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CROSSING THE JORDAN AND TAKING SIDES

We know what we are supposed to do: help change the world. But before we even think of changing the world, we need the world to change us.

Thus, integration with communities--immersion into different ways of life--is a prerequisite. The late Fr. Carlos Abesamis, in conversation, said that having the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other is not enough. Newspapers will never be a substitute for immersion, nor will television, radio, or social media.

Immersion transforms people! Immersion has done so for many of us! In the fullness of time, even God went on Immersion. We call it incarnation. Immersion changed God.

Sunday's lection reminds us that one of the most powerful images of immersion in the Bible is baptism. Baptism is about taking sides. When John baptized people in the Jordan, they crossed from one bank to the other, from one side to the other side. They re-enacted the crossing of the Jordan.

It is about doing what Ernesto "Che" Guevarra did: swimming from one bank to the other bank of the Amazon River, knowingly putting himself at risk of a deadly asthma attack and drowning, yet choosing the side of those whose only hope was God.

Baptism is crossing the Jordan: choosing justice and taking possession of liberty, land, and fullness of life that God wants for all people, especially for occupied peoples. Crossing the Jordan can lead to death. John the Baptist crossed the Jordan and was executed by Herod. Jesus crossed the Jordan and was crucified by the Romans.

And you and I are called by our baptism to cross "Rivers of Jordan" wherever we are. Every moment of our lives, we need to choose justice. May we have the courage to do as John and Jesus did.

Choose justice. Always justice.


*art, "John baptizing Jesus," Mural at the Church of Enda Yesus, Axum, Ethiopia (image available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

READING THE PARABLES OF JESUS INSIDE A JEEPNEY

 

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