Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15,16,21-22.
Theme: The Life of My Baptism
The feast of the Lord’s baptism concludes the Christmastide and opens the door again for the ordinary time of the year.
- Baptism and Prayer that bursts the heaven open
In the gospel reading of today, the evangelist Luke says that when all the people have been baptised, and Jesus himself also, and as Jesus was praying, the heaven was torn open (cf Lk 3:21).
In Genesis, after the sin of Adam, the gate of heaven was shot and man lost the closeness of God. Man, who used to be God’s closest friend, in fact, the son of God, not only lost his position as God’s friend but also lost access to God (cf Gen 3:22-24).
This distance between God and man continued in the life of the Israelites, especially during their journey through the desert.
The Israelites, though accepting to move with God, were afraid of him, seeing him as someone who would not mind destroying them because of their stubbornness.
They preferred to avoid any close contact with God. They built an ark of covenant, a complete representation of God among them, but they refused the Ark to live in their communities rather, they sent it very far away from where they were living (cf Exodus 33:7) probably so that God would not see their sins and destroy them.
On several occasions, they preferred to receive God’s message from/through Moses to standing before God himself.
Hence, they lived in that distance created by the sin of Adam. And when they wanted to come close to God, they would go through a mediator. But this was not God’s wish for the people he has created.
It is not for nothing that the evangelist placed Jesus and all other people (apantha ton laon) in the scene of baptism. John’s baptism was to reconcile humanity with God, and to prepare people to be ready and well prepared to receive a higher gift of God, God’s own Spirit.
Participating in the baptism of reconciliation and preparation, Jesus identifies with humanity he came to redeem. Standing with the whole people, Jesus prayed and the heaven that was before now shot, tore open.
Hence, Jesus teaches the people, that with baptism, man is restored to the position of seeing himself as God’s son, someone who can stand and pray to God, and talk to God, and communicate with God.
The prayer of a baptised person has the capacity to force the heaven to open because baptism removes the enmity and restores to man his divine sonship lost in/by original sin.
Every baptised person has the power to pray directly to God, without looking for a mediator, and to get the heaven open to him/her. Jesus, the new Adam, leads all the baptised to prayer and gets the heaven open.
- The Second Baptism-The Fullness of God’s Child
Addressing the people, John the Baptist said to them, “I baptise you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” (Cf Lk 3:16).
Then, after Jesus has received baptism, and when the heaven burst open because of his prayer, the Holy Spirit descended on him. The baptism gets us ready for the reception of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit becomes the fullness and completion of the baptism which every believer should receive. The Holy Spirit that descends on the baptised soul becomes God’s gift to him/her, the confirmation that the baptised person can now harbour the Spirit of the Father.
It becomes God’s gift of his own spirit which assists us in calling God, Father (Rom 8:9,14-16). While baptism reconciles what was broken, the Holy Spirit elevates us.
It is interesting to observe the sequence of the events at Jesus’ baptism: baptism by John-Prayer by Jesus-Descent of the Holy Spirit-the Declaration by the Voice (of the Father). Only when the Spirit has descended, was the voice (of the Father) heard, confirming Jesus to be the Beloved of the Father.
Jesus had no need of John’s baptism, and before now, he has been in communion with the Father, and in full possession of the Holy Spirit. All these had to happen so that Jesus, the Way to the Father, accompanies us back to the Father, and shows us what actually happens whenever we are reconciled to the Father.
The Holy Spirit in us attracts the love of the Father. Whenever the Spirit descends and dwells in us, we become and remain the Beloved of the Father. Hence, we must struggle to always have the Holy Spirit live in us.
- Baptism Reveals the Glory of God
Baptism clears every valley and mountain blocking the glory of God to be seen in our lives. Being born in sin, no one is worthy to call God “Abba”. But immediately we are cleansed in the baptismal font, entering into that apantha ton laon (all people) whom Christ is their head and leader, we become worthy to communicate to God, to receive the Spirit of God and to hear God call us, “My Beloved”.
- “YOU ARE MY BELOVED; IN YOU I AM WELL PLEASED”
These are the words addressed to Jesus, the Beloved of the Father. Jesus himself opened for us the way to enter into this “belovedness” of the Father. He makes us all the beloved children of the Father. The sin of Adam made us enemies and foreigners to God. But through the baptismal water, blessed and sanctified by Christ, we are restored to God’s beloved.
However, the question remains, do we still retain the purity and the innocence which baptism conferred in us and which God saw and was pleased? Are we still pleasing to God or have we gone back to the old life of sin? Is the Spirit of God, which was given to us at our baptism, still dwelling in us? Can God still look at us today and the way we are living our lives and still call us “My Beloved in whom I am well pleased”?
In the second reading, St. Paul tells Titus and all of us that having been purified and set free, we should have no other ambition but to do good (Titus 2:14). It is only in doing good that we retain and remain that which we received and became at our baptism: The Holy Spirit and the beloved children of the Father.
May we never live a day without the Spirit of God. And may our way of lives be such that whenever God looks down, he will be so excited to call us “My Beloved”.
Rev. Fr. Henry Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri