Baptism

The Baptism of the Lord A-1

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Mt 3:16-17 After the Lord was baptized, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, who, when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, solemnly declared him your beloved Son, grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Or:

O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 42:1-4.6-7; Psalm 29; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John resisted him, saying “I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Jesus answered him, “Allow it to be so for now. For it is fitting that we fulfil all that is right.” Then he consented. Jesus being baptized immediately came out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon him. And a voice from heaven, saying “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)

Baptism I once met a scholar of the Mandaean religion, a religion which gives to John the Baptist a very high status as a prophet. I think one could say that the Mandaeans give to John the Baptist the status which Islam gives to Mahomet. That is to say, he is the supreme prophet of God’s revelation to his people. Of course, from the Christian perspective the Mandaeans in their special veneration of John the Baptist are much nearer the truth than Islam, although the Christian goes on to say that the Mandaeans have completely misunderstood John the Baptist. The Mandaean scholar I referred to — himself a Mandaean — was a very well educated man, having reached the end of his second Ph.D when I met him. I have not studied the history of the Mandaean religion but it does remind us of the very great impact of John the Baptist. We read in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul meeting various groups of disciples of John during his travels. The Gospels provide us with important information about him. He was indeed a great prophet, and Christ said of him that no one born of woman was greater than he — but, he added, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater still. That is to say, however exalted might be the Covenant of Abraham and Moses as represented by John its greatest prophet, much more exalted still is Covenant and Kingdom established by Christ as represented by even the least of its children. John pointed to what was coming and testified that it was far greater than the blessings he enjoyed and represented. He was directing the attention of the people and his disciples to the Messiah. Today, the feast of the baptism of our Lord, we think of the public appearance of the Messiah and the revelation of him by the Father and the Holy Spirit. It occurred at his baptism by John in the river Jordan (Matthew 3:13‑17). In honouring the baptism of John by his own participation, our Lord was pointing to its grand fulfilment in the baptism he would administer. He is the centrepiece of the scene. He, the Son, is the gift of the Father and the Holy Spirit to God’s people and to mankind. His reception of John’s baptism points to our reception of Christ’s baptism.

Scattered throughout the New Testament are repeated references to the critical importance of baptism into Christ. John the Baptist himself predicted that while he baptized with water the Messiah who was already in their midst would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In the Gospel of St John, our Lord tells Nicodemus that one cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless one is born again of water and the Spirit. Just before he ascended into heaven our Lord charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As St Paul writes, at our baptism we are immersed in Christ and in particular into his death and we emerge from that divine washing sharing in Christ’s risen life. By that simple rite, provided it is performed as the Church directs and with the Church’s intention, immense blessings come to the soul. The presence and the guilt of sin is taken away and the soul is embedded in Christ, spotless in a resplendent sinlessness. We become members of his body the Church and his divine life pulses thenceforth through our souls. But the tendency to sin remains, though the soul is endowed with gifts of grace to resist it. A great battle of repeated falling and rising lies ahead if the soul is to grow in Christ and attain the holiness intended by God. But the means of grace are at hand in the life of the Church, especially in the Sacraments and the ministry of the word. The feast of our Lord’s Baptism when Christ identified with sinful man reminds us of our own baptism when we received the blessings won for us by Christ. We became children of God and members of his family the Church, that Church founded on the Apostles with Peter at their head. Our souls became filled with grace and we were placed in Christ. We entered into him and he in us. Though unseen and unheard, the Father said of each of us, this is my beloved son, adopted by grace. The Holy Spirit came and rested upon us. We each of us who were baptized received our vocation to become holy in Christ.

The baptism of Christ by John in the river Jordan symbolized the sinless Christ’s oneness with sinful humanity. He became one with us as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For the individual, that sin is taken away in the first instance at Christian baptism. The Christian is empowered then and there to take the fight to the enemy by renouncing sin and continuing that renunciation daily. Let us bring the work to completion by making personal holiness in Christ the project of our daily life.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1217-1228 (Baptism)

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