| January 13, 2002 Isaiah 42· l-4,6-7 + Acts l 0:34-38 + Matthew 3: 13-17 |
| In the 64th chapter of Isaiah the prophet it says: “Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” That prayer of Isaiah has been answered, and Matthew wants us to know it. With images ripe with Old Testament highlights, Jesus emerges into the Gospel of Matthew and speaks his first words to John the Baptist. In some way, those words hold the key to insight into the Jesus Matthew will give us: a Jesus fashioned in the image of Moses. Desert and Water will play significant roles as the Exodus theme develops into the scheme of the ministry Jesus has chosen. He tells John the fulfilling the Will of his Father is reason for everything, and so the dispute between them about who is to baptize and who is to be baptized is a mute issue doing the right thing doing what God asks is all that matters between the two of them. |
| The very thought of the Spirit hovering and a divine voice should stir in the memories of the faithful images of creation from the Book of Genesis. For Matthew this scene in the waters of the Jordan heralds a new creation, not just of Jesus, but of all who will set aside the things of the past and seek the Will of God. In Mark’s reporting of this event, only Jesus hears the voice, but Matthew sets the scene so that all of us here the voice and the message is for the listener, no private revelation to Jesus, but a public affirmation that now, in him and by his willingness to do the Father’s Will, communication between God and humankind is established. |
| For the church that lives, celebrates, and proclaims this Gospel, it is new day and all things are new, created again by the Spirit of God that once hovered over the waters of chaos. Empowered by that same Spirit, all who are Baptized share the same relationship with a God who claims us as his own. This is not just a story about Jesus. It is an instruction about Baptism and a revelation of Divine purpose. Heavens once figuratively closed by sin have broken open again. The voice of God once silenced by the roar of pride and independence no longer speaks through prophets. Now the voice is heard in all its glory and power by those who will rise up from the waters and seek to do the right thing in following the Will of God in the footsteps of Jesus. |
| Now empowered by this Spirit, Jesus will walk from the river into the desert and then, like Moses of old, he will battle temptation, prove his fidelity, and emerge into an Exodus/like life that ultimately will bring a new Passover We listen today to the Prophet’s reading at the beginning of this Mass, and we who have come to know Jesus cannot help to hear the proph t’s fulfilment, and even more so in the later Prophet’s 64th chapter: “Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down – in |
| your presence the mountains would quake, as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire makes water boil – to make your name known to you foes; the nations would tremble at your presence, at the unexpected miracles you would do.” |
| We live in those times. The heavens have opened. He has come down, a bush has been aflame, and wonderful expected things have happened and continue to happen. We are the ones chosen to receive not only this good news, but a place in this mission. At the heart of this Gospel story there is not just a revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ, there also rests the revelation of the identity of all rise up from the waters of Baptism and hear the voice that calls them to be God’s own. |