Today, we continue reading the gospel of Matthew and we see his account of the Baptism of Jesus. Remember, Matthew wrote his gospel to the Jewish community, so it is the Jews who will read it with their traditions and teachings behind them.

One of the key elements we see is that God the Father  declares Jesus to be His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The Jew reading the Gospel of Matthew is going to click with that. There is a phrase in the bible he will remember and go to it. That phrase we can see in the first reading from Isaiah:

There he sees that God has defined his servant and this we can see in Jesus. However, we can also see that God gives a mission to His Servant and to us:

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. (Is 42 NAB)

This is Christ’s mission and as His agents this is ours. However, we have to see what this means.

This means that as Jesus says we are the light of the world. This means that we have a calling to live in away that proclaims the Kingdom of God. We can see that Jesus proclaimed it, but He began the work’ we must continue it. To whom do we proclaim it, obviously to everyone, but to whom do we focus, on those who will listen. These are the people who will need to hear the words of God. Many people will hear our words will see our expressions of faith and to them they mean nothing, that is because they do not have a need in their lives to know God. They are living in the mansions built on sand, which for now are comfortable buildings.

There are many others who need to hear the word of God. These are the people caught up in darkness who have come to realize that they are smothered by it.

The people in the prison of hopelessness, of sin that leads to depression, that are trapped by others in destructive behavior and relationships. Those who are oppressed by a heavy guilt brought on by an inability to forgive oneself for whatever sin. Maybe they are actually in prison, maybe they are actually blind. Whatever, it is our role as Christ’s disciples to bring the message of Christ to the people.

However, we do have opposition by those who want to keep people in darkness and sin. The most extreme example I can give you is the drug dealer who laughs at the concept of people going to Church. Why does he do that, because we are his competition. Our mission is to steal away his customers and free them from his slavery. That does not make dealers happy.

Why do you think that there are so many people who seek to silence the Church? Look at those around you in our country who live in darkness and who enjoy it. They do not want us to take people from their party, even though many people in their party will leave the party sick or dead.

Our mission is to lead people to the freedom that Christ promises us. In order to do that, we have to know his freedom, celebrate and live in the hope of our future that the gives us. Otherwise we cannot do that. But how many people define our faith not as a mission of serving Christ in leading our neighbors to freedom, but as a series of disciplines that get us into Heaven.

People who will scream sin at every turn and blind people to the hope of Christ because they choose to call attention to the darkness surrounding people without leading people to Christ.

What good it is to scream sin and hell to the drug addict without the invitation to Heaven and freedom that Christ promises those who love Him. It is no good.

Call attention to sin, yes, but do not do so without bringing forth the remedy which is Christ. This is how you lead people to freedom. This is how we find freedom when we humble ourselves before Christ to find his love and joy.

Jesus’ mission begins today, although it will be followed by his stint in the desert. His mission is carried on by us. Yet, we have to be in full communion with Him to complete His mission, otherwise we will not be doing His work but a poor imitation of it at best or the Devil’s work at worst.

Embrace Him and act on His grasp of your life.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J. Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is also the author of a blog directed specifically to priests. That can be found at thesacramentallife.blogspot.com

Photocredit:

Top: Fr. Robert J Carr
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Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.