Sunday, January 10th - The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
CHEERS! - A MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR
Cheers!
Today, we celebrate the last feast of the “Christmas Season” — The Baptism of the Lord. “Really”, you might say; Christmas was over two weeks ago, we are already 10 days into the New Year, and Jesus was 30 years old when he was baptized: so it can’t still be Christmas!
Well, let me explain: the Christmas Season is the season of “manifestations” or what we call in “church language”— epiphanies. The church teaches that Christ is “manifested” in several ways: to the Jewish shepherds in Bethlehem, to the Gentile Magi also in Bethlehem, by John the Baptist at the Jordan River and as a miracle-worker at the wedding feast at Cana. Each of these was a “beginning” moment in Jesus’ life: to the shepherds and Magi, the beginning of his very life; and at the River Jordan and at Cana as the beginning of his public ministry.
So, this feast of The Baptism of the Lord, is a transition — from his 30-year-long “private” life (spent mostly in Nazareth) to the start of his 3-year-long public ministry. Liturgical calendars are even divided about this feast: some make it the last day of the Christmas season and others make it the first day of Ordinary Time.
Now, Ordinary Time is not meant to be “ordinary” in the sense of routine or boring, but the time when we put our lives “in order”, that is, continuing to do the good things we did or learned about in the Advent/Christmas season. So, what are the best things you did this past, most recent, Christmas? Family time? Generous giving? Prayer? Reading? Meditation? Ordinary Time challenges you to keep this up — until the next season of challenges: Lent/Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17.
My guess is that most of you have already taken down your Christmas decorations at home. But Christmas isn’t over yet. That’s why you’ll still see our Christmas environment up at the church. Now, there is one more feast connected to Christmas: February 2, the feast of The Presentation of the Lord —always exactly 40 days after Christmas; so you could keep your decorations up until then.
Have a good week. God bless you.
Fr. Bill