lines, in his letter - to say, to believe in Christ is to live in God; to live in God is to live in love; and therefore to live in Christ is to live in love! Without living in love one cannot live in Christ. 

Christ shows to his followers another sign today, walking on the water! Every one marvelled at him for this, but do we ever see him lecturing to the disciples on how to walk on water or multiply bread or chase an evil spirit out? Never. For him these were not important feats, but loving the other was! He insisted without getting tired about how to love and how much to love; in fact, he did not stop with talking to them about loving, but he taught them to love with his own example of laying down his life for love! 

He was certain and absolutely clear - to love is to live in God, and that is why he was all the time in God and never feared having to die - for he lived in God and lived love. When we live in Christ, we shall live in love and we shall live in God, because to love is Christ. 

God reveals: God is love!

WORD 2day: Tuesday after Epiphany

January 7, 2025 - 1 John 4: 7-10; Mark 6: 34-44

We have begun from yesterday, a journey from the epiphany of the Lord to the event of the baptism of the Lord. If yesterday we were given to reflect on the Spirit as the dimension of God's revelation, today we have another essential dimension of God's nature... a dimension that the Spirit stands for: Love. Love, the communion that is found within the Trinity, is expressed in God's relationship with us! And Jesus in the Gospel, expresses that love in concrete terms, through a miracle, a miracle inspired by his compassion for the people whom he found as sheep without a shepherd. 

Jesus' miracles, as exegetes and theologians insist, are not mere means of revealing the glory and splendour that is hidden within Christ, but to express a concrete sense of compassion and love for the people who stood around, and in that, to us! Jesus himself is the love of God expressed in its fullness and Jesus come across as the love of God made flesh and sent to dwell amidst us. 

Journey from the revelation at the epiphany to the manifestation at the baptism of the Lord, we are called today to see God as love, perceive God as compassion, experience God as mercy and remain always recognizant of the place that God has reserved for each of us, within God's great and wonderful design. May we grow more and more observant of the various ways in which God expresses God's infinite love to us.

GOD MADE KNOWN

The Star, the House and the Detour

January 5, 2025: Solemnity of Epiphany of the Lord
Isaiah 60: 1-6; Ephesians 3 : 2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2 : 1-12

The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us; today the world gets to see its Messiah. The Son who was promised to the Hebrews through the prophets through the ages, then revealed to Mary and Joseph in their private life and dreams, is now revealed to the world - that is why the Magi from the East, as East was then considered the end of the world.

The feast of Epiphany has three important symbols carrying three crucial messages for us disciples of Christ.

The first symbol is the Star: 

The guiding star which led the magi to the Lord. Stars shine, position themselves to be seen by all and remain above every thing unaffected! We all wish to be stars too... shining and glittering in the world of fame. The star of Christ or a star for Christ is called to shine too, not for personal glory but for people to be attracted. The star of Christ is called to be seen by all, not for adulation but for example! The star of Christ has to be above everything, not to insist on a superiority that is anti-Christian but to give hope to people at all moments including difficult ones. Everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ has to be a star that guides people to Christ. Are my thoughts, words and decisions shining enough to lead people to Christ?

The second symbol is the House: 

The star might have been magnificent but it rested on a simple manger. The signs and events might have been grand but the Messiah was found in a stable. What we are and what we have does not matter as much as who we are! Whether simple or sophisticated, whether learned or ordinary, whether rich or poor... we are called to possess the Lord, we are called to be one home that houses the Lord. People who come to us should be able to see, feel and experience the Lord and praise the Lord through us and for us. That is true Epiphany.

The third symbolic event is the Detour: 

The magi who came were asked to leave on a different way back. They had to make a detour... because they had truly seen the Messiah. Even we, if we truly see the Messiah, we would not be able to go back the same way that we came. We would have to make a detour for sure. That detour could be our sign of repentance, our change of ways, our going out of our way for the sake of someone else... in short, it is our New life, because we have come to know the Lord. How many we have heard, who speak of their moment when they met the Lord! It does not matter how many years or generations I am a 'Christian', but what matters is that I encounter the person of Christ - the moment of truth when I realise the meaning and call of my life! Once I do that, I cannot but take a detour!

God is made known... it is upto us to become God's guiding stars, true dwelling places of God and people who are ready to arise and shine!

God reveals: the Christ within us

WORD 2day: Saturday after the Christmas Octave

January 4, 2025 -  1 John 3: 7-10; John 1: 35-42

What the Word wishes to communicate today, proceeds from where it left yesterday, in fact, in continuity with the themes of revelation we have been discussing in the past two days. First we said, the revelation is about Jesus as Christ, and yesterday we reflected on how this Christ is the spotless Lamb of God. Today the Word tells us, we are like Christ too - children of God, as Christ was the Son of God. 

When Christ, in Jesus became just like us, he revealed to us that in the core of our beings we are just like him! We are begotten children of God. Let no one deceive us to believe anything on the contrary, warns St. John today in the first reading. Yesterday, when the Word said, Christ is spotless and we are called to be so: that is sinless, we might have had an instant question, "is it possible at all?" And Christ wishes to respond to us today - Yes, it is possible.

How is it possible? Because we are Christs too - the Gospel says, Christ means anointed and each of us has been anointed, right when God chose us to be children of God by the anointment of the Chrism, at our baptism. Jesus the Christ tells us today, that it is not only true that he became one among us, but it is equally true that he has made us ones like him, sons and daughters of God, begotten of God! The challenge is that we recognise it, get convinced of it and begin to live it in our daily life, because all the ends have seen the salvation of the Lord and we are the chosen instruments to experience and announce that salvation.

When John pointed out to the Lamb, there were persons who were ready to take a readical decision to follow Christ, to go where Christ is, to stay with Christ and become like him! That is our call too - to become like Christ, that is to distinguish ourselves as children of God, living a holy life and loving our brothers and sisters. We are saved by Jesus the Christ, but we shall experience that salvation only as long as we make a choice to, go out there and live like him!

God reveals: Christ, the Spotless Lamb

WORD 2day: Friday after the Christmas Octave

January 3, 2025 - 1 John 2:29 - 3:6; John 1: 29-34

Jesus is revealed today as the Spotless Lamb that takes away our sins. In this, God is revealed as the Righteous One and Sinless One. Anyone who lives in God does not sin, and anyone who sins has never seen or known God - says John in the first reading today. This is a direct and categorical declaration on God and those who belong to God. Hence when John declares Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, we are given with not only a revelation of who Jesus is, but that of who God wants us to be - people who are chosen to belong to God, to be God's children.

To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God - yes, that is a special ability, a particular preparation, a deliberate choice - to become children of God. That is the role that the Lamb took upon itself to accomplish: to make us children of God. Two indispensable ways to move towards that goal: renounce sin and acknowledge God. That reminds us of the baptismal promise that we reconfirmed at our Confirmation ceremony: do you renounce satan and all his works and empty promises? And we said, I do. 

Renouncing sin is renouncing the evil one - for sin comes from the evil one, those who are in God shall not go by sin. While converting oneself from sin and changing one's life, are essential elements of becoming God's own children, we cannot forget that these begin with the simple Step zero, of renouncing sin - calling it by name and judging it in face. This is the biggest of the crises of our times: the loss of sense of sin - the lost of the capacity to identify sin and call it as sin.

Acknowledging God becomes phony, if it is not preceded by a denouncement of the Satan and all the ways of the Satan... the dangerous trend that we see in the world today is allowing the two to co-exist. That is an absolute debilitation of truth, of faith and of anything that is transcendent. Jesus' person, his birth and his life choices, his death and the purpose attached to it, is a deliberate acknowledgement of God and a reminder of what such a life would be.

May the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, help us to take on with courage and hope the world of sin!

God Reveals: Jesus is Christ

WORD 2day: Thursday after Christmas Octave

January 2, 2025 - 1 John 2:22-28; John 1:19-28

We have just ended the Christmas Octave. Let us centre today's reflection on a question: what was the purpose of Incarnation, the mystery that we celebrated for over a week! The focal purpose of the incarnation was, or is, revelation! The self revelation of God to us human persons that we could understand who God is, what God's relationship with us is and how much we matter to God. In the following three days the Word shall be preparing us towards the great commemoration of the epiphany, the manifestation, the revelation in the Son of God, that we will be celebrating shortly. 

Today the revelation that is underscored for our comprehension is that Jesus is Christ. And we know that it is the grace of the Spirit that anyone can declare, "Jesus is Lord" (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3). There could three modes of negating this fact of revelation. The first is a naivete  in our understanding. This can happen to even the good willed, because good will alone would not suffice for right knowledge. There are thousands in fact who hold Jesus to be a great, kind, wise and gifted person, a great hero in history - but that would amount to mere incomplete understanding, although in itself it isn't wrong. 

The second is a rejection, where although one knows who Christ is, prefers to give that identity to some one else, or something else. At times this could be because one has not had the possibility of knowing to the full or one is stubborn not to see what is being revealed. Whatever be the reason, there is a lack here which could make the person(s) distant from the Truth, the ultimate, liberating Truth.

The third is a more dangerous and preposterous attitude of imagining onself as the Christ, that is Messiah or the Saviour. Whoever it be, whether as persons or as communities or as even churches, if we consider ourselves as those who are the saviours of the world, we are replacing the Lord, with ourselves. This psuedo consciousness is the greatest danger that is affecting humanity today, against which we are warned. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to encounter Jesus and acknowledge him as the Christ.