THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

The feast of the baptism of the Lord which we celebrate today marks the end the Christmas festivity where we celebrate the manifestation of God’s love to us. The feat of the baptism of the Lord fits well in the Christmas celebrations in the sense that God who willed to take our human nature and to live among us in order to save us from our sins is the same Lord who manifested himself on the Epiphany to the world represented by the Magi as the new born King, and is the same Lord who is revealed to us as the beloved Son of the Father. In other words, all these three feasts we celebrate in Christmas (Nativity, Epiphany, and Baptism) are celebration of one thing: The manifestation of God’s love to humankind.

Understanding the baptism of John, we know that this was a baptism for the remission of sin. It is hard for us then to understand why Jesus, a sinless man, a son of God had to undergo such baptism. Even John himself had difficulty to understand that and he said: I need to be baptized by you and yet you are coming to me? Various explanations have been made as to why Jesus was baptized by John.

1.      Jesus went into the water of the Jordan not in order to be made Holy, but to make the water holy so that all the waters of the world would become life giving through the sacrament of baptism.

2.      Jesus went into the water of the Jordan to show us the example that  the only way to become children of  God is through baptism where we receive the Holy Spirit to make of us sons and daughters of God.

3.      Jesus went into the water of the Jordan to mark the inauguration of his public ministry, not as his personal work, but as the work of the Holy Trinity. This is the idea of the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove and God’s voice testifying that this is my Beloved with whom I am well pleased.

Looking at all these reasons, the baptism of the Lord reminds us of our own baptism. Jesus says: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. How do we live our baptismal commitments? Parents, how do we help our children to grow in faith? Now there are ideas of freedom of religion where the world stresses much the aspect of each one being free to choose what he or she believe in once responsible of his or her life. But I want to challenge this.  Can you say to you son or daughter, I won’t send you to school and when you are old enough you can decide what you need to learn? If not, then why with religion this logic applies? We need to be careful about the spirit of the world; we need to be careful about the will of God for us.