Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

Accord­ing to the indic­a­tions of the Sunday missal, the First Read­ing (Isa 42:1–4.6–7), the respon­sori­al Psalm (Ps ²⁹⁄₂₈), the Second Read­ing (Acts 10:34–38), and Gos­pel acclam­a­tion giv­en for Year A, may be used, with the Gos­pel accord­ing to Mark 1:7–11. Or the altern­at­ive read­ings from Isai­ah and the First Let­ter of John may be used. Since we already have the reflec­tion for the read­ings of Year I, let us ana­lyze the altern­at­ive read­ings for the Year II. This way, we will be more enriched from the read­ings of Years I and II. For the reflec­tion on Year I, see The Word of Life, vol. 1, pages 60–66. In most years, the feast of the bap­tism of the Lord is cel­eb­rated on the Sunday after Epi­phany. In some oth­er years, it is also cel­eb­rated on Monday after Epi­phany, espe­cially, when Epi­phany is cel­eb­rated on Janu­ary 7. How­ever, this varies.

Baptism as covenant

In the Bible, a cov­en­ant refers to an agree­ment between God and his people in which God makes cer­tain prom­ises and requires obed­i­ence, faith­ful­ness, and right­eous­ness from them in return. In estab­lish­ing his cov­en­ant with Abra­ham, God said to him: “As for you, you shall keep my cov­en­ant, you and your off­spring after you through­out their gen­er­a­tions. This is my cov­en­ant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your off­spring after you: Every male among you shall be cir­cum­cised. You shall be cir­cum­cised in the flesh of your fore­skins, and it shall be a sign of the cov­en­ant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be cir­cum­cised..…

Conclusion

“Come, every­one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not sat­is­fy?”  (Isa 55:1–2a). This invit­a­tion is a reflec­tion of the Gos­pel cov­en­ant. “Every­one” means the invit­a­tion is no more restric­ted to the Jews alone. It is now exten­ded even to the Gen­tiles, and the poor, and the home­less. This is the nov­elty intro­duced by.…

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I and II)!! The reflec­tion for the Bap­tism of the Lord, Year B is found on vol. II pages 53–58. See also Vol. I, pages 60–66. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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