maronite readings

Above all, O good Jesus, I love you for the chalice you drained for our redemption… It is this that most sweetly allures our love, most justly exacts it, most closely binds it and makes it the most vehement. For on that day our Savior underwent immense labor and the Creator himself did not have as much trouble in forming the entire universe. Of that mighty work we read: “He spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created.” Whereas, in order to redeem us, the Savior had to affirm his words before those who contradicted him, defend his actions against a hostile surveillance, undergo torment before his mockers and death in the midst of reproaches. He loved us even to this point. Remember, too, that in this he was not loving anybody in return but of himself. For: “who has given him anything that he should be repaid?” (Rm 11,35). Rather, as Saint John the Evangelist says: “Not that we have loved God but that he has first loved us” (1Jn 4,10). To sum up, he loved us even before we existed, and, what is more, loved us when we resisted him, as St. Paul testifies: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rm 5,10). For if he had not loved us when we were His enemies, he would have had no friends and if he had not loved those who did not as yet exist, he would never have had anyone to love at all.

maronite readings – rosary,team

“Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” The Savior received baptism at the hands of John for three reasons. The first because, being born a man he wished to fulfil all the humble prescriptions of the Law. The second so as to affirm John’s baptism by his own baptism. The third, so as to make known by means of the descent of the dove when he sanctified the waters of the Jordan, the coming of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of the faithful. “Allow it now.” “Now” was well said to show that, if Christ had to be baptized in water, John had to be so by Christ in the Spirit. Or else, another meaning: “Allow it now” because I who have assumed the form of a slave wish to complete by it all humility. But also, know that on the day of judgement you are to be baptized with my baptism. “Allow it now,” the Lord says, I have also another baptism with which I must be baptized. [This refers to the baptism of the Passion. Cf. Lk 12:50]. You baptize me in water in order that I may baptize you for myself in your blood. [This refers to John’s baptism of martyrdom]. “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” He did not add: righteousness of the Law or of the natural order that we might understand them both. If God received baptism from a man, let no one judge it unworthy to receive it from a companion in servitude. “And behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.…” It is the mystery of the Trinity that is manifested in this baptism. The Lord is baptized; the Holy Spirit descends under the appearance of a dove; and the voice of the Father is heard bearing witness to his Son. The heavens were opened, not in the sense that the elements split apart but to the eyes of the spirit, those eyes with which Ezekiel also saw them open as he relates at the beginning of his book (Ez 1:1). The dove comes to rest on the head of Jesus so that no one could think that the Father’s words were addressed to John and not to Jesus.

maronite readings – rosary,team

«Of all that are born of women, none is greater than John.»
Were all the saints – righteous, upright and wise – joined together and dwelling within a single man, they would not be able to equal John the Baptist… of whom it has been said that he surpasses by far all other men and belongs to the class of angels (Mk 1,2 Gk; Mal 3,1 Heb.). «But the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he»… By what he has said concerning John’s greatness our Lord wanted to make known God’s immense generosity to us and his generosity towards his chosen ones. However great and famous John might be it is less than the least in the kingdom, as the apostle Paul said: «Our knowledge is in part… but when what is perfect has come, what is in part will pass away» (1Cor 13,9-10). Yes, John is great – he who had the presentiment to say: «Behold, the Lamb of God» (Jn 1,29) – but this greatness is no more than a tiny foretaste compared to the glory to be revealed to those who are found worthy. To put it another way: all great and wonderful things here below appear in all their smallness and insignificance compared to the blessedness above… John was found worthy of the great gifts of this life: prophecy, priesthood (cf. Lk 1,5) and righteousness… John is greater than Moses and the prophets yet the old Law has need of the New Covenant since he who is greater than the prophets said to the Lord: «I need to be baptized by you» (Mt 3,14). John is great, too, because his conception was announced by an angel, his birth was surrounded with miracles, he announced the One who bestows life, he baptized for the remission of sins… Moses led the people as far as the Jordan and the Law led humankind to the baptism of John. Yet if «of all that are born of women none is greater than John», the Lord’s forerunner, how much greater must they be whose feet the Lord washed and into whom he breathed his Spirit? (Jn 13,4; 20,22).

maronite readings – rosary,team

The Christ is illuminated; let us take part in his splendor. The Christ is baptized; let us go down with him into the water so that we may come out of it with him… John baptizes, Jesus comes to him; he comes sanctify the one by whom he himself is baptized. He comes drown in the water the old Adam, entirely, and for this reason, and before doing so, he consecrates the water of the Jordan. He, who is spirit and flesh, wants to perfect man through water and spirit (Jn 3,4). The Baptist refuses and Jesus insists. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you” says the lamp to the Sun (Jn 5,35), the best man to the groom (Jn 3,29), the greatest man born of a woman to the first-born of all creatures (Mt 11,11; Col 1,15). Jesus comes out of the water, carrying along with him in this elevation the whole universe. He sees the skies open up, the same skies that in the past Adam had closed to himself and to his people, this paradise that had been locked up and guarded like by a fiery revolving sword (Gn 3,24). The Spirit bears witness to the divinity of Christ; he comes rejoin his equal. And a voice comes down from the sky, for it is from the sky that the one to whom he testifies comes from. And a dove makes itself visible to the eyes of the flesh in order to honor our flesh became divine.
maronite readings – rosary,team

And now, with your indulgence, I cannot resist recalling the praises with which Isaiah foretold this way of the Lord’s precepts… “And there will be there…”, he says, “in the terrible, trackless wastes, a path and a way… And it shall be called the holy way” (Is 35,7-8); holy, because it is the sanctification of sinners and the salvation of those who were lost… “The unclean shall not pass over it.” But surely, Isaiah, those who are unclean will not therefore have to travel by another way? Certainly not: all must come to this one way and travel by it. For Christ, who “came to seek and save what had fallen” (Lc 19,10)… has laid down this way especially for the unclean. Does this mean then that the unclean will travel along the holy way? Not at all. However unclean a man is when he reaches it, he will no longer be unclean when he travels along it because once he starts along it he is already cleansed. The holy way does admit a man defiled, but immediately cleanses all admitted to it, because it cleanses the faults that have been committed… And that is why this way admits the defiled but does not let him travel along it in that state. The way is constricted and is like the “eye of the needle” (Mt 7,14; 19,24)…        If you are on the way then fear only one thing: lest you leave it, lest you offend the Lord who leads you along it so that he would abandon you to wander in “the way of your own heart” (Is 57,17)… If you feel that the way is too narrow look forward to the end to which it leads you… If you cannot see so far, believe Isaiah who could; he is your eye. He must have seen, for he described the consequences: “Behold,” he says, “the redeemed shall walk by this way and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain also joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (35,9-10).

maronite readings – rosary,team