THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus, the end of the Christmas tide, the season of Epiphany and as we start the week in Ordinary Time. In 1955, Pope Pius XII separated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord from the celebration of the Epiphany (then January 6th) and moved it to January 13th. In 1969, Pope St. Paul VI transferred it to a Sunday after January 6th. In 1996, Pope St. John Paul II made Christ’s Baptism, one of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary that reveal Christ’s divinity.
In today’s Gospel of Luke Chapter 3, John the Baptist is at the Jordan River where many people came to be baptized. Significant in John choosing the Jordan River for the baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sin is that it brought the Israelites to the Jordan River, where they had crossed into the Promised Land, in order to start at the very beginning and a new life.
St. Augustine describes sin as when I am caved in around myself. In Genesis 3, after Adam had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to him and said “Where are you?” (Gen 3:8). God knows exactly where Adam is, but signalled here is that sin involves knowing that God exists, but our experience of God is instead one of separation. We have lost sight of God and wandered away. Adam answered “I heard you in the garden but I was afraid” (Gen 3:10). Sin awakens in us a sense of shame and self-consciousness, painfully in the presence of God (Bishop Barron, Sunday Sermon June 2024).
As we deepen our understanding of the Sacrament of Baptism, we ask why was Jesus baptized? Jesus who was sinless, did not need repentance and to be baptized by John. Jesus took on the sin of humanity at His incarnation, when He became man and dying for us on the cross. St. Paul tells us “We have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4). The Sacrament of Baptism is not an act that lasts an hour, rather it is a journey of our whole life. Pope Benedict XVI explains “baptism is the first step of the resurrection, the entry into the indestructible life of God.” It marks a radical crossing into a new life that Christ makes possible by His life, death and resurrection (Lectio Divina of Pope Benedict XVI, June 2012).
By being baptized, Jesus modeled baptism for all believers as a step in our faith journey. This remains true for believers today. St. Luke tells us when Jesus was baptized and was praying, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and a voice from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). This depicts the Trinitarian Revelation and a beautiful potrayal of the loving union of the Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body” (1 Cor 12:13). We do not participate in our own spiritual journey, rather in being deeply united with Jesus forever as a family of God able to share in His resurrection; a community equipped for new life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the seed of virtues of faith, hope and charity, sown by God are planted in our hearts and nourished by the word of God and by the Sacraments. In the 2nd Reading, St. Paul tells Titus that “God saved us according to His mercy through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit He poured out on us, richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).
In the inspiring biography of Pope St. John Paul II “Witness to Hope” (by George Weigel), we read of his first papal pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979. He went to the church he had known as a boy, and the first thing he did when he got there was to go to the baptismal font, knelt and kissed it. For Pope St. John Paul II, the most important day in his life was the day of his baptism, not the day he was ordained a priest, or consecrated a Bishop, or elected Pope. The day of his baptism was the font from which everything else in his life flowed. Upon reading this, I realized I could not clearly recall my baptism date and had to look it up on my Baptism Certificate. While I have no difficulty remembering my birthday; surely there is no reason why I am not able to recall my baptism date and to remember the day each year. Will you do the same?
This Sunday as we start Ordinary Time and in our journey in the year ahead; we know that life with its ups and downs, where at times we live up to the title of children of God and at times we may not. No matter how unworthy we feel, God has been accompanying us at every moment since our baptism. We remain continually reminded and always grateful for our new life by the Sacrament of Baptism. We continue the example of Jesus and our Blessed Mother Mary in our lives, in prayer and spiritual renewal, in seeking the Holy Spirit to be with us to help us remain courageous and to be witnesses of Christ.
Article by Olivia Tan, HFC Blog Contributor