Jesus’ Baptism and Ours
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts 10: 34-38; Matthew 3: 13-17
The decorations are all down now. Our living rooms and dens are back to normal. The Christmas tree is at the curb, and the lights that once outlined our houses are still up, but are no longer lit. Even the department stores don’t advertise their sales as “After Christmas” any longer. And now Valentines Day Cards and candy occupy the spaces in Hallmark left vacant by Christmas merchandise. Christmas has come and gone and we have begun to put our lives back into its normal routine. But whereas Christmas is just a memory to much of the rest of the world, we in the Church hold out for one more week. Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and liturgically it is both the last Sunday of the Christmas season and the first Sunday of Ordinary Time. For the first time in several weeks, our Gospel does not focus on the Child in the Bethlehem manger, but rather on the adult redeemer, becoming public with his baptism by John. The good news spoken by the angels continues to unfold. The Emmanuel story is yet to be fully revealed. And we now meditate on the wonder of Jesus who reveals the great love for God for us not only in his Christmas birth but in his parables and miracles and in his Easter death and resurrection.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus comes to the River Jordan to be baptized by John. This seems strange in itself -- what need would there be for Jesus, the sinless one, to be ritually cleansed? And, in fact, John the Baptist tried to argue just that point with him -- but to no avail. When the Son of God became incarnate, became flesh, became one of us, he held back nothing. His identification with humankind was complete.
And so Jesus came on that day and entered the water. And the Gospel says that the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased." These supernatural events that coincide with Jesus’ baptism are rich in symbolism. The opening of the heavens clears the way for God to re-establish contact with his chosen people. Thus, the heavens are pictured as being opened from the other side, as God eagerly responds to the presence of his appointed Messiah.
"The Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him" is the signal for a new creation. This same "Spirit" had hovered over the deep in the original creation (Genesis 1:2); and a new beginning was signaled again to Noah when the dove returned to him after the flood (Genesis 8:11). This means that the coming of Jesus also represents a new beginning; in fact, history will never be the same again.
The nature of the new creation is revealed in the final climactic words from heaven. When Jesus is called God's "beloved Son," it means that this new world will be filled with the love of God, radiating from his Son, who will become, in a sense, the very embodiment of God's love.
Down through the centuries, the Church has baptized children and baptized adults. Baptisms have taken place on riverbanks, in churches, in hospitals, in kitchen sinks, and in swimming pools. Some happen at the beginning of life and some on deathbeds. Baptisms may be surrounded by great pomp and circumstance, or with great secrecy in places where to be a Christian is a punishable offense. We pour, we sprinkle, we immerse, we dunk. The details are not important; what is important is that we baptize with water in the name of the Trinity. There is a very rich symbolism about it all: the cleansing water of baptism; the Paschal candle representing the light of Christ; the oil of chrism that marks the newly baptized as Christ's own forever. A Baptism, whether of a child or an adult, is always a happy occasion -- not only for the person being baptized and their family, but for the whole Body of Christ.
But the sad thing is that the contact of modern Christians with their baptism is often little more than a report given by others about an event of their long-forgotten infancy. If this is so, then we need to re-discover in our adult lives the meaning of this critical moment. We need to "claim" our baptism and make it operative in our adult experience. When we do so, we must realize that the experience of Jesus belongs to us also and that today’s celebration of the Baptism of the Lord is intended to do more than recall a religious event or a biographical element in the life of Jesus, but to speak of our own experience, as well.
At our baptism, God's heavenly realm is opened to us. And the creative Spirit calls us to a new kind of life. The possibilities of this new existence are contained in the words of the Father, "You are my beloved Son," now understood as spoken to us also. For in our baptism we become children of God and thus join Jesus in the family of God. Through our Baptism we have been reborn into newness of life - the very life of God. It speaks of our supernatural life - the divine life - a far superior and most precious gift of God to us than our natural life.
One of the favorite stories the tour guides love to tell the pilgrims in the Holy Land is about the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea. The likeness between the water in the Sea of Galilee and the water in the Dead Sea is that, "it comes from the same source." But there is a big difference: the water in the Sea of Galilee is vibrant and full of life; it is constantly flowing. It is here that Jesus calmed the winds and the waves and walked on the waters. It is here that Jesus told Peter to cast out his nets, and the catch was so great that the nets were to the point of tearing. After leaving the Sea of Galilee, the water descends down the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized and eventually empties into the Dead Sea. Here the water loses its movement and stops flowing. Here the water finds its dead end. It is full of salt deposits. There is no life and no fish in the Dead Sea. That is why it is called the Dead Sea.
Applied to our Baptism, the analogy is quite clear. The likeness between our natural life and supernatural life is that, "it comes from the same source - God." God is the giver of all life human and divine. But there is a big difference: It is the supernatural life - the divine life - that we received in Baptism that makes our natural life vibrant and full of joy like the water in the Sea of Galilee. It keeps us growing in our relationship with God and with one another and helps us fulfill our purpose on earth. It is this supernatural life that we received in Baptism that keeps us moving towards our eternal happiness.
On the other hand, without this supernatural life, our natural life becomes like the water in the Dead Sea - it loses its purpose and its eternal goal. The person who neglects to nourish his or her supernatural life eventually turns into emptiness. It loses his or her spiritual joy and life becomes only a momentary pleasure. Such a person eventually becomes one of the living dead.
My friends, it is not enough to be baptized and claim to be followers of Jesus. We must allow the waters of Baptism keep flowing, keep moving, like the water in the Sea of Galilee, purifying us from our sinful behavior, from all of our sinful actions. We must continually keep changing and transforming our lives in the ways Jesus himself taught us and showed us. The moment we stop growing in our relationship with God, we become like the water in the Dead Sea. The saying has it, "He who stops being better, stops being good." Let us renew our Baptismal promises today and resolve to live lives worthy of God's children.
