Gospel Reflection for The 6th day of January in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Mark 1:7-11
7 And he preached, saying: There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. 9 And it came to pass, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him.
11 And there came a voice from heaven: Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Today’s readings remind us of the importance of Baptism. Too many today, both Catholic and Protestant, believe that Baptism is merely symbolic. Before my conversion to Catholicism, I attended a Baptist University, where I was told explicitly that Baptism was not necessary. Yet, the same folks kept saying, “You must be born again…” They never seemed to finish that verse. “Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” By this, as the Church founded by Jesus through His Holy Apostles teaches, He plainly meant you must be Baptized and Confirmed in the Catholic Church.
You see, Protestants teach that faith or belief in Christ, alone is all that is necessary. Martin Luther went so far as to change the very words of our Lord in the Bible to state that. Jesus also emphasized Christian works such as charity and love of neighbor, but especially the works that are the Sacraments of the Church. Baptism, like all of the Sacraments, is not merely symbolic. It is the power of God working through physical means that fills us with grace and makes us holy. Through Baptism, the original sin of our first parents is washed away, as is all actual sin that we commit as individuals. Baptism also opens us to the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation, we receive the fullness of the Spirit. Then, and only then may we receive the Eucharist, the “Holy that makes us holy”, the spiritual Body and blood of our Lord about which He says if we do not partake, we have no life in us. Reconciliation allows us to continue to receive the Eucharist in communion with the Church, as we inevitably commit sins throughout our lives.
In today’s readings, we are told that the Holy Spirit testifies to the truth through water and blood. Unfortunately, there are many people today who believe that they can read the Bible and be guided by the Holy Spirit into absolute understanding of the truth. However, too many of these people have never been Baptized with water, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit by being Confirmed in the Catholic Church and, not being in communion with the Catholic Church, cannot receive our Lord’s blood in the Eucharist. This has resulted in more than 50,000 Protestant denominations, each of which claims to know the full truth through the Holy Spirit allowing their founder/s to interpret the Bible, each disagreeing with each other in matters of doctrine and theology, and all disagreeing with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Unfortunately, we also have many Catholics who hold heterodox opinions. Our Lord and His Apostles repeatedly prayed for and emphasized unity, insisting that there be only one Church and agreement among its members. After all, there is only one truth, and one God, the same eternally. There is also only one way to join the Body of Christ, and that is through the Sacrament of Baptism.
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.