Year B: Baptism of Our Lord

For the Church today marks the official end of Christmas. The story has moved on from Bethlehem and we are at the “Baptism of the Lord” in the river Jordan. After thirty years of a hidden life, Jesus is now at the Jordan for the first public act in the public ministry. We see him taking his place, queuing up with those who had come to be baptised by John the Baptist. John the Baptist was baptising people to get them ready for the coming of God. They needed to be converted, purified and prepared. You might know of the story of a young child in Dublin in the 1950s recorded by RTE telling the story of John the Baptist and telling how John was saying to people “give up yer ould sins”. It was a good summary of what John the Baptist was saying. Of course, Jesus didn’t need to be baptised by John the Baptist but by joining the queue he was choosing the way of humility and closeness to us. He was identifying with our human condition in its need of God. If during Christmas, we celebrated God as Emmanuel, God among us, today we see how Jesus lived that out. He entered right into people’s lives. Pope Francis often repeats that God’s style is the style of closeness, drawing close to people to offer them the great gift of new life. That was Jesus.

The Gospel tells us that on that great day, the heavens opened and the Spirit came upon Jesus and he heard the Father say, “you are my beloved son”. We could say that Jesus’ mission starts with a declaration of love on the part of God the Father. “Remember always, in all circumstances, you are my beloved child, I am with you to inspire, strengthen and support you”. Jesus will surely never have forgotten that moment right throughout his public ministry.

Each of us has been baptised. Most of us were infants so we don’t remember it. However, it’s good to think today a little about it. Just as being born is a gift and not the result of our own efforts, Baptism comes as a gift to each of us. We have received a great gift. If we were to take this fully into account our lives would become a continual “thank you” to God. In a way, to each of us, in baptism God the Father has made a declaration – “you are a child of God, you are my child in whom I am well pleased, remember I am always with you”. And in baptism the Holy Spirit also comes upon us. We don’t always think of this but already in Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit.

At the Synodal Assembly last October that I attended in Rome, the theme of baptism came up often. Baptism is the sacrament that gives us our dignity as children of God; it makes us equal, it is a vocation, giving us a mission. It was said that baptism is at the root of synodality.

After these few weeks where we focussed a lot on Jesus because it was Christmas, today’s Feast Day opens up our horizon and prompts us to remember God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Do I live as a child of God in a relationship with God the Father? Meaning by that, do I talk to God the Father about my life, my plans, my disappointments? Do I entrust my worries and the situation of our world onto him as St. Peter advises (1 Pet 5)? Do I believe in his love in all circumstances? I was struck recently when someone said to me that for years after the Second Vatican Council there was a lot of talk about Jesus and then in more recent times about the Spirit, but maybe we need to rediscover we have a loving, caring, eternal Father, looking out for us in all circumstances.

The other great gift we get in baptism is the Holy Spirit. We often pray to Jesus: we pray to the Father, especially in the “Our Father”; but we do not often pray to the Holy Spirit. It is sometimes said the Holy Spirit is the Forgotten God. And yet without the Holy Spirit Jesus would not have been able to carry out his mission. We too need the Holy Spirit if we really want to live out our Christian vocation. Pope Francis said a few years ago: ‘Christians and communities who are “deaf” to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who urges us to bring the Gospel to the to the ends of the earth and of society, also become people who are “mute” who do not speak and do not evangelize’. We need the Holy Spirit in order to act and speak as Christians.

So on this Feast Day of the Baptism of Our Lord, let’s thank God for our own baptism, and let’s rekindle our relationship with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit. I know parishes prayed to the Holy Spirit during the Synod last October. I’m sure that prayer bore fruit and I thank you for it. As a child of God, loved by God, it is good to pray everyday to the Holy Spirit.