God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Here are the comments on this Sunday's readings
Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus Year C [12 January 2025].
*Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (40, 1-5.9-11)
This is the beginning of one of the most beautiful passages in the Book of Isaiah, called the "Booklet of the Consolation of Israel" because the first words are: "Console, console my people, says your God". This sentence alone is already surprising, almost unexpected good news for those who know how to listen to it. The expressions "my people" and "your God" recall the Covenant and express the awareness that even if the relationship between God and his people is in crisis, love is not finished. Indeed, this was precisely the concern of the exiles. During the exile in Babylon, that is, between 587 and 538 BC, one could ask: has God abandoned his people? Has he renounced his covenant? Has he grown weary of our repeated infidelities at all levels? The main objective of Isaiah's Book of Consolation is to affirm that this is not the case, and God reiterates again: 'You shall be my people and I will be your God'.
I will just follow the text with a few comments:
+"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her tribulation is fulfilled," says Isaiah. This means that slavery in Babylon is over; it is therefore a proclamation of deliverance and return to Jerusalem.
+"His guilt is discounted, for he has received from the hand of the Lord double for all his sins". According to the law of Israel, a thief had to return double the amount of stolen goods (e.g. two animals for one). Speaking in the past tense of this double punishment was a figurative way of saying that deliverance was near, as the punishment had been served. The 'sins' of Jerusalem and its 'crime', mentioned by the prophet, were all the breaches of the Covenant: idol worship, violations of the Sabbath and other prescriptions of the Law, but above all the numerous failures of justice and, most serious of all, contempt for the poor. The Jewish people always considered exile to be the consequence of all these infidelities, since at the time it was still believed that God punished the guilty.
+"A voice cries out" (v. 3): the author of this booklet does not tell us who he is and presents himself as the voice crying out from God; traditionally he is called the second Isaiah. "A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord". Once, in the history of Israel, God prepared in the wilderness the road that led the people from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to the Promised Land; well, says the prophet, just as the Lord delivered his people from Egyptian oppression, today he will deliver them from Babylonian oppression.
+The road to freedom. "Clear in the steppe the way for our God. Let every valley be raised, every mountain and hill be lowered; let the rough ground be turned into a plain, and the steep into a valley'. It was the custom of the victors to force the vanquished to do enormous levelling work in order to prepare a triumphal way for the return of the victorious king. Worse still: once a year, in Babylon, during the feast of the god Marduk, the Jewish slaves had to perform this levelling work to prepare the passage of the procession with the king and the statues of the idol at its head. For the believing Jews, it was a deep humiliation and pain. Now Isaiah, charged with announcing the end of slavery and the return home, says: this time, it will be in the wilderness between Babylon and Jerusalem that you will draw a path. And it will not be for a pagan idol, but for you and your God who will guide you.
+"Then shall the glory of the Lord be revealed, and all men together shall see it, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken." One could translate: God will finally be recognised as God and all will see that He has kept His promises.
+"Rise up on a high mountain, you who announce glad tidings to Zion". "Lift up your voice, fear not, proclaim to the city of Judah". Note the parallelism of these two phrases: a perfect parallelism, intended to emphasise this Good News addressed to Zion or Jerusalem, i.e. to the people, not to the city. The content of the Good News immediately follows: 'Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with power; his arm exercises dominion. Behold, he has his reward with him, and his reward goes before him".
+"Like a shepherd he shepherds his flock and with his arm he gathers; he carries the lambs on his breast and gently leads the mother sheep". Here we find in Isaiah the image dear to another contemporary prophet, Ezekiel. The juxtaposition of these two images (a triumphant king, a shepherd) may come as a surprise, but the ideal of the king in Israel encompassed both aspects: a good king was a shepherd full of care for his people, but also a king triumphant over his enemies, precisely to protect his people. This text resonated as extraordinary news to Isaiah's contemporaries in the 6th century BC. Five or six centuries later, when John the Baptist saw Jesus of Nazareth approaching the Jordan to receive Baptism, these words of Isaiah resounded in him, and he was seized with a dazzling clarity: Here is the one who will definitively gather the Father's flock... Here is the one who will turn the crooked paths of men into paths of light... Here is the one who will restore the dignity of God's people... Here is the one in whom the glory (i.e. the presence) of the Lord is revealed. The time of the prophets is over, now God himself is in our midst
*Responsorial Psalm (103 (104),1c-3a.3bc-4.24-25.27-28.29-30)
Psalm 103/104, from which we read extracts today, can be compared with the hymn of Pharaoh Akhenaton. It is a prayer from Egypt: a hymn addressed to the sun by King Amenhotep IV, Nefertiti's husband. It is known that this pharaoh devoted a significant part of his energies to the establishment of a new religion: he replaced the cult of Amun (whose clergy seemed too powerful to him) with that of the God Aton, i.e. the sun. On this occasion, he took the new name Akhenaten. His prayer was found engraved on a tomb in Tell El-Amarna, Egypt (on the banks of the Nile). The text is worth reading:
"You rise splendidly on the horizon of heaven, Living Sun who lives from the origin. You shine on the horizon of the east, you have filled every land with your beauty. You are splendid, great, brilliant, You rise above all the earth. How many are your works, mysterious to our eyes! Unique God, you have no equal, you created the earth according to your heart. Beings are formed under your hand as you willed them. You shine and they live; you set and they die. You have the duration of life in yourself; they live by you. Eyes turn to your beauty until you hide, and all work ends when you set in the west."
It is evident that this hymn, addressed in Egypt to the sun-god, closely resembles Psalm 103/104, composed in Israel. However, the Egyptian text is older: it dates back to the 14th century BC, a time when the Jews were slaves in Egypt. It can therefore be assumed that they heard this poem addressed to the sun-god, and adapted it by transforming it in the light of their new religion, that of the God who had liberated them from Egypt. Although the two texts resemble each other, they still differ greatly and especially on two fundamental points:
1. The God of Israel is personal and unique, who offered his people a covenant relationship. He is a God with a plan for humanity, a God who wants man to be free. For example, the psalm begins and ends with the acclamation: "Bless the Lord, my soul," a typical expression of the covenant between the people of Israel and their God. Furthermore, the name used to designate God is the famous covenant name, represented by the four letters YHVH, which are not pronounced but recall God's eternal presence with his people. This name is translated in the text as 'Lord'.
2. God is the creator, the sun is a creature. In the biblical view, in contrast to the prayer of Pharaoh Akhenaton, God alone is God and the sun is no more than a creature without a will of its own. In other verses of the psalm, it is stated: 'You made the moon to mark the times and the sun to know the hour of setting. Spread the darkness and the night comes' (v.v. 19-20).
In other words, if the sun has any power, it is God, and God alone, who has given it to it. Similarly, in the book of Genesis, to emphasise the subordinate role of the sun and the moon, the author of the first chapter of Genesis does not even mention them, but simply calls them: "The two great luminaries: the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night" (Genesis 1:16). In essence, they are instruments of creation.
In Israel, Psalm 103/104 was sung to praise God the creator, king of all creation. It is particularly evident in the phrase: "You send forth your breath: they are created; you renew the face of the earth", which recalls the text from Genesis: "The Lord God fashioned man from the dust of the ground; he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).
To express that God is king, court language is used: "You are clothed in majesty and splendour, wrapped in light as in a cloak!" As if God were wearing a royal cloak! Elsewhere, the psalmist exclaims:
"You are so great, Lord, my God!" a traditional royal acclamation in Israel.
One must then consider this psalm in connection with the Baptism of Jesus that we celebrate today. When the liturgy proposes this psalm for the feast of the Baptism of Christ, at first sight it may seem a surprising juxtaposition. However, the connection emerges in two aspects: 1.Proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God: During the Baptism, a voice from heaven declares: "You are the beloved Son; in you I have put my pleasure."
2. New creation: The episode of Baptism recalls the breath of God that hovered over the waters in Genesis (Genesis 1:2). When Jesus is baptised, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, marking the beginning of the new creation.
*Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to Titus (2:11-14 ; 3:4-7)
I repeat here what I have already published commenting on this same letter at Christmas in both the night and dawn masses. St Paul entrusted his disciple Titus with the responsibility for the Christian communities in Crete. The task was not easy, as the Cretans had a very bad reputation at the time; a local poet, Epimenides of Knossos, in the 6th century B.C., called them 'Cretans, always liars, ugly beasts, idlers'. Paul, quoting him, confirms: "This testimony is true" (Titus 1:12-13). Despite this, Paul and Titus tried to turn these flawed Cretans into Christians. The letter to Titus contains advice from the founder of the community to the one who is now in charge of it. It includes very concrete recommendations for the members of the community: old and young, men and women, masters and slaves. Even those in charge are not neglected; Paul insists on the seriousness of the life required of them, making it clear that this was not to be taken for granted (Titus 1:7-8). And the series of advice the postulator gives highlights the progress still to be made. For Paul, Christian morality is rooted in the event that marks the turning point in world history: the birth of Christ. When Paul states 'the grace of God was manifested', he means 'God became man'. From then on, our way of being human is transformed: "He saved us, not by any righteous works we had done, but by his mercy, by a washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The transformation of the whole of humanity is on the agenda, for God's plan, foreseen from all eternity, is to gather us all around Jesus Christ, overcoming divisions, rivalries and hatreds, to become one man. Paul says: "While waiting for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). 'In expectation' implies that, sooner or later, this will come to pass.
This certainty and expectation are the driving force behind the entire liturgy: during the celebration, Christians are not looking back, but are already one man standing, facing the future. When the end of the world comes, they will be able to say: "And they stood up as one man. And this man's name was Jesus Christ'.
A historical note: On the birth of a Christian community in Crete, some scholars speculate the following: according to the Acts of the Apostles, the ship carrying Paul as a prisoner awaiting trial in Rome stopped at a place called 'Bei Porti' (Kaloi Limenes) in the south of the island. However, Luke does not mention the emergence of a community there, and Titus was not part of the voyage. It is known that, after many vicissitudes, this journey ended as planned in Rome, where Paul was imprisoned for two years in conditions akin to a 'guarded residence'. It is assumed that this Roman imprisonment ended with a release. Paul would then embark on a fourth missionary journey, during which he evangelised Crete. For reasons of style, vocabulary, and even chronological verisimilitude, many experts on the Pauline letters believe that this letter to Titus (as well as the two letters to Timothy) was only written at the end of the first century, some thirty years after Paul's death, but in fidelity to his thought and to support his work. Regardless of when this letter was written, it is clear that the difficulties of the Cretans persisted.
*Gospel according to Saint Luke (3:15-22)
All three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) narrate the event of the Baptism of Christ, each in their own way. John, on the other hand, does not narrate it directly, but makes reference to it. Luke has a particular approach, which I will try to highlight here. For example, his text begins with 'While all the people were being baptised': Luke is the only one to mention that the people were being baptised; he is also the only one to mention Jesus' prayer: 'While all the people were being baptised and, having also received baptism, he stood praying'; this juxtaposition is typical of Luke: man among men, Jesus does not cease to be at the same time united with the Father. Luke wants to emphasise Jesus' humanity so much that, only in his Gospel, curiously enough, is the account of the baptism immediately followed by a genealogy. Unlike the genealogy placed at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, which starts from Abraham and descends to Jesus via David and Joseph, the genealogy of Jesus in Luke starts from him and goes back to his ancestors; he was (as was thought, Luke says) son of Joseph, son of David, son of Abraham... But Luke goes even further back: he tells us that Jesus is 'son of Adam, son of God'. This clearly indicates that, by the time his Gospel was written, the early Christians had understood this privileged relationship of Jesus of Nazareth with God: he was the Son of God in the true sense of the term. "You are my Son, the beloved," says the voice from heaven. The following is not exclusive to Luke: Matthew and Mark use similar terms. While Jesus was praying, 'heaven was opened': in three words, a decisive event! Communication between heaven and earth is re-established; the prayer of the believing people has been heard; for centuries, this was the expectation of the Jewish people. "Oh, if thou wouldest rend the heavens and descend, before thee the mountains would shake, as fire burns up the stubble, as fire makes the waters boil," said Isaiah (Is 63:19-64:1). The waters are present, for this takes place at the Jordan; fire is evoked: 'He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire', said John the Baptist. And Luke continues: 'And the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove'. Here the Spirit is not associated with the violence of fire, but with the dove, a symbol of gentleness and fragility. This is not a contradiction: strength and violence... gentleness and fragility, such is love, such is the Spirit.
The four evangelists mention this manifestation of the Spirit in the form of a dove: in the three synoptic Gospels, the expressions are very similar: Matthew and Mark say that the Spirit descends "like a dove", while in Luke "the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form, like a dove". In the Gospel of John, it is John the Baptist who later recounts the scene: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptise with water had told me: 'He on whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, it is he who baptises in the Holy Spirit'. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God' (Jn 1:32-34).
This representation of the dove is certainly very significant, since all four evangelists reported it. What could it evoke for them? In the Old Testament, it evokes first of all the Creation: the Genesis text does not mention the dove, it simply says "the spirit of God hovered over the waters" (Gen 1:2). But in Jewish meditation, it was learned to recognise in this breath the Spirit of God himself; and a rabbinic commentary on Genesis states: "The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters like a dove hovering over its young, but not touching them" (Talmud of Babylon). Moreover, the dove evoked the Covenant between God and mankind, renewed after the Flood; one is reminded of Noah's release of the dove: it was she who indicated to Noah that the Flood was over and that life could resume. Even more significantly, the beloved of the Song of Songs calls his beloved "my dove, in the clefts of the rock... my sister, my friend, my dove, my all pure" (Ct 2:14; 5:2). Now, the Jewish people read the Song of Songs as God's declaration of love to humanity. We are thus at the dawn of a new era: new Creation, new Covenant.
At that moment, says Luke, "a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son the beloved, in you I have put my pleasure'". There is no doubt that this voice is that of God himself: for a long time, the people of Israel no longer had prophets, but the rabbis affirmed that nothing prevents God from revealing himself directly and that his voice, coming from the heavens, groans like a dove. Now, this phrase "there came a voice from heaven: 'You are my Son the Beloved: in you I have set my delight'" was not new to Jewish ears: it was all the more solemn because they were the words with which the prophets spoke of the Messiah. At that moment, John the Baptist understood: the dove of the Spirit designated the Messiah. A question arises: why did Jesus, who had not sinned, ask to be baptised? One might answer that the opposite would have been surprising. How could he have dissociated himself from the great movement of the eager conversion crowds that flocked around the Baptist? Moreover, Luke certainly had in mind the Servant Songs from the second book of Isaiah: "He was numbered among the evildoers" (Is 53:12). Luke himself mentions this in the heart of the Passion (Lk 22:37).
Jesus' baptism has a profound meaning: although He is without sin, He undergoes this rite to identify Himself with sinful humanity and to fulfil all justice. This gesture prefigures His mission as Redeemer, which He will bring to fulfilment through His passion, death and resurrection. Moreover, Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry and is a manifestation of the Trinity, with the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon Jesus, the beloved son of the Father.
+Giovanni D’Ercole
