Hymns for Mass – Press Here

FIRST READING (The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it.)

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (40:1-5, 9-11)

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made

a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care. —The Word of the Lord.

R. Thanks be to God.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30)

R. O bless the Lord, my soul. (Ps 104:1)

O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. You have spread out the heavens like a tent-cloth. (R)

You have constructed your palace upon the waters. You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind. You make the winds your messengers, and flaming fire your ministers. (R)

How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all—the earth is full of your creatures; the sea also, great and wide, in which are schools without number of living things both small and great. (R)

They look to you to give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. (R)

If you take away their breath they perish and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (R)

SECOND READING (Jesus Christ saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.)

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to Titus (2:11-14; 3:4-7)

Beloved: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.

When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. —The Word of the Lord.

R. Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Cf. Lk 3:16)

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

John said: One mightier than I is coming; he will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (R)

GOSPEL (When Jesus had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened.)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (3:15-16, 21-22)

The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”—The Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11
Psalm 104 “O bless the Lord, my soul”
Titus 2: 11-14; 3:4-7
Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Though one would hardly suspect it from current customs and traditions, the feast we celebrate today was once considered one of the most important feasts in the whole liturgical year – far more important than Christmas, the Birth of the Lord, which we treasure so much throughout the world, and even more important than last week’s celebration of the Epiphany, the revelation of the Christ-Child “to the nations” – to the non-Jewish world.

The importance of the feast can be seen directly from Scripture.

Only two of the Gospels (Matthew and Luke) mention the birth of Jesus, and only one of the Gospels (Matthew) mentions the Magi. But ALL FOUR GOSPELS mention the Baptism of the Lord. More importantly, all four evangelists recall the Baptism of the Lord in very similar detail and record it in virtually the exact same words. This is evidence that the story was clearly treasured by early Christians, widely disseminated, and carefully passed on in the ORAL TRADITION.

Outside of the passion, death, and resurrection, the only other incident in the life of Our Lord that is recalled in all four Gospels with similar importance in the Scriptures is the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

At the time of Jesus, when John came calling all to baptism and repentance of sin, the Jewish people believed that the heavens had been closed for hundreds of years. For countless generations prior to John, there had not been a prophet in Israel, for prophecy did not long survive the fall of the monarchy (587 BC). The Jewish people worried that they were so long without any active communication from God in the heavens – and this was why they esteemed prophets – as messengers and intermediaries between God and the world. They worried and questioned why God’s voice had been silenced and wondered what the silence meant. Meanwhile, left to its own devices, the world, they felt, was becoming more and more mired in sin and evil. And don’t we sometimes feel the same even today?

Like Isaiah and the Psalmist in today’s readings, the people had prayed that God would break open the heavens and reach down to save them and Isaiah answers with the beautiful poetry that begins, “Comfort thee, give comfort to my people,” and the Psalmist replies with words of assurance of God’s care and blessings. So, when Luke writes that “heaven opened” when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan, it marks a special moment in the history of revelation. The splitting open of the heavens signifies that God has once again ESTABLISHED COMMUNICATIONS WITH MANKIND. God is once again actively intervening in human affairs through a very special agent of his own choosing.

The SPIRIT OF GOD appears in the form of a dove and hovers over Jesus and the water. The imagery calls to mind the opening scene in the Book of Genesis with the first of its two beautiful creation stories. There, in one translation, it tells us “the earth was a formless wasteland and God’s Spirit – Ruach – hovered over the water.” The appearance of God’s Spirit in the guise of a dove signifies a new creation is about to take place. God is indeed about to re-create the world, restore the primeval order he intended, and start things afresh with Christ. This will take place with the new baptism that Jesus will introduce, a baptism that John describes as not merely of water but of fire and the holy Spirit, indicating that, unlike his own form of baptism, it will have intrinsic power to forgive sin. Thus, although Jesus did not need the baptism of John, it is in this act that God sets the stage to destroy the effects of original sin and fulfill the promise he made in Isaiah 65 – “Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.”

Then, a voice from heaven is heard to say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The beginning of the sentence recalls Psalm 2:7 in which Yahweh declares of David and his lineage, “You are my son; today I am your father.” This is just one of many Messianic psalms that speak of the Messiah as a descendant of David’s royal line who would save his people, Israel.

Isaiah portrays the suffering servant as one who will please God and save Israel through selfless service and sacrifice. And so, the words of God at Jesus’ baptism suggest that HE is the long-awaited Messiah who has at last come to save God’s people. While a king of David’s royal line, he will save Israel not by might or privilege or power, but by suffering, service and death.

And a final connection – in ancient Hebrew, the word for “servant” was the same word used for “child, son, or daughter.” In the natural order, it reflected the fact that in a poor agrarian society – all hands had to help out on the farm for the family to survive. In the supernatural order, it implies that the true son or daughter of God is the one who does the Father’s will and obeys his commandments. Jesus suggests the same in the Parable of the Two Sons.

But the Baptism of the Lord also ushers in the “adult life” of Jesus. It marks that moment when the heavenly plan of the Father for the Son is manifested, and the SON makes a commitment to obey, to submit to and be docile to his Father’s will.

Growing from childhood to adulthood is something done “without a new owner’s manual,” though I am sure many parents wish there was an app for that. It is more complicated – it involves circumstances that revolve around choice, trust, faith, and often costs (not of money, but of selfless sacrifice).

People meet and fall in love – and make a commitment.

A couple marry – and make a commitment to have a family.

A young man or woman feels called by God – and makes a commitment…

Someone is asked to be a godparent – and makes a commitment.

In all these, COMMITMENT is the key element. Nothing else will work without it. Jesus makes his commitment and the heavens open and the voice cries out, “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests!”

In Baptism we make a commitment. This coming Easter, our community will be blessed with another group of adult catechumens making such a commitment, and each month we welcome a new child through Baptism into our community. As we celebrate the baptism of the Lord we can also ask,

“What has happened to our own Baptismal call?” “Is it still there fresh, alive, indelible, irrevocable and irreversible?”

Remember, our Baptismal call and commitment remains the deepest truth of our life – our faith. In this new year, facing as we are even more challenges we need to ask, “How well am I following my own Baptismal Commitment.” Let us turn our eyes to God the Father, and to his Son who we follow, and recommit ourselves to every word he speaks. He was sent into this world to draw us to the Father, so let us allow Him to fulfill that mission in our own life.

“Lord, we believe that YOU are the Son of the Eternal Father and the Savior if the World. we believe that YOU have brought about a new era of grace and truth and that we are called to follow YOU wherever YOU lead. As we begin this liturgical season of Ordinary Time, may it be a time of extraordinary grace in which we daily heed YOUR voice, for Jesus, we trust in YOU.”

Prayers

Celebrant: On this day, the heavens were opened as the Spirit descended upon Christ at his Baptism. In prayer, we ask the Father to unseal the fountain of his blessings upon the world.

READER: For the Church, like her Lord, the Beloved of the Father, that his favour may always rest upon her, and his Spirit overshadow her with truth and power, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: For our Diocese, that under the guidance of our Bishop Stephen Chow we may continue to be a beacon of hope and faith for those around us, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: For those for whom their faith has weakened, that the Spirit given in their baptism will rekindle faith and love in their hearts, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: For ourselves and for our community, that we may eagerly follow Christ’s call given at our baptism and establish true justice on earth, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: [SMC only For the deceased members of the Tsoi and Edwards families for whom this Mass is offered, and] For all the departed whose memory we recall, that the power of God’s grace may bring them into the fulness of glory promised, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

CELEBRANT: Almighty Father, by our baptism you adopted us as your sons and daughters. Hear our prayers through that favor which rests on your beloved Son, who is Lord for ever and ever. (all) AMEN.