{"id":1863,"date":"2016-01-09T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T07:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2016-01-09T09:04:20","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:04:20","slug":"homily-points-for-baptism-of-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/homily-points-for-baptism-of-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily points for Baptism of the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><strong>Baptism of the Lord \u2013 Year C<\/strong><\/h5>\n<h6><em><strong>January 9, 2016<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n<p><strong>Homily<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, Pope Francis was guest of the Lutheran Christian community in Rome.<\/li>\n<li>He was fielded a tricky question asking whether a Catholic man could accompany his Lutheran wife to share Holy Communion together.<\/li>\n<li>The Pope stressed that the Eucharist is a sacrament of unity and that it pointed to being together in faith.<\/li>\n<li>The doctrine was clear but, on unity, was that unity not the one Baptism that we share.\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1833\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1833\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/baptism.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1833\" src=\"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/baptism-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Jesus baptised by John the Baptist\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/baptism-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/baptism.jpg 570w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1833\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jesus baptised by John the Baptist<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>Are we not already together through Baptism? He could say no more because Baptism gave the answer.<\/li>\n<li>The World Council of Churches has said as much for some time.<\/li>\n<li>In its document BEM \u2013 Baptism, Eucharist, Ministry \u2013 it tries to unite the Christian churches. Specific church disciplines have frustrated this effort but many Christians are governed by what Christians have in common than by external differences!<\/li>\n<li>The poet John Donne once said that \u201cno man is an island\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Perhaps Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, felt the need to join a community.<\/li>\n<li>At a certain moment, against the wishes of John, he went down and came out of the water.<\/li>\n<li>He both joined the community and deepened his relationship with God: \u201cYou are my Son, the Beloved.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>I recently read a short article by Father Timothy Radcliffe, the Dominican, <em>Towards a More Humble Church<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>It reminded me of the humility in the Baptism of Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>Radcliffe points out that the Church, like all institutions, seeks to strengthen its power and influence. It manifests a \u201cculture of control\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>He sees problems with this. He pleads for a Church where we are all children of God Father and where authority is never abusive.<\/li>\n<li>My image of the Church, as an older Catholic, is that we have undergone an earthquake.<\/li>\n<li>We have been through great change. Some wonderful, some bewildering; we are still stunned.<\/li>\n<li>The baptism of Jesus suggests to me that the way forward, for a Church in fear for its life, is not through consolidating resources; pushing its own identity; bigger strategic planning (schools, hospitals and bureaucracies) or even clever marketing. We do not need bigger CEOs or multiplying employees.<\/li>\n<li>It is to rediscover, with the Pope, the basic character of Baptism.<\/li>\n<li>The singular sign and reality of walking with Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>In doing so we affirm our hope and courage.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus did not come out of the water alone; neither did we.<\/li>\n<li>Even if we feel anxious about our faith or wonder about our Church. We are not alone and we have every reason for confidence.<\/li>\n<li>The Christian is never alone. This is basic to Baptism.<\/li>\n<li>Do not worry too much about the storms and challenges, especially of the young and the future.<\/li>\n<li>Our way forward is not known but it is sure. It is not as we planned but it is a future.<\/li>\n<li>Our challenge is to keep faith alive and let God\u2019s grace strengthen our resolve.<\/li>\n<li>I always remember the words of Bishop Jim Cuskelly: \u201cNo cowards in the Kingdom\u201d<\/li>\n<li>And just the other night, when leaving the movie <em>Star Wars<\/em>, supposedly a Christian allegory, I remembered the words \u201cThe belonging you look for is in front of you, not behind you.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baptism of the Lord \u2013 Year C January 9, 2016 Homily Recently, Pope Francis was guest of the Lutheran Christian community in Rome. He was fielded a tricky question asking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily-notes","tag-baptism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1865,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}