The Baptism of Our Lord (January 8^th 2012)

Mark 1: 7-11.

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this Gospel

1.    What does the baptism of Jesus reveal to us about our own baptism?

2. Do we have difficulty in discerning the loving gaze of God towards each of us?

3. Can it really be true that God’s contentment consists in my existence?

4. In what way is God’s love for us the key to our existence?

Baptism means to be immersed in the Spirit who gives new life

The short reading with which we celebrate the feast of the baptism of Jesus is from the oldest of the Gospels, that of St Mark. In a stark and powerful passage, John the Baptist says, “Someone is following me who is more powerful than I am.” John was the one who showed people the way of the Lord. Who or what can be more powerful than that? John continues, “I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”. To baptize signifies more than simply to wash or make clean. The Greek term “baptize” means to be immersed completely. The Holy Spirit is the same spirit that hovered over the waters at the creation of the world. To be immersed in the Holy Spirit means nothing less than to have a new life, to be filled with the life that comes from above.

            When Jesus is baptized by John, the heavens are opened. The scene is described in a way that tells us that the heavens are no longer separated from earth by an insuperable barrier. They are “torn open” and there is direct communication between heaven and earth. A dove descends from heaven towards Jesus. This evokes the story of Noah’s ark when, after the flood, a dove with an olive branch descends on the ark as a sign that the time of death and purification has been completed. The dove alights on Jesus and a voice comes from the heavens that have been ripped open: “You are my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased”.

Jesus’ baptism reveals the nature of our own baptism

If we had wondered earlier why John had described Jesus as the “one who is stronger”, now we know why. He is the Son of God; he is the one who has the presence of the Holy Spirit; and he is the beloved of the Father. God loves this son, and the son’s strength comes from the fact that he is loved. The root of his very essence is his loving union with God, generated from the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. What is expressed in this passage from the Gospel about the baptism of Jesus, is essential for understanding our baptism, because the baptism of Jesus is the paradigm by which we must understand our own. Our baptism has a foundation; our Christian existence has a particular source; and this source is the same love of God expressed by the Father at the baptism of Jesus. Our life is rooted in the fact of being loved; of being important for someone. Life has no meaning without love. Life demands love. To be alive is to embark on an adventure in which we learn how to love. But in order to learn how to love, we need a source and a master. God teaches us how to love through Jesus. The love that we see in the life of Jesus and that consoles us in our weakness is founded in the acceptance of the love of the Father.

The love of God for each of us is a remedy for our natural inclination to consider ourselves unlovable

This is the foundation of a beautiful life, and it is a remedy for a contrary tendency in life: the inclination to think that we are not lovable; the difficulty we have in believing that we are acceptable; the interior resistance we have in the depths of our soul that puts us always on the defensive, and makes us erect walls around our existence so that it becomes a prison. This belief that we are unworthy; this tendency to hide ourselves, like Adam after the moment of original sin; derives from the failure to discern the loving gaze of the Father upon us. “In you I am well pleased”. We must seek out this place within us where God directs his loving gaze. In every man and woman there is a good light; there is a root of faithfulness; there is a predisposition to believe in God and to believe in his love; to believe in the beauty of life. We are the place in which God’s contentment and approval resides. We must learn to cultivate all of those things in our lives that represent God’s contentment with us and approval of us.

The fact that we are God’s beloved must become the key by which we live our lives

We must remain constantly aware of the significance of our baptism. It is the moment when the heavens were torn open and the fact was proclaimed aloud that we are God’s children and that his love towards us is constant and enduring. The Lord has an abundance of love for each of us, an abundance of patience, forgiveness and magnanimity. God is the one who basically wants to find contentment with us. We spend a lot of time discussing what we think, what we believe, what we consider to be important. But it would be much more liberating if we spent some time contemplating what we are for God. Just what are we for God? This Gospel tells us: “You are my child, the beloved!” That this saying would descend into each of our souls and become the key by which to live our lives! The baptism of Jesus reveals who we are: each one of us is immensely precious. We are something essential that God cannot bear to be without. None of us can feel despair in his heart without denying a part of himself. Even in the worst of circumstances, a part of our being continues to hope and search for the light. That part is the part God has placed within us and in which he is well-pleased. We must focus completely on that part of our existence and leave everything else behind us in the waters of baptism.

This Gospel tells us that the one who is stronger has arrived. Why is he stronger? Because he loves and is loved. Whoever loves understands life better and understands himself better. Whoever allows himself to be loved by God is in possession of the key to life, knows how to tear the heavens open, and how to survive always the waters of the flood.