Baptism
Today our celebration centers around the Baptism of our Lord by his cousin, John the Baptist. This feast is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the Epiphany and marks the close of our Christmas observance. This entire Epiphany season invites us to reflect on Jesus’ baptism and its importance for us who follow him.
Luke’s version of Jesus’ baptism is more concise than the other Synoptic Gospels. Luke’s intention is for us to focus on the work of the Holy Spirt in Jesus’ baptism, and, by extension, ours. Catholic theologian Raniero Cantalamessa has written that: “John the Baptist presented Jesus to the world as ‘the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’ (see Jn. 1:33). Not only through the sacrament of baptism that he instituted, but throughout the whole of his work, Jesus ‘baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ His entire messianic mission consists in pouring out the Holy Spirit upon the world.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit, that once again we have started to recognize and discuss in the church, is one of the ways in which the risen Jesus continues his essential work, which is to baptize all of humankind ‘in the Spirit.’ It has been described as a renewal of the Pentecost event and, as importantly, also of the sacrament of baptism and of Christian initiation in general, even though the two realities coincide and therefore never come about separately or in opposition one to the other. Pentecost does not cast sacrament into a lesser role (especially the sacrament of baptism with water), and neither does sacrament cast Pentecost into a lesser position.”
In his baptism, Jesus becomes aware of his full identity. In the same way, we, too, are immersed into our full identity through the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is an old Hindu parable about a tiger cub raised by goats. The cub learned to bleat and nibble grass and behave like a goat. One night a tiger attacked the goats, and they all scattered toward safety. But the tiger cub kept grazing and crying like a goat, without getting frightened.
The old tiger roared, “What are you doing here, living with these cowardly goats?” He grabbed the cub by the scruff of his neck, dragged him to a pond, and said: “Look how our faces are the same, reflected in the water! Now you know who you are and whose you are.”
The tiger took the cub home, taught him how to catch animals, eat their meat, roar, and act like a tiger. Thus, the tiger cub discovered his true self.
In baptism, we are gifted with our true selves. This is more than mere identity, rather this sacrament allows who we are – created in the image and likeness of God to take root and bring our souls to light and life. In a very real sense, the Holy Spirit brings us to the water and there we see our reflection and God’s staring back at us. This is where we begin to discover our true selves as God intended us to be.
When this happens, we discover that along with being baptized with water we are also immersed in the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are marked and sealed as Christ’s own forever.
Amen.