I do not remember a thing about my baptism. Like
most cradle Catholics of my generation, we were baptized so quickly after birth,
one would think that the priest used the amniotic fluid from our mother’s womb with
which to baptize us. Granted, there was so much fear instilled in parents about
the risk of an unbaptized infant going to Limbo should the infant die, that
there was a mad rush to the baptistery. Thankfully, the false teaching of Limbo
was figuratively thrown out with the bath/baptism water a number of years ago.
In Marks gospel, it is the baptism of Jesus which
begins the gospel. Biblical exegetes and scholars might argue with what I am
going to write, but then, do they ever agree with one another? As I read Mark’s
account of Jesus’ baptism, it seems that when the waters of the Jordan are
poured over his head, and the Holy Spirit speaks, his eyes and mind are opened
to the fullness of his human/divine nature, and the mission that God has given
him in life. He immediately moves from his baptism to the seclusion of the
desert for fasting and prayer to understand that which God is calling him to
do. After this period of deep prayerful contemplation, Jesus then sets out to
accomplish the mission entrusted to him by God.
This feast that we celebrate is not just about this
inaugural moment in the life of Jesus’ adult ministry, it is about celebrating
our own baptism and the conjoining of our life of ministry to that of Jesus. It
is the continuation of something that happened in the Jordan River a long time
ago.
The words of Isaiah long ago are projected into the lives of
the future Jesus and the future you and me. What is written applies to all of
us.
Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. (Is 42:1-4, 6-7)
Even before we were born, God formed us in the womb of our mothers, entrusting us to be a living covenant of God’s love, peace and justice. We are to be the living light of God to the nations. We are to open the eyes of the blind, to break down the prisons, physical, emotional, and spiritual that imprison people in darkness. All of this happened when the waters of baptism were poured over our heads and we were anointed with the oil of sacred chrism.
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased,” the voice speaks from the cloud when Jesus was
baptized. This same voice spoke to us at the time of our baptism. We are the beloved of God, our divine parent. We
are the beloved children of God, with whom God is well pleased.
St. Paul writes that in our baptism we embody and put on
Christ. Just as our bodies were clothed in that white baptismal gown, we literally
place our body, or using Paul’s imagery, crawl into the skin of Jesus. Our
voices are joined with his voice. All our senses, our hearts, our limbs, our
voices, and all of our gifts with which God has given us are joined with that
of Jesus. We are the living embodiment of the physical Jesus who walked this
earth 2000 years ago.
What is required for us to accept and continue his mission?
It is very simple. No matter what the past state of our lives may have been,
or, even what our current state of life might be, we must acknowledge that we
remain a beloved child of God, with whom God is well pleased. If we fully
believe that God loves us and accepts us as his beloved ones, we will discover
a transformation within us that will utterly change us and reveal to us who we
really are in the eyes of God and what our life’s mission is all about.
All we need to do is to entrust and believe in what God has
told us. “You are my beloved child; with
you I am well pleased!”
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