Have You Encountered the Manifesting Christ and Begun Following Him?

Having gone through the Advent Season and Christmas Season, we are now well into the Ordinary Time! It is already on the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. 

We finished the Advent Season at the sundown of Christmas Eve.

We completed the Christmas Season in celebrating the Baptism of the Lord.

On the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we were reminded by John the Baptist that Christ who was born to us and was baptized to launch his public ministry is indeed "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi".

So now on the 3rd Sunday, this Agnus Dei, who is already in full manifestation has launched his public ministry and calling us to follow him! 

Have we encountered him? He is no longer in obscurity, as he was during the Christmas Season. So, how can we say we have not seen him? And, how can we afford not to follow him upon encountering him? 

Ahora, que dejarias por sequir a Jesucristo, el Senor? 

                                                                              *****

It is the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A). It means, by now, nobody should miss Christ’s presence among us! Not only he has been manifesting but he has begun his public ministry! In fact, the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time reflects how Christ has initiated his ministry of bringing the good tidings to us. This is what we have longed for when we started a liturgical year on the 1^st Sunday of Advent. Not just the Nativity of the Lord.

Though the Advent Season is often regarded as the preparatory period for the Nativity of the Lord, actually, it is the preparation for what the entire Christmas Season is meant for. And it is not only the birth of the Lord but his growth to the point of the initiation of his public ministry. And, the Baptism of the Lord signals Christ’s readiness to begin his public ministry to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 3:2, 4:17:Mark 1:15), building upon John the Baptist’s preaching (Matthew 3:2).

Throughout the Advent Season, we prepared ourselves for the coming of Christ in anamnesis, based on the Gospel accounts and Messianic prophesies in the Old Testament. On the First Sunday of Advent, we reflected on how we should prepare for the coming of Christ in retrospect, juxtaposing to the way we should prepare ourselves for the parousia (Christ’s second coming to consummate the God’s own prophesy against Satan in Genesis 3:15, as envisioned in Revelation 20:10). Then, on the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, we reflected on how John the Baptist preached the Israelites to prepare the way of Christ’s coming, as the voice crying out in the wilderness, as Isaiah had prophesized (Isaiah 40:3).

During the Advent Season, some of us might have thought that John the Baptist was preaching to prepare for the Nativity of the Lord. But, he was really calling the Israelites to be ready to meet Christ in his public appearance. In fact, when Christ was born, nobody but the shepherd recognize his adventus (Luke 2:1-20).  Christ did not manifest to the public until he grew up and came to meet John the Baptist to be baptized by him. And, the Baptism of the Lord marks the beginning of his public manifestation to launch what he was called for by the Father. In the current Liturgical Calendar, as revised in 1969, the Sunday feast of the Baptism of the Lord signals the end of the Christmas Season, which follows the Advent Season.

To put the significance of the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time in the spectrum of Advent, Christmas, and Ordinary Time, what we have been preparing for ever since the Advent Season is to encounter Christ in his action of public ministry as he has just begun. And, this is what the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel readings (Matt 4:12-23(A); Mark 1:14-20(B); Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21) invite us: To encounter Christ, who has been manifesting in public and among us already, ever since his Baptism, except for these 40 days and nights in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11//Mark 1:11-13// Luke 4:1-14)! And, through our encounter with the manifesting Christ in his action, we must respond!

For Cycle A and Cycle B, the Gospel readings on the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matt 4:12-23(A); Mark 1:14-20(B); for Cycle C, the Gospel reading on the 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Luke 5:1-11)), remind us that the manifesting Christ is calling us to follow him, so that we will be trained to carry out his mission as his disciples and to be sent out to the ends of the earth as his apostles – to bring the Good News, taught by him.

All our Advent preparation has led us not only to the Nativity of Christ but to celebrate his Baptism in concluding the Christmas Season. Upon the Christmas Season, entering into the Ordinary Time, Christ has been in full manifestation and taking actions in his public ministry. So, now we have come to this moment of encountering the manifesting Christ in his action, who is calling each one of us to follow him.

So, will you follow Christ as he now calls you to do so?

Will you drop everything that represent your old life style to follow him for a new life that he will lead to, as these fishermen in Capernaum drop their fishing nets and followed him, about 2,000 years ago? 

To follow Christ also means to be one with him, as he is so with the Father, who has sent him, (John 14:20; 17:21, 23). So, we can afford to decline his invitation to follow him and to be one with him? Remember, whatever Christ the Son speaks obediently reflects what is in the Father’s heart for us (John 5:19; 8:28, 12:49; 14:10, 24, 31; 17:8).

Now is the time to follow Christ!

Jesucristo dijo, “Deja todo y sigue me!”