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No crystal ball exists to tell us what to do. And there’s no button to push so that we can all eject from contemporary life and parachute down into a perfect world somewhere else.

As for time machines, none exist at the moment, at least to my knowledge, and who in their right mind would like to go mucking around in the 19th century when one has already done enough damage in the 21st?

No. We’re thoroughly stuck in this world at this time in these circumstances at this juncture of history, and there isn’t much we can do about that.

But oddly enough, this train of thought gets superseded in my mind by a hymn from the Byzantine liturgy. Each year here in Combermere we celebrate shortly after the New Year the feast of the Theophany of the Lord.

That feast, which is called the Baptism of the Lord in the Roman Rite, is celebrated with great festivity and profound meaning. The hymn goes as follows:

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In the Jordan when you were baptized, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity was revealed. The Father bears witness to you, calling you his Beloved Son. The Spirit confirms the truth of these words by his appearance as a dove. Glory to you, O Christ our God, who came to enlighten the world.

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It is a hymn that is sung many times throughout the course of the Divine Liturgy. At the conclusion of the Mass, the celebrating priests gather around the water to bless it using a beautiful and lengthy blessing.

Then the whole community, blessed themselves by these same waters, processes to a chosen area at the edge of the Madawaska River.

There the principal celebrant walks across the ice to get as close as possible to open water. He then throws the cross into the river, thereby blessing the waters of the whole earth.

It is a dramatic reminder that Christ himself plunged into the waters of the Jordan River in order to sanctify those waters which, symbolically speaking, we benefit from at our baptism, and every time we bless ourselves as a reminder of that sacrament.

All of these meaningful and beautiful ceremonies remind us that the course of the world has been forever changed by the coming of Christ.

Yes, life may seem to go on its same old way, with little hope of real change. The best we can do ourselves is an occasional change in circumstances, but we can’t create something essentially new. Only the Lord, who is ever new and newness itself, only he knows the secret of true creativity.

Just as on that day when he was baptized in the Jordan, something totally unexpected was revealed, namely, the reality of the most Blessed Trinity. All of this for our benefit so that the world might be enlightened at last by the coming of God in the flesh.

Many of us these days are dealing with aging bodies and aging minds. At least in this part of the world, the realities of old age are with us on an increasing basis. I include myself in that package, as I continue to deal with the developments associated with Parkinson’s disease.

We all have something to contend with, if not when we are younger, at least later. The world in general seems so burdened with many insoluble problems.

There is the presence of the virus, and discussions as to what to do about it or not. There is the war in Ukraine which affects so many of us in direct and indirect ways, and in addition to the terrible suffering going on in that country, there is the fear that war could spread to the point of widespread conflagration.

There is the rising cost of living, with an increasing number of people who hardly have enough money to purchase the basic necessities of life.

And in addition to all of this, there are numerous reports of decrease in those who actually believe in God, particularly in formerly Christian areas of the world.

Christ may have a message of peace, but fewer and fewer people are interested in listening to what he has to say.

In our world today we are going our own way, we are seeking our own solutions, and we see little relevance to the role of religion in offering any answers. Perhaps the results of all this speak for themselves in the growing list of insoluble problems that we all share in the contemporary world.

But could it be that Christ foresaw long ago the nature of those waters into which he plunged on that obscure but glorious day of his baptism?

Could it be that he knew that those waters of human suffering and sin were filled with dragons of all kinds ready to devour all that is good in humankind, and especially the wholly Good One come in our flesh?

Still, he readily plunged into those waters, and he continues to do so, that we might turn to him and be saved from what seeks to destroy.

Only he has the power to win this victory. And yes, he will give each of us our task to fulfill as part of that great battle. But it will be Jesus alone living in us by his Spirit who can accomplish this task right to the end of our journey.

Then we will be in this world as he is, beloved children of God our Father. Then the kingdom of God will truly be in our midst!

Archbishop Joseph Raya put it this way when describing the Christian living as part of the kingdom of God:

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“People of the kingdom throb with sympathy for every human person. If they see their brothers afflicted with any anxiety, they yearn about their welfare. They never feel a need to compare themselves with anyone else.

“They waste no energy in refuting hostile opinions. They do not convert; they lead others to religious experience. They do not moralize; they reveal the true dignity of those who are to inhabit the kingdom.

“Their inspiration comes from above, from the inner working of their being in the kingdom of God.

“They can only radiate peace and confidence. They’re not crusaders, because their strength is chaste and limpid. Christians are not in heaven or in the kingdom; the kingdom and heaven are in Christians.

“Those who are filled with the kingdom will grow in their humanity and will radiate an inward dignity in everything they do; nothing in their lives will be casual or left to chance.

“Their every thought and deed will be robed in the splendid vestments of a divine and holy liturgy. The more conscious they are of their divine origin, of their present divine state and divine destiny, the more joy there will be in their whole attitude towards life.” (from The Abundance of Love, 3rd edition, 2016, p. 140)

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Let us celebrate the feasts of the Lord, Source of all that is new in us, so that with him we might bring gifts of joy and peace to many.