Baptism of the Lord Homily

For one last time Merry Christmas!

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is this feast which brings about the conclusion of the Christmas season.

Neither Saint John the Baptist nor Jesus invented the concept of baptism. It is Christ who elevated baptism to the status of a sacrament as He also did with marriage. The Jewish people have a ritual of cleansing where they would enter into a pool called a Mikveh which means a collection of water. Men would take this bath on the eve of the Sabbath, women monthly, and converts would need to take this bath prior to entering Judaism. This bath is made to bring about spiritual cleansing.

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan He did not receive the sacrament of baptism that we receive. The baptism of John was made in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Through entering into this baptism one was motivated to change their life and to leave sin behind. This baptism was made as an exterior sign in reflection of an interior conversion from sin which was taking place.

Jesus is God made Flesh and has nothing to repent for, He needs not to reform His life, and He is also the Messiah. Therefore, He entered into the waters of baptism not to receive these things, but to accept His mission as suffering servant. It was at His baptism that the Heavens opened and God said “this is My beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased.” These words reflect the beginning of His public ministry where He would go out to lead others to a true spirit of conversion reaching its culmination with His death upon the cross.

The importance of the baptism that we have received is summed up for us in paragraph 1279 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated in the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ.”

Baptism is something that we receive on only one occasion. Despite this it is a sacrament which is important not only on the day of its reception, but for our whole life and into eternity. Let us take this celebration of the Lord’s baptism to heart and continue to renew each day what was begun within us at our baptism. To be baptized is to be transformed. May we turn towards the Lord and live what was begun in us at our baptism always.