St.
John’s
Mark
1, 1-11
This
is the beginning of the new word from the realm of the angels, sounding forth
through Jesus Christ. Fulfilled is the word of the prophet Isaiah:
Behold, I send my angel before your face.
He is to prepare your way.
Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of
the human soul
Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,
Make his paths straight, so that he may find
entrance into Man’s innermost being!
Thus
did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed
Baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgement of sin.
And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism
from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings.
John
wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and
wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed:
‘After
me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down befpre
Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but
He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [healing] Spirit.’
In
those days it happened: Jesus of Nazareth came to Galilee, and was baptized in
the Jordan by John.
And
at the same time as he rose up again out of the water, he beheld how the
spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the spirit of God descended upon him
like a dove.
And
a voice sounded from the world of the spirit:
‘You
are my son, the beloved —in you is my revelation.’ [‘Today I have conceived
(begotten) you.’ Luke
3:22]
1st
St. Johnstide
June 24,
2014
Mark 1: 1-11
 |
| Govert-Flinck |
At
Christmastime, we awakened into mid-winter darkness. The starlit heavens opened
up, and a choir of angels announced the approach of the great Sun-Spirit who
was to be born in mankind. Through late winter and spring, we watched him grow
as Jesus of Nazareth, teaching and healing. He died. He overcame death. And he appeared to his disciples as they
learned to know him in a new way. He united heaven and earth in his Ascension.
At Pentecost he sent his Spirit awareness to keep himself alive in the hearts
of men.
Now we stand
at the turning point of the year. It is
mid-day [midnight in the Southern Hemisphere] in the earth’s year. And oddly
the gospel readings go back to the beginning.
The story seems to start over--Jesus is baptized. It is as if the gospel readings would like us
to take a closer look, to focus in on
something. We see the moment in which Jesus, the man,
offers himself. He steps into the
streaming, living waters of the Jordan.
The heavens are torn open. He sees, he hears. The Fathers voice resounds,
affirming His Son. The Sun-God himself enters him. He becomes the Christ-bearer.
 |
| Bellini |
At midpoint
in the year, instead of a choir of angels, one lone human voice, John the
Baptist, urges up to offer ourselves, as Jesus did, to the intimate working of
Christ in us, through us. Now it is we
who are to become Christ-bearers. Now it
is we who are to become sons and daughters of the Father.
From now on
the outer sunlight will gradually lessen [or grow] as the days grow shorter
[or longer]. But the Christ-Sun wants to
rise within us. He wants to irradiate
our being as he once did the man Jesus.
He wants us to see and hear, to change.
Within us he wants to become the light that always rises.
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