+ Well, the Advent and Christmas Seasons have now come and gone! We now
find ourselves on the First Day of the Ordinal, Counting Time of the Church
calendar year, which will end up, the last day before Advent starts all over
again.
Chronologically, Jesus is now
30 years old, and with the imprisonment of his cousin John the Baptist, Jesus
begins his public ministry as a rabbi, as “the Rabbi” supreme, but revealing
this idea in its fullness would take the next three years and end in his death
on a cross: Truth and Goodness Incarnate, cannot coexist in the same locality
as Worldy Lies and Evil Intent, and so they killed him. Unfortunately, it was
his own people who condemned him and ordered his execution.
In the gospel passage we find
Jesus entering Galilee proclaiming this message: that remains a relevant and
pertinent and urgent announcement that it was on that day – “THIS IS THE TIME
OF FULFILLEMT of all of the prophecies regarding salvation,. THE KINGDOM OF GOD
IS AT HAND, read between my words and know that “the Kingdom IS ME!” I am the long-awaited
Messiah! REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL – the words I speak, the actions I
perform, the love and forgiveness and healing that I offer to everyone.
Then he begins to select his
inner circle, his band of brothers, his first seminary class of those who would
be later sent as Apostles to spread this Gospel, this Good News to the ends of
the earth, beginning with Simon, Andrew, James and John: all fishermen, whom he
invited to become “fishers of men, women and children everywhere.”
By calling us to membership in
his Church, by calling us to baptism into his very life, he calls us as well
into his very mission: to spread the Good News, the Gospel, by his words and
actions spoken and performed using us, our voices, our hands, our feet. This is
what baptism means: to be “Christ-ed” “Christ-ened” “Christ-oriented”!
This is related in a similar
vein in the first reading today from the letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews. “In
times past, God spoke in partial and various way to our ancestors through the
prophets, but in these the beginning of the end times, the last days, no matter
how long it takes, he speaks to us through the Son, His Son, Jesus: who he made
heir of all things and through whom he created the universe. Let us ponder this
last statement carefully. It is through Jesus (WORD), that GOD the FATHER SPOKE
and created everything in the entire universe including all human beings including
you and me. We are “God’s Speech Made Flesh” – through the love-dynamic of God
wishing to share his love with other persons created in his likeness as Original
Person.
WOW! This ought to make us all
very intent and interested in getting to know this Original Person through whom
we have been given life, existence and consciousness, anyway he wants to reveal
himself to us: primarily and first through words about him inspired by the Holy
Spirit himself and found in Scripture, but also in the words and deeds of his
disciples including his sent ones and their representatives: bishops and
priests and deacons, and all who bear the name Christian, whose mission it is
to strengthen, love and care for all we meet in our day!
We will spend the next 34
weeks of Ordinal / Ordinary Time exploring once again the magnificent,
majestic, but o so personal and down to earth life of Jesus Christ, Messiah,
Lord, Savior and King – of the Universe!
Amen.
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