From the Pastor's Pen - Baptism of the Lord 1-12-2020
With today’s feast, the Christmas season ends—sort of.
While “all-Christmas” radio stations returned to regular fare at 12 a.m. Dec. 26, we continue to celebrate the Christmas Feast and its gifts and meanings. Following Christmas and Holy Family Sunday, we had the great feast of Epiphany last Sunday. The Magi represent the significance and recognition of the Christ Child to all humanity, not just to a few Jewish people who experienced it; and to very wise and learned people everywhere. Indeed the great example of the Wise Men is that, after using their knowledge and skill to find Jesus, they knew when to lay all that down and simply worship him. Tradition says that from there, they became great evangelizers throughout the known world.
Today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord continues to expand the event of Christmas throughout the world, even into creation itself. “The waters were made holy by the one who was baptized in them”, writes one of the early writers. The dove at the Baptism certainly embodied the Holy Spirit, but shows the dignity of all created creatures.
I said today “sort of” ends the Christmas season because no treatment of Christmas is complete without the Wedding at Cana, as Jesus turns water into wine. This too shows Jesus’s effects on all creation. We won’t have that on a Sunday this year, but look at it in John Ch. 2. So with all this, it’s evident that the marvel of Christmas not only renews and uplifts each one of us, and our communities. There’s a definite cosmic extent to the renewal Christ brings the world by being born in it. So we look at all creation, and all people in it, as blessed by God and deserving of our support. You can check our website for a reading on this by St. Peter Chrysologus.
As we take the feast of Christmas into the year, I’m glad that we have movements going already that are to bring Christ more into our lives: pastoral planning, Evangelization, and Faith Sharing Groups. I urge you to participate in these as ways to explore the meaning of Christ’s birth to you.
- Fr. Tom
