January 12, 2025
Baptism of Jesus
Luke 15-16, 21, 22
The main feasts of this Christmas season are now over. Today’s readings, from Isaiah, Paul’s letter to Titus, and an abbreviated account of Jesus’ baptism as recounted in Luke’s Gospel, swing us back to what Advent was about while catapulting us into our tomorrows, with appropriate urgency. God’s gratuitous grace has been revealed, writes Paul, and our visits to the crib these past weeks have made us so aware of the miracle of the Word made flesh. What does that Word do in the Gospel chosen for this Sunday? Here, right at the beginning of his public life, Jesus joins in with the crowds who had been flocking to John for baptism, for the forgiveness of their sins. He, while himself sinless, associates himself with sinful humanity. And what happens at this action? He receives deep confirmation in the presence of the Spirit for who he is and how he is: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.’
This act of solidarity with the rest of the human race becomes for Jesus something from which he never deviated, a clarification and confirmation for him of his mission. The exact details of this mission were to continually unfold for him in his human interactions over the next three years. And following this baptism, and the outpouring that accompanied it, Jesus moved on into the desert for a prolonged period of preparation for this mission.
To what does today’s liturgical celebration of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist, at the beginning of this Jubilee year, call us? The second reading gives us clues: we are to give up everything that does not lead us and our companions on the journey, to God. Let us have a relook at our New year resolutions, if we made such. Do they help us to challenge the religious, economic and political values of our time as we live out our own Baptismal consecration? With the confidence of heirs, let us move further into 2025… with the same solidarity with all that is human that Jesus demonstrated as he presented himself to John for baptism, for the healing of our world.
Luke 15-16, 21, 22
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;with you I am well pleased.”
The Gospel of the Lord
Meet Sister Biddy Rose Tiernan, SNDdeN
