With the voice of authority, He commands unclean spirits and devils to obey him. The psalmist urges the faithful to “hear God’s voice” and “harden not your hearts”. The following of Christ is no easy road, but rather the commitment to open oneself fully to the healing power of God in our midst. The constant turning of life’s joys and sorrows to God will permit the Christian to live free in the knowledge and love of God.
Bowing down in worship before God in the Liturgy, the Church is transformed in bits and pieces into the image of Christ, and becomes the presence of Christ in the world. Some will say Liturgy is a waste of time and “God doesn’t need it!" Indeed, one of the prefaces lifts our hearts to God with the words, “you have no need of our praise, yet the desire to praise you, is itself your gift.” Praise God with every fiber of your being.
Teach me your ways, O Lord. We are instructed in a way of
life by the Church’s liturgy. The Psalms for the people of Israel
was their ‘school of prayer.’ For the Christian, it is the texts
of the liturgy, Scripture, song and silence that guides the innermost
reaches of our heart to follow God. The call of the disciples is
the classic moment to focus on the ‘risks and rewards’ of discipleship
and encourage all to ‘stand up’ and be counted as followers of Christ.
Through stumbling and falling, ‘toils and snares’ we recognize that
we have come a long way, but need to progress so much further in
the ways of the Kingdom of God. The world as we know it is passing
away to be replaced evermore by the vision of peace, love and understanding
envisioned by the Christ, expressed in the written Word of God,
broken open in homily, ritual and song.
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!"
The beginning of the calendar year coincides with this utterance
of John the Baptist. Sunday by Sunday the Christ is revealed in
sacred song and spoken word so that the Christian faithful might
know and listen to the voice of the One who calls each by name.
Our preaching, proclamation and sung praise lead to the one response
demanded in our common worship, “Here I am, Lord, I come to
do you will.”
Our liturgy these first Sundays in Ordinary Time should maintain
some continuity with Christmas/Epiphany so that we don’t break completely
with what is our ‘high feast’ celebrating Christ’s birth, but continue
the feast and celebration through to the Presentation of the Lord
(Feb. 2).
The claim of the first reading, that everyone who had been put
into exile would come home to Israel, was filled with such an exuberant
hope that not only would the children of Israel come back, but also
that the whole world would come to see Jerusalem as their home.
They would come bringing their wealth, and as we sing the Psalm
we see that it would be a glorious day. The visit of the Magi recounted
in the Gospel makes this dream a reality, but the true treasure
comes in the second reading, where Paul recounts how God revealed
to him that the Gentiles could be saved, that they could come home
too.
No more do we speak of 'us' and 'them' there are no longer nations,
gentiles, Jews, Israelites, all take on that marvelous name of 'coheir'
'copartner' and members, truly sisters and brothers of Christ and
in Christ and through Christ. It is a great day indeed, but also
a great challenge. For if all of this is true, no Christian can
discriminate on the basis of race or nation - we are all called
to share in the one destiny.
The first reading and psalm today takes account not only of the
solemnity, but of the day; it is a blessing upon the year and on
all of us. Why should we, on this first day of the civil year, contemplate
the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as the Mother of God, the
Theotokos?
If we understand the Christmas story, the answer is clear. At
the start of this year we see Mary in her role as witness, "keeping"
all the things that were happening around her and "reflecting" upon
her life as evidence of all that God had done. For all our interest
in New Year's resolutions and the like, what we really need to do
is to recognize the work of God in our lives, to keep these things
in our hearts and to live them out to the full.
Today is also the world day of prayer for peace, a cause that
the Virgin, who saw her son die a violent death, is surely glad
to have share her day.
