ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

09 gen 2022
09/01/2022 – The Baptism of the Lord - C

09/01/2022 – The Baptism of the Lord - C

Reading 1 IS 40,1-5.9-11 Psalm 103 Reading 2 TITUS 2,11-14; 3,4-7 Gospel LK 3,15-16.21-22

Isaiah announces the end of the slavery of the people and another piece of news which has to be loudly proclaimed from the highest places: God Himself is coming, coming with the prize, but He is coming like a shepherd who is taking care of the flock. It is the comforting word the Jewish people needed, and the comforting word which every people in all times needs. It is the word we need today.

How many people are bound, compelled by different masters to live differently from how they would like to! These masters are fashions, ideologies, the shallow topics carried forward by TV chat shows, the indifferent, curious, superficial eyes of the neighbors, colleagues… and, even worse, our own desires, fed by subtle selfishness. How much suffering and how much sadness brings us living under the rule of those masters, in this slavery!

Herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice”. Sadly, we are pressed to lower our voice, even to keep silent the good news that our Lord Jesus has entered our life, has freed us from the weight of our sins, has let us open the eyes and see a path of peace and communion with everyone. “Cry out at the top of your voice” Isaiah is telling us. This is what John the Baptist has done.

He truthfully says he is only someone who is preparing the arrival of the One who everyone’s heart is awaiting: Jesus is the one who can get inside us to leave the Holy Spirit so in us may spark a fire of joy and love.

Behold then Jesus. He is listening to John too and receives the baptism. We can see so much humility in this going in the water, where before Him men covered in sins had gone, full of pride, violence, sexual deviances, thefts and homicides, cursing and idolatry, magic and cheats. «What are you doing Jesus in that water? You are not defiled by our pride and our selfishness, you have never done what we have, you don’t need to be purified. What are you doing under John’s hand? Why are going in that water we have blackened?».

Jesus is quiet, on Him weighs a sea of evil, sufferings, bad intentions, suicides, meanness, injustice, ill advice, lies, adulteries and sensuality. He is not answering us: He begins carrying a very big cross, the combination of those we should carry individually.

The Father is answering us instead, from high in heaven, from His silence. He answers us sending over that man immersed in the water the dove, the Holy Spirit. Jesus has pleased the Father, because in this moment He takes on Himself the sin every man is committing and nobody is making amends for. Jesus is making such a great act of love that the Father Himself is moved. In fact, He makes an act which says: «Give me the penance earned by these sins which are muddling the waters of the river of the faith and love, I will make amends for them». So, this is why the Father, who wants everyone to be saved, recognises in Him the greatness and fullness of His own love, and therefore He declares: «You, definitely you, are truly my Son, you are like me in everything, your love is my love».

Saint Paul, writing to Titus, is helping us to apply in our life the mystery we are looking at today alive in Jesus' actions: He is “training us to reject godless ways and worldly, and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and savior Jesus Christ”. We learn to reject our worldly desires, because they are not getting us to joy and feeling accomplished. Instead, are more helpful behaviours of sobriety, obeying the Father’s will and keeping our attention focused on Him.

We will take some steps in humility alongside Jesus and like Him, we will win over our instincts to let the Holy Spirit, which is given us by Jesus, make our hearts like the Father’s, a heart merciful and free, holy and rich in every grace and goodness.