A Homily - The First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), The Baptism of Jesus

First Reading - Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 103(104):1-4,24-25,27-30 ©

Second Reading - Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 3:16

The Gospel of According to Luke – 3:15-16, 21-22 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 There is great hope expressed in Isaiah, a profound hope for the future wellness of all people and our common destiny as children of God, the creator of the universe.

 The prophet expresses certainty in regard to the expectation of atonement, not just for the people of Israel and the children of Judah, but for all people in all times and all places.

 The teaching of Isaiah articulates the basic faith commitment of the early church, and the foundational principles of Christian faith accordingly.

 John the Baptist stood in the tradition of Isaiah, his was a voice crying out in the wilderness. He called the faithful to action, telling us to prepare a way for the savior. John’s hope was the hope of Isaiah, the expectation that the entire creation will bend to the will of God; every valley, every mountain, from the cliffs to the plains, from the firmament to the heavens every last thing will yield to God.

 Nothing and no-one is excluded from this hope.

 The faith of Isaiah, of John and of Jesus instructs us to believe that despite all the power of God, we are on better ground when we regard the creator as a figure like a shepherd feeding the flock, like a mother ewe among her children.

 Understand this:

 Isaiah also speaks of God as the punisher, reminding the people of the punishment they have suffered for their crimes. Their crimes were crimes against people, their crimes took place in the world. They made enemies among foreign powers and they suffered on account of their wickedness, greed, vanity and broken promises; but they were not punished by God.

 Their punishment, if you can call it that, their suffering, the injustice and the justice which they encountered was brought by human beings; it was harsh, painful and cruel. Many of the people were slaughtered, many more were taken into captivity, but this was not the will of God. It was done by human beings, for human motivations, direct toward human ends.

 God does not intervene in the affairs of the world.

 Isaiah came in the midst of those tragedies, his was a voice crying out in the wilderness, as John came in later years, and then Jesus, to remind the people that God is with them, and that in the end all things will be resolved in love.

 Be mindful.

 God wants nothing more from us than this; that we act justly, love mercy and walk humbly all the days of our life.

 This is the way Jesus taught us: listen to Isaiah, who made straight the way before him; listen to John who led us to repentance and the expectation of the savior. The savior is the person who brings justice to the nations, you will not hear the savior shouting with vainglory in the streets, you will not see her cutting people off from their potential.

 The savior is a healer and a teacher, teaching us that justice is expressed through mercy, and that the law must be a servant to both. This is what Jesus taught in his own day; he taught us that we should love God with all our strength and all our heart and all our mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves. He preached on the Shema, he taught us that all the teaching of Moses and the prophets was contained therein.

 Jesus taught us to be kind to the stranger, to be of service to your neighbor, to love and forgive—even your enemies. He taught us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and to not do to them what you would not want done to you.

 This is the whole of the law, this is the sum of Isaiah’s teaching.

 Keep to this law as a covenant, hold to it as a promise between yourself and God. Preach it until the blind see, and all those who are captive to sin have been freed.

 Know this.

 God is the creator of the universe, the eternal God is the first source and center of all things. The infinite God engenders all potentialities, and yet interferes with none of them. The universe that God created, God created free from coercion, and yet the entirety of what is, moves according to God’s eternal purpose…the scope of this mystery marks the content of our faith.

 Know this:

 It wise to believe in the God of creation and the infinite power that undergirds everything in existence.

 God’s power is present in all times and places.

 Truly the divine spirit is everywhere and knows all things, but it is not God’s voice we here in the wind above the waves, that is only the wind. We do not hear God in the thunder, we hear thunder. God does not splinter trees, God is not active in the affairs of human beings; we know this because God has made creations, and us in it free…God is not a king.

 Be mindful.

The salvific work that Jesus wrought did not begin with his birth, it did not begin with his death upon the cross; it began in the mysterious place outside of time, at the beginning of all things.

The Church teaches that our salvation begins with the Word of God, the Logos, the second person of the trinity in whom all things were made.

The salvation of all people, of all creation, that work began then, in the divine person. God’s salvific work is built into the foundation of all that is, God’s own self, is the foundation of all that is.

Listen to the teaching of the apostle.

Living a good life, a life of restraint, this does not purchase salvation for you or anyone else. We do not earn salvation, and no one earned it for us.

 Living a good life, a life of restraint, a life of justice and mercy, a life of love and humility, is to live a life that manifests the reality of God’s salvific will…the will of God that is already present in us.

 These spiritual characteristics are like flags we raise in our own time and place, we raise them to display them for all to see. We raise them to show others the peace that may be found upon the way.

 Remember this:

 God, the eternal and infinite God, knows us and loves us, and has provided for our salvation from the moment we come into being.

 What is salvation?

 Salvation is wellbeing, in this world and the next. The reception of it does not require rituals or rites, or a magical mechanisms of justification. There are no secret codes that grant us access to heaven. We are saved in the next world because God wills it.

 We are saved in this world through our faith in God’s promise, by a simple trust in God, which we express as hope, and we see manifested in our relationships with our fellow human beings as love.

 Understand  this:

 We must always bear in mind that God does not intervene in creation, or the free choices of human beings. God does not intervene anywhere.

 God did not so much anoint Jesus of Nazareth, as did Jesus accept the mantle of sonship to God, and the full burden that this entailed, even to the extent that he went to his death and suffered on the cross in fidelity to his mission.

 Jesus was free to reject the ministry that was before him, but he did not. He was faithful to the end. Setting an example to us all.

 Few people will be called to serve in the capacity that Jesus served; to be tortured and executed for doing what is right and good; for healing the sick and feeding the hungry, for giving hope to the hopeless, for protecting the widow and the orphan.

 Few of us have the capacity to love justice so much that they could humbly endure what Jesus endured, and that is why we call him the Christ.

 Follow Jesus.

 Do good.

 Love justice.

 Be merciful, and a source of healing in the world.; this is the way, do the best you can, not for the sake of your salvation, God has that in hand. Do good for your sisters and brothers, for all women and men, do good because it is needed.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 In the calendar of observances today is a feast day. It is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.

 We have just concluded our celebration of his coming and his birth. Now we celebrate the beginning of his public ministry; the journey that led to his death on Golgotha.

 When Jesus began his ministry in Judea, and the broader Palestinian world, the average person felt displaced.

 On the one hand Judah was a client state of Rome, on the other hand the people were subject to the corruption of their own royal dynasty, the Herodians.

 The average person had no representation at the Temple in Jerusalem. The laws of ritual purity made it so that the average man could not even approach the temple grounds, which was both the spiritual and economic center of their world…and all women were barred prima facie.

 The average person ardently hoped for and expected deliverance. Their messianic faith focused the attention of the people forward in time, to the cominggof the “anointed one,” the messiah, in Greek the Kyrios, in English the Christ.

 They hoped for deliverance from the political corruption of the Romans and the Herodians, as well as the sectarian corruption at the temple, the corruption of the temple scribes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees (returning from the diaspora).

 In the person of John the Baptist the people saw a figure who might represent part of this deliverance. He was stern and outspoken, uncompromising and mysterious. He was an aesthetic, and while he preached repentance, he promised the reality of God’s love; he pointed to its presence in the lives of the baptized, the reality of God’s mercy as something that was present to the people without intermediary, and fully removed from the cult of animal sacrifice.

 This narrative tells us that John eschewed the title and office that some of the people might have thrust on him. It tells us that John himself had the same hopes and expectations as the common man or woman, but that John also had the knowledge of who the Christ was. He knew Jesus of Nazareth, and he knew that Jesus was coming. When John says; “I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals,” John is saying that, compared to Jesus, he is lower than the lowest servant…he meant it, he believed it in his heart.

 John accepts the role of a servant, as Jesus did, and as Jesus taught.

 Had John lived, the history of Christianity would have been very different, but John was arrested and killed shortly after he baptized Jesus. The disciples of Jesus, and the Gospel writers who followed them would spend the next one hundred and fifty years writing their narratives and telling their stories in a manner intended to keep the followers of John in their movement.

 This required a great deal of effort, which shaped the Christian story in a way which ultimately undermined the significance and uniqueness of the ministry of Christ. It perpetuated questions like:

 “Who is greater John or Jesus?”

 And it prompted the followers of Jesus, long after his death, to amplify that narrative, making it so that Jesus did not merely receive his baptism from John, but when he did the heavens broke open and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and a voice came out of nowhere proclaiming that Jesus was the favored and beloved Son of God.

 Such myths, while they are fantastic and entertaining, represent a departure from the tradition that John and Jesus followed, the tradition of Isaiah and the prophets who sought justice for the people.

 The entirety of Luke’s narrative is an interpolation of myth into the story of an ordinary man, Jesus of Nazareth. Luke introduced categories of ownership and inheritance, and of dominion, which, it may be argued, Jesus himself never spoke about or concerned himself with, even though his followers, those closest to him were very much concerned with it.

 The Christian story is best told without artifice, without the fabrication of myth, and without resorting to fables, and magic. It is a story of love and service, of hope and healing, and the celebration of our common humanity.

 The good news eclipses the differences between the sexes, it eclipses tribalism, sectarianism, and nationalism. In doing so it shows us the only path to peace and justice, the path of the faithful, one we are called to make straight and follow...the path which we call the way.

First Reading - Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 ©

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it

‘Console my people, console them’ says your God.

‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double punishment for all her crimes.’

A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord.

Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.

Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low.

Let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley; then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion.

Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem.

Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God.’

Here is the Lord coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him.

The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 103(104):1-4,24-25,27-30 ©

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

Lord God, how great you are,

  clothed in majesty and glory,

wrapped in light as in a robe!

  You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

Above the rains you build your dwelling.

You make the clouds your chariot,

  you walk on the wings of the wind,

you make the winds your messengers

  and flashing fire your servant.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

How many are your works, O Lord!

  In wisdom you have made them all.

  The earth is full of your riches.

There is the sea, vast and wide,

  with its moving swarms past counting,

  living things great and small.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

All of these look to you

  to give them their food in due season.

You give it, they gather it up:

  you open your hand, they have their fill.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

You hide your face, they are dismayed;

  you take back your spirit, they die.

You send forth your spirit, they are created;

  and you renew the face of the earth.

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are.

 

Second Reading - Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 ©

He Saved Us by Means of the Cleansing Water of Rebirth

God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us that what we have to do is to give up everything that does not lead to God, and all our worldly ambitions; we must be self-restrained and live good and religious lives here in this present world, while we are waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the Appearing of the glory of our great God and saviour Christ Jesus. He sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be his very own and would have no ambition except to do good.

But when the kindness and love of God our saviour for mankind were revealed, it was not because he was concerned with any righteous actions we might have done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our saviour. He did this so that we should be justified by his grace, to become heirs looking forward to inheriting eternal life.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

Someone is coming, said John, someone greater than I.

He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke – 3:15-16,21-22 ©

'Someone is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire'

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

 

A Homily – The First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), The Baptism of Jesus

Observation - January 10th, 2025, Thursday

the Isley Brothers on the stereo

slow jams and funk

red beans in crockpot, cooking slow

berbere spice and heat

 

the sound of shovels scraping cement

the blue lights of an ambulance

parked across the street

 

the sun’s arc lengthening

each and every day

incrementalism is progress,

            in January

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 10-13 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1 - 12 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The prophet is writing metaphorically in regard to the understanding that the God of the Hebrew people is the God of all people, the one and only God, the creator of the universe.

 The prophet wants us to know that God is the God of everyone.

 The metaphor expresses the hope that at the end of time all people will be united, not just metaphorically but in reality, expressing the belief that there will be no divisions among us when God’s purpose has been fulfilled: no war, no enmity, no sorrow, no death. It is an expression of faith in God’s promise to bring all people together in the common destiny we were created for.

 What the prophet, which we think of as the School of Isaiah, writes here is not an expectation of hope for this world. The prophet understands that God will not effect these changes in the lives of people today, the prophet is looking to the eschaton…to the divine as the ultimate end of all things.

 Know this:

 God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings, God does not appoint rulers and kings. God will not rescue you from the troubles of this world, because God has made you, and everyone, and the whole of creation absolutely free.

 God will not intervene; therefore do not petition God as if God were a king.

 Consider the words of the apostle who, like Isaiah, expresses faith in God’s love and mercy, even though he fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between God and humanity.

 Understand this:

 God loves us according to God’s nature, not ours…we are as God created us, as God formed the whole of creation and proclaimed it good.

 Remember!

 God is the author of life and we were created to share in the life of God. God is grace and grace is best expressed through love…in hope…and by faith, which means trust.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today; there is a great deal to unpack in the story of the Magi, but before we begin let us note that in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is visited by three shepherds, not Magi (sometime referred to as kings).

 In Mark’s Gospel, the first to be compiled, there is no reference to these events at all; in John’s Gospel, the last to be written, there is no mention of them either. Apologists for the Gospel tradition claim that Luke and Matthew were relating separate events, and they encourage us not to conflate them, but what they are relating is an exercise in narrative mythology…a fiction  

 I think it best that we proceed with the understanding that no such events actually took place, as such they are packed with hidden meaning, prevarications, propaganda and lies.

 Matthew’s Gospel tells us that three wise men, Magi (who are priests of the Persian Zoroaster, visit the holy family in order to pay Jesus homage; they present him with gifts of gold and other offerings befitting a royal person: treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 Matthew is talking about real wealth, enough to set Mary and Joseph up for life. If we accept this story as fact, we should not also hold to the notion that Jesus was the son of a humble carpenter. If Matthew were telling the truth, Jesus would have been fantastically wealthy

 Set aside the veracity of this depiction; the image is intended to establish that Jesus is a royal person, the heir to David’s throne, making Herod’s fears concerning Jesus legitimate…he was a contender, he had great personal wealth and the support of the Persian throne backing him.

 As mentioned, the popular interpretation of this reading is to view the Magi themselves as not just wise men, but as kings in their own right, putting their encounter with Jesus on the level of a diplomatic mission, they are of the same class, and they present gifts of the type that the laws of hospitality would demand royal powers share with one another…this cannot be in dispute.

 The reading builds on the foundation of Jesus’ kingship, which the writers of Matthew begin in their presentation of Jesus’ genealogy. It connects Jesus to the astronomers and priestly class of the Persian Empire, to the temples of the aforementioned Zoroaster, who also represent the principal devotees of the Cult of Mithras, to which Pharisaic Judaism owed a significant theological debt.

 Know this.

 Pharisaic Judaism is the Judaism of the diaspora, otherwise known as Rabbinical Judaism, the sect of Judaism to which Jesus and the disciples belonged, and to which Paul of Taursus belonged.

 This myth is intended to convey this message:

 Jesus is the heir to David and is intimately connected to mysteries of the Persian tradition. The same Persian tradition that was upheld by the emperor Cyrus when he released the Jews from their captivity in Babylon five hundred years earlier, allowing them to return to Judea and rebuild the temple.

 The Herodian intrigue in this narrative is of secondary importance. It complements the message concerning Jesus’ identity and sets up the Herodian dynasty as a group of villains that the disciples, along with John the Baptist and Jesus will have to contend, tragically. throughout the course of their lives.

 The drama with Herod at Jesus’ birth topologically connects the birth of Jesus to the birth of Moses, and while these are important cues, they are not nearly as important as the Persian theme, which dominates the narrative.

 It is important to understand these matters, not because they teach us anything about Jesus, but because they teach us about the ideology of the earlier Chrisitan movement, and we who have inherited their traditions.

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Above You the Glory of the Lord Appears

Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.

Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears.

The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.

Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and your daughters being tenderly carried.

At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2,7-8,10-13 ©

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

O God, give your judgement to the king,

  to a king’s son your justice,

that he may judge your people in justice

  and your poor in right judgement.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

In his days justice shall flourish

  and peace till the moon fails.

He shall rule from sea to sea,

  from the Great River to earth’s bounds.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts

  shall pay him tribute.

The kings of Sheba and Seba

  shall bring him gifts.

Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,

  all nations shall serve him.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

For he shall save the poor when they cry

  and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak

  and save the lives of the poor.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6 ©

It Has Now Been Revealed that Pagans Share the Same Inheritance

You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

Alleluia, alleluia!

We saw his star as it rose and have come to do the Lord homage.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1-12 ©

The Visit of the Magi

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,

for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

 

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year C)

A Homily - The Second Sunday of Christmas (Year C)

First Reading – Ecclesiasticus 24:1-2, 8-12

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Tim 3:16

The Gospel According to John - 1:1-18

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 There is something true in this reflection, and much that is false. God has given us the Spirit of Wisdom, Sophia who eternally issues from the creator like, as the divine breath that vivifies creation.

 The Spirit of Wisdom is God’s own spirit, animating all who live, all who have ever lived, and all who ever will be. God’s spirit is not a gift that belongs to a specific people, in a specific place at a specific time. The Spirit of Wisdom is not property that can be transmitted like an inheritance from one generation to the next. God’s spirit does not belong in Jacob’s tent, on Mount Sion, in Jerusalem or to the house of Israel.

 There are no people on the face of the Earth, or anywhere in the universe, whose reception of the divine spirit is privileged.

 God loves all of God’s children equally.

 The creator establishes the conditions for all things to be. In God’s wisdom the cycles of life and death were established. We honor God when we emulate God’s love for creation, through an active ministry of healing the hurt, feeding the hungry and welcoming the exile.

 Consider the failure of the psalmist who does not recognize that God truly is the God of all people; not merely the God of Jerusalem, of Sion, of Judah, of Israel. God does not favor one people or one person above another.

 God does not fill the belly of one child while allowing another to starve…human beings do that.

 God does not favor one army over another in time of war...God does not favor war. Neither will God intervene in our affairs.

 The turning of the seasons from spring to summer, fall to winter do not reflect the judgement of God, the laws which govern them were established by God, the fluctuations we experience are random, they are wild and they are free. A good winter is not evidence of God’s grace, neither is a bad summer evidence of God’s judgement.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle:

 Is god glorious?

 What is glory?

 God’s greatest place is in relationship to us, God’s children, God glories in parent’s love, and delights in us when we come to knowledge of the divine, desiring that each and every one of us come to the fullness of it; there is hope in it.

 Be mindful.

 The hope you have for yourself and those you love are meant to be extended to everyone, even those you do not love, for that is the way.

 If you think that God promised riches and glories as the inheritance of the saints, remember this, the first will be last and the last will be first; know that spiritual riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things, but in love and friendship with God.

 Know this:

 Good governance requires good people in the governing chair; get to know them before you lift them up; understand who they are before you appoint your leaders, put them through a process of discernment…choose well, knowing that our faith is not about who Jesus was and how the world saw him, our trust in God is based on our understanding of the creator as loving and caring being.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today; John’s is unlike the others, its authors were the farthest removed from the life of Jesus; writing the narrative between 120 and 150 years after his death. It is also the furthest removed from the actual ministry of Jesus, concerning itself with the cosmic identity of Christ as the Word of God, more than the lives of actual people.

 The gospels of Mark, Luke and Matthew are commonly referred to as the synoptic gospels. The events they narrate are closely linked to each other and follow the same basic pattern, with some minor (though important differences). Luke and Matthew rely largely on Mark for their structure; Mark having been written first.

 Luke came second and begins a little earlier than Mark. Whereas Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river by John. Luke begins with the story of his birth.

 Matthew, coming third in the sequence, goes even farther back, telling us of Jesus’ descent from Abraham; while John, coming last, takes the reader all the way back to the beginning of time.

 John narrates some of the same events as the other gospels do, but with a markedly different character, all designed to tell us who Jesus is—God’s own self.

 The historian in me objects to this treatment of the life of Jesus, but it is what it is, and this fiction having taken hold of the Christian Consciousness represents a historical reality all of its own.

 John’s prolog tells us very little about the persons of Jesus or John the Baptist; it is a soliloquy on what John’s community had come to believe about God and creation itself.

 Even though it was a common view in the ancient world that our material condition was essentially corrupt; as evidenced by our experience of pain, sickness, and death. The Christian community of John was articulating faith in its essential goodness, as something brought into being by God, existing within God, and sustained by God. It affirms the unity and oneness of all creation; having been brought into being through the Divine Word or Logos; meaning the rational will of God. By this John’s community was communicating their faith that life itself has purpose, it is not random, it not the product of chaotic forces; creation emerges from the goodness and light of God’s eternal spirit, and not one thing or being exists apart from that.

 The Gospel encourages us in the hope that no matter how bad things are, darkness will not overcome the light, that the world and humanity itself are worthy of God’s love, so much so that God becomes a human being, lives and suffers with us, in the spirit of compassion and solidarity with the universe that God created and all who dwell in it.

 This teaching is at the same time both remarkably esoteric, and deeply personal. While encouraging the believer to have hope, it also reminds the reader that they must still persevere in the face of rejection and violence.

 It cautions us to be mindful of the fact that many people do not want to hear the truth, preferring their own cozy view of the world, their tribal and national-gods and totems, their neat philosophies and their magical realities to the sober understanding of what it means to be a child of God.

 God’s own self was taken and killed for suggesting that there was a different way to live than the ways common to the world.

First Reading – Ecclesiasticus 24:1-2, 8-12

From Eternity, in the Beginning, God Created Wisdom

Wisdom speaks her own praises,   in the midst of her people she glories in herself.

She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,   she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One; ‘Then the creator of all things instructed me, and he who created me fixed a place for my tent.

He said, “Pitch your tent in Jacob, make Israel your inheritance.”

From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall remain.

I ministered before him in the holy tabernacle, and thus was I established on Zion.

In the beloved city he has given me rest, and in Jerusalem I wield my authority.

I have taken root in a privileged people, in the Lord’s property, in his inheritance.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20

Praise the Lord!

Alleluia, Alleluia

It is good to sing praise to our God;

  it is a joy to sing his praises.

The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem:

  he will call back Israel from exile.

He heals broken hearts

  and binds up their wounds.

He counts all the stars;

  he calls each of them by name.

Our God is great and great is his strength,

  his wisdom is not to be measured.

The Lord supports the needy,

  but crushes the wicked to the ground.

Sing out to the Lord in thanksgiving,

  sing praise to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with his clouds,

  he makes rain to refresh the earth.

He makes grass grow on the hills,

  and plants for the service of man.

He gives food to grazing animals,

  and feeds the young ravens that call on him.

He takes no delight in the strength of the horse,

  no pleasure in the strength of a man.

The Lord is pleased by those who honour him,

  by those who trust in his kindness.

Alleluia

God, the Foundation of Jerusalem

Sion, praise your God, who has sent out his word to the earth.

Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

Alleluia, Alleluia

 — Zion, praise your God.

For he has strengthened the bars of your gates,

  he has blessed your children.

He keeps your borders in peace,

  he fills you with the richest wheat.

He sends out his command over the earth,

  and swiftly runs his word.

He sends down snow that is like wool,

  frost that is like ashes.

He sends hailstones like crumbs

 — who can withstand his cold?

He will send out his word, and all will be melted;

  his spirit will breathe, and the waters will flow.

He proclaims his word to Jacob,

  his laws and judgements to Israel.

He has not done this for other nations:

  he has not shown them his judgements.

Amen

Sion, praise your God, who has sent out his word to the earth.

Alleluia

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18

Before the World was Made, God Chose Us in Christ

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved.

That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints, have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.

 

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Tim 3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

Glory be to you, O Christ, proclaimed to the pagans.

Glory be to you, O Christ, believed in by the world.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John - 1:1-18

The Word was Made Flesh, and Lived Among Us

In the beginning was the Word:

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.

All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.

A man came, sent by God.

His name was John.

He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light.

The Word was the true light that enlightens all men; and he was coming into the world.

He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him.

He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to all who believe in the name of him who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself.

The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John appears as his witness. He proclaims:

‘This is the one of whom I said:

He who comes after me ranks before me because he existed before me.’

Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received – yes, grace in return for grace, since, though the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

 

A Homily - The Second Sunday of Christmas (Year C)