Today’s readings: Isaiah 55, 1-11; 1 John 5, 1-9; Mark 1, 7-11.

In his version of Jesus written for later generations, St Mark wanted to highlight the difference between the old and the new, between ritual baptism and the real anointing with the Spirit. It suits our times to underline this difference, given that we live in times when mere ritual for its own sake is not that satisfying for many.

There is a passage that we need to make from religious belonging to owning our faith on a very personalised and individual level. St John, in the second reading, writes that our faith is the victory over the world. At his time of writing that was very true, because in spite of being a persecuted minority, Christians were strong and bold enough to fear nothing, not even death. Their witness was what made the gospel of Jesus Christ more credible.

It almost needs not be said that though we still today hear of persecuted Christians who witness to their faith as ‘victory over the world’, we also experience the weakness and vulnerability of that same faith. The temptation to give in and consider believing as making a person weaker rather than stronger in life is too big.

In the face of perils to the faith, early Christian communities felt the need to write down the memory of Jesus. Maybe we today need to ask ourselves how we are can preserve this memory in a way that continues to have the same impact on the world in successive generations.

St Mark’s gospel was the first to be written and, opting not to start off from Christ’s birth in Bethlehem or even with the infancy narratives, the evangelist immediately depicts Jesus being baptised and emerging in the public sphere. His baptism was highly significant because it marked his call to mission and the empowerment of the Spirit. In him, God finds a new way of reaching out to people, in contrast with the old ways of the surrounding religion.

People were bored waiting, or to have expectations, or to have the spiritual energy to look forward to something. That is why John the Baptist, away from the temple gatherings, attracted people who went to him outside the city. His was a voice different from the normal rituals of mainstream religion. It was a voice that was hitting hard and touching a cord people were sensitive to.

All this sounds very familiar to what we are experiencing in our times. Many are bored with more of the same. We all in some manner need to rekindle in us the enthusiasm to have expectations. The Spirit that empowered Jesus is the same Spirit we all receive in our baptism. We all need to come out boldly but humbly so that faith can impact our lives and the world alike.

The prophet Isaiah, addressing the Jews drained of all energy at the time of the exile, speaks words whose echo still touches us in the way many of us are weary of the religion we have inherited: “Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy?”

Israel needed a second exodus. The first brought them out of Egypt; this second was to bring them to their senses to let go of old way of per­ceiving God and explore ways that go beyond religious stereotypes.

Isaiah’s metaphor that the rain comes down from the heavens and does not return without watering the earth, making it yield and grow to provide seed for the sower, was meant to make them realise that the seeds of new life come from God.

There were new times awaiting Israel after the exile. Just as there are new times awaiting our experience of feeling like strangers in our homeland where faith is concerned today. But as a Church, we are still caved in on ourselves; on so many issues we’re stuck in the Church-State mode of old times when the Church saw itself as God’s empire. We continue to experience discomfort with a society and culture that celebrate diversity, that are so distant in outlook and perception from the way things were just 50 years ago.

Even in times highly secularised, “the Lord can still be found,” assures Isaiah. There is a transformation under way in the world and the Church alike. We can be part of this transformation if we rethink the way the gospel of Jesus Christ can still impact the world and people’s lives.

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