lectionary # 21, # 305, #306, # 307:

Dear Readers, Here are the four reflections for the coming days up to and
including the 13th of January. Please, scroll down for them. I will have
an earlier surgery on January 13th at 8 A.M. These next two days are my
preparation days for this with taking care of the necessary details about
medicines, clothers, etc. I thank all of you for your prayers and words of
encouragement. Like Samuel I am hearing the call! Love and prayers,
Father Bert.

Scripture: Feast of the Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus. Lectionary #21.
Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7. Psalm 29:1-2.3-4.3.9-10. Acts 10:34-38. Luke
3:15-16.21-22.

All four Gospels attest to the baptism of Jesus; each from a
different spiritual and theological perspective. The very fact that one who
was sinless as the Son of God is astounding that this would happen to him,
that is, to be baptized in a water ritual unto the forgiveness of sin by
John the Baptizer. Matthew struggled with this after Mark's simple
announcement. He had Jesus in dialogue with the Baptist why this was
permissible for now. This was difficult for the first preachers to fathom,
then the evangelists and finally the people at large. It, however, is one
of the criteria for telling us about the historical truth of the Gospels.
Seen not from an archival point of view, but from the inspired message of
God through the apostles and then the evangelists. Normally something like
this would have been left aside who were writing about their hero or their
founder.

We learn from these progressive differences in the Gospels to
appreciate the mystery of Jesus and to develop our faith commitment to him.
The Baptism of Jesus gives us the opportunity to renew our baptism and to
follow Jesus more earnestly. The fact that Jesus was baptized by John
shows us how fully he entered into the human race; as St. Paul says, in
all things except sin!

Scholars call the fact that all four Gospels mentions this we have
the assurance of "multiple attestation" that it is a real historical event.
In our belief in the Gospels this only confirms our broader belief in what
they are telling us about Jesus. However this does help us to see faith
pushing toward reason. "Fides quaerens intellectum." True, we are helped
when scholars find what we believe to be true also a fact for them. But the
Gospels were written by divinely inspired authors who wrote from a spirit
of faith to those who also had the same spirit as listeners. We are the
living examples of this today.

In this C Cycle of the Liturgical Sundays, we have Luke as our
Evangelist. He sets the baptism of Jesus within a community of people who
are anxiously awaiting for the breaking in of the kingdom of God with the
advent of the Messiah. Their anticipation and hope is fulfilled as they
experience a divine intervention of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus
in the form of a dove and a voice is heard saying, "This is my beloved Son,
on whom my favor rests." We too join Jesus in his prayer on this day as
Luke is telling us and we too have been baptized with the effects of God's
love within us. The Trinity is involved in this mystery. How graced and
favored we really are. Amen.

Scripture for Monday of Ordinary Time, year 2. Lectionary # 305. I
Sam.1:1-8. Psalm 116:12-13.14-17.18-19. Mark 1:14-20.
Firsts, beginnings, initiations, and birthdays are important in our
lives. We can learn how to make them even more important by living them
out in the perspective we gain from what we know from Jesus through the
liturgical readings and from our faith development through study and
pondering over the word of God. On this first day of ordinary time, we
learn that Jesus immediately (one of Mark's favorite words) begins his
active ministry realizing that the role of John the Baptist is completed.
John is now in prison and soon will be a martyr. The long awaited and
recently anticipated arrival of the one who is to come, now is on the scene
and starts his ministry with vigor and determination. The short active
life of Jesus begins with what we hear today in Mark. Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Mary, begins doing the will of God by proclaiming that the
kingdom of God is here and that we all, who want to be a part of it, must
reform, renew, and invigorate our lives with a profound change in our way
of judging and thinking. Mark captures this by telling us throughout his
Gospel that we are to think the thoughts of God and not our own or others
human thoughts. Priority is part of conversion.

Through our baptism and our own following of Jesus we are enlightened by
the Presence of Jesus in Word and Sacrament. Like his first four disciples
in this Gospel--Peter, Andrew, James and John, we are called to begin anew
our dedication to Jesus in this ordinary flow of liturgical time. We enter
into the mystery of Jesus primarily through the liturgy and the sacraments.
We are fortunate this year to start with the earlies memories of Jesus from
the fresh green hills of Galilee as Mark narrates his active ministry. We
are startled that this time came upon us so fast after the nostaligic and
even sentimental memories that Christmas and Epiphany bring into our
lives. Now something deeper and special is happening in our love
relationship with Jesus.

Yes, we have heard this early proclamation of Mark many times and it will
be used often in Lent, but today it is new and exciting. Our prayer life
is enhanced and our ministerial concerns are motivated with renewed energy
coming from within our souls. We are summoned like the four to be aware,
alert, and responsive to the calls of Jesus. We are to bring him directly
into our work, our ministry, our apostolic endeavors. Let us listen
carefully to these words of Jesus: "This is the time of fulfillment. the
reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Good News.
That is a "beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark
1:14-15; Mark 1:1). Amen.

Scripture: Lectionary # 306. Jan. 12, 2010 (MMX in Roman Numerals). I
Samuel 1:9-20. I Sam.2:1.4-5.6-7.8. Mark 1:21-28.

Mark's Gospel is so fresh with the air of the fields and hills of green
Galilee with a touch of the water from the nearby lake that we are led into
the early days of Jesus which were so familiar to him and to his mother
Mary who formed him to be the young vigorous preacher that he now is. He
is a man come to full stature. He now leaves her and the home he was so
accustomed to and from where he learned to be the excellent story teller he
now is. He leaves to begin the work of God as God's chosen one, the
Messiah and the Redeemer. His humble origins and the simplicity of the
thirty years with Joseph and Mary have made him ready for this moment. He
no longer fits the pattern of a royal or military messiah but rather is a
prophetic proclaimer of the kingdom of God who is a Servant of the Lord
according to the princely prophet Isaiah. God's promises will be
fullfilled in quiet and surprising ways. Something new is happening and
Jesus creates it.

Jesus begins teaching with authority in a gathering place called the
synagogue. It is in the little village of Capernaum not far from the lake
and his own town of Nazareth. His authoritative teaching comes directly
from his innermost self and from an undivided heart. God has favored his
only begotten Son as we have learned just after he was baptized by John who
is no longer on the scene. While in the synagogue, probably after reading
the Haftorah or the selection from the prophet, an individual possessed
with an evil spirt shouts out--breaking the messianic secret-- "I know who
you are. Why do you come to destroy us?" Jesus simply tells it "Be Quiet."
And the secret is restored. He has silenced the demon and expells it
thereby confirming that he does teach with God's authority and his own
inner strength.

Mark will continue his messianic secret theme for the first half of his
Gospel. It is about the suffering dimension of the messianic reality found
in Jesus of Nazareth. Even his closest followers will struggle with this
secret but gradually will learn through the incessant questions that Jesus
will douse upon them in their travels together. Isn't that the role of a
mentor? Only the demons will continue to know or suspect is the better
word that he is the messiah.

In our having been baptized with Jesus in his light and cleansed of the
memory and sting of the first fall, we no longer need to keep this secret
of Jesus. We are called to witness to who he really is and to speak about
him clearly and boldly. Amen.

Scripture for Jan. 13. Wednesday, 2010. Year 2. Lectionary # 307. ISamuel
3:1-10.19-20. Psalm 40:2-5.7-8.8-9.10. Mark 1:29-39.

Praying not only relaxes us and prepares us for doing things, it also
motivates us to do them with enthusiasm. We are blessed today with three
readings, including the Psalm and its response, that can easily motivate us
this day. First, there is the call story of the young Samuel who is in the
Temple prescincts not far from the presiding elderly priest Eli who is
disturbed three times by the boy who thinks it is Eli who is calling him.
It is however Adonai, the Lord, who summons Samuel to get ready for his
prophetic role in Israel. This young Samuel fuels our own prayer with his
openness to the Lord, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

The Psalm response is a mirroring of this response and helps us to continue
deepening our own motivation from the call, the vocation, that we have
received. Our response is the same, "Here am I, Lord; I come to do your
will." (Psalm 40:3).

Mark's selection contains two reflections about Jesus. The first shows us
Jesus as continuing his healing in the presence of his first four
disciples. The one who is the beneficiary of this healing is Peter's
mother-in-law. Like Samuel Peter, Andrew, James, and John are learning to
listen to the Lord and to see how he is manifesting himself by his healing
and his power over evil.

Mark then ends with one of the most compact and masterful summaries of what
Jesus does as a day is ending. He continues to heal those who come to the
door of the lodging where he is and he cures, heals, and casts out demons.
Finally, exhausted, he separates himself from the crowd of people in order
to commune privately with God his Father--he has no Father but God in
Mark's Gospel. He prays and is absorbed in it but when finished he must
continue on to bring the Good News to other towns and villages filled with
people who are hungry for food but also yearning for God. "So he (Jesus)
went into their synagogues preaching the good news adn expelling demons
throughout the whole of Galilee." Amen.