Our readings this week all speak of the distinctive characteristics of the people God gathers to achieve God's purposes. The deep communion of love that God envisions requires a community that is humble and lowly, as Zephaniah describes. God chooses the weak and foolish to reveal God's strength and wisdom, as Paul says. And in the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches that a people who know their weakness and vulnerability can most fully place their trust in God and work for a just world.

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To introduce the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew’s Gospel today, the evangelist quotes from Isaiah 9, which is presented to us more fully in our first reading. Isaiah acknowledges the darkness of oppression from the conquest of the Galilee region by Assyria, but reminds his people of the hope God offers them. Matthew, writing in the time of the Roman Empire centuries later, points to Jesus and his proclamation of the kingdom of heaven, to overturn all forms of oppression.

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As we the Church begin Ordinary Time, we reflect upon the Baptism of Jesus, and its significance in our own lives and communities. The Gospel of John does not narrate the Baptism like the other Gospels. Instead, John the Baptist gives testimony, emphasizing that Jesus has received the Holy Spirit. Jesus will go on to baptize with this same Spirit, as he did immediately after his resurrection (John 20). What might this mean for us, who share in this same Baptism? Today's reading from Isaiah suggests that we are to be a “light to the nations,” a people proclaiming and sharing God's love. Paul's greeting to the church in Corinth reminds us that we are simultaneously God's sanctified people and yet continually called to become holy. Baptism begins our journey, where we know the Spirit dwells within, and the same Spirit summons us to full maturity in Christ.

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Epiphany is a day when popular customs mostly overshadow scriptural accuracy. Matthew’s Gospel never refers to kings coming to see Christ, nor to their number (only the gifts are enumerated), nor to their names. Matthew tells us only that some “magi” came with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Magos referred to members of the Persian priestly class; later it had the connotation of magicians and astrologers.

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A Hebrew word that many people are familiar with is shalom, commonly translated into English as “peace.” However, the word is much richer, deeper, and broader than that. As a matter of fact, when the blessing in today’s first reading concludes with shalom, it serves as a summary of the entire blessing: shalom is God’s wholeness, well-being, longevity, harmony, as well as God's peace.READ MORE