{"id":2773,"date":"2019-01-13T12:57:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2773"},"modified":"2019-01-13T12:57:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:57:29","slug":"baptism-of-the-lord-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/baptism-of-the-lord-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptism of the Lord – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Baptism of the Lord<\/a>
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Psalm 104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30 (1)
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
January 13, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout our Christmas season, I\u2019ve\ntalked about the connections between the feasts and solemnities we celebrate\nduring this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our celebration of the Baptism of the\nLord today, our Christmas season will draw to a close.  Keeping with the connections throughout the\nseason, I will note that the first half of today\u2019s second reading is the same\nsecond reading that we began the Christmas season with when \u201cThe grace of God has appeared<\/em>.\u201d  Jesus was born on Christmas, God appearing\nvisible in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus was baptized as an adult so why\ncelebrate it as part of the Christmas season? \nChristmas is about the birth <\/em><\/strong>of Jesus, God Incarnate.  It is about birth in human terms.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are first born in human terms.  Then comes baptism.  What is baptism?  The baptism by John was a baptism with water\nfor the forgiveness of sins.  God cleanses\nthe person through the waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John the Baptist himself tells the people\nthat the baptism that Jesus inaugurates is more.  John tells the people that Jesus \u201cwill baptize you with the Holy Spirit and\nfire.<\/em>\u201d  Jesus\u2019 baptism brings us\n\u201cspiritual birth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we begin Christmas with the human\nbirth of Jesus and conclude it with \u201cspiritual birth\u201d and divine confirmation\nof who Jesus is with the Holy Spirit coming down on him and the Father\u2019s voice\nsaying Jesus is his son with whom he is well pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does your baptism mean to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, myself included, were baptized\nas infants.  So, we have no memory of\nit.  We can\u2019t attest to a difference\nbefore and after the baptism.  Does that\nmean nothing changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. \nWhile we don\u2019t remember our own baptism, most of us, if not all, have\nseen someone else baptism.  Is it not a\njoyous occasion?  I think we like to see\nbaptisms because we know in faith that it does make a difference.  The one baptized is \u201creborn\u201d as a child of\nGod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Paul writes, Baptism is a \u201cbath of rebirth<\/em>\u201d and \u201crenewal by the Holy Spirit.<\/em>\u201d  We do not receive grace \u201cbecause of any righteous deeds<\/em>\u201d we do \u201cbut because of his mercy.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus comes to \u201crenew the face of the earth.<\/em>\u201d \nHe comes to fulfill what Isaiah said, \u201cEvery valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made\nlow<\/em>.\u201d  Jesus comes to be a \u201cherald of glad tidings<\/em>\u201d and we are\ncalled to follow his example.  Thus, we\nare all called to \u201cgive comfort<\/em>\u201d to\nthe people while speaking tenderly the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we willing to proclaim the gospel or\ndo we fear how people might respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way of looking at it is to ask\nourselves, \u201cdo we embrace our faith to shape the world or does the world shape\nour faith?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m afraid the latter is true for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, what determines what is right and wrong for you?  Do you rely first<\/em><\/strong> on what God teaches us in our faith or do you follow what the world says and expect the church to go along with it?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What shapes the priorities in your life?  If you need to choose between coming to Mass\nand something else, what choice do you make? There are some people who need to\nwork on Sunday.  First on the list is\nhospital workers and emergency responders. \nThe work they do is important and necessary.  Of course, around here, two feet of snow on\nSunday morning or the flu might keep us from Mass.  Those are valid reasons.  That doesn\u2019t mean any reason is a good\nreason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realize it isn\u2019t easy to change.  It isn\u2019t easy to be the one to speak up for\nGod\u2019s truth or to try and get events changed so they don\u2019t occur when it is\ntime for Church.  Do you try?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember I didn\u2019t go to church for a\nnumber of years.  That doesn\u2019t make it\nokay.  In fact, with what I know now, it\ngives me the experience to say I should have been going.  When I felt like I wasn\u2019t getting much out of\nit, instead of not going, what I should have done is have gone more often and\nput effort into learning about the Mass and our faith so I could get more out\nof it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the entrance of every Catholic Church,\nyou will find holy water fonts.  As we\nenter, we dip our fingers in the holy water and bless ourselves with holy\nwater.  How many times have you done\nthat?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know why we do it?  It\u2019s one of our Catholic customs that we do\nover and over.  How many times do we do\nit and never think about it at all?  It\nis to remind us of our own baptism when we became a child of God.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our baptismal promises call us to reject\nSatan and all his empty promises.  Do you\nreject Satan and the lures of the flesh to believe in the Father, the Son, and\nthe Holy Spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus chose to die on the Cross.  Do you live out your Baptism, choosing God\nover worldly things?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Baptism of the LordIsaiah 40:1-5, 9-11Psalm 104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30 (1)Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7Luke 3:15-16, 21-22January 13, 2019 Throughout our Christmas season, I\u2019ve talked about the connections between the feasts and solemnities we celebrate during this season. With our celebration of the Baptism of the Lord today, our Christmas season will draw to a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Baptism of the Lord – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62,82,11],"tags":[155,156],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-IJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2776,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions\/2776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}