THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
9 JANUARY 2022
The
Prophet Isaiah speaks to his people who are in captivity in Babylon. He shifts his tone from condemning his people
for their past sins to giving them hope that they will be restored as God’s
people in the future. He speaks of
comfort for Jerusalem with great tenderness.
He promises a new exodus back to the Promised Land, with road
construction workers filling in the valleys and leveling the mountains and
hills.
On this
last day of this Christmas Season, we see his prophecy fulfilled in the voice
of John the Baptist. John is extremely
popular with the crowds. But, he humbly insists
that he is not the Christ. Instead, he
points to Jesus. He tells the poor in
spirit that their valleys will be filled in so that they can embrace their
savior. He insists that the mountains of
the proud must be leveled before they can be saved. He invites the crowd to be plunged into the
River Jordan as a sign that they will make the changes in their lives to allow
them to embrace the Christ.
Then he
baptizes Jesus in the dirty waters of the Jordan. He does not baptize Jesus for the forgiveness
of any sins. He plunges Jesus into those
same waters to say that he has shared everything of our humanity, both good and
bad, except for sin. He plunges Jesus
into those waters to show the absolute love he has for all of us, despite our
sins and many faults.
Saint Luke
does not describe the actual baptism of Jesus.
He says that after he has been baptized, he is praying. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, Jesus prays at
every important event in his ministry as a matter of faithful obedience to his
Father. The heaven is opened and the
Spirit descends on him, much as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of
creation in Genesis. Jesus initiates a
new creation, a new way of living and existing.
The voice from the heaven calls him his beloved Son in whom he is well
pleased. Abraham had called Isaac his
beloved son three times before taking him up Mount Moriah. Jesus will be that obedient Son, giving himself
to us out of love. He is also the
faithful servant of the Lord, bringing the ultimate comfort spoken by Isaiah.
We became
God’s beloved children when we were baptized.
Our baptismal font is a powerful sign of being plunged into the watery
grave of Christ’s death. We emerge from
those waters completely free of sin and totally one with Jesus Christ. We are loved, even though we are
sinners. The Father delights in us, just
as he delighted in his Beloved Son.
As we leave
this Christmas Season, we can do exactly what Jesus did. We can pray to have the courage to cooperate
with the grace of our baptism. We are
part of a new creation. We have been
given new life and a new way of existing.
The Holy Spirit can empower us to live that new life more completely. The suscipe prayer of Saint Ignatius of
Loyola can be ours:
Take, Lord, and receive all my
liberty,
my memory,
my understanding,
and my
entire will,
all I have
and call my own.
You have
given all to me.
To you,
Lord, I return it.
Everything
is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me
only your love and your grace.
That is
enough for me.
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