Well it is hard to believe that Christmas is over and we’re moving on into the first few weeks of Ordinary Time, green returns!
Ordinary Time starts with the commencement of Our Lord’s public ministry, his Baptism by John. In the Gospel, John is hesitant to baptize Jesus because he knows that Jesus has more authority. Jesus, on the other hand, assures him it is the right thing to do…for now! Jesus is the one the prophet Isaiah is referring to in the first reading. He is going to be God’s chosen one who will bring a kindly, compassionate justice that liberates us to be a people bound to God in a covenant of love. Peter, in the second reading from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us that this covenant is now offered without partiality to all.
We, too, are people of this new covenant of love through our baptisms. Perhaps we could put an extra focus on living up to our baptismal calling so that God is ‘ Well pleased” with us.
May God bless you, your families, and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter