January 10^th 2016. THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

Gospel: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL  LUKE 3:15-16, 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.”

Don Fabio tells us that the baptism of Jesus is the key by which we are to understand our own baptism. In the Gospel, a contrast is made between the figure of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. John is prescriptive, telling the people how deficient their lives are and what they need to do to prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus, by contrast, is portrayed as someone radically in relationship with his Father in heaven. At the baptism, the heavens are thrown open and we are given a glimpse of the secret life of the Trinity, which is a relation of love. This is the key to understanding our baptism and our vocation as Christians. Salvation is not about busily doing things for God, but is about entering into a relationship of love with God. Life makes little sense if viewed through the lens of success, possessions or praise. But if viewed through the lens of this relationship of love with God, then what beautiful sense it makes! Just as the Father is well pleased with Jesus, so too he is well pleased with us and wishes us to be immersed further in this relationship of love with him.

Luke’s account of the baptism is distinctive because it focuses on Jesus in a moment of prayer

The baptism of Jesus is recounted by the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in slightly different ways. The peculiar feature of Luke’s account is that it focuses on what happened after the baptism while Jesus was in prayer. Let us examine the passage in detail.

John points out our deficiencies to us, but he cannot bring us wholeness

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people and they “were asking in their hearts if John might be the Christ.” This expression “asking in their hearts” is a very interesting one. In the Bible, the heart is the centre of the essence of the human being. All genuine actions arise from the heart. People at the time were asking at the deepest level of their beings if John was the expected messiah. During Advent we heard how John had put before the people the things they needed to do in order to prepare for the coming of the Lord. John was the last of the prophets and his preaching was essentially focused on the law. He demanded that people show greater integrity and coherence with respect to the law. All of us are reasonably aware of our faults and the areas in our lives that are deficient. We all know in our hearts that we need a messiah. But is a messiah someone who simply says, “You must try harder. You must have greater integrity. You must change your behaviour for the better”? John the Baptist does have an important role in redemption because we cannot arrive at the threshold of salvation unless we become aware of our need of a saviour. But John is not the messiah. He baptizes with water, an action of immersion in an everyday element. This cannot compare to baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John says openly that he cannot undo the latch of Jesus’ sandal, a reference to a ritual act in Jewish society. If a man was betrothed to a lady, but decided not to go ahead with the matrimony, a second man could publicly undo the strap of the original spouse’s sandal, thereby publicly asserting his right to become the spouse in place of the first. Jesus is our true spouse and John does not wish to take his place. John cannot enter into the intimate heart of our need for a saviour. He can only remain on the outside, pointing the way.

John tells people what they must do, but only Jesus can bring salvation, and he does it by relating directly to his Father in heaven.

Jesus, the true spouse of humanity, does not relate to us on the level of obligation, the level of outlining the things that must be done to better ourselves. Words of prescription or encouragement do not take us very far in the spiritual life. The scene placed before us in Luke’s Gospel is very informative. We have the two men in very different poses. Which one is the Messiah? Which one is the Saviour? John is telling the people the things that they must do to live lives of integrity. Jesus instead is lost in prayer. Jesus is the one who has a direct relation with heaven, and heaven opens. Salvation does not come from us, but from heaven. Salvation descends from above through the generosity of God. This does not mean that we don’t have to do anything. But the initiative comes from above, and our task is to welcome it fervently. When our lives are in crisis, we often do our best to sort out our problems and move on, but we usually find, sooner or later, that we are back where we started. What we are capable of changing with our most supreme efforts is generally very little. Such minor “improvements’ should not be undervalued, but they can never bring us salvation. They do not represent the kind of novelty or complete turning of the page that is the characteristic of salvation.

Salvation does not involve doing things, but entering into the loving life of the Trinity.

Through his baptism Jesus enters into our condition, and while he is in prayer, salvation - the work of God - descends from heaven. The heavens are thrown open, the Holy Spirit comes, and the Trinity, the hidden truth of God, manifests itself. If a human being is to be changed, then he must encounter the hidden truth of God. He must hear the voice of the Father “You are my Son, the beloved. In you I am well pleased.” What do we have here? The one who comes as our messiah is full of love, and he is defined by his relation with his Father, who is love. The one who transforms our condition is one who is in relationship with the God of love, who experiences the love by God, and who in his person constitutes the expression of God’s love.

            Jesus becomes incarnate, takes on our condition, and the heavens are opened on our impoverished humanity. The tragedy of Adam was that he had removed himself from direct relation with God. The Lord had sought him out after the first sin, but Adam hid himself in the bushes. These bushes represent the defence mechanisms by which we hide ourselves for fear of God. In Luke’s Gospel, the people in their hearts were wondering if John was the messiah. There is always the conviction in our hearts that we must do something in order to be saved. But it is God who takes the initiative, and our task is to believe, to welcome, to allow ourselves to be consumed with the knowledge that in us God is well pleased. Through baptism, we are inserted into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, immersed into the relation between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Love is the only lens through which to view our lives

Our lives only make sense in the context of love. If we try to make sense of our existence using the criterion of success, then we will find that our lives are a failure. Any material success that we might achieve will be small and insufficient in comparison to the trials of life. If the value of life is measured in terms of possessions, then we always find that we have too little to leave us satisfied. If the meaning of life lies in the affirmation of our egos, then we will always be left frustrated because the ego’s thirst for affirmation can never be satisfied. But if life is understood through the lens of love, then things begin to make sense. Humiliation and suffering are occasions for growth in which we learn how to love.

The baptism of Jesus is the key by which we understand our own baptism

Ultimately, love is all about relationship. The human being in the state of sin is a being that is out of relation with God. He can make what efforts he pleases, but the heavens will not open to him. With Christ, by contrast, the heavens are thrown wide open. In Luke’s account we see him in a moment of prayer. This is not simply an act of concentration and gritting one’s teeth, but is a relation with the Father.  How fortunate we are as Christians to have this revelation of the relational nature of God in Christ! The nature of God is love. We have a tendency to lose sight of this fact, busying ourselves “doing things for God,” instead of opening ourselves to a relationship with God. In every moment, and in everything we do, we must seek to enter into this encounter with God. This is not an obligation imposed by God on us, but a gift given to us in baptism. The Baptism of Jesus helps us to see what our own baptism is, which is our immersion in God, and an experience of how incredibly well pleased he is to have us in relation with him!