Brethren, what are friends for? Many of us will give many different answers: perhaps for feeling their warmth, helping with financial problems, providing guidance and counselling, going out with them, texting and calling, and many other things. Very few, however, would give the answer that friends are for leading us to Jesus. Today's Gospel really shows us that true friends are for leading us to Jesus so that we can receive healing and blessings from him.
After a powerful day of miracles and preaching, Jesus rose early the next morning to go to a “lonely place in the desert” to pray in communion with His heavenly Father (Mk 1:35). It is from this place of deep communion with the Father that Jesus comes out to minister with power and authority. He shows us that prayer is a strong companion to mission; without prayer, our mission might not bear fruit as expected. Jesus going off to pray in the early morning shows that the wellspring of all his activity was his union with the God whom he called his Father. We cannot say what Jesus’ prayer was any more than I can say what your prayer is, but the confident communication between Father and Son must have been the source of his strength and compassion.
Brethren, Christmas time is over, Jesus has been baptised, and his baptism marked the beginning of public ministry because through his baptism he received the power of the Holy Spirit, the divine confirmation from heaven as a Son of God, so that all may believe in him and his works. Now, Jesus is starting his mission, which he picked from John the Baptist after being arrested, according to Mark's gospel. But as we see in today's gospel, before Jesus began his mission, he chose his disciples, and today he calls the first disciples. These disciples would stay with Jesus, learn from him all that concerns the kingdom, and later he would commission them to go out to the world to proclaim the good news. Jesus, calling his first disciples, formed a new and first Christian community, which will help him in his mission. Jesus cannot do everything by himself; though he is capable, he calls us and invites us today to participate in his mission, as he called his disciples. Are we ready to participate in the mission of Jesus as we start this Ordinary Time?
Brethren, today we celebrate the feast day of the Baptism of Jesus. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord concludes the Christmas Season and transitions us into the beginning of Ordinary Time I up to Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, an invitation to move and act with Jesus in his public ministry. From a Scriptural point of view, this event in Jesus’ life is also a transitional moment from His hidden life in Nazareth to the beginning of His public ministry. As we commemorate this glorious event, it’s important to ponder some simple yet profound questions: Why was Jesus baptised? Recall that John’s baptism was one of repentance, an act by which he invited his followers to turn away from sin and to turn to God. But Jesus was sinless, so what was the reason for His Baptism? What is the significance of his baptism to me? What would we have lost if Jesus was not baptised? What is the invitation to me on this day of Jesus' Baptism?
Brethren, today we conclude our sequential reading of the First Letter of John. It is good to recall and meditate on the overall message of the three parts of the letter. The first part invites us to walk in the light of God and Jesus. Walking in the light means being honest about our failings, struggles, and sins. We need to imitate the way Christ walked, heed the new commandment to love, choose to love God rather than the world, and reject the denial of truth. In the second part of the letter, John invites us to walk in the righteousness that belongs to the children of God. In the third part of the letter, John encourages us to walk in love and seek the perfection of love. God loved us first, and when we walk in love, we are responding to the generous and total self-giving of the Father. The final message of John, which we read today, is that we need to pray for one another, for our brothers and sisters, that as the Bride of Christ, they can be victorious in the struggle to overcome sin.
Brethren, from Jesus' Epiphany, we have been reading a series of Gospels pointing us to the mission of Jesus, and yesterday we saw him declaring his mission: mission to the lowly of society. Today's Gospel presents to us Jesus healing the leper, which shows that really Jesus had come for the lowly ones and the abandoned of society. Lepers were isolated and were not allowed to associate with anybody, and even worse, they were not allowed to reach near the Rabbi. Jesus, however, showed everyone that he could touch and heal the leper, something that was against the law. He shows his love and compassion for these people.
Brethren, today's Gospel reveals the mission of Jesus, the true Messiah. Having entered the synagogue in his hometown, Nazareth, he was given the scroll to read and he read where it was written that the Spirit of God is upon him for he was sent to bring good tidings to the poor, prisoners, abandoned, oppressed and declare the year of peace. This was a declaration of his manifesto, that is, his mission as the messiah. He did not meet the expectations of the political Messiah who was expected by the Jews; Jesus had come for the lowly of the society. We are invited to take part in the mission of Jesus, to show love to the lowly and the looked upon of the society.
