A Reflection for Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Year C).
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11 – Titus 2:11-14, 3:4-7 – Luke 3:15-16, 21-22.
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings us to the end of the Christmas Season and to the beginning of the Ordinary Time. Back in Advent, at the start of the new liturgical year, the readings looked forward with expectancy to the coming of the long-awaited Christ. Today’s Gospel reading tells us that a feeling of expectancy had grown among the people (v.15) that the ministry of the Christ was imminent.
At the beginning of every calendar year, we have a similar feeling of expectancy, of hope that the new year will bring us something fresh and good. Now that holiday period is over, people are going back to work, expecting and hoping for the best. Following His baptism, Jesus prepares to embark upon His public ministry. The time has come for Him to leave the day job and embark upon His salvific mission.
The Baptism of Jesus took place immediately before the start of His public ministry in obedience to the Father (Mk 1:1ff cf. Lk 3:21ff), in fulfilment of the promise that God made to John the Baptist as to how he would recognise the Christ (Jn 1:33). It is a reminder of our own baptism into our life in God and the Church. When we received the Sacrament of Baptism, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we set out on our pilgrimage through this earthly life with the readily available support and guidance of Jesus our Lord, Saviour and King.
The verb “to baptise” means to immerse, to plunge, or to submerge something. For example, we might speak of “a baptism of fire” if we were to start a new job and find ourselves completely out of our depth and overwhelmed by events from day 1. The noun “baptism” in today’s Gospel means a formal rendering of someone completely clean. The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance. It was a ritual of washing, of going under the water and dying to sin, and of rising from the water to new life. It was an outward sign of cleansing from sin, and it paved the way for the baptism in the Spirit that was to come. John the Baptist declared that I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11). When Jesus accepted baptism from John, it wasn’t administered for His purification, because Jesus was-and-is without sin! Rather, when Jesus the Holy One of God (Is 55:5), infinitely and absolutely holy (Ex 15:11), entered the cleansing water of baptism, He sanctified both the water and the act, thus instituting the Sacrament of Baptism. When anyone is voluntarily immersed in the water of Baptism, that person is not only cleansed of the taint of Original Sin but becomes soaked in God – soaked in the Blessed Trinity who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism, there is a revelation of the Holy Trinity (v.22). We ourselves were immersed in God and received the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Joel 2:28) when we were baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:3ff) and became members of His family.
Jesus’ baptism was carried out in observance of the need to fulfil all righteousness (Mt 3:15). Our Lord underwent baptism to underline the importance of doing God’s will, which includes observing religious rites. It is vital for us to live in righteousness. Offer up the errors, sins and mistakes of the past to God for forgiveness, and move on to grow in righteousness. At the beginning of each new year, we have the opportunity to make a fresh start with a clean slate or a clean sheet. ***What righteous acts are we going to mark down ‘To Do’ on our slates or sheets?
There is a mission given to those of us who have been baptised (and thus immersed) in the Blessed Trinity. We have been entrusted with the mission of bearing the consoling message of God’s merciful love (Is 40:1f) to ALL people we encounter in daily life. So, it’s imperative that our new year’s resolutions include showing forth the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control (Gal 5:22f) – to other people for God’s sake. As Christians, we’re not reaching out to people just to be “nice”: we are reaching out to people because God loves each one of them, and He has created them and sustains them in the same way as He does us. They too are members of the family of God, and we are to show them His love. Whether that love would be better shown in terms of the fruits of the Spirit or as tough love is for us to determine through prayer and with reference to the word of God. What would Jesus do? Then, Go for it!
Finally, while I was meditating on the bible passage about the voice of God the Father speaking about God the Son, and about God the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus’ head in the form of a dove after His baptism, I realised how lovingly God speaks about each one of us when we too access Him in prayer and do His will thereafter.
As we resolve to give up worldly ambition in order to become sources of consolation and grace for God’s people, may our lives this new calendar year give glory to God, and may heaven be opened to us at the end of our earthly lives. Amen. God bless you.