Isaiah 43:1 – 7 / Psalm 29 / Luke 3:15 – 17, 21 – 22
This is the homily prepared to be given at St. John’s,
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, January 9, 2022.
“ENTERING THE STUFF OF LIFE”
(Homily text: Luke 3:15 – 17, 21 – 22)
If
we think about it, we’re surrounded by lots and lots of “stuff” in life. All
sorts and kinds of “stuff”, good stuff, useless stuff, bad stuff, entertaining
stuff, etc.
It
seems to me that “stuff” is an unavoidable facet of human life. We all have to
deal with “stuff”, whether it be the challenges of the bad kind of “stuff”, or
the joys of the good kind, or the everyday, ho-hum “stuff” of daily living,
just to name a few of the different kinds of “stuff” that is bound to come our
way sooner or later.
Our
Lord’s coming among us tells us that “stuff” is an important aspect of life.
Our Lord came and dove right into the “stuff” of life, yes, even that
hard-to-face kind of stuff like suffering, rejection, and death.
In
our Lord’s baptism, an event we recall on the First Sunday after the Epiphany
each year, we witness our Lord’s dealing with the all-important “stuff” of
ensuring a right relationship with His (and our) heavenly Father. After all, in
Matthew’s account[1] of the Lord’s baptism, Jesus tells John the Baptist that it is to “fulfill all
righteousness” that He has come to be baptized.
Baptism
means the passing through the water (remember how the early Church did baptism:
The candidates were totally immersed in the water three times, one time for
each member of the Holy Trinity). We know well that water can destroy life, and
yet, it is indispensable for all life to continue and to flourish. In that
sense, water is the perfect outward-and-visible sign of the inner and spiritual
grace[2] which is conferred in baptism, for in baptism, we die to our old selves, and we
rise to a new life in relationship to God.[3]
The
Lord immerses Himself in the “stuff” of life, sharing with us every conceivable
emotion, hardship, temptation, experience and joy that human life is composed
of. In so doing, He says to us, “I’ve shared with you everything you will
experience, and in so doing, I offer you a new, richer and fuller life.”
Thanks
be to God!
AMEN.
[1] See Matthew 3:13 – 17.
[2] The classic definition of a Sacrament is that it is an “outward and visible sign of an inner and invisible grace”.
[3] See Romans 6:3 – 9.
