"It was while all the people were being baptized that Jesus was baptized too... Jesus himself had now reached the age of about thirty." - Luke 3:21, 23Wait a second... last Sunday we celebrated Epiphany, Jesus was but a new born child in His loving mother's arms, and now He is thirty?! What happened? Maybe this thought has never crossed your mind, but I have been asking myself this question for a while: Why do we make that big jump from the peace of Bethlehem to the chaotic crowds along the Jordan's banks?
For the longest time I just chalked it up to the fact that we are just lacking the majority of the story line, that those thirty years, known as the Hidden Life, will always be a mystery to us this side of Paradise. Yet, if we look a little bit closer at the mystery we celebrate today, the Baptism of the Lord, perhaps we can come to see that there is in fact a certain fittingness in the placement of the Baptism at the end of the Christmas season.
Over the past weeks during that most joyous season of Christmas we have been adoring in the Cave the sublime humility of the Word Made Flesh. Indeed, the whole world rejoices at the Divine Condescension, that great Mystery of the Omnipotent God becoming a Poor Infant with only the ox and the ass to greet His arrival. This is the heart of the Christmas mystery, and what's more, it is the defining idea of Jesus' life: God, in His infinite love for you and I, comes down to Earth to offer Himself for our Redemption. From the moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and the Word Became Flesh, to the moment He breathed His last on Calvary, Christ's life was a continual offering to the Father on our behalf. He came down from heaven to share in the messiness of our broken lives, and to bring us back to the Father. How wonderful the Mystery!
And if we grasp that fact, if we look at Christ's life through that lens, how clear to things become! For this is the key to understanding His Mission and it is the key to understanding this question about the Baptism! For it really makes no sense for Christ to be baptized. We all need baptism to wash away the stain of original sin, but Jesus had no such need- He is Perfect! He is like to us in all things but SIN! So why does He insist that John baptize Him? He does it, not because He needs it, but because we need it. As Fulton Sheen says "When he went down into the river Jordan to be baptized, He made Himself one with sinners. If He was to be identified with humanity, He had to share in the guilt of humanity." How perfectly does this mirror the humility of Bethlehem; Our Lord in His baptism is but carrying out His mission as our Redeemer. He shows the way by descending into the waters, a foreboding of Passion and Death, only to rise again, greeted by the voice of the Father proclaiming, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." In this mystery we find a microcosm of what Jesus' entire life was about: going down to raise up.
Jesus takes our flesh, He associates Himself with sinners in His baptism, and through this He shows us the way to eternal life. Through baptism we enter into the mystery of Christ's Incarnation and become partakers in His Sonship. We die to this world, only to rise again as sons and daughters of the eternal Father. As Christmastide ends and "Ordinary Time" begins, let us focus on living each day within the knowledge that through the regenerating waters of baptism we are no longer called slaves but daughters and sons of the Father.
As Saint Gregory Nazianzus exhorts us today in the Office of Readings: "Today let us do honor to Christ's baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of men... He wants you to become a living force for all mankind, lights shining in the world."
I am honored to begin this new endeavor with my brother Peter, while our beloved Paul is away. May the Fire of the Spirit, which we receive at baptism, enflame anew our hearts this day as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord!
