Mark 1: 1-8
1 THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;
7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
Mark’s Gospel, thought by many to be the earliest written, does not present an account of the birth of Christ. He begins with the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, leading into his baptism by John. Toward the end of the Gospel, when the crucified Christ dies, the centurion standing by him will affirm this, saying: ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’ Throughout this most fast paced of gospels, this is Mark’s message, to give his readers the knowledge that Christ is the Son of God.
One of Mark’s intentions in doing this is to teach his contemporaries that John himself was not the Messiah. John performs a role quite distinct from Jesus’. John himself tells his many followers: ‘There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.’ John points the way toward Jesus. He is the last of the prophets, living now in urgent expectation of the coming of the Messiah, and preparing his followers for him.
It was normal for the Jewish people of Christ’s time to look to their history and their sacred texts in order to seek to reach an understanding of the present time. So it is that John here is identified with Elijah and with the prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi. John is ‘clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins’ [‘… with a leather belt around his waist’ NRSV]. This recalls the description of Elijah in 2 Kings 1:8: ‘He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.’ John fulfils the role of Elijah in predicting the coming of our Lord. We recall the words of Malachi:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. (Malachi 4: 5-6)
Mark interprets this to mean not, or not only, that Elijah, now present as John, is to herald the day of judgement, but rather the arrival of Jesus to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. And once more, John is presented to Mark’s contemporaries as a prophet and not himself the Messiah.
The third of our Old Testament references here is to Isaiah:
1 COMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40: 1-5)
John baptises in the wilderness. He occupies a marginal space – outside of Jerusalem, away from the Temple– and yet clearly he is no marginal figure: he has a mass following; all the land of Judæa and the people of Jerusalem flock to him – this is a time of great hope, of great expectation. And how very beautiful that they do so to be baptised, to confess and repent their sins and to be forgiven their sins. There is here a great prefiguring of our Christianity.
Jesus sees that John’s baptism comes from God. That is why he goes to be baptised of him. It is so characteristic of our Lord that he should humble himself in this way. Yet Jesus comes with and brings an additional blessing, that of the Holy Spirit and too of a closer and more intimate relationship with God. The gift of the Holy Spirit follows upon repentance and baptism. We recall the work of the apostles as recorded in Acts, whereby people are said to have been baptised but have yet to be given the Holy Spirit, which the apostles bring to them. It is when Jesus is baptised that he sees the heavens open and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. It is time to begin his ministry. John has truly paved the way and the time of our Lord is at hand. He is acknowledged by a voice from heaven, by God the Father as God the Son. Through this moment, the possibility of our new relationship with God has been revealed.
As we continue our journey through Advent, it is truly fitting that we recall the work of John in the wilderness, to whom even our Lord came for baptism. It is truly remarkable that one without sin should so express his humanity, which he adopted for our sakes, in this way. How much more, then, can we profit by acknowledging our sins and seeking reconciliation as we joyfully await the coming of the Lord. In many ways this is a time of considerable hardship. We like the Jewish people face great challenges in our lives. But while we walk through darkness, we carry this great light with us, Jesus Christ.
‘Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me as I seek, because I can neither seek you if you do not teach me how, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in desiring you; let me desire you in seeking you; let me find you in loving you; let me love you in finding you.’ St Anselm
Concluding Prayer
Almighty and merciful God,
let neither our daily work nor the cares of this life
prevent us from hastening to meet your Son.
Enlighten us with your wisdom
and lead us into his company.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
The Easter season draws us into the heart of the Christian mystery: that through Christ’s death and resurrection, something entirely new has entered the world — not just a promise of hope, but a real, living transformation of humanity. The anonymous homily for Easter Wednesday is steeped in this joy. With deep scriptural echoes and imagery drawn from the early Church’s experience of baptism and rebirth, it offers a vision of the Risen Christ not just as one who was raised, but as the source of resurrection itself [ … ]
Office Of Readings | Eastertide Week 3, Tuesday | A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Augustine | Let Us Sing To The Lord A Song Of Love ‘Let us sing to the Lord a song of love.’ Commentary | ‘Let Us Sing To The Lord A Song Of Love’ By Saint Augustine Saint Augustine’s sermon on Psalm 149, expounding the verse ‘Sing to the Lord a new song’, draws on his deeply theological, philosophical, and pastoral mind to deliver a rich meditation on love, new life in Christ, and the moral integrity of worship. This reading, likely delivered in the context of the Easter season and baptismal catechesis, reflects the tone of joyful renewal that characterizes the liturgical spirit of this time. Singing As The Expression Of Love At the heart of Augustine’s sermon is the identification of song not simply as musical praise, but as a metaphor for love itself. Augustine draws a profound connection: ‘A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love.’ In Augustine’s view, everyone loves something, but the challenge of the Christian life lies in rightly ordering that love. This echoes his central theme in the Confessions and De Doctrina Christiana: that disordered love lies at the root of sin, while properly ordered love leads the soul back to God. Augustine’s theology of love is Trinitarian. He cites 1 John 4:19, ‘We love him because he first loved us,’ to emphasize that divine love originates with God and is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Thus, the capacity to love God is itself a gift of grace, not a natural human achievement. This affirms a core teaching of Augustine’s mature theology: human will is insufficient for salvation without divine initiative. The ‘New Song’ And The New Life The idea of the ‘new song’ sung by ‘new men’ belongs to a broader Augustinian anthropology and eschatology. The ‘new song’ corresponds to the ‘new covenant’ and the ‘new man’, who has been reborn through Christ. Baptism, as Augustine suggests, is the gateway into this renewal, aligning this sermon with the mystagogical homilies delivered during the Octave of Easter. It is in the newness of life, rather than in the novelty of melody, that the ‘new song’ truly resides. The liturgical element of the sermon is reinforced by the line ‘his praise is in the assembly of the saints’. Augustine emphasizes that singing praise is a communal act of the Church, the Body of Christ, which is itself the locus of love, truth, and divine indwelling. This is reminiscent of the ecclesiology of the early Church as found in Acts 2:42-47 and carried forward in Augustine’s vision of the City of God. Integration Of Worship And Moral Life Augustine challenges his listeners to ensure that their outward praise is matched by their inner life: ‘Sing with your voices, your hearts, your lips and your lives.’ This insistence on the unity of worship and ethics is characteristic of his pastoral emphasis. It also reflects the prophetic tradition (cf. Amos 5:23-24, Isaiah 1:13-17), where God rejects worship that is not accompanied by justice and righteousness. To sing truly, then, is to live truly. Augustine’s call to his congregation to be the praise of God with their lives mirrors the Pauline exhortation in Romans 12:1, to ‘present your bodies as a living sacrifice’. Thus, the life of the believer is liturgy enacted in the world. Philosophical Underpinnings Underlying this sermon is a distinctly Neo-Platonic structure of thought. Augustine conceives of love as both a participation in the divine and as the means of ascent to God. When he writes, ‘Love me and you will have me, for you would be unable to love me if you did not possess me already,’ he echoes Plotinian ideas of the soul’s return to the One, yet he firmly roots them in a Christian framework where God acts first in love. Practical Exhortation Augustine’s conclusion is a call to moral and spiritual authenticity. He exhorts his listeners, recently baptized or long initiated, to be not only singers of praise but embodiments of it: ‘If you desire to praise him, then live what you express. Live good lives, and you yourselves will be his praise.’ In this, Augustine provides not only doctrinal teaching but a concrete rule of life. This sermon is a microcosm of Augustine’s theological genius: biblical exegesis, Trinitarian theology, pastoral urgency, and philosophical depth converge in his exhortation to sing a new song. In post-Easter joy, Augustine invites all believers to live out their baptismal identity by becoming praise itself. Worship, for him, is not merely what the Church does; it is what the Church is when it lives in love. A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Augustine | Let Us Sing To The Lord A Song Of Love Sing to the Lord a new song; his praise is in the assembly of the saints. We are urged to sing a new song to the Lord, as new men who have learned a new song. A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love. Anyone, therefore, who has learned to love the new life has learned to sing a new song, and the new song reminds us of our new life. The new man, the new song, the new covenant, all belong to the one kingdom of God, and so the new man will sing a new song and will belong to the new covenant. There is not one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love. The psalms do not tell us not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But how can we choose unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless someone has loved us first. Listen to the apostle John: We love him, because he first loved us. The source of man’s love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved […]
Prayer is a form of communication between a person and a higher power. It can take many forms, from a casual conversation to a formal ritual, and can involve petition, thanksgiving, and confession. Prayer can be silent or spoken, individual or communal, and may be directed to God, a saint, an angel, or any other object of worship. Through prayer, an individual expresses their innermost thoughts and feelings to the divine, seeking comfort, guidance, and strength. Prayer can be used to foster a connection to the spiritual realm, bring a sense of peace, and help one cultivate a sense of purpose and meaning in life [ … ]
