St Michael’s Church

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

7 January 2007

Today we celebrate the beginning of the mission of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist told the people about the one who would come after him, more powerful than he, who would bring a new beginning, a new baptism. When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan the voice of God the Father proclaimed “You are my Son, the Beloved”. The Holy Spirit showed that this was a new beginning by hovering over the water of the Jordan, like the spirit who hovered over the waters of creation in the first verses of the Bible.

That mission that began at the Jordan made the love of God visible in our world, in the preaching, the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It shone the light that darkness cannot overcome, a light that must not be placed under a bushel but must shine as the Light of the World.

Jesus passed on that mission to us. Every one of his followers is meant to allow the light to shine in and through his or her life. The Church, as Vatican II put it, is missionary by her very nature ( VATICAN II, Ad Gentes, 2 ).

Fr Derek is taking the courageous step of offering himself to work with the St James Society in Latin America. We will miss him. He will be missed in Youth Ministry and in many other ways. His family especially will miss him but I am sure they are already looking forward to the chance of visiting him and seeing the fine work that he will be doing. He is the first priest I had the privilege of ordaining in Limerick and it is with mixed feelings that I now commission him to work in other fields.

And yet this is a joyful, positive occasion. In taking this step, Fr Derek is showing us more clearly who we are. We are a people who believe in God’s love for us. We know that God is able to subdue all things, all darkness and suffering and evil, but that he is tender and gentle, gathering the lambs in his arms and holding them against his breast. We know that this love is meant for people of every race, language and way of life. The Gospel fulfils the promise of the first reading. It consoles God’s people and says to them ‘Here is your God’. We are the people who have received the Good News of God’s love, “a love which of its very nature must then be shared with others” ( BENEDICT XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 18 ).

Derek’s decision to spend some time working in Latin America will show us who we are in another way. It is a particular temptation in a time of crisis to draw the wagons around in a circle and to think only of our own difficulties. When we are tempted to do that, we are forgetting that Christ sent all his followers to make disciples of the nations; we are forget that at the end of every Mass we are sent out to bring what we have celebrated into our lives and into the world.

It is important that we recognise ourselves as part of the wider, world wide Church. Derek will bring his many gifts to Latin America, but his work there will, I believe, bring many gifts to us at home. We will see and hear of the Church living in another continent, with another culture with a richness of traditions which can inspire and challenge us. We will recognise ourselves and the faith traditions which he learned here, as having something to offer to Christians in another land, another continent. As Pope John Paul put it: “Local churches’ although rooted in their own people and in their own culture, must always maintain an effective sense of the universality of the faith, giving and receiving gifts, experiences… as well as personnel” ( JOHN PAUL II, Redemptoris Missio, 85 ).

When St Luke described the role of John the Baptist, he quoted today’s first reading. His role was to prepare the way for the Lord, filling in valleys and laying mountains low. It sounds like some massive modern road building machine but they didn’t exist at the time, so it was a much bigger job than that! That is our role too – in our own lives, in the lives of all those we can influence, we are to carry on the often backbreaking effort to make the rough ways smooth, to break down barriers and to overcome obstacles, to make massive, radical changes in our own lives and in our societies so that all humanity can see the salvation of God.

I pray that this sending of Derek to help in that task in a new way and in a new place will bring great blessings to the Church in Limerick as well as to the Church in Latin America.

VATICAN II, Ad Gentes, 2.

BENEDICT XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 18.

JOHN PAUL II, Redemptoris Missio, 85.