ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

07 gen 2018
07/01/2018 – The Baptism of the Lord B 

07/01/2018 – The Baptism of the Lord B 

Reading 1, Isaiah 55,1-11 * Psalm 12 * Reading 2, First John 5,1-9 * Gospel, Mark 1,7-11

 

We are still in the Christmas feeling, that is to say a feeling of the manifestation of God through Jesus, his Son. John the Baptiste and a voice coming from Above introduce Him to us today. The Baptiste introduces Him as "more powerful": we will bring ourselves under His protection then, in order to take advantage of his «power»! John even declares himself unworthy of bending down in front of Him in order to undo the strings of His sandals: he is not worthy of being His slave! But with this expression, John declares himself also unworthy, and therefore not desiring to take His place as «bridegroom» of the people of God.

Often the prophets have given to the people of Israel the title of «bride» of God, the «bridegroom», in order to indicate the great love with which this people is followed and accompanied! According to a Jewish tradition, if a woman finds herself a widow without children, the nearest next of kin of the deceased husband has to take her as his wife. If the latter refuses to do so, the one taking his place will have to bend down publicly to undo the strings of the sandal of whoever is refusing to fulfill his duty. John declares himself not worthy of this right, because Jesus cannot be replaced as the «Bridegroom». Nobody can give to the people God's exclusive and faithful love, but Jesus! This is a way to declare the Lord's divinity!

Again John introduces Jesus as the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit! He will bring great novelty in the life of the man that will surrender to Him: he will immerse him not in water, but in God's Spirit! With Him, then, a new age begins, a new opportunity for men. But, first of all, Jesus Himself goes to John in order to be baptized. He is queuing with the others, he introduces himself like one of the many sinners approaching, bending His head under the Precursor's hand, as if loaded with sins. And, as a matter of fact, He is loaded with sins: all ours are weighing on Him. He, showing solidarity with the sinners, took their sins on Himself in order to give Himself over to the Father and repay with His own blood the "acts of rebellion of all of us", as the prophet says.

The Father likes Jesus' full and perfect love. A greater love than this for men cannot exist. The love Jesus shows for us, sinners, is a divine love, charity that is able to love the ungrateful man in the very moment he is showing his ungratefulness! The Father likes it, consecrates it, and recognizes Jesus as His Son! All of these happen while the heavens are opening: they are opening because at this point the divine love is on Earth, it entered the History of men! There is no more gap between the God's house and the men's dwelling. From men is not taken any more the possibility to see and to meet God!

From the open skies the dove comes down: it is the Spirit of God that is reaching for its "nest" on earth: Jesus is the place where we will find the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit! Jesus' person is where are hidden and are revealed at the same time the grace, the peace, the love, the beauty of God! On Him the dove! And for Him a "voice" repeats what is written in the Psalms, in Moses and in the Prophets. "You are my Son": this is the second psalm, written for Jesus! He is really the Son of God: He shows all His love! “Beloved” is the word that brings to our mind Abraham’s love for Isaac, and at the same time reminds the sacrifice with which that father was offering his son. “My favor rests on you” this is the expression that the prophet Isaiah uses in order to describe to us God’s love for His Servant, for whom embodies His love for men, bringing onto himself their wickedness!

The voice coming from above defines in this way who that Jesus coming out of the water is, and what His mission in the world will be. To know Him and believe in Him are the most important things, the victory over the world, enemy of men. This is repeating for us the Apostle John in his first letter. He is saying that Jesus is even the subject of a triple testimony: “the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide”.  The Spirit of God descended upon Him in order to make Him known to us, the water of the Baptism makes us members of His Body, the blood, that is to say our very life, feels full and perfect when it takes part into His offering, into His Sacrifice of love that brought Him high on the cross.

With these brilliant images the prophet Isaiah, lastly, helps us to ardently desire to be near to the Lord, united to Him, even if the distance of a man from God is in itself off-scale, like that of the sky from the earth! But His Word can fill any gaps and make our desire come true, a desire that is exactly the same as God’s: after having been sown in the earth he can go back to heaven carrying plenty of fruits, the fruits of the fulfillment of the love!