Sunday, January 14, 2018

Tuning into God

Pope Francis baptizing a child in the Sistine Chapel
The word of God takes us back to the 11th century before Jesus (the 1000s BC), to a young man named Samuel who is asleep close to the Ark of the Covenant at a shrine in Israel. Samuel hears a voice which he eventually recognizes as the voice of God. And he responds: Speak, Lord, for I am listening. And because he listened, Samuel went on to become one of the great prophets of Israel.

God also speaks to us in many different ways. But are we listening? Are we on the same wavelength? Prayer -- tuning into the presence of God -- puts us on the right frequency.

St. Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth speaks about our ultimate purpose: eternal life with God. Yes, Paul says, we are living temples of God; God dwells within us.  But do we reflect the presence of God in our everyday attitudes and behaviors? Do we see in our fellow human beings the image and like of God, no matter how unattractive their appearances.

In the Gospel, John the Baptist points out Jesus as the Lamb of God, an allusion to the Lamb in the Hebrew Passover meal and the sacrificial lamb in Jerusalem temple worship. Jesus, John proclaims, is our messiah. We might ask ourselves whether we, by virtue of who we are and what we do, point to Jesus as our way, our truth and our life.

Now what was John doing in the Jordan river? He was baptizing, inviting people to orient their lives to God and the things of God. Isn't this what Baptism does?

Baptism is a gift from God and a rite of initiation into a world-wide community of disciples, the Church universal.  But  why be baptized? Because at birth we lack God's life within us; we fell from grace, so says the Book of Genesis.

Ever since, human beings have cried out for God's friendship.  St. Augustine put it well: "God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

That's why God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.  God through the dying/rising of Jesus by the power of the Spirit re-established our relationship or friendship with God. Yes, God became one of us so that we might become like God.

That’s an incredible gift. Wouldn't we like God to say about each of us: “This is my beloved son/my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”

Yes, baptism initiates us into a community of Jesus disciples, a fellowship of grace.
In early Christianity, candidates were often immersed in water.  Water symbolizes life and death.  A hurricane can demonstrate how life-threatening water can be, and cool water on a 100-degree-plus day can easily show how life-giving it can be.

The early Christian candidate stepped down into a pool of water and then came up out of the pool, symbolizing a dying to a self-centered life in their immersion and a rising to a God-centered/other-centered life in their stepping up out of the pool. By the eleventh century, pouring water on the head became the common baptismal practice.

Today I invite us to renew our own baptismal promise, to re-consecrate ourselves to Jesus Christ, to participate more fully in the three-fold office of Jesus as prophet (trying to do the right thing), as priest (seeking reconciliation in all our relationships) as as king (working for a more just world). And then, to paraphrase the prayer in the musical Godspell, we will:  see God more clearly; love him more dearly; and follow God more nearly, day by day.