New Life, New Identity, New Call
Sunday, January 12, 2025
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Is 42:1-4, 6-7/Acts 10:34-38/Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
or, in Year C, Is 40:1-5, 9-11/Ti 2:11-14; 3:4-7/Lk 3:15-16, 21-22 (Lectionary #21)
Isaiah’s Prophecy
The first reading on Sunday is always chosen to match the theme of the Gospel reading. And the Responsorial Psalm gives the key to the first reading. So, the Responsorial Psalm tells us what to look for in both readings. Today the theme is, “The Lord will bless his people with peace” (29:1-10). We will see how peace is the fruit of Baptism.
Isaiah 42: 1-7 prophesies that the Messiah is going to “establish justice on earth.” A current theme of “bumper sticker wisdom” is; ‘If you want peace, work for justice.” They go together.
But what is new in Isaiah is the way the Messiah will do this: “Not crying out, not shouting…. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench.” On the individual level this gives personal peace. Jesus will have patience with us. He will not reject us because of our weakness and barely smoldering faith.
On the global scale, he will “bring forth justice on the earth” without violence. Using no power but truth and love. “The coastlands will wait for his teaching.” He came to teach, not terrify.
Jesus came as “a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind.” Baptism is called the “sacrament of faith,” or, in the Eastern Church, just “Enlightenment.” Faith is the mystery of sharing in God’s own knowing act. Its effect is “to bring out… from prison those who sit in darkness” (see Matthew 4:16, Luke 1:79; 11:34). Jesus said, “If you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). This freedom gives peace.
The Mystery
In Luke 3:15-22 John the Baptizer proclaims: “One more powerful than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Christian Baptism is a mystery. The heavens open: it is an act of God himself making contact with us. The Holy Spirit descends on us as on Jesus at the Jordan; not “in visible form,” but with visible effects. Baptism is not complete without the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” In the early Church recipients sometimes “spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 2:38, 8:15; 10:46; 19:2-6). Today the Gift of the Spirit is just as visible, though not necessarily in the same way. It is seen most commonly in the effects of our baptismal anointing into the mission of Jesus Prophet, Priest and King. We will take up each of these anointings specifically, beginning with the reflections on the Easter readings, but we can say generally that we experience and express the Gift of the Spirit most unambiguously when we take on the mission of Jesus, acting “through him, with him and in him” as his risen body on earth, in the ‘unity of the Holy Spirit,” intent on giving “all honor and glory” to the Father.
At our Baptism the Father speaks to us the same words he said to Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; on you my favor rests.” In Jesus’ Baptism these words revealed his identity; in our Baptism they confer it. What Jesus already was, we become. This is for us a “new creation” (2Corinthians 5:17). In Genesis, the formula for creation was: “God said…. And it was so” (1:1-24 and see Psalm 104:30). At Baptism God speaks, and what he says “is so”: we become in deepest truth the sons and daughters of the Father.
We become this in the only way it is possible: by being incorporated into the body of him who is the only Son of the Father. We are children of God only as filii in Filio, “sons and daughters in the Son.” In Baptism we “become Christ” (John Paul II, quoting St. Augustine). St. Paul uses the term “in Christ” or its equivalent 164 times. This is the mystery of our Christian identity.
We have a new identity. We are no longer just human beings. We have become divine by “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Grace” simply means “the favor of sharing in the divine life of God”. We proclaim this at the beginning of every Mass. If we listen to the words at Mass, our self-awareness will gradually be transformed. Then “The Lord will bless his people with peace.”
“Good News of Peace”:
In Acts 10:34-38 Cornelius, a Gentile, invited Peter to his house, where he and others were assembled to “listen to all the Lord has commanded you to say.”
What Peter said was: “This is the message: God sent word… announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”
The initial “Good News” about Jesus in this first recorded preaching to a group of Gentiles is that he “went about doing good works and healing all who were in the grip of the devil.” Only afterwards does Peter speak of Christ’s death and resurrection (not included in today’s reading). If there is a lesson here, it may be that the first way to present the Good News to people unprepared to hear the whole mystery is just by “doing good works” to help heal them from the painful consequences of sin: their own and the sins of others. Christianity is not all about suffering with Jesus. That can hardly be avoided, but we should not forget that the Way of Jesus is still the healthiest and happiest way to live on earth. We should try, by word and lifestyle, to make that evident.
We sometimes forget that Baptism by nature commits us to taking on the mission of Jesus. Paul VI said the Church “exists to evangelize.” By Baptism Jesus doesn’t just share his divine life with us so that we can share his joy in heaven; he takes our bodies to be his own so that in us he can continue his mission on earth. We are chosen to be sent. We are sent, not just to announce, but to be the Good News. If we are not “news” by our lifestyle, and by the visible “fruit of the Spirit” in us, beginning with “love, joy and peace” (Galatians 5:22), then, no matter what we say it will not be credible.
As we continue reflecting on the readings of Ordinary Time, we should be alert to what is “news” and what is “good” in the Good News. How did Jesus proclaim it? How did he present himself? What did people see in him? How did they respond and why? This will give us an understanding of the mystery of our Baptism — especially if we experience that mystery by living it out in action.
Insight: How is your Baptism influencing your life right now? How was it taught to you? Did you grow up understanding Baptism as just a one-time event that “washed away” Original Sin and gave you “grace”? (How would you define grace?) Or is Baptism the event that changed your whole life and transforms every action of your day, every day? An event that gave you a new sense of your identity, one that is with you all the time? In short, is Baptism for you, right now, a constant self-awareness that makes your every thought, word and action an experience of mystery?
Initiative: Put a glass of water where you work to remind you of Baptism.
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