Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

    Is 42: 1-4, 6-7

                                         Acts 10: 34-38

                                                                                                            Mt 3: 13-17

Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God, we become members of Christ and are incorporated into the church and made sharers in her mission. To baptize means to plunge or immerse. The plunge into the water symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ’s death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as a new creature. This same concept of new creation are portrayed in Rom 6:3-4, Col 2:12, Gal 6: 15. Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal and most precious gift.

All the old covenant prefigurations such as Noah’s ark, crossing of red sea and river Jordan, find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. He begins his public life after having himself baptized by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan. After his resurrection Christ gives this mission to his apostles “Go therefore and make disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Mt 28: 19-20. Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St.John the Baptist which is intended for sinners in order to “fulfill all righteousness”. Jesus gesture is a manifestation of his self emptying Phil 2: 7. The spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation and the father revealed Jesus as his “beloved son”

            Ever since men began to think about the gospel story, they have found the baptism of Jesus difficult to understand. In John’s baptism there was a call to repentance and the offer of a way to the forgiveness of sins. But, if Jesus is who we believe him to be, he did not stand in need of repentance and did not need forgiveness from God. John’s baptism opened the consciousness of sinners of their sin and therefore it does not seem applicable to Jesus at all.

            A very early writer suggested that Jesus came to be baptized by John only to please his mother and his brothers. And it was in answer to their completion, he was almost compelled to let this thing happen. The gospel according to the Hebrews, which is one of the gospels, which failed to be included in the New Testament, has a passage like this… “Behold the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, John the Baptist baptizes for the remission of sins; let us go and baptized by him, but he said to them, what sin have I committed, that I should go and be baptized by him?

            From the earliest times biblical thinkers were puzzled by the fact that Jesus submitted to be baptized. But there were reasons and good reasons, why he did. First for thirty years Jesu7s had waited in Nazareth, faithfully performing the simple duties of the home and of the carpenter’s shop. All the time he knew that a world was waiting for him. Jesus must have waited for the hour to strike, for the moment to come, for the call to sound. And when John immersed into water Jesus knew that the time had arrived. Secondly there was one very simple and vital reason. It is the fact that never in all history before this had any Jew submitted to being baptized. The Jews knew and used baptism only for the other people who accepted or come into Judaism from some other faith. It was understood only sin stained, polluted needed baptism and Jews never conceived baptism. Jews thought a son of Abraham is assured of God’s salvation and never need baptism. Now for the first time in their National history the Jews realized their own sins and their own clamant need of God. Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and of search of God.

            This was the very moment for which Jesus had been waiting. Men were conscious of their sin and conscious of their need of God as never before. The voice which Jesus heard at the baptism is of supreme importance “this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased”. This sentence is composed of two quotations. This is my beloved son is a quotation from Ps 2:7. Every Jew accepted this Psalm as a description of the messiah, the mighty king who was to come. “With whom I am well pleased is quotation from Is 42: 1 which is a description of the suffering servant, a description which culminates in Is 53.

            Jesus fills the whole scene of today’s liturgy. We fix our eyes on him as he is baptized by John in the river Jordan. With this feast of the Baptism of Jesus we end the Christmas season today and we begin what the church calls ordinary time, during which we meditate on the ministry of Jesus, his teachings, his relationships with his disciples, his healings and finally his mission for which he came into the world, namely his death and resurrection which bring us salvation. These activities begin with the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan.

            It is good to ask few questions to ourselves based on today’s gospel text. Who were present at this Baptism and what do they contribute? The first person present is Jesus himself. Those who came to John were people wanting to be converted in their hearts, they wanted their lives to be changed and to live in peace. Jesus had no need to be baptized yet he was, in order to identify himself dramatically as a humble servant, of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks in the first reading. Christ chose to remain as servant to change and redeem the world. There was also present John the Baptizer. Though John and Jesus were relatives and grown up together, it said John was not aware of Jesus’ true identity until this event. Both of them had specific mission to be fulfilled. Both were humble servants. Two of John the Baptist sayings became famous among the early disciples of Jesus, “he must increase and I must decrease”, I am not fit to un-tie the strap of his sandals”.

As we heard in the first reading it’s Christ who brings the justice and mercy of God to the world. Christ inaugurates the reign of God through his sufferings and healings by his blood. And in second reading we find that Peter’s earliest sermons that God shows no partiality but extends the gift of his spirit to all. That spirit overshadows each and every one of us all through our lives.

So in the Baptism there came to Jesus two certainties. The certainty that he was indeed the chosen one of God, and the certainty that the way in front of him was the way of the cross. In that moment he knew that he was chosen to be king, but he also knew that his throne must be a cross. In that moment he knew that he was destined to be a conqueror, but that his conquest must have as its only weapon the power of suffering love. Along with these certainties, this feast of Baptism of the Lord makes us aware of our own Baptism and of the Holy Trinity, who came to us in the sacrament of Baptism. Today is an invitation to each one to awaken the divine life in our hearts, minds and consciences. It is appropriate on this day of the baptism of the Lord that we remember and renew the vows once spoken at our baptisms.

Baptism must do for us the same thing it did to Jesus. Little was known about Jesus before he was baptized, this magnificent moment became the turning point in the life of Jesus. After which he became the most extraordinary witness to love. As we participate in this banquet of love, let’s wash our sins and receive the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. And this banqueting meal may make us to be aware of God’s presence although our lives.  Amen.


  Fr. Albert Leo, CPPS