Breaking the Word

GOSPEL READING: LUKE 1:26-38

Mary was a virgin but she was betrothed to a man named Joseph. She was a historical person with sociological background and controlled by geographical and temporal limits. Such a person was encountered by an eternal, limitless, beyond space and time God. At this juncture she could only utter ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord’.

Mary believed in a God who created the heavens and the earth. She believed in a God who redeemed her ancestors from slavery. She believed in a God who walked along with her forefathers through the thick and thin of the history. She believed in a God who controlled the nature and history. Nothing was impossible for this God. When such a God addressed her she could only say ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord’.

மரியா படைப்பின் கடவுளை நம்பினாள். தனது முன்னோரை அடிமைத்தனத்திலிருந்து மீட்ட கடவுளை நம்பினாள். தனது முன்னோரோடு வரலாறு படைத்த கடவுளை நம்பினாள். இயற்கையிலும் வரலாற்றிலும் தன்னை வெளிப்படுத்திய கடவுளை நம்பினாள். கடவுளால் இயலாதது ஒன்றுமில்லை என்று நம்பினாள். இந்த கடவுளை எதிர்கொள்ளும்போது> ‘நான் ஆண்டவரின் அடிமை@ உம்சொற்படியே எனக்கு நிகழட்டும்” என்று மட்டும்தான் சொல்ல முடிந்தது.

GOSPEL READING: Mk 1:1-8
The author is giving us the good news of Jesus Christ. But he straight away goes to the Old Testament to speak about his messenger and his arrival. The story has something to do with the Old Testament. In fact the story is the fulfilment of the Old Testament sayings and prophecies. The story of Jesus is nothing but the fulfilment of the prophets and Moses. All what the author was going to say was nothing but fulfilment of the Old Testament.

Quotations are borrowed from two prophecies–that of Isaiah and that of Malachi. Both of them spoke of the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Malachi says that the messenger is sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Prophet Isaiah says that John the Baptist is the voice that cries in the desert. His dress and his food reveal that he was not conforming to this world. His way shows that we have to live above the world and worldly things to prepare the way of the Lord.

John the Baptist preached a baptism for the forgiveness of sin. This was the command which Jesus gave his disciples after resurrection. So Jesus’ story begins and ends with the baptism for the forgiveness of sin. The great promise Christ makes in his gospel to those who have repented, and have had their sins forgiven them is that they shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

பழைய ஏற்பாட்டின் நிறைவே இயேசுவின் நற்செய்தி. திருமுழுக்கு யோவான்தான் இயேசுவின் வருகையை முன்அறிவிப்பவர். இவருடைய உணவும் உடையுமே இவர் இவ்வுலகை சார்ந்தவர் இல்லை என்றும் இவருடைய போதனை இவ்வுலகு சார்ந்தது அல்ல என்றும் வெளிப்படுத்துகிறது. பாவமன்னிப்புக்கான திருமுழுக்கை அவர் போதித்து வந்தார்.