Is.55:1-11; Is.:12-6; 1 Jn. 5:1-9; Mk 1:7-11
Nature and grace have joined in the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ to testify to the one true God. “So, there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and blood, and the three are of one accord.” They testify that God is with us. This day marks the second aspect of Jesus epiphany that is his revelation to the world in the words of God himself, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” In birth we are given the gift of life, what we do with our lives is our gift back to God. When we come to the water of baptism our nature and God’s grace are united in the revelation of the Holy Spirit that now lives in us. Come to the water! This is the Lord’s invitation by his own baptism to sanctify us that we may receive the grace to testify to his loving presence in our lives.
In baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God himself, his mercy and love are with us through faith. This is a mystery of faith. Mystery at its root meaning includes “mythos” something transmitted by the word with a hidden meaning revealed by divine revelation. God is revealing to us his Son and who is sent for our salvation. He comes to testify to his real presence with us, in us and through us. That is our epiphany the revelation of God who lives in our love. How we live out our faith is the work of the Holy Spirit to testify by grace as children of God. Thus, nature and grace have joined in the mystery of faith and revealed itself to the world. In baptism it is not only I that lives but the Spirit of God at work in our surrender to him. The question is “Am I willing to surrender to Him?” “Let go and let God” is about our trust in Jesus and that is a battle of our will each and every day.
The Spirit works as one accord in the Trinity, three persons one God thus, it is a work where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus. Recall when Jesus was rejected at Nazareth departing with the words, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house” (Mk. 6: 4-5). He leaves his home town where he grew up “not able to perform any mighty deed there. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” Jesus the son of God works in communion with his people just as we must work in communion with our nature and grace and in union with each other to reveal the power of God in our lives. Bottom line we cannot do this by ourselves. To say “me and God alone” does not work. We are called to be a community of faith by living our nature and grace in unity of love and mercy together.
The works of grace are from the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us just as it is not the water itself with the power but the power through water and Spirit. Also, it is not the blood alone of the flesh but the sacrifice of the blood as an offering that saves. Thus, I dare to say to those who believe “faith alone saves” faith without works comes with sudden death when it is tested by the cross we bear. In what ways do we offer our blood that is our sacrifice of ourselves for the good of others that opens the gates of heaven for us? Our nature and grace have joined to give testimony to the love of God for his people. Through baptism we are to be the image of God giving testimony of his mighty deeds at work through us.
We celebrated the great Epiphany of Jesus manifestation in his birth last week and again today in his baptism but what about our epiphany of the Spirit at work coming to us today? It is that moment in which we receive the desire to do a simple act of love. It is the moment we receive the insight to act prudently in good judgment of right and wrong. It is the moment we gain the awareness of our call to respond to a just cause. It is the moment we are given the strength to be a voice for truth in the middle of a cancel culture that wishes to silence any voice that speaks of God. The epiphany of our daily lives is at work in the Spirit we received through the water of baptism to respond to our natural gifts with the grace of divine revelation. It is that moment we choose to say yes to the will of God that we receive the power of his grace.
In some ways 2020 was the year of darkness with the pandemic causing fear, separation, isolation, sickness, loss of work and even death. The evil one celebrated his test of the faithful with churches closed, the lingering scandals within the clergy, the rise of a cancel culture, and violence in the streets. The new year has started where the old ended, a new mutation of the COVID virus, reinstituting restrictions on gatherings, more violence on the streets and a rebellion against democracy from both extremes of society. In 2021 what will be our response, our epiphany, our sacrifice for the greater good. Must we kneel and pray? Absolutely! Must we do more as members of our society and defenders of our faith? There is no doubt we are to see in John the Baptist the need for a voice crying out in the desert where secularism, cancel culture, and hate speech prevail the need for repentance, penance, and atonement.
In philosophy they speak of the hero and the saint. The hero lives for honor and self-satisfaction while the saint lives for love and self-giving. The hero gets recognition from among the world while the saint builds treasures for the greater glory of heaven. The hero is temporal, here today and stored in the archives of history to be read and admired. The saint is for all eternity who remains with us, an intercessor in the present, to be called on able to do more from heaven than even during his days on earth.
In baptism we are called to be great saints as the militant church on earth. Our battle is to attack sin wherever it lies and let it begin with us, from within our souls, within our families, within our environment, and within a nation of nations. The victory can only be won with the power of our nature and grace. When Saint Francis of Assisi was called by God to rebuild his church, he started with himself by embracing with love the poor and the lepers, embracing with love other brothers and sisters in faith as followers, embracing with love the institution of the church, embracing with love the beauty of nature and love of animals.
Steven Covey speaks of the four human dimensions of life. They include to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy. In a life well lived by nature and grace we begin to live our true self when we enter into baptism called to be the best we were created to be in the image of God. We begin to love when our actions reflect the generosity of God’s love. We begin to learn the mystery of faith through prayer and study of the Word, the Word made flesh in Jesus. We begin to leave our legacy when our nature and grace are transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit in water and blood, that is by love and sacrifice into the bride of Christ, his holy people.
Let us live well our nature and grace, let us live a holy life in Jesus Christ, let us return to the water of our baptism in faith, hope, and love.
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