Go forth

"The feast of the Baptism of the Lord which we will celebrate this Sunday is one of the greatest feast days in the Church's calendar but also one of the least understood. Although Baptism speaks to us of washing or cleansing, in the instance of Our Lord, there was no need for Him to be cleansed of sin. We look at this feast day, instead, as the celebration of the consecration of His human nature for the mission of salvation."

With these words, Fr.Euteneuer begins one of the most cogent homilies on this special day. He speaks of it as a day in which we are reminded that we have been consecrated to God. I heard three homilies this Sunday, at three different parishes, and each of them drove home this message:

Today is about us, and our going forward to announce a year of favor to a world in need of hearing this message. Thus begins Ordinary Time, which as we all know......is anything but ordinary for the Christian. Note the central focus of this painting. Has the Eucharist become something ordinary for you? Has it never had tremendous meaning? Have you, as a Christian, lost sight of its significance?

I found some children's books this weekend about Jesus. "What if Jesus were walking with you?" they pose the question. I also heard a song on the Christian radio station- "I can only imagine" the lyrics waxed about meeting Jesus for real.

We do. In so many ordinary ways we do. We meet and touch Jesus, and life is not ordinary. It is not a succession of small nothings, to borrow Jane Austen's phrase. Yet if it's become that way, we don't have to look far, we don't have to imagine. He is here. He is with us. His manifestations are everywhere discernible in so many ordinary ways.

Bread. Love. Wisdom.

How will you find Jesus today? Not where you were expecting perhaps, but find you will. And when you do, live accordingly. Live as you have been made: washed and new and ready. Jesus sends us knowing that we face hardship, battle, rejection. He would rise from the water and face the same. He has prepared us for this task. Let us then follow~