January 13, 2019 - "The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord"

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord which marks the end of the Christmas season.  We return to Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday, which will be on March 6, 2019.  The Baptism of the Lord is the feast day that commemorates the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.  Today we only commemorate two major feasts days with eight days of celebration called an Octave.  These are Christmas and Easter.  Prior to 1955 there was also an Octave for the Epiphany.  In that year Pope Pius XII instituted a separate liturgical commemoration for the Baptism of the Lord.  The Holy Father established January 13 as the date of the commemoration.  He also used the Office and Mass for the Octave of the Epiphany that he had abolished for the new commemoration.  In 1969 Pope St. Paul VI set the date for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord as the first Sunday after January 6.  With that change the feast could be celebrated as early as January 9 but no later than January 13 (as it is this year).  Pope St. John Paul II began a custom whereby on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Pope baptizes infants in the Sistine Chapel.
 
At the beginning of a New Year, people often make resolutions that they hope to carry out during the New Year.  Some popular resolutions include improving one’s physical well-being by eating healthy food, losing weight, exercising more, drinking less alcohol, quitting smoking, stopping biting one’s nails, etc.  All of these are good things to do.  I would encourage anyone who wants to pursue these worthy goals to do so!
 
I was listening recently to a podcast by Bishop Robert Barron on New Year’s Resolutions and want to pass on to three suggestions to practice in the New Year.  I like the fact that there are only three resolutions.  When I make a list of things, my success rate decreases in proportion to the number of items on the list.  I’ll have a greater chance at success if there are only three items instead of six or twelve items.   At least for me, less is more!  Let me give you Bishop Barron’s three suggestions.
 
1. Prayer.  Thomas Merton was once asked by someone how to improve one’s life of prayer.  Merton’s advice was to find the time to do it.  We need to find time each day to lift our minds and hearts to God.  There are several time-honored practices that can be helpful.  One is the Rosary, especially if we take the time to contemplate the mysteries while praying the Our Father and Hail Marys aloud.  Another practice would be to pray the Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.  In the Eastern Christian tradition, a person inhales while saying the first part of the prayer:  Lord Jesus, Son of God and exhales while saying the second part:  Have mercy on me a sinner!  We can pray this quietly during a time of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.  Or we can pray in the car instead of pounding on the dash board in frustration when the traffic isn’t moving.  A third suggestion here is going to Mass.  If we are not attending Sunday Mass on a regular basis, that would be my first suggestion here:  attend Mass each weekend!  If we already attend each weekend, look at attending one day or several days during the week.

2.      Forgiving an enemy.  In this case an enemy could be someone whom we find annoying or who bugs us.  I suggest that we should seek to be reconciled with anyone with whom we feel estranged.  I remember the sad story of two sisters who lived across the street from each other.  For many years they had not spoken to one another over some long-forgotten matter.  One day, one of the sisters started to cross the street in an effort to be reconciled with her sister.  Half way across the street she lost her nerve and came back.  Shortly after that her sister suddenly died.  The surviving sister then lived with the sense of regret that they had not reconciled with each another before it was too late.  If you are reading this and you can think of someone with whom you should be reconciled, I would advise you to do something concrete about it now:  make a phone call, write a note, or make a visit.  Don’t put off to tomorrow what you should do today!
3. Comforting the afflicted.  Dorothy Day once made a remark that if we are baptized Christians serious about living the Christian life, then we should practice each day the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.  I am not going to list all of them here.  But I want to focus on a particular spiritual work of mercy:  Comforting the afflicted.  We all know people who are ill, lonely, anxious, bored, or afraid.  We should reach out to them.  St. Teresa of Calcutta observed that the greatest poverty people in places like New York, London, Chicago, or Washington face is spiritual poverty:  the poverty of being unloved.  Let’s see what we can do this year about bringing comfort to someone who needs it.
 
A final thought as we begin this New Year.  This comes from St. Augustine: “Bad times!  Troublesome times!  These men are saying.  Let our lives be good; and the times are good.  We make our times; such as we are, such are the times.”
 
Until next week,
 
Fr. John