• Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7. In this first song of the Suffering Servant within the prophesy of Isaiah, God summons his chosen one to bring forth justice to the nations, quietly, considerately.
• Acts 10: 34-38. Peter instructs the first gentile converts beginning with Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.
• Matthew 3:13-17. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus proclaiming “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Thoughts for your Consideration:

This week our Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. In celebrating this event we are observing a number of important moments for our faith tradition. We celebrate the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. This beginning is marked in two ways which testifies to Jesus’ humanity (the baptism by John) and his divinity (the anointment by the Holy Spirit). We also acknowledge the foundation for the rite of baptism and confirmation as important sacraments of the Church and in our lives. We also observe the importance of John the Baptist and his prophetic role in preparing the way of the Lord.

But if we reflect on three readings together then we are confronted with another element that must be observed with this amazing event: Jesus’ ministry is grounded within the prophetic tradition. Isaiah’s suffering servant songs offer a resume for the anointed messiah. In this passage that we read today Isaiah reminds us that this resume fulfills the prophetic call for justice:

He shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth;

Isaiah tells us two things in this passage. First he tells us about the mission of the “suffering servant” in bringing forth social justice. He describes this mission as having a liberating effect to all of God’s people. Peter, in the second reading, receives his own epiphany by realizing that “God shows no partiality.” The people of God are not defined by a particular ethnicity or creed, and the gentile converts force Peter to recognize the universal extant of this liberating call to justice. The second thing that Isaiah tells us is the way in which the “suffering servant” will conduct this mission. He describes a nonviolent and humble approach in bringing about this call to justice. The “suffering servant” will not bestow justice with a firm hand or with harsh punishment; instead justice will be applied with mercy, humility and gentleness. Peter describes this in terms of simply being good and bringing about healing.

Baptism and confirmation does not make us good. By virtue of being created by a good God we and all creation are designated as good (Gen. 1:31). Baptism instead consecrates us to a life of perfect goodness. For us Catholics confirmation offers us the added grace of being anointed by the Holy Spirit which will aid us in the pursuit of perfect goodness. Justice is a virtue that belongs to all who seek the good. Justice was pursued not only by the prophets before Christ but also by every human civilization that ever existed. But through Christ we have been given the perfect model for our humanity and for our mission to pursue justice and all that is good.

You have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also… Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5: 38-39, 48)

This call to perfect goodness challenges us to adopt an ethic of peace and nonviolence in promoting social justice. The call to nonviolence is not a call to passivity. Instead we are still called to promote what is just and fair but our means are limited since they require us to apply mercy, respect and gentleness in addressing the injustice that we face. As we consider the social injustices and conflicts in our world let us reflect on our baptismal calling to model the “suffering servant” in our pursuit of perfect justice.

• Isaiah 11:1-10. After destruction and long waiting, the official spring of David will come as a tender shoot out of the hidden root of Jesse, David’s father; a new paradigm will be enjoyed by all.
• Romans 15:4-9. Everything has been written four our instruction and encouragement, so that we may live in perfect harmony with one another.
• Matthew 3:1-12. John the Baptist appeared, a voice crying in the wilderness, a threat to the powerful, a humble precursor to Jesus. Jesus will gather the wheat into the granary but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Thoughts for your Consideration: By Fr. Stephen Dunn, CP

Advent strengthens our sense of anticipation.  The readings of the liturgy today look toward a heroic personality who will lead the people.  He will provide an extraordinary and positive experience of the richness of the earth: 

The child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
…the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.

He will reform human society too, drawing on:

A spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength,
…he shall judge the poor with justice,
 and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless … he shall slay the wicked.

Those Scriptures, St. Paul indicates in the second reading, are “for our instruction”.   The endurance we learn and the encouragement they give will provide us with hope. In the Gospel, St. Matthew tells us how the anticipation of that ideal was shaping “real life” ministry paths.  John the Baptist was so successful at that project in his austere but convincing life-style that he was drawing significant crowds to the River Jordan to hear his message. He offered a Baptism to purify the people for the role of “judging the poor with justice” and “deciding aright for the land’s afflicted”.  It was in this context that Jesus was about to begin his own life of ministry.  What might these Scriptures be giving us today by way of instruction?  Do we need to reconsider our personal or collective version of Isaiah’s prophetic image of the leader who would establish justice, peace and the integrity of creation?

The other day, while shopping in a religious bookstore, I was taken aback by an unusual title: “The North End Lives”.  It caught my interest because I was born and raised in a neighborhood called the “North End”.  Surely it was not the same one (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada).  But yes it was!  It was a collection of stories of incidents that occurred in the thirty year social ministry of Hugo Neufeld, a Mennonite who moved into the area with his wife and children to learn about and assist those living “below the poverty line”. My family actually had that experience.  But I’ve tended to identify more with a newspaper description quoted in the book: “[The North End]… is a complex mix of grit and gritty characters, tough problems and big-hearted neighbors”.  So, bubbling up from my sub-conscious, I was wondering: do we really need someone from British Columbia to “set up shop” to help us out of our “tough problems”?  

That sparked reflections about what might be different about this Mennonite mission and what the Passionist, Fr. Rick Freshette, is accomplishing in Cité Soleil in Haiti (admittedly with much more physical peril).   Other Passionists, too,  are responding to a similar sense of mission in the U.S., Jamaica, and other locales. The difference, I suppose is confronting the reality that such a mission is in the place you call “home”….where you were raised … where you were educated … where you learned to be counted (with pride), among the “gritty characters”.   Scriptural scholarship now allows us to see clearly that some such thinking was going on in the mind and heart of John the Baptist and indeed Jesus himself. 

St. Matthew gives us a lot to consider.  He fills in the picture of John’s expectations of this ideal leader: with “winnowing fan in his hand” he would be ready to “clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”.   The Baptist came upon this emphasis in his idealism honestly, because he was born into the “poor” of the Jerusalem scene. That he belonged to an ordinary priestly family rather than being able to claim descent from the high priesthood of the Jerusalem elite spoke volumes.  He presented himself to the people of the lower classes as one who understood their suffering and was in solidarity with them.

That identification gave him outspoken courage.  To the Pharisees and Sadducees he said:  “Ye brood of vipers” and denied them what they presumed was the pride of their descent: “do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’.  The militancy of his just cause against the imperial oppression and those who colluded with it at the Temple was plain and evident. 

However, as Matthew will relate further on in the Gospel story, John’s subsequent questioning of Jesus’ mission made it clear that the Baptist’s personal anticipation differed from the path Jesus was taking.  At stake was the ideal of the champion of the poor.   Today’s Gospel gives a first indication that the way Jesus, the “shoot” Isaiah predicted would “sprout from the stump of Jesse” would present himself would be at variance with the anticipation of the Baptist.

Today’s Advent exploration of Isaiah’s ideal of the one who will lead his people in justice, peace and the integrity of creation puts very important questions before us.  Perhaps the most poignant is whether we can bring our own expectations into the crucible of our own “North End”, as Matthew indicates was occurring for both John the Baptist and Jesus – as they were probing the authenticity of their respective missions to those oppressed by Empire and Temple in Jerusalem and Galilee.

• Zephaniah 3:14-18a -The prophet composes a hymn of hope for Jerusalem and the temple where “the Lord is in your midst.”
• Philippians 4:4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always … The Lord is near. Present your needs to God. Then God’s own peace, beyond your comprehension, will stand guard over your hearts and minds.
• Luke 3:10-18 – John the Baptist preached reform within people’s daily round of duties and announced the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Thoughts for your consideration: by Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP

On December 10^th, there was a celebration of Human Rights Day.  This should be a reason for rejoicing, in the spirit of this Sunday’s joy (Gaudete Sunday) that the Messiah’s coming is near at hand.  For the emergence of human rights as a distinctly recognizable feature of human existence has been a long time coming.

But wouldn’t you know that, just as it emerges out of the dust bin of history, it encounters the danger of another immersion into forgetfulness. The concept of human rights seems to be taken for granted and people pick and choose which rights they wish to defend and which ones they wish to violate. Some promote economic rights while others defend only political rights. Some skip over human rights and prioritize the rights of animals and trees. This process of “dumbing down” universal rights to subjective preferences reduces its significance to the point of asking: why get wrought up over rights when they are as commonplace as dirt?

Perhaps we do better to follow the route laid out by John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel account today, as John engaged in his preaching ministry by the river Jordan.  He chose not to proclaim rights, but obligations.  The word “should” in this account betrays his approach: the crowds ask him: “what should we do?”  And he replied that whoever can should share with another who has nothing.  Likewise, with those lacking food.  And the tax collectors’ question about their “should”, is followed by the soldiers’ similar query.

What’s interesting about this account is that John’s listeners, instead of being “turned off” by John’s list of “shoulds”, “were filled with expectation” because he sounded just like what the Christ ought to be proclaiming: meeting human needs.  For as this account concludes, it points to the “good news”, in John’s remark about a coming baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire, to cleanse, purify and fill the barn.

In other words, the obligations the Baptist laid on his hearers were the foundation of the rights they had every reason to expect at the hands of the Messiah: spiritual rights to freedom from sin, human rights to freedom from foreign occupation.  The roots of the U.S. Bill of Rights and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights lay hidden here.

So on this Gaudete (rejoicing) Sunday let us make our own the upbeat expectations of the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers that the obligations they acknowledge trigger a sense of the rights to be cherished.  This joy reflects that of the prophet Zephaniah who sees the Lord removing judgment from his people, by turning away the enemies who trampled their rights.  And it unites us with the Philippian Christians in their joy that “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” will endow their hearts and minds—another basic entitlement as Christians.

Human rights are fundamental freedoms coming into their own, once the obligations facing us are satisfied.  When the primordial obligation owed God is met, freedom of a religious kind is born.  For freedom of religion is humankind’s basic freedom, underlying all the rest.  The opportunity to approach God endows the human person with a dignity unsurpassed by any other quality the human person might come by, whether that be the faculty of reason or freedom.  People argue over rights vs. entitlements vs. privileges vs. merits vs. benefits vs. gifts.  But, on a scale of 1 to 10, the ability to approach God through religious practices rates a 10, ahead of any other human endowment.  That is why the very first sentence in the very first of the 27 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the first 10 of which are called The Bill of Rights) reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  And for this reason we rejoice on this Sunday as, with the people around John the Baptist, we await one mightier than he, who is coming as the center of our religious faith, and the origin of our rights.