Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord: God remains with us, Always

Emmanuel, which is Hebrew for “God is with us”. We give that name to Jesus, especially at Christmas Time. The name Jesus, a derivation of Joshua, means “God saves”. God with us is the God that saves us then could be a summation.   What do we expect in this? What do we search for of this?

Geologists, in searching for gold mineralization in Nevada, do not look for gold itself. It can’t be seen, it is too small with the naked eye. They look for other signs. They look for rocks that have been broken up and altered; they look for other minerals and elements to point them in the right direction. Pristine rock, though maybe pretty to look at, will not attract the geologist searching for gold. They want the broken up, altered rock.

In Vocations work, although I am serious about it, I also have a running joke. For future priests, I look for the men who have had their hearts broken at least once. I look for men who have struggled to pay their bills and live on their own. I want those who have gone through life and gained a heart that has been cracked a bit, and allowed gold to enter.

God remains with us always. God remains present to us, in good times and the bad, in sickness and health, even beyond death. God remains with us.

Jesus entered into the waters of the Jordan to signify this. When he went into the waters, as many other sinners had, he said “I am with you, God is with you”. So that we too can come out of one life and enter into a life of knowing we are God’s children, and live that out. That is true freedom.

Nobody will ever have a pristine, clean life in which we never experience some sort of pain or suffering, some sort of heartbreak, some sort of let down. It happened to the Son of God, it happened to Mary the Mother of God, it happened to all the Saints.  (this is why it is ridiculous to think that God will “Stop” covid infections at mass or other religious/spiritual events, or for the truly good people)

God never promised to take that away. Nor does God ever impose it on people. God only promised, through Jesus Christ, to walk us through those moments, to find the control we can have, and thus be free to live as Children of God.

Ministry, at its heart, helps us in whatever phase of life we are, to hear in our minds and hearts the words of Jesus, to discern the signs of God’s work in our lives, so as to move forward.  This is why we have youth ministry, young adult ministry, grief ministry, full blown adult ministry, etc…each speaks to a particular phase or moment in which we experience the saving power of God; to make sense of our adolescence, our maturing, our loss, our aging, whatever…and experience LIFE.

This is also our personal spiritual lives. We take into prayer our daily lives, the joys and the not so joyful; we give thanks to God for the Joy, we ask for wisdom for the less than joyful and we look for signs of God in our lives.  In doing so, the cracks and brokenness of our lives becomes filled with Grace, with Wisdom, with compassion.

The people who continue to grumble, who are consistently angry about everything, people caught up in spirals of misery and sorrow I think have not made that jump. They can’t or have not been shown how to transcend, how to pray, how to truly discern God.  Depression is like that. We can fall into the spiral of I am alone. Nobody can help, nobody will help; My God, My God why have you abandoned me.

God remains with us always.  God remains to help us see the hope that can overcome the sorrow. Christ remains to empower us to forgive and accept forgiveness, to be free of the anger, the hatred. The Spirit flows within us, to give us Love, because Love conquers all fear.

God remains with us always.   But this will not be magic. It takes work to search out God and it takes others. Those who have been through this, who have been through the crucible as they say and have come out refined, they, you, we have a gift to share.  We can walk with those who still need that healing. We are the body of Christ, we also need to remain present to those hurting. Those here in this community, our ministry, our mission, is to mentor our Youth, our Young Adults, those preparing to marry, those grieving lost ones, etc.

Beyond those doors, there is a world of hurt. We are not called to hurl accusations nor “I told you so’s”, but we are called to hurl ourselves, to hurl love into those wounds. Those who struggle to find decent jobs and support their families. Those who have jobs, but still they can’t find pay to meet the basic needs. Those who are on the streets. Those who maybe look like they are fine, but actually cracked with loneliness, with fear, with rejection.

God remains with them always.  God feeds us the Eucharist each week. The Eucharist signifies God’s presence among us and God’s will that we find life, in the here and now, in this moment. The Eucharist signifies that pain and suffering, sin and death, have no reason to control our joy.  The Eucharist signifies that no matter how broken, how altered, how bad it may look; gold, love, joy, God can be found.

If we give the effort to look and open life up.  If we can believe we too are God’s children and God remains with us always.