Homily for January 13, 2008 The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

I mentioned at the beginning of Mass that the Christmas decorations are still up. I know I've done elements of this homily before, but I'm trusting that you won't really remember.
Why is it that the Christmas decorations are still up? Twelve days of Christmas? Okay, that's a good answer. I wonder where that came from, though.
A piece of Catholic trivia the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, do you know that's a coded message from the catechism? The twelve lords represent the twelve apostles. It was in the days of England when the church was outlawed, and this was a secret code to unveil the catechism. Anyway, I can't remember all the details.
Christmas in our commercial world is all about buying and selling and giving gifts. If that's what it's all about, then on Christmas you have a flurry of activity, you open the gifts, and you get rid of the wrappings, and it's over, right? Everything goes back to normal the day after Christmas. I listened and looked for Christmas music the day after Christmas, and the satellite radio station I was listening to, that had Christmas music, was off the air already.
In the church, Christmas is about revelation, the revelation of God's salvation and God's Son. Revelation is rich and deep. It doesn't just happen once. It happens over and over again, in a multitude of different ways.
So in the early church, the three primary celebrations of the revelation of God's Son were the Epiphany, which we had last week, the baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate today, and the wedding feast at Cana. And that will be the Gospel next Sunday. December 25 came on the scene late.
It's about this revelation of God's Son, and the revelation isn't over. It goes on and on, and it continues in our midst today. I want to just try to more deeply implant some images for you that are in the readings today.
There's the image of God's beloved Son. It's in the reading from Isaiah: This is my servant, whom I have chosen and whom I uphold. It's echoed in the Gospels, the voice that says, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
What is the mission of the servant? Can you remember from the readings? One word summarizes it: Justice. Here is my servant whom I have chosen to bring justice to the earth. That's elaborated on in the end of the reading, when it says he will bring the ministry of justice, he will give sight to the blind, release those who are in dungeons and in prisons, and bring light to those who are overwhelmed by darkness. A very clear statement: The ministry of the servant is to bring justice to the earth, to set things right.
How will he go about doing that? This is one of the great mysteries in the Scripture. It's described in Isaiah. How will he do that? It's by a series of negatives: Not crying out, not shouting in the streets. He will be so gentle that he will not even crush a bruised reed; he will not even break a piece of grass that is already bent; he will not even quench a smoldering wick.
So how does God send his servant to do justice? He doesn't give him a kingdom; he doesn't give him an army; he doesn't send him to war with all the evil people. But he sends him into the world to suffer.
Who is that servant? In Isaiah it's often the people of Israel, is that servant of God. In the Gospels, that is applied to Jesus as the servant of God. Maybe in our history it would be applied to all of us. We are God's sons and daughters whom God has called for the mission of justice in the world.
Where do you find that ongoing revelation? Do you find it in palaces? Do you find it in marble halls with terrazzo floors, rich surroundings? It comes from the margins. You find it coming up out of the mud, among the people who have gone to John the Baptist.
By the way, why did they go to John the Baptist? They wanted change. They wanted things to be different, and so they wanted to break with the old ways of doing things.
By the way, people in those days believed that the heavens had been closed for hundreds of years and there was no revelation. So coming up out of the dirt and the grime and the dust of the mud of people who wanted change, the heavens are opened, the Spirit of God is seen descending, and the voice says,"This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
What happens immediately after this in the Gospel? I'm getting ahead of myself. In the story, as it unfolds, do you know what happens immediately following this? The Spirit drives him into the desert, into the wilderness, and he is tempted. That will be the Gospel February 10, the first Sunday of Lent. We'll have some others in between.
So where do you find this servant of God who will bring justice? You find him on the margins, among the marginalized people. You find him among the poor, the homeless, the oppressed, the imprisoned. You find him among those who want things to be different.
He goes about his mission, not with power and strength and might. He goes about it not with armies. He goes about it by not crying out, not making his voice heard, not even breaking a bruised reed. As the Gospel unfolds, that servant takes upon himself the suffering of the world, and by implication that's what we're called to do. That's who we're called to be, and that's who we're called to be among.