Baptism of the Lord

Homily for the Baptism of the Lord
9/10 January 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
Year for Priests

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I could have skipped writing a homily for this Sunday. Archbishop Naumann has it covered with his annual Call to Share homily. It's his pulpit, so this homily is not one that I will actually deliver. Still, with the cold weather, I have a few minutes to reflect. Maybe I can get down an idea that will help next year, or the year after, or the year after.

The first luminous mystery is the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan by John. This is his first public act. It is not something he does really, but something that is done to Christ. It is a preview of what will eventually be done to him on the cross. Indeed, Jesus' first act is to be baptized by John. Only after he is baptized do we see him start doing things - healing and teaching. His baptism marks the beginning of his public life. Jesus does not start with a bang, but with a whisper, allowing one inferior to him, John, to baptize him. In allowing himself to be baptized, Jesus does not become holy. He is already holy. But as the Church fathers have told us, Jesus makes the waters by which he is baptized holy, so that from the time of Jesus' baptism on, baptism is not only a baptism of repentance, but a baptism with Holy Spirit and fire. It is not just to slow the bleeding caused by sin. Baptism is also a new beginning of goodness, a beginning of sharing in the eternal life that sin and death do not have the power to destroy. So Jesus does not become holy by his baptism. He makes the waters holy for the first time.

By making his first public act something that is done to Him, Jesus foreshadows that his greatest public act will not be what he says and does, although he will do and say alot, but will be what he allows to be done to him. Jesus' greatest public act will not be a miracle he performs. His greatest sign will be allowing himself to be crucified on the cross. In this, Jesus is truly the son of Mary, whose greatest act was not something she did, but something that she let be done unto her. It was the Father's will that Jesus be baptized, that he from the first moment of his public ministry, before he cured a single person, or preached a sermon, or forgave a sin, to identify himself first with sinners. Who were the people going out to be baptized? Not those who considered themselves to be righteous. They did not come out to be baptized. No, it was those who knew themselves to be sinners. So we must meditate on why the person who was the most righteous, the one who least needed to be baptized, made this his first public act. It was a foreshadowing of his last and greatest public act, allowing himself to be identified with sinners. Jesus suffered because He was accused as a criminal, as the greatest of sinners, although He had done nothing wrong. His baptism is a much more pleasant experience, but it is a foreshadowing of what would happen at Calvary.

Jesus in identifying Himself with sinners at His baptism truly fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that we hear proclaimed, that the servant with whom God is well pleased, the one on whom God has placed His spirit, is one who will restore justice not by shouting, but will come with such humility that He will not bruise a single reed or smolder a single wick, but has come that even the most pitiful of sinners may not be afraid of his justice, but may turn to Him for hope. Jesus is truly God with us, and at His baptism He shows us that He will even allow Himself to be considered a sinner, in our place if He has to, so much does He love us and so much does He want to be close to us.

Of course, our Christian story has a happy ending. It has a most happy ending. In the baptism of Jesus we see not only the foreshadowing of Calvary, but also the foreshadowing of the resurrection. Right after the baptism, the same Holy Spirit that will eventually raise Jesus from the dead, appears as a dove to announce that even though this Son of Man will go so far away from Heaven that it seems like evil and death will overcome Him, He will never stop being the beloved Son of God, who will one day return to heaven just as surely as He came down from heaven! May our celebration of the Lord's baptism today give us the same hope, that we who have been baptized into the death of Christ, have also be baptized into the glory of His resurrection! +m