Baptism of the Lord - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2020

Over the past few weeks we have been confronted with frightening images of the horrific bushfires ravaging our dear country. There have been deaths; injuries; destruction of wildlife on an incomprehensible scale; stock losses; properties destroyed; towns and villages threatened. The litany goes on. But that is not the whole story. There have been wonderful instances of courage and self-sacrifice, an outpouring of national grief, financial assistance and offers of help to those in need. Tremendous reserves of sheer human goodness and of love have been on display.

If only we could somehow succeed in maintaining and even extending such beautiful attitudes when life eventually drops back to “business as usual”. We need them. We need to deepen our capacity to weep, to reach out consistently to those in need. We need to succeed in cooperating beyond times of danger and stress. We need to broaden the circle of those whom we are prepared to love. We need hearts of flesh all the time.

Today’s readings strike me as significant. In today’s Gospel passage, when Jesus first met John the Baptist, he seemed motivated, like any good Jew, [indeed, like his father Joseph, like a lot of us], simply to do the right thing, to do God’s will as best he could: “it is fitting that we should do all that righteousness demands”. He was loyal to the institution of Judaism, interested even in helping it become better.

But loyalty gets us only so far. Loyalty is good, but we can do better. To persevere in difficult, disheartening times, we need more than loyalty to institutions, whether it be to the Church or the nation. We need something more human. We need to treasure relationships and move beyond limiting boundaries. We need to respect each other. We need to care.

As the Gospel showed, the factor that led Jesus beyond the reform movement initiated by the Baptist to his own special mission was his personal experience at his baptism of the love of God his Father, when the “voice from heaven” declared: “This is my Son, the Beloved.” At our baptism, God called each of us beyond any servant/master relationship to astonishingly more: “You are my son/daughter”. Every child/parent relationship is quite unique. There is no other relationship that in its spontaneous potential is quite like it. It generates a fierce love, enabling parents to risk their lives for it.

But the “voice” said more, referring to Jesus as “the Beloved”. “Beloved’ belongs particularly to adult, peer relationships that move beyond spontaneity through intimacy to commitment. We can “fall in love” with God, as it were. And when we do, it makes all the difference, releasing an extraordinary eagerness and joy.

Yet even this love can be too narrow. However, in it lies hidden an energy that seeks to move us beyond the constricting boundaries of family, ethnic culture, supportive community, political loyalties, even national interest. We need to recognise and surrender to that energy if we are to be of real use in facing the problems confronting our Church and our world.

Today’s second reading commented, “God does not have favourites”. We can make peace with that idea as we come to realise that all true love is inclusive love. God loves each of us, each nation, no more, no less, than anyone else, than any other nation. To appreciate that, we need to have discovered that all true love is totally unconditional. That takes maturity; and maturing takes time and practice. The more we grow, the more peace-filled we, and our world, become. We can check how honest we are with ourselves by noticing how we relate to Jesus’ surprisingly realistic invitation to “love our enemies”.

Humanity will destroy itself [we already have the capacity] unless a critical mass of our human family quickly evolves to love inclusively. We face real danger.

There is hope. Our world is constituted from love by love for love. Evolution unfolds towards inclusivity. People’s response to the current bushfire catastrophe is one clear sign of hope.