The Baptism of the Lord - 10 January 2021

The See, Judge, Act methodology so favoured by the Cardijn inspired movements seems to be making a comeback in many circles of influence. Many note that it seems to underpin the approach of the current Pope in much of his writings. Austen Ivereigh returns to that theme in his co-authored new book ‘Let us dream: The Path to a Better World’. The word “Listen” shouts out at us in the reading from Isaiah today, e.g. “Listen, listen to me”.

It struck a chord for I recently read the suggestion (for a new year resolution) that we should practise “listen, talk, reach out” in our daily lives.

Isaiah further adds today:

            “Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.”

The disturbing events of the past week, shutdowns, lockdowns in Australia, 1000 deaths on Saturday in the U.K, invasions of the Capital in USA, mass arrests in Hong Kong are but a few of the happenings in our world.

How do we tackle such a mess?

One suggestion today is that we come to appreciate our own Baptism more and more and act accordingly. That seems a reasonable idea but …?

We note that Jesus went off to the desert to ponder after his experience of the gift of the Holy Spirit at the hands of John…and such experiences did not spare him trials and suffering, but he triumphed. Is that sufficient encouragement for us?

 Again, Isaiah reminds us today that “my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways”.

Sometimes we need a method to harness our activities.

There is a desire amongst Christians to act…but three Hail Marys is not necessarily the only way, or the best way.

It appears that the Latin American Church helped form the current Pope in the ‘See…listen, Judge…talk, Act…reach out’ method to help the process of conversion to the intent of the Gospel; it may help us do likewise.

Mons Frank