Christmas Reflection - The Baptism of the Lord

Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord marks the end of the Christmas season. Except for Easter, the Baptism of the Lord is our oldest liturgical feast, going back to the first years of the second century. It has always been considered to be a primary feast in the church calendar, one which expresses both the Trinitarian and cosmic order of our salvation.

It is not just an historic commemoration of Jesus’ baptism, but an event of salvation history into which we are invited to enter! The Office of Readings for today quotes a Sermon by St. Gregory of Nazianzus on the Baptism of Christ in which he says: “Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with him and rise with him…Today let us do honor to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed… He wants you to become a living force for all mankind, lights shining in the world.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church beautifully contextualizes Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan as “a manifestation of his self-emptying.” (#1224) We, too, are invited to enter into that kenosis!

Last Sunday we celebrated Epiphany. The word comes from the Greek word for manifestation: God’s manifestation of self to us through his Son, the Christ. This celebration has varied down through history in that we in the West, as opposed to the practice in the Eastern Church, have separated the manifestations into three: (a) The star leads the Magi to the infant Christ; (b) Christ is baptized by John in the river Jordan; (c) Jesus manifests himself through the first of his miracles when he changes water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana. So, on this final day of the Christmas Season we celebrate what is often referred to as “The Jordan Event.”

To help us understand this important element of our Christian spirituality, I think it is helpful to recall that Jesus was baptized twice. Each of his two baptisms inaugurates, leads into, two distinct ministries. The first baptism (in the Jordan River) begins his public ministry, traditionally conceived of lasting for three years. His second baptism (his death on the cross) was prefigured by his statement in Luke 12:50: “There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress until it is over.” This baptism inaugurates his eternal ministry of sitting at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us.

We, too, experience a first baptism in water and the Spirit that begins for us a new ministry as sons and daughters of God. Our task in this earthly life is to become all the more that which we already are by our baptism, that is, sharers in the divine nature! We, like Christ, hear a voice coming from heaven pronouncing, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” And we, too, like Christ will experience a second baptism at the moment of our death when we shall experience the full fruit of our baptism as described by St. Paul in Chapter Six of his Letter to the Romans, “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death, we were baptized with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.”  That new life, sustained by Christ’s ever living to make intercession for us, will last forever, thus bringing to completion our sharing in the divine nature begun at our own baptism.

In conclusion, I find it noteworthy that in today’s Gospel passage in Luke for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we hear John the Baptist saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” In Luke/Acts the “fire” reference is, of course, to Pentecost. The Paschal Mystery needs Pentecost for completion! Both the Christmas Season and the Easter Season end with feasts that emphasize presence of the Holy Spirit at work in Christ’s church. When Jesus ascended into heaven and left this world in his bodily form, he promised that he would not leave us as orphans. He would remain with us, but in a new way, in the presence of his Spirit. This gives foundation to our Christian hope since with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, indeed, all things are possible!