Holy Trinity Catholic Parish

Dear friends of God,

We have fully entered into Winter Ordinary Time beginning this weekend. We have moved from the Christmas season and then entered into the intimate moment of Jesus’ baptism and beloved affirmation from the Father. In that moment of Jesus’ baptism, his call from the Father became clearer to him as he inaugurated the Kingdom of God.

We each have a call in that Kingdom of love. To paraphrase and adapt for our present context from the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: We need people “not in love with money but with justice. Not in love with publicity (we might say social media) but in love with humanity.” Each of us in our own way needs a conversion to love, love of God, love of neighbor, love of enemy and even love of ourselves. God has called each of us, given us an invitation to love.

Our first reading is from the First Book of Samuel. We hear God’s call to Samuel. We might not hear God calling us in such a strong auditory way, but God continually calls us to new life, new relationship, and to his Kingdom of love compassion, justice and peace. We simply need to take the time to listen. As we continue with these January days, I encourage all of us to take time for silence every day and sit with the Lord with no agenda and no expectations. It will be like sitting comfortably with an old friend.

Dear friends of God,

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This is a bridge day in our Church year. It is both the end of the Christmas Season as well as the beginning of our Winter Ordinary Time which lasts until Ash Wednesday on February 17. We use the term Ordinary Time and that can be easily misunderstood. It is not that all of our life of faith is not extraordinary. We call these weeks “ordinary” because we count them. For example, this next week is the first week of Ordinary Time. Therefore, today’s feast is both the last day of Christmas and the beginning of the first week of Ordinary Time. Howard Thurman was the spiritual mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and many other leaders of the civil rights movement. He was a pastor and a deeply contemplative man who lived a life of nonviolence. He wrote this lovely poem that is perfect as we cross the bridge from Christmas to Ordinary Time.

The Work of Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope that the four weeks of Advent have been good preparation for the arrival of Christ in our world. Our annual Advent sojourn reminds us that as Catholic Christians we believe in three comings of Christ.

• At Christmas we remember in a loving way the birth of the child Jesus 2,000 years

Trappist Father Thomas Merton offers this image for us to contemplate this Christmas:

The Child that lies in the manger, helpless and abandoned to the love of His creatures, dependent entirely upon them to be fed, clothed, and sustained, remains the Creator and Ruler of the universe. … He wills to be helpless that we may take Him into our care. He has embraced our poverty … in order to give us his riches.

• During Advent, we annually remember the challenging truth that at the end of the age, we will be judged by how we love as Christ calls us to love.