Chúa Nhật Thứ Nhất

[hoangvu]

CÁC BÀI ĐỌC BẰNG TIẾNG ANH

BÀI ĐỌC I: First Reading: Book of Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
ĐÁP CA: Resp. Psalm: Ps 104:1-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-30

Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your chariot,
you ride on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are filled with good things.
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit,
they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.

BÀI ĐỌC II: Second Reading: Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

PHÚC ÂM: Gospel: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the 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 Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

SUY NIỆM PHÚC ÂM

CON YÊU DẤU
CN1TNC: Lễ Chúa Giêsu Chịu Phép Rửa (Lc 3:15-16,21-22)

Có lẽ trong tương quan họ hàng, Gioan Tiền Hô cũng phần nào biết về Chúa Giêsu, nên ca tụng Người là Đấng đến sau nhưng cao trọng hơn, thế nhưng điều đó không tăng thêm gì vào bản tính Thiên Chúa trong Chúa Giêsu sau khi từ giòng nước Giođan bước lên. Điều làm chúng ta tôn thờ, cảm mến và suy phục là cả Ba Ngôi Thiên Chúa cùng hiện diện trong lúc Chúa Giêsu chịu phép rửa; đồng thời gieo vào lòng con người điều thắc mắc suy tư cho chính mình: Tại sao Chúa Giêsu là Thiên Chúa lại có thể cùng với nhân loại bước xuống giòng sông Giođan chịu phép rửa như bao người khác?

Những yếu tố chính trong Bài Tin Mừng ngắn ngủi hôm nay chiếu ánh sáng vào Mầu Nhiệm Nhập Thể và Cứu Chuộc của Chúa Giêsu qua hành động chịu phép rửa. Gioan công bố trước đó rằng Chúa Giêsu là Đấng cao trọng, có thể là vị tiên tri vĩ đại nhất theo kiểu người Do Thái hiểu, nhưng đúng hơn là Chiên Thiên Chúa gánh tội trần gian do miệng Gioan nói ra sau này. Vì là Chiên Thiên Chúa gánh tội trần gian, nên hành động chịu phép rửa cùng với con người trong giòng sông Giođan biểu lộ tính nhập thể làm người của Chúa Giêsu. Việc nhập thể và cứu chuộc của Người là do tự nguyện, nên hành động chịu phép rửa vừa mang tính cách gương sáng, và vừa biểu lộ con đường Người chọn để hoàn tất công cuộc cứu chuộc của Người. Thánh kinh không nói gì đến cuộc đối thoại giữa Gioan Tiền Hô và Chúa Giêsu trước đó, chỉ tường thuật sau khi chịu phép rửa: Chúa Giêsu âm thầm ra khỏi giòng nước và cầu nguyện. Việc cầu nguyện này biểu lộ nét đẹp tuyệt vời của Bản tính nhân loại nơi Chúa Giêsu.

Để thời điểm thực hiện công cuộc cứu chuộc bắt đầu, như một nghi lễ cắt băng khánh thành, Chúa Cha giới thiệu Con Một của Ngài cho nhân loại: Đây là Con Ta yêu dấu, đẹp lòng Ta; và Chúa Thánh Thần hiện diện trong hình bồ câu trên đầu giống như một nghi thức tấn phong sức mạnh trên hành trình cứu chuộc của Chúa Giêsu. Tất cả biến cố nói lên tình yêu Thiên Chúa Ba Ngôi đối với nhân loại trong nghi thức chịu phép rửa của Chúa Giêsu. Tình yêu ấy mạc khải một tín điều cao cả: Có Thiên Chúa, và Thiên Chúa có ba ngôi: Ngôi Cha, Ngôi Con và Ngôi Thánh Thần; cả ba ngôi cùng đồng hành trong Chúa Giêsu trên hành trình rao giảng Tin Mừng Cứu Độ nhân loại. Biến cố Chúa Giêsu chịu phép rửa như đưa con người trở về với thân phận yếu đuối và tội lỗi đích thực của mình cần được cứu thoát, và dạy họ hãy tôn thờ tình thương Thiên Chúa trong Con yêu dấu của Ngài là Chúa Giêsu, Chiên Thiên Chúa, Đấng gánh tội cho họ.

Lm. Raphael Xuân Nguyên





START OF THE MOVEMENT
(John Walsh)

Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, which recalls the manifestation or showing forth of God in the person of Jesus Christ, before the gentile world, represented in the persons of the wise men who came from the east. But rather strangely, in the Orthodox Churches of the east, for example in Greece, Russia, Armenia, it is today that the Epiphany is celebrated, and it is not the Magi story but the Baptism of Christ which is central to the readings even as you heard it read just now. The reason for this is that the Eastern Churches, which always focused on the mystical aspect of the Christian faith, regarded the entire life of Christ as a whole series of epiphanies, or revelations of the divinity, of which Christ's Baptism in the Jordan, by John, was the first and most important.

We begin to see the reason for this when we recall how Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to his Apostles in the Upper Room, and told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and then you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 ). So the primary function of the Apostles was to bear witness. And if we ask what witness, we find the answer in what St Peter demanded, when the Apostles met to choose a successor to Judas Iscariot, “You must choose someone, who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus has been travelling round with us,someone who has been with us, right from the time of the baptism of John, until the day when Jesus was taken up from us, and he can act with us as a witness ” (Acts 1:21). So the starting point for the testimony of the Apostles, who were the special witnesses chosen by the Holy Spirit, was that event which we recall in the liturgy today, namely the Baptism of Jesus by John.

We may wonder why Jesus, who was absolutely sinless, submitted to this baptism by John, a baptism which was purely symbolic, a sign of the repentance which John preached, but not a sacrament. Jesus himself saw it as a compliance with the wishes of the Father. He humbled himself, and proclaimed himself as being one with sinful humanity, without however condoning its sins, or being in any way guilty of sin himself. When Jesus comes out of the water, we have the first revelation in scripture of the Blessed Trinity of persons in the one true God, the Son being baptised, the Holy Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove, the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son; with him I am well pleased."
St John, in his first Letter stated, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God” (1 Jn 4:15). This should be a source of great consolation to us, because by our baptism we have acknowledged the divine sonship of Jesus, and so we have become temples of God's Holy Spirit; we are set apart for the worship of God, and like the Apostles we too are commissioned to give witness to the continuing presence on earth of Christ, putting into effect his work of salvation.

Today it is difficult for us, who have, as a general rule, become members of the Church at infancy, to understand the joy which the oath of allegiance to God, taken at their baptism, brought to the adult converts to Christianity in those early days of the Church. For them this sacrament was the conscious and blessed beginning of what they called the “Way,” the road to God mapped out by Christ. Jesus, we say, was king, priest and prophet, and his first public act as prophet was his baptism.Prophets had a habit of linking some striking symbolic actions with what they wanted people to learn. For example, Jeremiah carried a yoke on his shoulders to let Israel know it was in bondage. Isaiah never married to let Israel know how spiritually poor and barren she was. Jesus himself cursed the fig tree which being withered next day symbolised Jerusalem's rejection of the salvation offered her. Jesus' baptism also was a prophetic action, in that by it he was telling people that they were in need of conversion, and should turn to God once more, as John the Baptist was telling them.

Jesus's baptism moreover was for Israel a sign of its repentance and salvation. And so likewise should our baptism be for all of us. If John came across to the people as a grim ascetic, threatening them with inexorable judgment, Jesus comes across as a giver of hope. John was the prophet of woe; Jesus the prophet of salvation.

BAPTISM OF THE LORD

(Peter Briscoe)

When telling stories to children we are told that we must always keep the details familiar. The world of Cinderella or Snow White once it has been created in a particular way with its own familiar contours almost becomes part of the established world-view of the child. It annoys or disturbs the child if the story is told in an unfamiliar way. Quite often when I've tried telling old familiar bed-time stories to children I have had the experience of being “corrected” because I deviated from telling the story “the right way,” that is the way the child has already heard it. Usually the child proceeded to tell me the story properly (all the while displaying and ill concealed patronising patience with this silly elder who couldn't remember a simple story.)
As we grow older of course we seek variations on the old familiar patterns. We grow to learn that the same stories can be told from different points of view. We get to know that a simple thing like telling our own story is not so simple after all. New experiences, the depths of joy or profound suffering, may reveal to us parts of ourselves that had lain hidden. In the light of new experience we may not only tell our own story from a different perspective we may realise that we would have to begin in at an entirely new place.

And so it was for the early Church as they retold their story in the story of Jesus. From one clear perspective their story began after Easter with the revelation of the risen Lord but above all with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Their experience of the Spirit was the gift of the risen lord but as they began to tell the story of this Spirit in their lives they inevitably had to begin to tell the story of Jesus. As the One through whom the Spirit had come to them they began to rediscover the Spirit in the story of Jesus' earthly ministry as well as in that of the post-Easter Church.
Just as their own story had begun with the gift of the Spirit, so they began the story of Jesus with his anointing with the Spirit. The gospel story that unfolded was not a biography of the entire life of Jesus but the story of his ministry as that of the Son and Servant of God empowered with the Spirit. It was a ministry exercised no only in the power of the Spirit but also in the humility of the servant. As the One anointed with the Spirit he “went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."

However, the powerful and authoritative ministry of Jesus not only brought healing and grace to many but it also provoked criticism, hostility and rejection. His exorcisms brought healing and peace to many but also led to charges of being in league with the devil (Mk.3:20ff.) Towards the end of the ministry Jesus attacks the corruption of the temple and this provokes the challenge - “By what authority do you do these things?” (Mk.11:28.) Jesus answers by means of a counter-question: “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” This counter-question was not intended as a way of avoiding the issue. Jesus did mean to link his authority to the baptism of John. It has been from the moment of his baptism that his authoritative ministry had begun.
When the first Christians began the story of Jesus with his baptism it was away of reminding themselves of insights which only emerged in the course of time and under the influence of the guiding Spirit promised by Jesus (Jn 16:13-14.) It was a way of declaring that the authority of Jesus is the authority of the Spirit of God, the same power that these first Christian story tellers also experienced in their own lives.

If this story was told to establish that the Spirit was at the origin of Jesus' ministry it was also told to establish the identity of this Spirit-anointed One. This one who exercises the messianic ministry is the Son on whom the Father bestows the Spirit and thereby reveals his identity as Son.
When Matthew came to retell the familiar gospel story he did not begin it in the same way or at the same point as his predecessors. Like his predecessors he did begin by setting out to reveal the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, but he achieved this through the medium of his Infancy narratives. The further revelation that Jesus is Son of God which occurs at the moment of baptism, is not for Matthew the revelation of something new but the revelation of its significance for Jesus' mission and ministry which is about to begin.

It may be that this story was retold and rewritten in the early Church because it became a model for what occurred in the baptism practised by the Church. It was a reminder that all the baptised are given a share in Jesus' sonship of the Father through the gift of the Spirit. In Matthew it has become a story that does not mark the beginning of a life or even anew identity but the beginning of a ministry. It is a challenge to all the baptised to realise that the new identity they receive at baptism calls them to allow the Spirit of Christ to be active in their lives. They may have received a new identity but it is not so much a status to be possessed as a vocation to a life like that of the Servant of God - a life dedicated to doing good, to establishing justice, bringing freedom to the oppressed and healing to the afflicted.