First Week

The Baptism of the Lord, Cycle C (1st Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Today we celebrate the end of the Christmas season, and that may make you ask yourself why we would celebrate it, especially when Christmas “ended” two weeks ago. In today’s readings God himself celebrates what is taking place in the Gospel: the Baptism of his Son in the river Jordan by St. John the Baptist. In today’s First Reading God speaks of Jesus as his servant who is about to begin something wonderful: his public life. He’s going to bring justice to the world, be a light for the nations, open the eyes of the blind, and free prisoners, and God is keeping his promise through Jesus’ mission on earth. In short, God is sending out the Savior today to get to work. During Christmas we celebrated the birth of the Savior. On today’s feast, the Baptism of the Lord, we’re celebrating him finishing his silent years in Nazareth and going out to preach salvation to the world.

In today’s Second Reading Peter rejoices that salvation is not just for the people of Israel, but for everyone who respects God and acts uprightly. When Jesus is baptized in the Jordan he institutes a new kind of baptism. John talks about that baptism in the Gospel today as different from his: it is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Peter in the Second Reading is speaking to Cornelius, who was the first non-Jew to be baptized in Church history. The Jews thought originally that the Savior would only come for the Jews, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter and the Church through Cornelius’ situation that the Savior was coming for every nation that “fears God” (respects God) and “acts uprightly” (acts in a good way).

The Holy Spirit always works gradually. Cornelius had heard about Jesus and his promise of salvation, and had been praying for a sign. Peter was praying too, and they didn’t know each other at all. An angel came to Cornelius and told him to send men to find and bring Peter. Cornelius was a Roman centurion, and since he wasn’t a Jew, Peter wouldn’t have visited him unless the Holy Spirit had said it was okay in a dream, because Jews didn’t enter the homes of non-Jews. As Peter rejoices that the Savior has come for everyone, he recalls Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan as the beginning of doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil. So we celebrate today with God, with Peter, with Cornelius, and with everyone who has become Christian since. We celebrate that Jesus began to go out and do good, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and free those who are imprisoned by sin.

As we begin a new year, and the Christmas season concludes, Jesus’ private and public life show us it is time for us to get to work as well. In the Christmas season we’ve spent more time at home, resting, being with family and friends, receiving so many gifts, and getting ready to live the New Year better. It’s not a time for gloom and doom as we return to work, to school, to the daily grind: it’s time to show Our Lord we appreciate all he’s given us over the last year, and all he’s given us during the Christmas season. It’s time for us to get to work and get the word out about salvation. Cornelius heard about salvation from someone, long before he met St. Peter, and there are lots of Cornelius’ out there who are looking for what our faith has to offer. They are hungry for God.

Let’s thank Our Lord for the Christmas Season and the New Year that has just begun, keep moving forward on those New Year’s resolutions as a way to show gratitude to Our Lord for all the blessings he has poured out on us, pray for those who are suffering from hunger and war, and pray for all those Cornelius’ out there to find and love God, to do good, and to find salvation.

Readings: Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7; Psalm 104:1b–4, 24–25, 27–30; Acts 10:34–38; Luke 3:15–16, 21–22.

1st Week of Advent, Saturday

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The purple in Advent symbolizes penitence, sorrow, and suffering before the coming of the Messiah: a world lost in sin and in need of saving. That purple reminds us today that there are a lot of people out their beaten up by life and in need of healing and strength. This season, being a season of family, can be a source of joy or a source of pain depending on whether we’re estranged from those we love. We also need to see it as a opportunity: this the season when many loved ones are reconciled because it reminds them of the love and joy they’d once shared together. Beyond our family circle it is also a time characterized by showing a greater concern for others and their needs.

Where’d we learn all that from? Our Lord, which is why we’re preparing for and eagerly awaiting his coming on Christmas Day. Like the Twelve in today’s Gospel we are sent out to help find the lost, heal the sick and suffering, and cast out the evil that afflicts so many today. The First Reading today reminds us of how much Our Lord provides and will provide. When Jesus reminds the Twelve today, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give,” he is reminding us of all the blessings we’ve received in our life for no other reason than his goodness or the goodness of others, and to give with the same attitude.

Let’s be instruments of Our Lord’s concern, compassion, and desire for reconciliation this Advent season by being there for others.

Readings: Isaiah 30:19–21, 23–26; Psalm 147:1–6; Matthew 9:35–10:1, 10:5a, 6–8. See also 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday and Thursday.

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1st Week of Advent, Friday

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In today’s First Reading one of the signs of salvation will be the blind coming out of gloom and darkness to see. The two blind men in today’s Gospel “see” Jesus as the Messiah, and they express that faith to him while asking for his mercy. Unlike other accounts of Our Lord healing blind men, this one is done behind closed doors: Our Lord in silence and privacy wants this just between him and them.

He makes it clear that the miracle depends on their faith in him being able to do what they are asking of him. The miracle will be a sign of the depth of their faith, and, thankfully, their faith is deep enough. Faith in Our Lord is what leads us out of gloom and darkness, especially spiritual gloom and darkness. In Advent we remember in a penitential spirit that darkness we’ve walked into through our sins, but also the true light about to come into the world on Christmas Day to lead us out of that darkness if we have faith in him.

Do you believe Our Lord can lead you out of any spiritual darkness or myopia you may be experiencing? Advent is a time to get ready to ask him to restore your sight when he appears on Christmas Day.

Readings: Isaiah 29:17–24; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13–14; Matthew 9:27–31.

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1st Week of Advent, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord invites us to use the season of Advent to go beyond the routine tinsel, glitter, and blinking lights and welcome him into our hearts as the foundation on which we can build a holier life. It’s easy to fall into a routine of “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings,” but all the decorations and celebrations are to welcome someone special into our life, or acknowledge what a special role he has already had; even “Merry Christmas” can focus more on the merriment and not on whose birth we’re welcoming and celebrating.

When Our Lord invites us today to go beyond lip service and seek to do the Father’s will, his incarnation and birth are an example of precisely that. He chose to become flesh and dwell among us, because he loved us and he loved Our Father. His life is built on that from here to eternity.

Advent is a time of conversion, and conversion can also mean living a more solid life. Let’s continue to live Advent as a preparation for founding or re-founding our life on Our Lord on Christmas Day and beyond.

Readings: Isaiah 26:1–6; Psalm 118:1, 8–9, 19–21, 25–27a; Matthew 7:21, 24–27. See also 12th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

1st Week of Advent, Wednesday

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Today’s Gospel is characterized by helping the sick and the hungry, but is also characterized by help in abundance. When we are sick or in need we don’t hope for much more than an improvement in our condition and “our daily bread.” Sometime we eke out out existence, living one day at a time, balancing our budget to alleviate our complaints without starving. The crowds were in the same situation, and suddenly everyone who comes for healing is not only given a little relief, but completely restored to health. The crowds would have appreciated simply a piece of bread to fight off the hunger pangs before they went on their way, but they ended up having all the fish and bread they could eat, and leftovers in abundance.

Advent represents that period before Our Lord’s incarnation and birth where we could hope for no more than eking out a spiritual existence: all of mankind was crippled and starved for grace and mercy, and without help all they had to expect was spiritual starvation and death. The Lord did not just bless them with more help, he came in Person in order to bless us with a grace beyond a full stomach or a clean bill of health: salvation and eternal life, to never hunger again or suffer again.

Let’s continue preparing during Advent for Our Lord’s birth, thankful for the blessings in abundance that he has already bestowed upon us, but also showing our gratitude by helping those in spiritual or material need so that they too can experience Our Lord’s abundance through us.

Readings: Isaiah 25:6–10a; Psalm 23:1–6; Matthew 15:29–37. See also 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.