Second Sunday of Lent, cycle A

 Matthew 17:1-9

The apostles probably had a lot of different ideas about who Jesus was. Sure, he could work miracles -- they’d seen a few. At the time of the transfiguration, they had even seen miracles such as Jesus walking on water, quieting a storm, sending demons into pigs -- but you know human beings, then and now. The Pharisees witnessed his miracles and decided that he drove out demons by being in league with demons. And there were other healers in those days, pagan as well as Jewish. Could they heal as well? And if so, how? In any event, Jesus attracted a lot of people to follow him, but despite the miracles, a lot of folks decided it didn’t mean they should change their lives. And the apostles who traveled with Jesus couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t that different from them; he got tired, he had to eat, walking on those roads he got dirty; on a hot day you could see sweat on his brow. And they would wonder -- is he just another healer? Is he a holy man, a prophet? Is he the messiah? And if he’s the messiah he doesn't look like a messiah! And they would ask, when is it going to happen? And he’d say, The Son of Man must suffer and die. It didn’t make sense so they would ignore it.

When I read about the transfiguration, I wondered how Jesus persuaded his disciples to climb the mountain with him. Maybe he invited all twelve but only Peter, James and John took him up on it. We know that later on when they came down the other nine were trying without success to drive a demon out of a boy. But it may have been nothing more than a desire to pray. We read many instances in scripture when someone ascends a mountain to pray. It’s a way to get away from the world and at the same time feel closer to God, even though we know God isn’t up there somewhere. Jesus is always making time to pray, where he can tune out the rest of the world. We read that after curing people in Peter’s village he withdrew to a deserted place to pray; and one time he told his apostles, after he had sent them out to preach and heal, that now was the time to withdraw and rest a while. You and I need this as well. I don’t know if you have a favorite place to pray or meet God on a regular basis, but one of the wonderful things that happens right here in Saint Mary’s is that there are times when we place Jesus on the altar so that people can come in and sit before him and pray.

When Jesus and his disciples get to the top of the mountain, the story tells us that he was transfigured before them, and was conversing with Moses and Elijah. Moses climbed a similar mountain to receive the ten commandments, and in his encounter with God he was transfigured as well; when he came down it says that no one could look at his face so he had to cover it. Elijah climbed a mountain and encountered God in a still small voice, not in thunder or lightning. And like Moses, he was changed and was strengthened to continue to do God’s bidding. Matthew and Mark both tell us they conversed; Luke tells us they conversed about what was to happen in Jerusalem -- his passion and death. In our moments of prayer when we sit in the presence of God we need to look carefully at our lives and ask God for wisdom and strength to face our futures, because there will be suffering, there will be death.

You can imagine how the apostles felt in the presence of this scene. Jesus, who up to then was their teacher, worker of miracles, and indeed, friend, is now revealed as much more than that, and it is all confirmed when the voice from heaven calls him “son”. Greater than Moses, the lawgiver; greater than Elijah, the prophet. Messiah, sure, but Son, a title given by God. Peter, sensing the miraculous nature of this moment, wants to prolong it and proposes that they build structures for the three. We human beings like to hold on to those moments that make life worth living. We remember anniversaries, birthdays, religious and public holidays, that in some way connect us with those great moments in the past. The Jews build little structures like the apostles were proposing during the feast of Succoth, to remind themselves of how they sheltered during their time in the desert with Moses.

But then the vision is gone and there is Jesus, dusty and sweating from the climb, his old self. And when those great moments happen to you and I, at some point we have to get back to the real world. Peter, James and John will never see Jesus the same way again; and in some way have been prepared to hold the little community together when Jesus is captured, condemned, suffers and dies. That’s what adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is supposed to do -- prepare us to re-enter the world renewed, strengthened and given wisdom.

So who was transfigured on the mountain? Jesus of course. But so were the apostles, who would never be the same. The presence of Jesus does that. And his presence is here in this Church all the time, but especially during adoration. Make it a point to come and visit him a few times during Lent, and be transfigured yourself.

First Sunday of Lent, cycle A

Matthew 4:1-11

As some of you know, Joan and I have a great grandchild, who as far as we can tell is the cutest little girl in the world.  She’s about seven months old now, and between her parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, she gets a lot of attention.  I think she must believe she is the most important person in the world.  But that made me think about myself.  I’ve always believed, deep in my heart, that I’m the most important person in the world, in fact, that I’m the center of the universe, and I don’t know how the world could get along without me.  Now my brain tells me I’m wrong.  But that feeling of being at the center of things is common to all of us -- it’s human nature.

In today’s gospel, Jesus has just come from his baptism when he heard the words of the Father:  “This is my beloved”.  And then he goes off to fast for forty days and forty nights, the same number of days Noah’s ark was afloat; the same number of years the chosen people roamed around before settling in the promised land.  And it’s not surprising that he was hungry. 

Someone said that he was hungry, not just for food, but because after all this time fasting, he began to wonder if he really was beloved.  Jesus must have felt very mortal when he ended his fast.  Forty days is enough to make you lose a fifth of your body weight; it’s enough to make you feel so weak that you have trouble getting up from a sitting position.  The Spirit leads Jesus into the desert -- maybe the fast wasn’t entirely voluntary.  Jesus is hungry for food, yes, but also for reassurance that he is beloved.

Satan tempts Jesus, first telling him in essence, “If you are God's beloved, why don’t you turn these stones into bread?  And Jess answers, “Man does not live by bread alone.”  Another way to put it is: My being God’s blessed one doesn’t depend on whether I am full or empty, rich or poor, well fed or starving.

Satan then shows Jesus the kingdoms of the world and offers them all to him if he worships him.  In other words, “If you are God’s blessed one, why are you a nobody?  Because at this point in his life Jesus was just another peasant, putting in long days of hard work,  but never getting ahead.  That’s the way most people lived.  But Jesus replies, “I may be a nobody, but I can still be God’s blessed one.  Being blessed has nothing to do with fame or power.”

The third temptation is put forward.  Jesus is taken up to a tower and dared by Satan to prove he is blessed by throwing himself off the tower.  Because surely if you are blessed, Satan seems to be saying, God won’t let anything happen to you.  Jesus replies, in essence,  “Being God’s blessed one doesn’t have anything to do with special privilege, or miraculous blessings.  I’ll take the stairs, like everyone else.”  

Jesus decides that after all, he is God’s blessed one.  And you are as well, and I am, and each of us here, no matter what our circumstances.

And fasting is a chance to be feasting.  We trade earthly satisfactions for heavenly ones.  Fasting is a discipline to remove distractions and sharpen our spiritual senses.  When I was in fourth grade, we were all asked what we were giving up for Lent.  Most of us were giving up candy, sometimes more specifically, certain kinds of candy like Hershey bars.  One of my classmates volunteered that not only was she giving up candy, but the dentist told her to.  It isn't that candy and the other things we fast from are bad -- at least they shouldn’t be-or we shouldn't be doing them at all.  God likes to see us delighted by what he has put in front of us.  But he made them so that we would seek him as the one who gave them to us in love.  But we tend to get hung up by what delights us instead of looking beyond.  Saint Paul talks about those whose “god is the belly”.  When we give something up for a little while, we are acknowledging its goodness and our weakness.  We are making the choice to feast our spirit on our Father rather than feast our bodies on what God has made.  

Jesus, having fasted, is strong enough to resist the temptation to doubt his specialness, that he is the beloved of God.  And your fasting should do the same.  When you have completed your Lenten journey may you be even more convinced that you are God’s beloved, God’s special child.

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 5:13-16

When I visit Catholic residents in the nursing home, it’s very likely that the television is tuned to EWTN.  Oddly enough, it’s true of a lot of non catholic residents as well.  Most of the time the topic on television is religious news, or an interview of someone.  Sometimes it’s prayers being said, maybe the angelus.  Other channels are available, but it seems as though these residents find better company in EWTN.  

EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network, currently has about 400 employees and brings in about 64 million dollars every year, much of it from donations and bequests.  It is a very transparent company compared with many tax exempt organizations.  Their annual financial report is accessible online.  

The history of EWTN is remarkable.  Rita Rizzo  was born in 1923 to parents who subsequently separated and eventually divorced.  Rita was raised by her mother and grandparents, living in poverty and moving frequently. She attended Catholic grade school and remarked once that she hated nuns, who were the meanest people on earth..  She went to a public high school where she was in a marching band.  She barely graduated, since during this time she held down two part time jobs to support her mother and help out her grandparents.  After graduation she worked as a secretary, She suffered from a chronic stomach problem which caused her to lose about 20 pounds.  Her mother brought her to a self-proclaimed mystic who urged Rita to make a novena to saint Therese, after which she had a conversion experience and all her symptoms disappeared..  She felt she had a  vocation and eventually took vows as a Poor Clare nun, with the name “Angelica of the Annunciation".  She suffered a bad fall resulting in problems walking which got worse.  She had a back operation which was partially successful, but for the rest of her life she had back pains and difficulty walking.  During this time she felt God was calling her to set up a monastery in the south.  With a few other poor Clare nuns she moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and she and other nuns began making fishing lures to support themselves, and they raised enough to begin the process of building a chapel.

It was during this time that her weekly conversations about the faith began to attract more and more people, and the bishop helped her set up weekly broadcasts and later videocasts of these talks.  Anyway, one thing led to another and she eventually founded EWTN, which produces television content and is accessible world-wide.  As her vision for the monastery and EWTN took shape, she got in the habit of making plans, with the expectation that God would step in where needed, and that helped.  Her biography is fascinating in this regard -- so many close calls where out of the blue someone came forth to give a donation or lend needed expertise.  She died in 2016 after a series of strokes that made her active involvement in her apostolate no longer possible.  EWTN and her convent in Irondale, Alabama, continues to thrive.

This remarkable story illustrates what Jesus is asking of his disciples.  He’s not calling them to something new, he’s reminding them that they are already called, that through his grace we all have salt and light, we are all part of the city on a hill.  Rita Rizzo started with nothing and suffered many setbacks.  Mother Angelica let what she was become what everyone could see -- salt of the earth and light of the world.

I see two things to take away from today’s gospel; first, you and I are already salt and light; we get the tools we need at Baptism -- to enrich the lives of others and to be people who show the world what being a follower of Jesus is all about.  Most of us are hampered from this vocation by false humility.  We are afraid to be like  Mother Angelica, even though we could be. Second, bearing salt and being light is meant to glorify God.  The gospel we read uses the words “give praise” but most translations as well as the Greek original use the word meaning “glorify”.  We toss that word around a lot in our prayers and liturgies.  I realized as I was studying this gospel that I didn’t know what “glorify” meant.  It doesn’t mean “praise”.  It means showing the world the goodness of something, in this case, our heavenly father.  Mary uses the same word in her song, where it's sometimes translated as “magnify” as in “my soul magnifies the Lord”.  

Today, let us ask ourselves, are we glorifying God with our lives? Are we salt, are we light?  If not, how can we let God take over and show us how we live the way Jesus calls us to live -- to be salt and light? 

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

 

Matthew 5:1-12

Someone sent me something on Facebook. The title was “What heaven really is, and why many people would not like it”. We imagine heaven to be a state of being in which all our desires are satisfied, and we live in complete happiness for all eternity. That’s probably true, but there are conditions, and some of us may not like them. That’s ok, because you don’t have to go to heaven. There are alternatives.

The author makes the following points:

First of all, heaven is not just about beauty, joy, peace, and so forth. At the core is union with God himself -- the awesome holy presence of God in myself. Second, heaven is the palace where God’s will is everything - nothing exists outside of His will. No pride, no stubbornness, no sin, no complaining; heaven is total surrender. Third heaven is pure holiness; holiness is not just avoiding sin, but it is becoming like God. Fourth, heaven is where nothing, but love remains -- not comfort, not gossip, grudges, revenge, selfishness. Fifth, heaven is eternal worship. Some of us start looking at our watches during the sermon. Heaven is unending praise, thanksgiving, adoration. If your prayer feels empty now, think of what it will feel like in heaven.

Many people like the idea of heaven, but few want to be transformed into someone suitable for heaven. Maybe hell is not fire and demons, but full of people who reject what heaven is -- people who want freedom without obedience, pleasure without holiness, God’s gifts without God Himself. Becoming holy on hearth is heaven’s training ground.

And that brings us to the beatitudes, the eight statements we’ve just heard in the gospel, and the ninth which warns us of the consequences of living that way.

Did Jesus just think of several random things and preach them? He starts with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. That’s the introduction. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people who have emptied themselves out, who live to do the will of God, who turn their lives over to God.

When you read the next seven statements, they describe what it means to be pure of heart. It’s being someone who mourns. I never quite understood that, but I think it means someone who is sensitive to what is wrong with the world, and is moved to do something about it. It’s being meek. Not being walked on, but recognizing that other people have as much claim on the necessities of life, physical and spiritual, as you do.. IT’s desiring with all your energy, that true justice will prevail. Justice and righteousness are very similar; justice is about reward and punishment; righteousness is justice that seeks to transform through reward and punishment. It’s God’s justice; it’s why bad things happen to good people. It’s being merciful; it’s avoiding things which lead to sin or cause others to sin. That’s “clean of heart”. it's being a peacemaker. Many people like to stir up conflict; they go around saying, in effect, “let’s you and him fight!” They take pleasure in getting people riled up. Just check the internet. Many people live to make other people angry, to sew division. That will never get you into heaven. Jesus refers to righteousness again, when he tells us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are doing something about righteousness -- remember, justice which transforms - even to the point of being persecuted.

And then Jesus looks at you directly, and promises that if you have decided to take him at his word and seriously try to live these beatitudes, you will probably meet a lot of resistance. You might even get your head chopped off, or burned at stake. It wouldn’t be the first or last time something like that happened to someone who tried with all their heart to follow the beatitude, to do what Jesus proposes. And if you are being persecuted and libeled for living this way, you know you are on the right track, you can look forward to heaven.

Heaven is there for the taking. God wants everyone to get to heaven. Jesus tells us that it takes more than just following the ten commandments; it requires allowing yourself to be transformed into someone who belongs in heaven, who is comfortable there.

That of course is the greatest argument for the existence of purgatory -- it’s the completion of God’s work to make us citizens of heaven. For some of us it won’t be long at all, or be very difficult. For others it might take a long time and a lot of work on God’s part to finish what was begun on earth. For some, they will take one look and say, “I don’t really want heaven, thanks anyway, God.” So use the time you have left in life to be the kind of person who will enjoy heaven.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 4:12-23

Last Sunday we heard about John the Baptist testifying about who Jesus is. That was in the gospel of John. Now we are back in Matthew, whose gospel will be the main one of cycle A, the first of three annual cycles of readings. The Church hasn’t forgotten about the gospel of John; it’s very prominent in all three cycles during the period of time after Easter. So if you are at a party and there is a lull in conversation, tell them that a person who attends mass on all the Sundays and holydays for three years would hear 89.8% of the four gospels. At least that's what the internet told me.

In today’s gospel, Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is up there in the area of Capernaum because it fulfills a prophecy from Isaiah, that those northern provinces have been in darkness and now see a great light. With that as a prelude, Matthew describes the calling of four of the apostles. One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is that Jesus is ushering in the kingdom of heaven. The signs of that are that the blind see, the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. As Jesus goes about preaching and proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, we are supposed to notice that his presence and his message cause abrupt changes in the two sets of brothers, both of whom drop everything and immediately follow him. Later Matthew will tell us about his own conversion, using the name Levi, the tax collector who drops everything to follow Jesus.

But there is another character in this short gospel passage, a man named Zebedee. I can remember that whenever I would hear this gospel I would feel kind of sorry for Zebedee, watching his two sons leave the family business to follow a wandering preacher. I wonder how Zebedee felt -- angry? Disappointed? Maybe delighted to give up his sons to Jesus. But there must have been sadness.

Zebedee is an unusual name, not only in the bible, where it is used only in reference to the father of James and John, but also in the names that were popular at that time. The apostles, in fact, had common names -- in the writings of the Jews during those times, we find other men with similar names. And Zebedee never caught on as a name to give your child, unlike many Old Testament and New Testament names.

Zebedee was a real person. His name means “gift of God”. Other parts of the New Testament tell us that his wife was probably one of the later followers of Jesus, and her name was Solome. We find her mentioned in the passion stories as one of the women who met Jesus after his resurrection, and she is referred to as the mother of James and Joses, which was another name for John. She probably became a follower of Jesus because she had first followed her two sons. So she represents another loss for Zebedee.

I think a lot of us, probably most of us, can identify with Zebedee, especially those of us who are parents. As we raise our children, they gradually become their own persons. What we might want for them is often something they don’t want. We might like them to live close so that we can see them more often, but sometimes they move far away. Some of us, like Zebedee, might have built a business we would like to leave to them, and then we discover they don’t want to do that. Maybe we find joy in seeing how our kids turned out, but maybe there is a little sadness because they didn’t follow in our footsteps. When your last child leaves home, there’s a part of you that would like to see a time when the whole family got together again, not just for a day or so but like it used to be. Zebedee must have felt that way as well.

But maybe Zebedee, like his two sons, recognized that Jesus was ushering in the kingdom of heaven, and despite the sadness in his heart, he rejoiced that his two sons were singled out to be apostles, to help spread Jesus’ message, to guide the early church. But at the same time, someone had to run the boat, someone had to fish, because people depended on fishermen. Do any of you parents identify with Zebedee? I know I do.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time cycle A

John 1:29-33

The decorations have been taken down and the poinsettias adopted by parishioners.  Christmas trees lacking ornaments lie on their sides by the street, waiting to be transported to a place where they can decompose.  Children are back in school.  We are back in Ordinary Time.  

Ordinary time is potentially a blessing or a curse, depending on a lot of things.  For little kids who have experienced another Christmas, it’s a letdown, and that’s true for some adults as well.  On the other hand, some of us are glad to get back to the routine -- eating normally, doing our jobs. Glad that company will not drop in for a while.  But our reaction to Ordinary Time really is related to our feelings about Christmas, not the actual joys of ordinary time.

The gospel today tells us that John, who has been baptizing crowds, realizes that he did not know Jesus.  That’s hard to believe in the literal sense, because John and Jesus were cousins, probably about six months apart in age.  It’s true that they lived a couple of days journeying on foot, apart from each other.  John’s dad was a priest and had to be in the temple; he probably grew up in Bethany or another little town not far from Jerusalem.  When Mary visited Elizabeth Luke tells us that she went to the hill country.  But certainly John and Jesus must have met at those times when Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem for time like the Passover celebration.  John knew Jesus, just didn’t know who Jesus really was.

I’m one of those people who has a hard time appreciating Ordinary Time -- I don’t know it, I only know it in relation to Christmas and Easter and Lent and Pentecost - all the non-ordinary times.  Ordinary time is just counting the days until the next big feast. When we are baptized we are invited to enter the world of little children -- Because Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.   I’ve often pondered those words.  What is it about little children that Jesus admires?  Being the father of six and the grandfather of 20, and now the great grandfather of one, I’ve been around little children for most of my adult life.  Just when I think the last one is leaving childhood, another little child comes into my life.  I wonder if Jesus really knew little children  -  they cry, they keep you up at night, they are stubborn as mules, they need frequent cleaning -- maybe he didn’t mean these traits, maybe he admired them because they do one thing very well that adults don’t do -- they live in the present.

If one gets in a fight with another, a few minutes later they are friends again.  If they are playing in the yard and a grasshopper goes by, they might put down their toys and follow it.  Little children don’t worry about the future -- that’s something they can’t control.  They don’t worry about the past for the same reason.  Adults often worry about the past and future, but can’t control them either.

Maybe that’s something we need to think about in ordinary time.  Christmas celebrates a small part of Jesus’ life. So does Holy Week and Easter.  But Jesus spent three years teaching and healing and driving out demons and forming his apostles to lead his church.  That’s what we should concentrate on in ordinary time.

John the Baptist says in today’s gospel, “I did not know him”.  He says it twice.  If we really want to know Jesus we need to walk along with him through Galilee.  We need to meet the people he met, and listen to the lessons he taught in his stories.  And we can do that by paying attention to ordinary time.  So make a resolution that during this year you will listen carefully to the readings, especially the gospels, of ordinary time so that you can know Jesus better.  Maybe even make it a family affair if you are a parent, or maybe join a group to consider the readings for each Sunday.  And you might find that ordinary time is extraordinary.  

Baptism of the Lord 2026

Mathew 3:13-17

Why did Jesus allow himself to be baptized?  That’s a question that people have asked from the beginning of Christianity.  Matthew attempts to give an answer here -- Jesus insists that John baptize him so that “they would fulfill all righteousness”.  Mark and Luke tell the story a little differently and this dialogue is not heard in the other accounts.  What does this mean, to fulfill all righteousness?  

Matthew uses that word about seven times in his gospel.  In all cases, it refers to the act of trying to be in complete accord with the Law of  Moses.  So is being baptized by John something from the law of Moses?  In Jesus' time under the influence of the Pharisees, being washed in water for religious reasons became a practice associated with purification.  In today’s world the Orthodox Jews still practice a ritual like this when someone converts to Judaism, but again it doesn’t mean what it means for Christians to be baptized.  John’s baptism seems to have been somewhere in between the baptism of cleansing to relieve impurity and the baptism that is a sign that you have become a  son or daughter of the Father and an adopted sister or brother of  Jesus.

John’s baptism was “ of repentance"  It doesn’t mean being sorry for one’s sins in the sense that we Catholics bring to confession.  Repentance really means to change one’s approach to the world.  John himself shows what this means in the gospel of Luke, when after calling his followers a brood of vipers, many ask, “What then shall we do?”  John’s answers are surprising -- if you have two coats and your neighbor has none, give him a coat, likewise with food.  IF you collect taxes for a living, collect only what you are owed.  If you are a soldier, don’t use your power to take advantage of people.  In other words, John’s idea of repentance doesn't involve going off into the desert and living on bugs, but just doing what you are supposed to do, and looking after your neighbor.  

The other thing about John’s baptism that made it so popular among the people was that it took place in the Jordan river.  In the days of Joshua, the man who succeeded Moses in leading the  people of Israel, there was a point in their wanderings when they came to the Jordan river and Joshua parted the waters like Moses had done at the red sea, and the people crossed over into the Land of Israel.  Washing in Jordan was symbolic of one’s desire to get back to basics, to recommit to the nation of Israel.  

So Jesus is not being baptized to remove original sin -- that’s a Christian idea.  Jesus is being baptized to commit to a life of righteousness, a life of repentance - it doesn't mean Jesus changes in any way, but like all the other baptized people it’s a symbol of his intention to live righteously for the rest of his life.  And like the other people being baptized Jesus is signifying his desire to be part of the chosen people -- kind of a recommittment.  In other words John recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah and doesn’t need his baptism, but Jesus wants to fulfill what the baptism is all about -- a commitment to live as an ideal Israelite.

After Jesus is baptized, Matthew, Mark and Luke speak of the spirit descending in the form of a dove, and the voice from heaven.  Only Matthew implies that this was only apparent to Jesus.  In any event at his baptism Jesus commits himself to a life of righteousness, a life of living exactly according to God’s true law; and the Father in heaven confirms and accepts this, giving Jesus the Holy Spirit and calling him Son. And this was the point at which Jesus began his earthly mission.  

Jesus’; baptism in the Jordan has nothing to do with original sin, but instead is the moment Jesus commits to his ministry, receives the spirit, and is acknowledged by the Father as his Son.  Jesus was always the Son of God and a human being, not the Son of God living in a human body.  Saint Paul tells us he was like us in all things but sin, so he had to grow,to develop, to be educated, and dare I say it, make mistakes -- because all these things are human.  When we remember that Jesus was as human as you and I, a lot of questions are no longer questions - like why on earth did he pick Judas for an apostle?  Maybe the answer was that he made a mistake.  Why did he knock over the money changer’s tables and whip them with a whip made of cords?  Maybe that day his temper got the better of him.  Jesus never committed a sin, but he was totally human.

In addition to  being in solidarity with his people, the Israelites, Jesus by being baptized is in solidarity with you and iI as well, because our baptism, in addition to being the means by which God removes original sin, is also a baptism of repentance -- when we are baptized we also commit to trying to live a life of holiness; and when we are baptized we also receive the holy Spirit to help us, and if we had ears to hear, we also will hear God telling us “this is my child, in whom I am well pleased."