The Baptism of the
Lord, 13th January 2008
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By now Christmas trees and lights have
been dismantled. The party season is over. Life has gone
back to normal. But the Church holds on to the Christmas
season right until now. The Baptism of the Lord is the feast
which concludes the Christmas season announcing one more
time the message of Christmas and telling us one more time
that Jesus is the Son of God.
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As he comes to his baptism, Jesus is now
a young man. He knows that he has a special relationship to
God which allows him to call God Father in a quite
unprecedented and new way. He senses the hand of history. He
senses his destiny as he approaches the river Jordan. What
will happen? Something intangible prompts Jesus to accept
baptism from John the Baptist. We soon realise what this
event means: “This is my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests
on him.” At that, another piece of the jigsaw fits into
place. Jesus knows what he must do. Those round about
recognise that they are in the presence of a man who is
uniquely also the Son of God who is being commissioned and
set apart as the one who would accomplish God’s purposes.
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We could say, then, that the Baptism of
Jesus points Jesus out as the Saviour. In today’s 2nd
second reading St. Paul puts it this way: “God had anointed
him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was
with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had
fallen into the power of the devil.” And already the word of
God coming to us through the prophet Isaiah in today’s first
reading points out Jesus as the Servant of God who brings
true justice and freedom. So on this feast of the Baptism of
the Lord, we recognise that Jesus has God’s power to save us
from everything that can take us away from God and from the
things that can hurt human beings and undermine the good of
humanity. Recognising this, we today once again acknowledge
Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour, and we trust in him to
show us true humanity and to bring us to God.
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On this feast of the Baptism of the Lord,
we will probably think of our own baptism when we became an
adopted child of God. God said to each one of us at our
baptism, “You are my child, you are my son, you are my
daughter.” And for us too this was the beginning of a new
kind of life which finds its meaning and purpose and destiny
in God. This is a life in which faith, prayer, love, and
service are all central to who we are and to what we do.
This is a life that we live in and through Jesus, the
Beloved Son, the Saviour who rescues us from the power of
evil and who leads us to God.
St. Patrick’s, Greenock
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