The Baptism Of The Lord

Isaiah 55:1-11
Mark 1:7-11

RIGHTEOUSNESS FULFILLED IN CHRIST

On this last day of the Christmas Season, we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. But we may ask, why is the Baptism of our Lord placed as the conclusion to the Christmas Season? The answer is that theologically the Baptism of the Lord belongs to the part of His life when he was preparing for His public ministry. At one level, the Baptism of the Lord marks a moment of personal commitment for Our Lord. John the Baptist preached a moment of truth that was coming, stressed the need for openness to God and change.  His baptism of repentance was an opportunity for people to turn from their sins and start out in a new direction.  Our Lord by now knew that He was to urge such ideas in His forthcoming teaching, and He commits Himself to his ministry by coming to John.  Sinless, He has no need of forgiveness, but He does wish to show solidarity with fallen humanity and establish the direction in which He will move forward, so John’s baptism is a fitting sign.  Saint Mark tells us that as He came up out of the water Jesus “saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit like a dove, descending on him.”  The development of His human personality is confirmed by His vocation as the servant of God prophesied by Isaiah in the first reading at Mass today.

Also, The Baptism also provides a moment of recognition as Jesus goes public.  John the Baptist knows who Jesus is.  We do not hear this from Saint Mark, but both Matthew and Luke relate how John proclaimed his unworthiness even to undo The Lord’s sandals, let alone baptise Him with the baptism of repentance. Jesus was plunged into the water and rose, prefiguring His death and resurrection; we too are plunged into the waters of the font and rise to new life in Christ by being united with His saving work.  Our Lord was confirmed as God’s anointed and adopted Son; we too emerge from the waters of the font as the adopted children of God.  Saint Hilary of Poitiers comments:” Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father’s voice, we become sons of God.” Thus, the Baptism of the Lord is said to prefigure our Christian Baptism into the saving Death, and Resurrection accomplished by Jesus.

Our understanding of human personal development can tell us that we cannot escape from our past:  who we are now has been shaped by many factors in our past.  The message of today’s Feast is that if we are God’s people now, then he also values and cherishes our passage through the uncertainties of personal development.  God became man in order to comprehend every human condition.  Today we see clearly how God consecrated Our Lord in the service of humanity and we recognise that through our own Baptism he has consecrated us in the same service and given us the means to discover and achieve our vocation.  So, with Christ among us, and through the Church’s life, we move on as signs of God’s presence in the world today.

Fr Joseph Osho