January 13^th 2019.  The Baptism of Our Lord

GOSPEL Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

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."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . At the time of John the Baptist, people were expecting the Messiah to come soon, but what happened at the baptism of Jesus took everyone by surprise. It was expected that the Messiah would be a righteous man who would call others back to a proper fulfilment of our duties before God. But what happens during the baptism is a stunning piece of divine revelation. The spirit hovers over Jesus and we hear the words of the Father, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. At the beginning of Genesis, the Spirit hovered over the waters and brought forth creation. Now he hovers over the waters of the Jordan and the new Adam, the beloved Son, emerges. And this is crucial for the understanding of our own baptism. When we reflect on Jesus emerging from the water, we should imagine that each one of us emerges with him to hear the voice of the Father who delights in us. The tragedy of humanity is our distrust in the loving fatherhood of God. At baptism, the Holy Spirit comes upon us and seals our identity as beloved children of a tender Father. The real work of evangelisation is the task of communicating to people that God is a loving Father who delights in each one of us.

During the baptism of Jesus, we get a major glimpse into the life of God. He is not an abstract task-master but a Father who delights in his Son

The feast of the Baptism of Jesus opens with a wonderful text from the so-called “Book of Consolation” of the prophet Isaiah: “Console my people, console them, says the Lord. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and tell her that her tribulation is over, her sin is expiated.” What is this consolation that is spoken of here? John the Baptist prepares for the arrival of the Messiah and the time arrives for the baptism of Jesus. This year we read the account from Luke’s Gospel. Luke is the only one of the Evangelists who specifies that Jesus is in prayer at the moment of baptism. The heavens open and we hear the voice of the Father who speaks to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. This might seem like a sort of private moment between the Father and the Son, but the reality of what Luke wishes to describe is much different. The people had been wondering if John the Baptist was the Christ. In fact, John seemed to fit the bill, humanly speaking. He was sincere, upright, demanding, conscientious. But he responds, “I am only water. What needs to come is something very different - spirit and fire”. The expectations of the human heart are insufficient in this case. In fact, Luke’s passage makes much of this distinction: human expectations are of a certain sort, but what God intends to accomplish is something unheard of. This unexpected something is revealed by the words uttered by the Father, a phrase that gives us a glimpse into the heart of God: “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased”. In other words, God has a burning inner joy. He is not something merely ethical or abstract or impersonal. He is a father who rejoices in being father. Here we have a revelation of God which is intended by the Lord to stir the human heart. The voice, after all, is heard aloud. It is not a private utterance between Father and Son.

In Genesis, the Spirit hovered over the waters at the moment of creation. Here at Jesus baptism, the Spirit is gain hovering and now it is the beloved Son who emerges from the water.

Jesus is in prayer at the moment of baptism, and we can discern the content of his prayer. While he is praying, the heavens open. The relationship between heaven and earth is no longer blocked. The Holy Spirit in the corporeal form of a dove appears above Jesus. The appearance of the dove is often related to the dove that figures in the story of Noah when it brings the olive branch to the Ark at the end of the great flood. But, for those who know their Hebrew, the dove also recalls the very first lines at beginning of the book of Genesis. When God created the heavens and the earth, darkness covered the abyss and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. The term “hovering” signifies someone who protects something during the act of flying (in the Italian used by Don Fabio, the term is “covare” which is the same verb used for a bird that is sitting on her brood of eggs). The spirit is protectively hovering over the waters during the activity of creation. Here in Genesis, of course, it is the original creation that is at issue. In Luke’s Gospel, the same Spirit is again hovering and it sees emerging from the water Christ, the beloved son of God.

The tragedy of humanity is our distrust in the loving fatherhood of God. At baptism, the Holy Spirit comes upon us and seals our identity as beloved children of a tender father.

This is the Spirit that is given to us at baptism and we can have no doubt that the theme of the baptism of Christ is identical to that of the theme of our own baptism. What is given to us at baptism? The identity of being children of God. The Holy Spirit comes upon us as an interior certification that God is our Father. And this is the central point. Doubting the paternity of God is the tragedy of humanity. Becoming children of God in Christ is the escape from our own self-destruction and the foundation of our capacity to love. When we discover that we are loved, we are enabled to love in return. When we discover that we are received, then we become empowered to receive others.

The work of evangelisation is the task of communicating to people that God is a loving Father who delights in each one of us

The heart of man is distrustful and expects to be chastised by God, but is won over by the revelation of the paternity of the Lord. This is the task of everyone involved in evangelisation: to lead people from the conviction that God is distant, or perhaps hostile, to the realisation that he is our Father, that he is on our side. The phrase “In you I am well pleased” becomes a word spoken by the Father to each one of us, a word that reveals our most authentic identity. All of us needs the Spirit to hover over us as he did at creation, to help us begin again from the beginning, to begin again from his love for us, and to appreciate how precious we are to him and how precious are those who surround us. How important it is to communicate to young people how God looks upon them with joy and happiness, with tenderness, and with trust! How important it is that we hear within ourselves this paternal voice. On this feast of the Baptism of our Lord, it is timely for us to rediscover our identity as children of God, that the Holy Spirit might come and melt the ice that is within our hearts, melt those doubts we have about ourselves, our distrust, our loss of our most authentic identity, an identity which is attested solely by God – “You are my beloved child. In you I am well pleased”.