So I mentioned at the beginning of this Mass is that this day, this Sunday is the beginning

of ordinary time is beginning of, I would think of ordinary time as time for growth, right?

So normally ordinary time we were green and green means grow today since it's the baptism

of the Lord.

We're having white because it's a great celebration.

But it does mean it's the beginning and the beginning of a new, obviously first Sunday

of Advent was the beginning of the church of a new obviously first Sunday of Advent was

the beginning of the church year but there's something about right now next weekend we are having our

students back it's our beginning of the semester next weekend there's something so powerful

so important about having this beginning starting with the baptism of our lord because a it's the

beginning of his public ministry and be our baptism your baptism was the baptism of our Lord because, A, it's the beginning of his public ministry,

and B, our baptism, your baptism was the beginning of new life in Jesus for you and for me.

Like, this is what started, someone who is what started it all.

The question I have is this.

How do we live out that baptism? How do we live out that new life? How do we live out a relationship with God? And I think, I mean, there's so much to say about this. We probably will talk about it much, much more into the semester, into the new year. But we fall into some traps. And you might not fall into these two traps. I'm going to talk about two traps this morning. You might not fall into these two traps, but I think a lot of us regularly do.

And that the traps, essentially, that John the Baptist might be tempted into in the gospel today.

The first trap is the trap of not seeing God as the one who teaches and the one who leads,

but seeing God as the one who needs my counsel.

God is the one who needs my advice.

The other trap is the trap of performance. So let's look at the first one.

The first one is, it's common to a lot of us, right? Here is John the Baptist. And Jesus comes, says, he's coming to get baptized. And John says to God himself, right, to Jesus himself. He says, no, no, I need to be baptized by you. Like, I won't do this kind of thing. How many times are you, do we in our prayers see ourselves as God's counselor, see ourselves as God's advisor? Here's what I mean. It's when we're in prayer. It's usually a time like this. It's usually a time where we're desperate. When we, there's something we know we need. There's something we know someone else needs or we desperately, desperately want. We say, God, you have to do this thing.

How many times has that marked our prayer? Come before the Lord and we say, okay, God, this is what you need to do. Here's a situation. My kids, they're away from the church. Here's what you need to do. God, here's the situation. This person's marriage is on the rocks. Here's what you need to do. God, here's the situation.

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