Mark 1: 7-11
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011021.cfm
This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the
Lord. It completes the Christmas revelation as God showed himself at Bethlehem, to the Gentile world in the Magi, and now presents himself as his public ministry is begun. So as we now complete the hectic
Christmas season, we find ourselves back in to some "normal" routine.
Yet, we know that “normal” in this time of pandemic may mean something very different than even one year ago we still recognize the light of hope
born among us this Christmas, that light has not been extinguished. Though
we may feel many open doors have been closed, hopefully only for a time, our
faith brings confidence that a much larger purpose is at hand.
The remembrance of Jesus’ baptism opened a door of grace that
has never been shut. Yet, the early centuries of Christians found Jesus baptism
problematic. The point being that if
John was preaching a baptism of repentance, clearly for a sinful people in need
to cleansing, why would Jesus the sinless one of God submit to the waters of
baptism? Was he truly sinless and
therefore was he truly God? It may be a question among some even today or at
best a problem that many of us may not even consider but just accept as a fact.
So, why was Jesus baptized? Our Lord went to John not because of his sin
but because of ours. Recall the meaning
of Christmas – God came to us, he entered our human life on earth, and he took
on himself his own creation in humanity which had fallen away by sin. That falling since the first original sin of
Adam and Even had created a barrier, a wall, between us and God. That wall could not be destroyed by our
efforts but only by some outside intervention. Therefore, the God of ages by an
incredible act of love entered our life to restore what had been broken. He
kept trying to reach us and finally was born in time.
As Jesus went down to the Jordan, as he had come down to
earth in the incarnation, he entered our sin and embraced it; he took our sin
upon himself in a baptism of repentance and stood with us in the mud as it were
in order to break down the obstacle between God and us.
So, Jesus though he bears no personal sin, enters the
waters and there embraces our humanity with all its brokenness. Thereby he
makes this sacrament the first one which leads to all the others and raises
humanity to a new higher level before God. In this way, baptism becomes for all
of us a door to enter and be saved.
In his baptism we see not only Jesus but the full
revelation of who God is in the Holy Trinity. The Father speaks from Heaven on
his “beloved Son,” the Son submits on our behalf and the Spirit enters him to
open the door to his public ministry and the fulfillment of the salvation
event. As we are baptized, then, our transformation in Christ begins. The guilt of original sin is washed away, the
Holy Spirit enters and transforms us to Christ, and a spiritual mark forever
identifies us on our souls as claimed for Christ Jesus. Although the broken
world into which all of us are born remains, we now stand in a new relationship
with God. The grace of the Holy Spirit
brings us into a new life as we are conformed to his likeness in this gift of
divine love.
It is right, then, that we baptize young children not far
beyond their birth. This provides that from our very beginning of earthly life
we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the grace needed to be faithful to
God in a world still broken by the effects of sin, and come to know him in his
Church as we grow with parents who lovingly take on the responsibility to raise
their children in a Christian Catholic home.
In a world where so many marriages and families are
broken and in this time of such stress due to the pandemic we need to know
ideals that call us to action and personal conversion. In baptism we are grafted on to the vine of
Christ's life and love in the Mystical Body of the Church and become sons and
daughters of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have entered a community, a family of
faith as it were, that links us to one another.
In a world that is so increasingly self-centered, baptism reminds us
that we are a people of God, not just a person of God.
So what may indeed be lacking in so many today and even
among those who remain faithfully involved in the life of the Church is to see
our faith as a personal and communal relationship with God; that we are called
to come to know Christ Jesus as Lord of our lives. Our baptism opens the door to our continued participation in the sacramental life of the Church: Forgiven in Reconciliation, a life ordered to a purpose through Holy Orders and Marriage, a life healed in the anointing of the sick, anointed with the Spirit in Confirmation, and fed in the food which is Christ himself in the Holy Eucharist.
The beautiful first reading from Isaiah offers us a
guide. It speaks of a “servant” a “chosen
one” whose mission is to bring hope to humanity and to establish a covenant
between God and his people. To rebuild
society after the mind of God and make just all the injustice that is present.
We have been chosen in baptism; called to live a life of
holiness. Such is high ideal indeed beyond
our mere human ability alone. For holiness is not what we do but what God does
in us through his grace. Our works of
compassion, mercy and selflessness towards others, our prayer life and our
participation in the Church all are open doors to allow God to change us by our
response to his unmerited gift.
So, we don’t just go through rituals and motions to appear
a certain way but open the door of our lives to the transforming power of God’s
grace. And if we are changed by him, then we have the conviction to go and
propose God’s plan to others and the world is changed as God works in and
through us, in his Church and beyond to the world.
Correcting the wrongs we see in ourselves and
others. To see acts of injustice towards
others as an open door to bring God’s hope to the fringe of society. To be beacons of light by the example of our
lives so that others may find their way to Christ.
Jesus was not just some wise teacher or dead prophet but
he is Lord of heaven and earth. The door of baptism opens us to a lifetime of
grace and growth and we are invited each day to live as worthy sons and
daughters of that grace as adopted children of a living God and now live life
with a new perspective.
O God, whose Only Begotten Son
has appeared in our very flesh,
grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed
through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves.
Who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
No comments:
Post a Comment