To belong and to proclaim

January 7, 2019

Monday after Epiphany
1 John 3:22 - 4:6; Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25

We have just celebrated the Epiphany of the Lord and this week the Word begins to orient us towards the Baptism of Jesus, which is the next major event we would be soon commemorating. Preparing to celebrate the Baptism of Jesus and thinking of our own baptism we have two key elements to reflect on. Those are the very elements that the Word today speaks to us: Belonging to God and  Proclaiming God! 


Belonging to the Lord and Proclaiming God are the two fundamental marks of identity that we possess as baptised, as Christians; to belong to God and be God's children and to proclaim God and invite everyone to a life worthy of God who has gifted that life to each of us.

The order is important too: that we first belong and then we speak up. That is why we see Jesus first withdraw into loneliness and ascertain his belonging to the One who had sent him before he began to go around proclaiming the Good News! When John the Baptist was killed, Jesus knew the time for his mission had arrived and he begins his proclamation, but before that makes a choice to remain in solitude with the Lord and become conscious of his belonging to the Father.

Belonging without proclaiming would make us dead weights burdening the faith community; we would be contributing nothing to further the very cause of the faith that we have received and that we share. Whereas Proclaiming without belonging would make us false prophets and hypocrites, those that John refers to in the first reading. 

Needless to say, the resonance between the personal life of belonging to the Lord and the life of commitment to ministry (ministry at various levels: family, parish, congregation, community of faith etc...) is the fundamental integrity that Jesus demands of us, his disciples.