Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. Sunday January 12th, 2014
This Sunday, The feast of the Baptism of the Lord, marks the end of the Christmas season, the preparation for which began the first week in Advent. Most of the Gospels we heard during the season of Advent were focused on John the Baptist. The main message of those Gospels were, “who is Jesus Christ?; and in light of the answer to this question the Hope that He alone gives us.’
It was John the Baptist who helped us to come to an understanding that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world….In other words, Jesus was and is the Son of God, God himself in the flesh. John the Baptist helped us to understand all of this by telling us first of all, that he himself was not the Christ but only the voice that was preparing the way for Him whom was mightier than John. John, the highest of all men born from a woman, considered Himself lower than the level of a household slave whose job it was to undo the straps of his master’s sandals. John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water, but there is one who is coming who will baptize you by water and the Holy Spirit.”
On Christmas then this mighty One, Jesus, was made manifest to the world; He became visible to the entire world as a humble, poor, defenseless little child. The Angels testified to the poor shepherds that this newly born child, was Jesus the messiah, the Prince of peace and the only Savior of the world. By the angels visible manifestation they taught the poor shepherds how to adore with body and soul the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
On epiphany this Messiah was then revealed to the nations by the coming of the three Wise Men, representing the gentile world. The light of a star, called even the pagans to come and adore the Light of the World. By their gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh the pagan kings revealed who Jesus Christ was, he was a great King-He was God Himself come to earth in order to die and suffer for love of His people.
Now on this great feast day, we have two even greater witnesses than those just mentioned, two greater witnesses who testifying who Jesus Christ really is. By Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, He is revealed to us as the first born of the sons of men; in fact, the very Creator of the sons of men. These two definitive witnesses, are of course, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Theirs is the definitive testimony of the person of Jesus Christ because it the testimony of God Himself. They testify that Jesus is the Son of God, co-equal to themselves, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father by an audible voice and the Spirit by visible manifesting himself in the presence as of a dove testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of Man in Whom the Father is well pleased.
This feast is a great mystery, one that has caused much confusion to many in the Church even in the present time. In the confusion question arise such as, Did Jesus know who he was? Did he know what is mission was? Why did Jesus have to be baptized if he was without sin?
Well of course Jesus knew who he was, he is and always was the second person of the Blessed Trinity. He was a divine person so how could God not know who he was-ridiculous. Did he know what his mission was? Yes, for that is why He came into the world that is why He took on a true human nature, body and soul. So why did Jesus have to be baptized? Well the answer to that question was simply that he didn’t. No, He did it for us.
He did it for us because; John the Baptist’s baptism only symbolized or signified what Jesus’ baptism of water and the Holy Spirit would later do in reality. By being baptized, Jesus literally sanctified the waters of baptism and made the baptism of water now in reality take away sins and impart eternal life. By his immersion into the water he placed within the water the power to impart his death and resurrection. This was made apparent from the blood and water, which flowed from his pierced side as he hung on the cross. The water signifying the power of the waters of baptism to forgive sin and the blood signify the redemption of the world and the resurrection of his baptized faithful followers to a new life in Him. (A little aside, water from the Jordan river never has to be blessed because Jesus descended into it and blessed it by its coming into contact with His body and blood, with His very Person).
So what does this sanctifying of the baptismal water mean mean for us personally? It means that whole point of answering the question of who Jesus Christ is points to the answer of the question who are we? Yes, who are we? By Jesus Christ coming as one of us, by His sanctifying the waters of baptism by His own baptism, not only of water but by the blood of his passion and death, he reveals the truth about ourselves--that we now too, along with Christ through his sanctification of the waters of baptism for us and our own baptism, we are now sons and daughter of the Heavenly Father Who is literally the source and summit of all things. And even more we are now allowed to call Him call him Abba, or daddy and to be lifted up to Him. What great hope this gives us!!!
We are now adopted children of God! We hear this so many times, we say the Our Father so many times, that we become complacent to what it means to be Children of God! Isn’t it sad that we can forget the great honor given to us or take it for granted. Isn’t it sad that many don’t know this or even deny it. (for example, do you know that Islam believes that to call God Father is blasphemy. He is Allah the Supreme Master and we are not His children but His slaves. Yes, it is true He is supreme Master, but Jesus has revealed to us that He, through our baptism is now also Our Father, and so, as Jesus says, I no longer call you servants or slaves but friends).
Just as the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and produced in her the God-man-Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit now descends on the church and produces in her maternal womb, which is the baptismal rite, the rebirth of the children of God. This means that we now are no longer strangers to God the Father, we are reconciled to Him by the waters of baptism. We who could not love God, and were not lovable because of sin, can now love Him because He has loved us first. How important to remember that we did not love Him first-He loved us first. In fact, we could not love Him at all, but for the fact that
He loves us (how important this is to remember).
By the waters of baptism God raises us from a mere earthly mortal existence and fills us with his own supernatural love and life; He raises our human love and our human life to a divine level we begin to live the abundant life, a immortal life with Him. So not only are we reconciled to Him by the waters of baptism, we now have a new life, which is a share in God’s own Life. Pope Paul the VI in his “Credo of the People God” which is quoted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, taught, “By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG § 9).
By our baptism we have become divinised, we have become like God, He has taken us to Himself, we share in His divinity, in His own divine nature-partakers of the Divine Nature (cf. 2nd Peter 1:14). Even now we have begun to share in oneness with God, in a union of unimaginable love to be fully experienced in the life to come, when we are lifted up and become one with God in a union of unimaginable happiness.
O’ Christian soul realize you great dignity, realize your great worth and realize as well your great responsibility to live like the child of God which you are!!! Through the waters of baptism an indelible sign as been place permanently on your soul a sign that you belong now to Christ Jesus. Your soul has been given a new capacity, a capacity that actually allow the Most Blessed Trinity to come and dwell in your soul, to make it Their abode, their home. The day we were baptized was the most important day of our life. We must realize this great gift. Pope Francis as asked us to make sure we know the date of our baptism and to celebrate it yearly with great joy, even more so than our birthday.
However to bring this Divine life to completion, to perfection, we must become like humble children, pure of heart and poor, realizing we must ask God, beg Him, to help us remain faithful to what our baptism demands, to our baptismal promises. As St. John points out in the first reading, those who are child who love God will show this love by keeping His Commandments which are a summation of the whole Gospel. And these commandments are summed up in the greatest commandment, which is a commandment to Adore God with our entire being, in other words to Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind so that he may fill us with His very love and His very divine life; and then filled with that love and life, go out and share it with everyone we meet; especially the poor.
Today let us ask God for forgiveness for our failures to live our baptismal promises. Let us implore the mercy of God by making frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession, which restores us to our original state of baptismal purity and washes our baptismal garment which as been soiled by sin-it washes it in the Blood of the Lamb. Let us ask Our Father, Our Daddy, to open our heats to the grace to bring His divine Love and Life now within us to perfection so that we may share in the consummation of this Divine life and love forever in Heaven.
Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels, Queen of the poor, please help us to become like children because children are poor and humble. And when we are poor and humble we can then truly adore and love Jesus and realize that we can love Him only because he has loved us first. God, Creator of our soul, Father of our soul, we adore You we love you, help us to love You more, increase our faith in Your Son truly present in the Holy Eucharist, so that by receiving Him with Faith, hope and love at Holy Communion, You can fill us more fully with Your love. Then use us as instruments of your love, witnesses of your goodness, use us so that we can bring Your Divine life within us to the poor of this world; that is, use us to bring Your love with those who are the poorest of the poor, that is, those who do not know your great unfathomable love and mercy for them. Amen.
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