| Opened, descended, heard, impelled. The cursus of discipleship |
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| escrito por Fr. Juan Quevedo-Bosch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 28 de February de 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First Sunday in Lent Year B RCL When I placed Jillian Acker or Fiona Shea buck naked into the water container where she was baptized there was a gasp among the congregants. But that was nothing compared to when Azra and John were baptized, I told them that they will be baptized with lots of water but I think they forgot, and when I poured water over Azra, the gasp came from her. I have ruined her dress and complex hair do! Do you remember?. The Ackers are coming now with Patrick and the Muteswas have two candidates, one a child and one a young man, they will all come to the waters of baptism this Easter Vigil.
For many centuries the early church would baptize that way and more. People will go into the water buck naked, often into a special pool, like the one still extant in the Lateran basilica in Rome and will come out to the other side to be vested in the white alb, not unlike the one I am wearing. In that alb they will attend Sunday services after their baptismal day. The writer, with almost shocking brevity, relates three major events: Jesus’ baptism, temptation in the desert and first preaching in Galilee. The sequence of events is significant, not simply because it seems the natural order of things, but because in a new exodus Jesus recapitulates the journey of Israel: baptism (Red Sea), struggles in the desert (40 years) and good news (entry into the promised land). (Craddock) I know that sometimes baptism is part and parcel of what C. S. Lewis calls mere Christianity. There is a cultural motivation, borne of the days of Christendom long gone, but still alive by inertia “to have the kid done”. Lent begins with bringing back our baptismal commitment, Lent reminds us that when we were brought to baptism, Ian, Ali, Azra, John, Gillian, and all of us in our own time, we were engaged into the Exodus meta-narrative of the People of Israel, we were like crossing the Red Sea, we were like journing for 40 years in Sinai, he were like entering the Promised Land. The geographical and historical gap bridged by the paradigm created by Jesus own baptism. C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity aptly commenting about the demands of discipleship implied in the waters of baptism says: Christ says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself: my own will shall become yours." Anyone, who knows the story of Exodus, knows only too well that mere forty five days in the desert the people of Israel wanted to go back to the slavery in exchange for food and drink. They were ready to reject Moses leadership and in fact they replaced God by a Golden calf. Fred sent me a joke that I think is apropos, he said that a documentary was made about the Jews praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The documentarist approaches this very old man white bearded coming from his daily routine and ask him what he was praying about and he said -for over sixty years I have come to the Western wall to pray for peace for Jerusalem and for understanding among Jews, Moslems and Christians. The young man, camera in hand asks him again, and how do you feel? He said, with exasperation all over his face like a speaking to a -expletive- wall. I had a good laugh, because sometimes we all have been there, just as the people of Israel were, at the exodus, at the time of Jesus and today. Sometimes, we feel abandoned, ignored, trapped. Then today we hear the words of repent and hear the good news. Repent is a value laden American expression and I need to used this illustration from Leslie Newbegin. I remember once visiting a village in the Madras diocese. There was no road into the village; you reached it by crossing a river, and you could do this either on the south side of the village or on the north. The congregation had decided that I would come by the southern route, and they had prepared a welcome such as only an Indian village can prepare. There was music and fireworks and garlands and fruit and silumbum (the performance of a South Indian martial art done on ceremonial occasions) everything you can imagine. Unfortunately I entered the village at the north end and found only a few goats and chickens. Crisis! I had to disappear while word was sent to the assembled congregation, and the entire village did a sort of U-turn so as to face the other way. Then I duly reappeared. This is what metanoia means. The TEV translation gives a misleading impression by translating it: "Turn away from your sins." That might make it look like a traditional call for moral reformation. That is not the point. There is nothing about sins in the text (Mark 1:14-18). The point is: "The reign of God has drawn near, but you can't see it because you are looking the wrong way. You are expecting the wrong thing. What you think is 'God' isn't God at all. You have to be, as Paul says, transformed by the renewing of your mind. You have to go through a mental revolution; otherwise the reign of God will be totally hidden from you."
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