Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Isaiah comes from the post-Exilic period, a time when Israel was tempted to question God’s continued commitment to the relationship after the history of infidelity that led to the Exile. Isaiah assures that God remains committed to the relationship, if only Israel would turn to God (“Heed me . . .”) and accept the offer of forgiveness. Sandwiched between two such calls to Israel is the assurance that the restoration of Israel will be such that other nations will be drawn to Israel because of her generously forgiving and restoring God. The graciousness of God toward Israel will act as a magnet, drawing many others to “seek the Lord while he may be found.”

The thought of the reading from the First Letter of John does not proceed in a straight line. The circular, intertwining language of the passage reflects the close and reciprocal connection between love of God and others, both of which find their center in faith in Jesus as Christ. This faith is grounded in the testimony of the Spirit, the water and the blood— “the testimony of God.” The water and the blood very likely refer specifically to the blood and water that came from Jesus’ side (John 19:34), although the imagery can also include Baptism and Eucharist. The point of the passage is that God has testified that Jesus is the Christ, begotten by God, and all those who believe God’s testimony are also begotten by God, with all this entails.

The Gospel reading is remarkable for its close association of baptism with the Holy Trinity. John has already proclaimed that the One who is to come after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit, who will sanctify the baptized and shape them into the people of God being gathered around Christ. Now Jesus comes to be baptized himself. Immediately the Holy Spirit descends upon him, reflecting back on John’s comment about Jesus baptizing with the Spirit. The scene concludes with the Father’s own voice announcing who Jesus is. Thus the Son, sent by the Father, is sealed with and becomes the agent of the Holy Spirit, the power of God in the world.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The passage from Isaiah begins with an image of a world covered in the darkness and thick clouds of spiritual blindness, confusion, ignorance, violence, and woes of every kind. The exception is Zion, the city of the God of Israel, in which God appears in glory. It is this divine presence that sheds light over Jerusalem, bringing healing, wisdom, and shalom. In such a world, the prophet concludes, all the nations are naturally drawn to the light that shines from within Israel. The prophet foresees a new day dawning for the entire world, beginning with Jerusalem, which will become a destination for all the nations as they move inevitably toward the Light, proclaiming praise for the God of Israel.

Although most of the Old Testament focuses on the particular relationship between Israel and God, that central story is clearly situated within the story of God and the entire human family: Abraham is promised that through him all the families of the earth will find blessing (Genesis 12:3). This larger divine purpose drives much of Paul’s thinking, such as we see it here in the Letter to the Ephesians. Here the emphasis is on God’s “outreach” to the nations. The grace that Paul has been called to proclaim is precisely that Gentiles are now called to join with Jews as heirs of God’s ancient promises. This inheritance, obtained through Christ, is unearned, founded solely on God’s graciousness.

Understandably threatened by the news of a “newborn king of the Jews,” Herod naturally wants to know where he might find this child. The prophecy, derived from Micah 5:1–3, speaks of a Davidic king who will emerge from David’s ancestral town. Herod of course intends to harm the child, but the focus of the reading is on the homage of the wise men, who are not dismayed in the least that the new king of the Jews is to be found in such humble circumstances. Clearly believing the child is in fact the king of the Jews, they bring him costly gifts, which tradition has suggested point toward Christ’s royalty (gold), divinity (frankincense), and eventual death (myrrh).

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

A significant aspect of the priestly role in ancient Israel, as today, was to ask for God’s blessing for individuals and the entire community. In this passage from Numbers, God gives the priests a specific prayer of blessing to call down divine favor on Israel. Divine blessing is an all-encompassing concept, with material and spiritual aspects. It involves protection, fecundity, well-being, personal and social harmony—in a word, shalom. The holistic nature of the blessing is captured in a number of ways. To keep means to guard and protect, while to “shine his face upon you” means to have a generally favorable disposition. Graciousness implies the divine generosity, as does the notion of divine kindness.

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul emphasizes both the divine and human origins of Christ, both of which bring blessing on those incorporated into Christ through baptism. Born of a woman, Jesus is fully human, sharing in our human condition and subject himself to the law. At the same time, as God’s Son, he has the power to save, which the law cannot do. This salvation is effected by making Christians the children of God by adoption, a legal and familial metaphor that means that they are heirs, along with Christ, to all of God’s promises. This selection features the work of (what would eventually be understood as) the Trinity: God the Father, who through the Spirit, brings Christians into “sonship” along with Christ.

The shepherds have been informed by the angels that the child born in Bethlehem, although poor and unknown, is in fact the Savior (Luke 2:8–15). Finding the child in a manger, they announce what they have heard to Mary and Joseph. While the onlookers are amazed that such a child could possibly be “Messiah and Lord,” Mary is unsurprised, and subsequently reflects on “these things.” The shepherds, among the first believers in this gospel, now go back out into the world to glorify and praise God for what has been done in Jesus.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The story of Israel commences with an elderly, childless couple to whom God promises countless descendants. The Lectionary reading begins with the initial promise to Abram, made in response to his complaint that all of the blessings he had received will pass to his servant—an unsubtle critique that the promise of descendants has not been fulfilled. In an intervening passage (Genesis 17) God makes this already improbable promise even more unlikely by insisting that ninety-year-old Sarah will be the mother of those countless descendants. The increasingly implausible promise of descendants, however, is finally fulfilled, setting the biblical precedent that God has the power and the will to bring life where it does not seem possible.

In his Letter to the Hebrews the author here focuses on the faith of Abraham, who trusted in God’s promises (Genesis 12:1–7). When God told Abraham to leave his family and go “to a land that I will show you,” he went. Abraham also believed that God would produce an heir through Sarah—and so it happened. The most difficult act of faith came when God, without explanation, commanded Abraham to sacrifice that very same heir (Genesis 22). Although the Genesis account reveals nothing of Abraham’s thoughts about this command, the author of Hebrews draws on the tradition that Abraham trusted God to raise up his sacrificed son, a symbol of the resurrection of God’s own sacrificed Son.

The central theme of the Gospel reading is fulfillment. The Holy Family fulfills the law, obeying it by circumcising Jesus (2:21) and now presenting him to God. According to Exodus 13:11–16, the firstborn male was to be set aside exclusively for God. Usually, the child was redeemed, “bought back,” for five shekels. Jesus is not redeemed, however, because he will remain consecrated to God. The purification of the mother, who became ritually unclean during childbirth for seven days, lasted for thirty-three days after that; then she could once again enter the temple. Jesus himself fulfills God’s promises to Israel. Both Simeon and Anna represent pious Jews who trusted in these promises. They thus represent also those who would recognize and favorably receive Jesus as the Christ.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

In the time of Isaiah, messengers carried their proclamations from one post to another on foot. The messenger in this passage brings “glad tidings,” which will be rendered a couple of centuries later in the Greek translation of Isaiah as euangelion. The “good news” is that the Exile has come to an end and the sovereign God who defeats all enemies intends to bring salvation and restore the people. The watchmen in Jerusalem see not only the messenger but also the salvation itself, very likely a reference to returning Israelites heading toward the city. Such is the power and goodness of Israel’s God that all nations will see and admire it.

The Letter to the Hebrews focuses on the unique accomplishment of Jesus Christ. Because he is not only God’s Son and heir, but especially “the very imprint of his being,” Jesus has revealed God more clearly and fully than had the earlier prophets. Whereas in the past God had provided for the broken human condition by legislating repeated purification from sin, now God has provided a fuller and final purification through a great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14–5:10; 7:1–8:6). Finally, as God’s Son and heir, Jesus reigns with God in heaven. As God’s equal, he is therefore also worthy of the worship of all creation.

The beginning of John’s Gospel emphasizes two themes. The first has to do with the person of Jesus as the “true light . . . coming into the world.” As he comes into the world, Jesus, as God’s Word, brings with him the very presence of God: life and light, grace and truth. In other words, as God coming to dwell among us, Jesus brings every good thing that God has to offer the human race, and to creation as a whole. The second theme is the rejection by the world of its very source and life. When the Word comes into the world, the world the Word created, it either cannot or will not recognize him, or at least some in the world have not recognized him. These two themes of presence and rejection will develop throughout the Gospel.