In the early Christian communities, baptism was administered in the name of Jesus. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, turned to the people and urged them to repent and be baptised “in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven” (Acts 2:38). The custom of baptising in the name of the Trinity was introduced later. It is the formula that Matthew puts in the mouth of the Risen One. It reflects the liturgical practice of the second half of the first century A.D.
The scene told in today’s passage is set on a mountain in Galilee (v.16). The mountain, in biblical language, indicates the location of the revelations of God. And the invitation is to climb the ‘mountain’. It is not to climb ‘a’ mountain. It is not a material mountain. If you do not climb the mountain, if you stay on the plain, you can be an admirer of Jesus, consider him an extraordinary person, who has made sublime life proposals, who has died on the cross … but then we stay there.
If we do not go up that mountain and we do not start to live the Beatitudes at his side, together with him, we will never fall in love with Jesus. That’s why the need to climb that mountain. This is the first mountain. First live the beatitudes of the one who donates all his goods, who is in love with justice.
The second mountain is that of the Transfiguration. You have to climb that mountain. It is there where you will see the true identity of Jesus. The one in his loincloth of the slave, who washes the feet of the disciples, but now is seen on the mountain, in his royal glory.
God is a mystery of love. He has revealed himself to us as a love that creates and liberates that offers us happiness.
In Jesus, God has made us his children; he has made us members of his family, heirs of his grace. Just as Jesus has entered into the glory of the resurrection, we too are promised a share in his glory. That is why the Spirit of God makes us cry out “Abbá”, as Paul says in the letter to the Romans.
God has shown himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Beyond our understanding and our ideas, with our hearts we understand and experience that God is love. He is love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he is love for each one of us. God is love and can do nothing but love. There is no other way to understand him than by loving.
For your reflection
If living as a Christian is to love as God loves, how do I love those around me? Do I love them as God loves me? What do I do to prevent hate, resentment, violence—anything that is opposed to love—from being present in my life?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by
Father Alberto Rossa CMF
