St.
John’s
Mark 1, 1-11
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:
1st St. Johnstide
June 24, 2012
Mark 1:1-11
The plant sends forth green leaf after green leaf. Then
quietly one day, something different appears at the growing point. It is a bud
that will break forth into the color and beauty and complexity of a blossom.
John the Baptist announces the arrival of the new flowering
of humanity. The old ways are completed. The new blossoming of humankind is a
bud-break. And all of us are exhorted to make ourselves ready to join in the
new way of being—to change our thinking, to let our hearts open.
In our lives there come moments, months, or even years, when
we are called upon to open our hearts to something new, to frame our thinking
in a different way. For the spheres of the heavens are open. Our future is
descending upon us like a dove. In our loneliness may we hear the voice of the
Father, calling us the Beloved, whom He is creating anew.
