For one final time: Merry Christmas!
Today’s celebration of the Baptism of the Lord brings about the conclusion of the Christmas season.
This celebration is most important for it reminds us of our own baptism and thus the commitments which began here which we must continue to foster in our daily life.
We know Christ to be without sin and thus this baptism that He received from John did not wash away any sin. Rather, Christ participated in the baptism of John the Baptist in order to give us an example of what we must undergo. It was here that we were given an Epiphany, a manifestation, of the Trinity: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For here we have the voice of the Father and the Spirit which comes upon the Son in the form of a dove.
Through baptism we are conformed to Christ and His Church. Baptism washes away our sin and thus makes us as white as snow. Baptism is not something which exists in the past, but rather it is something which leaves a seal which never goes away, in this life or in the next.
